Author Archives: Joe D - Mets Merized Online

Jun 04

Who’s The Odd Man Out When Wheeler Joins The Rotation?

Posted on by

mlb_a_wheeler_b1_600

As we usher in what we hope will be the long and prosperous era of Zack Wheeler, perhaps as soon as next week, there’s no question who the Mets will probably cut to make room for him. That distinction will fall to lefthanded reliever Robert Carson – he of the 9.00 ERA , 3.9 K9 and 1.52 WHIP. If you want to make some easy money, go to anyone of the top 5 sports betting sites and wager it all on Carson being demoted.  Pack some sunscreen, Robert…

The difficult decision comes down to who gets bumped from the starting rotation to make room for the Prince of New York. The choice will likely come down to a battle between Jeremy Hefner and Dillon Gee.

Given that Shaun Marcum was Sandy Alderson’s biggest haul of the offseason, you can also wager that the veteran will be excluded from the conversation by virtue of his $4 million price tag.

If you were to rank these three statistically, Hefner would be the big winner while Marcum and Gee would be holding up the rear. But for an organization who was supposed to use numbers and statistics to direct their decisions, that really hasn’t ever materialized and it certainly won’t begin here. My hunch is that the one who has performed the best in the rotation, will be the biggest loser.

Jeremy Hefner:  .255 BAA – 1.30 WHIP – 4.34 ERA – 57.0 IP

Dillon Gee: .309 BAA – 1.58 WHIP – 5.69 ERA – 57.0 IP

Shaun Marcum: .293 – 1.37 WHIP – 5.71 ERA – 41.0 IP

If you were to take Hefner’s BAA and ERA and compare them to the other number five starters in the the game, the Mets have themselves one of the top number five starters in the game. The other two? They are subterranean, but both rate higher than Hefner on the seniority scale which has always mattered most with Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson.

It will be a tough break for Hefner who has worked his tail off for the Mets so far this season and has not been as bad as his 1-5 record would indicate.

  • April 5 against Miami – 6.0 IP, 1 ER, L
  • April 25 against Los Angeles – 7.0 IP, 1 ER, ND
  • April 30 against Miami – 8.0 IP, 2 ER, L
  • May 24 against Atlanta – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, ND

How’s that for some rotten luck?

Sadly, when Zack Wheeler gets promoted, Hefner will be in for some more rotten luck.

May 23

Apocalypse Now? Mets Down, Ticket Sales Down, SNY Viewership Down

Posted on by

Last season, with an Ike Davis that was as woeful as he is now, the New York Mets were still eight games above .500 on June 8. Here it is, three weeks into May, and the Mets are already ten games below .500.

That 2012 team lost 88 games, how many will this year’s version lose? Shockingly, this team, now in the third year of the Sandy Alderson era, is on pace to lose 101 games.

I used ESPN’s Attendance Tracker and the team is bleeding not only money – but fans…

Average Attendance

2010 – 32,401

2011 – 30,108

2012 – 28,035

2013 – 25,895

The Mets are down an average of 6,905 fans per game since the 2010 season. That equates to over a half-million fans that are unwilling to buy tickets to see the current product on the field.

Remember how hot Subway Series tickets used to be?

In a recent article by Mark LaMonica of Newsday, he reported that the Mets are so bad and unwatchable, even Subway Series ticket sales, which at one time were sold-out in hours – are very available and selling for less than the exorbitant prices they used to go for.

The combined average price for the four-game Subway Series (May 27-30) this year is $133 as of Monday, according to TiqIQ.com, a ticket reseller that aggregates ticket prices across multiple secondary markets. That’s down 13 percent from 2012, 19 percent from 2011 and 34 percent from 2010.

Don’t think it’s the on-field performance alone. This team suffers from a severe lack of star power, and I would hate to think how much worse things would be if not for a holdover by the name of Matt Harvey. He alone is hauling in over 5,000 more fans per game than when anyone else starts.

Think those fans who opted out of buying tickets are staying home and watching instead?

Think again…

According to this Daily News article, the SNY viewership numbers are even worse and almost double the percentage of decline in attendance from last season.

The Mets on SNY are averaging a household rating of 1.91, down 22% from the same point in 2012. Among men 25-54, the key demographic, the Mets are averaging a 1.05 rating, down 15% from 2012.

Things have gotten so bad that most games are now a two-man booth. It’s no longer Gary, Keith and Ron and more like Gary, Keith or Ron.

Every minute of each telecast is a non-stop barrage of Cholula Hot Sauce and MetsBlog promos. Even the score bug has drop down ads every half inning.

It’s not just the team on the field that is sinking (and stinking)  - it’s everything on down including ticket sales and worst of all, SNY viewership.

Everything is being sponsored by someone whether it’s the game broadcast and even the posts on MetsBlog themselves. The Wilpons are trying to squeeze every penny they can and in anyway they can to stay above water. The SNY broadcast and editorial content on their blog network are both working in step with ownership on everything.

I think most Met fans are just sick of everything being done on the cheap – so they don’t pay to watch the team play, and many more don’t even bother to tune in and watch either. Except when Matt Harvey is pitching.

I don’t know how much longer they can stay in this, ummm, whatever you want to call this mode… But I do know this… It’s starting to feel a lot like 1978 around here.

Who is burried in Grant's Tomb

GRANT’S TOMB

May 22

Time For Collins To Stop Making Excuses For Ike Davis

Posted on by

Ike sad

Ike Davis has lost his way. Not just at the plate, but in the field too. Terry Collins said after the game today, that the first baseman’s slump at the plate has not affected his play on the field. I beg to differ.

