NFT: Rockies at Mets Game 3. Thor

Todd Frazier wRC+ 114
Jason Vargas 2.84 SP ERA
Anthony Swarzak 3.52 ERA

lol. Sandy's offseason might not have been that bad a year ago after all. That's baseball Susan.

Some big hits. He got his batting average up to 264. Never thought he could get it that high. Maybe a good time to trade him because I don’t expect it to continue

Let's Go!

When they get 1 game above .500. Right now they keep teasing you all and predictably dropping a few games to stay mediocre

but his extended hot streak is a helluva thing. Who'da thought that Frazier and Vargas would play like studs most of the string.

career ERA 3.18

41 wins
26 losses

trade this guy while Mes can sill get a b=level prospect for him

for Syndergaard, and back to back clean outings from Familia. Seems like a long time since that happened.

Yanks-4 games
Phils-7
Braves-6
Cards-4
Cubs-4

12 Home, 13 Away

Good to win these last two.

In comment 14467558 Vanzetti said:

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Yanks-4 games Phils-7 Braves-6 Cards-4 Cubs-4 12 Home, 13 Away Good to win these last two.

Two of the away games are at Yankee Stadium, so no travel involved. That's helpful.

In comment 14467475 ZGiants98 said:

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Todd Frazier wRC+ 114 Jason Vargas 2.84 SP ERA Anthony Swarzak 3.52 ERA lol. Sandy's offseason might not have been that bad a year ago after all. That's baseball Susan.

Bruce was a mistake due to position but even with that it's looking a lot better than BVW's. The 3 decisions that ended Sandy here were Bruce > Cain, Callaway (who knows what last year would have been a better manager), and awful judgement in the BP. Ramos/Swarzak/all those guys they traded for that ended up tanking. But none of those are franchise crippling in the way the Cano deal may end up.

Sandy was a very good GM, best drafter & trader we've ever had by a mile, who just had a very mixed bag when it came to free agency and the style of team he was looking to build. I like BVW but I'd probably prefer we'd have just kept Sandy, moved him up to president, and allowed him to bring in a younger GM (like Cherrington or Depo). But that was probably not in the cards from the moment the Wilpons vetoed Cherrington in favor of Omar. As always, it all goes back to the owners.

After the Rockies tough start (3-11 or whatever it was) they’ve had one of the best records in baseball and are second in the league in offense. That’s a good team we just blanked today (Santiago doesn’t count lol)

The upcoming schedule doesn’t scare me much. The Dodgers are probably the best team in the league, if not baseball, and we played them down to the wire in almost every game. Just keep the record around .500 until the all star break and then the schedule eases up mightily.

Still want Nimmo, Cano, Wilson, and Lowrie back or on this team ASAP. Sounds like 3 of the 4 could be back by next weekend. Lowrie probably starts a rehab stint in about a week.

I feel never forgive him for Murphy. And he just compounded it with countless other ridiculously bad signings.

no guarantee he would have done that here with Cespedes banged up most of those same 2 years. He's come back down to earth, even in Colorado this year, and had some injuries in the last couple.

Definitely would have preferred him as an option at 1B/3B the last 3 years over Duda + Agon + Bruce + Frazier though.

In comment 14467622 bhill410 said:

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I feel never forgive him for Murphy. And he just compounded it with countless other ridiculously bad signings.

Careful, there are many key role players playing on this club right now that we are rooting for daily that Sandy was a part of.

You have to take the good with the bad.

In comment 14467622 bhill410 said:

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I feel never forgive him for Murphy. And he just compounded it with countless other ridiculously bad signings.

Sandy has said that his biggest regret is letting Murphy go.

The real problem is that he initially signed on to rebuild the Mets for five years. And in sports, like life, when you do not stick to a plan but instead let fleeting emotion guide your decision making, it usually turns out badly.

If Familia does not try that idiotic quick pitch and Mets win game one against KC, they probably win the series and Sandy rides off into the sunset as the greatest GM in Mets history. But that loss left everyone with a bad taste and Sandy stuck around to try and win that elusive title.

Wilpons did not want to give Murphy a big contract after his comments about homosexuality. So they signed the likes of De Aza and Bastardo. Harvey never recovered from his overload. Sandy kept trying to plug leaks instead of taking the boat in to be refit. I doubt he does that if he were 58 instead of 68. But he wanted to win that title that got away in 2015.

The sad reality, though, is that he should have left after 2015. His work was done. Call it a career and enjoy teaching that sports marketing course at Berkeley while savoring the numerous accomplishment in his life.

sign a known wife-beater in Jose Reyes than it is to sign a devout Christian.

such bullshit.

Murphy should have been re-signed, but so much of that is 2020 hind sight.

he was a circus in the field, made bone-headed base running plays and really was a solid player, but not special outside of a 6-week stretch. Yes, it was the most recent 6-week stretch, but it's not like he had a Mike Trout-like history.

The fact Murphy signed so cheaply for such short duration frustrates Mets fans and it should - at that price he should have been a Met, but in a sense it also validates Sandy, no one expected 2017 and beyond Daniel Murphy to happen which is why there was so little interest.

Well put.

In comment 14467558 Vanzetti said:

Quote:

Yanks-4 games Phils-7 Braves-6 Cards-4 Cubs-4 12 Home, 13 Away Good to win these last two.

Just beat the snot out of Braves and Phils. Phillies are ripe for the picking right now.

he turned into the offensive monster in Washington.

Of course, there were also plenty of people fine with the move because they were tired of his sub-par defense. That’s fine. But his “bone headed” baserunning is blown out of proportion because of a single play in his last few games as a Met. Funny thing, Murphy also had an amazing baserunning play against the Dodgers in that same postseason but nobody utters a word about it.

The point is, Daniel Murphy is the exact type of player that the Mets should have been looking for. And they had him. Murphy was a hitting machine, low strikeout, near .300 hitter BEFORE going to Washington. Also loved in the clubhouse by all accounts. He was as consistent as you could get. The fact that he wasn’t getting a lot of interest from other teams isn’t a “red flag”. The Mets knew what they had in DM. If anything, the lack of interest would tell me that DM could be had for a bargain. Instead we get Neil Walker. That worked out fantastic, right?

Letting DM walk was a truly moronic decision. The fact that he went on to do what he did in Washington was just salt in the wound.

They delusionally treated Wright like a player who could be counted on. He was shot by the end of 2015 and literally could barely continue to field his position in that postseason. It was only a matter of time in 2016 before he broke down again, and even if he didn't get hurt he was not a reliable player.

They rolled the dice on Duda's power upside vs. the known reliability of Murphy. We had 4 or 5 years of experience before that postseason breakout to ask ourselves the question of which guy we'd rather have at the plate in a big spot. It was a no-brainer. But Duda would hit 5 homers in a week every now and then so we kept getting sucked into thinking he was on the cusp of a breakout that never came.

Had they been able to seal the deal with Zobrist and he replaced Murphy instead of Walker they could have ended up fine at 2B at least. But not only did Walker not work out, their 1B/3B also sucked. And somehow in all of that suckage they still couldn't find a spot to let Flores play every day.

I think Murphy leaving was the pick that got us Anthony Kay, who is dominating AA right now and will probably get called up at some point this year. So who knows, in a few months we might be happy he left. Sandy's draft just keep looking better and better.

At letting Murphy walk and the fact he went to the nats just made it that much more unforgivable.

I don’t feel like getting all annoyed all over tho so here is a question for everyone - if tonight gets rained out do they skip Vargas? He is on a roll but I can’t help but feel he would be a disaster in yankee stadium with some of the contact he gives up.

as a Met was mostly a sub replacement level player.

Duda's 3.1 and 3.2 fWAR in 2014/2015 are equal or higher than any WAR Murphy had as a Met in any year.

No one believed Murphy would become a 5.6 fWAR player.

no one.

Murphy has almost achieved unicorn status because he, Cespdes, the starting pitching and Familia put the team on their back to lead them to the WS, but there was no reason to believe Murphy would become 2016/2017 Murphy.

If there was, how do you explain the lack of interest and below market deal?

At the price he signed for yes, it made sense to sign him, but by then the Mets had already brought in Neil Walker in the Niese trade.

If you want to be critical, the real mistake the Mets made was not ponying up the cash for Zobrist to replace Murphy - which led to Neil Walker. They got outbid on Zobrist by the cubs IIRC.

Though right now, neither Murphy or Zobrist look like much and fans would be complaining about both.

by his atrocious defense and being on terrible offensive teams with no protection. He was always a good, consistent, hitter despite being surround by shit lineups. From 2013-2015 he was #2 on the Mets with 7.8 fwar (Wright was #1 with 8.3, Duda was #3 with 7.0). He was always 1 of the toughest guys in baseball to strike out and produced a tremendous amount of XBH (he was 4th in all baseball in doubles over that 3 year period). So while the loud production only arrived at the tail end of 2015 and was a likely aberration, there were always productive hitting skills there. Just not the skills modern MLB (and Sandy) valued.

Completely agree that nobody could have foreseen him tapping into his power the way he did and putting up the MVP caliber years he did in 16-17. Those were as random as RA Dickey winning a cy young. As mentioned I don't criticize Sandy or the Mets for letting him walk and getting back a good comp pick, I do think it's fair to criticize them as you pointed out for not winning the bidding on Zobrist and being wrong in their evaluation of Duda, and the rest of the bad decisions they made from 2016 to now that wasted a lot of good pitching, including last year's all time great season from JDG.