Maybe Terry feels a desperate need to defend his players, but to say that his last few miscues on the field are unrelated to what Davis is going through at the plate doesn’t ring true.

We’ve all seen Ike Davis at his best and have all marveled as fans over his gold glove caliber defense. But that was then and this is now. His instincts at first base are deteriorating and I believe it’s because he has something else eating at his mind. Davis is so unfocused and frequently looks like he’s in a daze.

His bad play is like bad karma for the whole team and it’s becoming contagious. The Mets are a bad bet. Even the best USA sportsbooks have the Mets as underdogs in every game on this homestand including Matt Harvey Day.

During the 2010 through 2012 seasons, Ike Davis makes that play today down the first base line rather than just staring at it. The same can be said about his faux pas two days earlier when he stood in front of the runner on the basepath like a zombie and got called for obstruction.

Why can’t Terry Collins see what is so apparent to the few thousand fans who still go to the game? There’s a good reason why Davis is absorbing all the boos at the plate and now in the field. This isn’t the same player we grew to love almost from the first moment he made his debut three years ago. Remember how excited we were? Who didn’t think Ike Davis was a core player right from the start?

We want that Ike Davis back again. The only way that happens is by doing the right thing and sending him to Triple-A where he can sort out his problems and rediscover his stroke, his glove, and more importantly his confidence that is evidently shattered.

I’m not mad at Davis, I’m really not. But I am angry at Terry Collins who constantly makes excuses for bad baseball. There seems to be no more accountability on this team, only a boatload of excuses after each game. I guess that’s what I’m most concerned about. I want a manager who gets pissed off when he sees a breakdown in baseball fundamentals and not cover for his players.

Maybe Ike Davis’ biggest problem is Terry Collins who seems to have become his enabler… I don’t know, I’m not a psychologist, but it sure looks that way…

Davis is a very likable guy and I still believe he has a world of talent. But it’s time for the Mets to save him… It’s time for the Mets to try and get Davis back on track and that’s not going to happen in the major leagues. Just do the right for crying out loud…

May 22

Mets’ Offense Flat Again In 4-0 Loss To Reds

Posted on by

jon niese

Screenshot_2

The Cincinnati Reds (25-18) shutout the New York Mets (17-25) by the score of 4-0 tonight at a sparsely crowded Citi Field.

Left-hander Jon Niese started for the Mets and and after getting the first two outs in the first inning he allowed a hit and a pair of walks to load the bases. Niese had a chance to come out of the inning unscathed and induced a hard grounder to third for what should have been the third out. However, David Wright committed his fourth error of the season as the ball went under his glove and through his legs allowing two runs to score. Niese was rattled after that and allowed another run to score before finally getting the third out to put the Reds up 3-0. All of the runs were unearned.

Niese threw 48 pitches in that wild first inning and it appeared he was heading for an early shower. But to his credit he gutted out five scoreless innings after that and wound up giving the Mets a very solid effort allowing just five hits and three walks in six innings while striking out seven. Niese took the loss, but saw his ERA improve to 4.80 for the season.

The Reds score their fourth and final run in the ninth when Reds catcher Devin Mesoraco greeted Collin McHugh with a home run to leadoff the inning.

Offensively, the Mets had nothing but blanks… Nothing but the same sorry, pitiful offense that has plagued the team all season. Reds starter Mike Leake hurled seven scoreless innings and allowed the Mets’ only three hits of the game – one each by Lucas Duda, John Buck and Daniel Murphy.

It’s getting pretty hard to watch this team and I thought Sandy Alderson would address that while he visited the with gary Cohen and Ron Darling in the third inning, but he was at a loss for words. He said he was going to continue to hang in there with Ike Davis a little longer, which is the last thing anyone of us wanted to hear. Davis batted seventh and went 0-for-three tonight and saw his batting average fall to .149 for the season. Pathetic.

The Mets will wrap up the series tomorrow afternoon at 1:10 PM when right-hander Matt Harvey (5-0, 1.55 ERA) takes on Mat Latos (4-0, 2.91 ERA) and tries to avoid the sweep.

May 21

Mets Lose Series Opener To Reds 4-3

Posted on by

Screenshot_15

For a while, it looked like Terry Collin’s weird lineup choice going into the evening would actually work when Marlon Byrd ripped a three-run home run in the bottom of third. Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, the Mets would fail to score again the rest of the night and could not stage a comeback after Jay Bruce hit a go-ahead home run off Shaun Marcum in the sixth. To be fair to Marcum, he handled the Reds lineup pretty decently considering all things. His tough inning was in the first, where he allowed three runs off RBI hits from Brandon Phillips and Jay Bruce. He did strike out seven over six innings, and did retire ten straight at one point in the ball game.

Ike sad

The issues of the night were compounded, however, by some bad work on the field from Ike Davis – who was really struggling in every aspect of the game tonight. Davis was called for an interference error in the first that moved Votto up a base into scoring position. In addition to that, he grounded out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first when he had a chance to redeem himself. Davis entered the game in a 1-for-30 slump and finished 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. He was actually double switched out in the sixth inning.

The Mets never really showed much life after the three-run home run, allowing opposing starter Johnny Cueto to retire the last eight batters he faced. Latroy Hawkins did some dancing out of trouble in the seventh and shared some words with HP Umpire Tom Hallion, who incorrectly awarded a HBP to Brandon Phillips. Terry Collins left the dugout to argue three times over the game, and was ejected alongside Hawkins.

The Mets continue their series at 7:10 tomorrow when Jon Niese takes the mound for the Amazins’ against Mike Leake.