I find John Delcos to be a daily must-read. He’s one of the few remaining that haven’t bought into The Narrative that the Mets are better. There is some potential on paper, but I still find the manager reckless with injuries, and MLB is still counting Team Wins as the way they determine the championship.
How many plays in those games did Harvey not make, by either giving up a walk, not closing out a hitter or inning, or failing to put down a sacrifice? It’s tight as the Mets lost 11 of those games by a combined 18 runs. There is plenty of responsibility to go around, by Harvey and his teammates. One less bad pitch; one more hit.
Great teams, and great players, make the plays, and “great’’ can’t be applied to, either Harvey or the Mets. Not now, anyway.
via The John Delcos New York Mets Report | Featuring Mets’ commentary, analysis and news..
Don’t confuse being more interesting to watch with being better.
Part of it has to do with future trajectory. Last year, we knew that the Mets were about a 75 win team, but many people (myself included) thought they were on track to be a 70 win team this year. You yourself made several posts at the beginning of the year saying that 2013 would be like 1978 or thereabouts. As badly as the team is doing in the objective measure of wins, the team itself is on pace for more wins than some of us reasonably expected. That doesn’t mean the team is good, it means the team isn’t as bad as we were prepared for.
The big change from the last few years is that we don’t have the overhang of having to deal with however many more years of various overpaid underperforming players. Did anyone really expect Johann to be a major factor this year? Were you dreading the possibility that Bay would take a roster spot? While there are massive gaps in the roster for next year, they are all about possibilities, not black holes.
There are also some interesting prospects for the future. The team isn’t definitely on track for greatness, but with the farm teams at every level having some amount of success this year, there are a lot of guys who could turn into useful pieces of the puzzle. What makes the team interesting to watch right now is to see what happens with the young guys who are only getting an opportunity right now because the team has so many holes. I don’t expect to find a solution to every problem between September 1 and opening day among the team’s farmhands, but I wouldn’t see surprised if one or two guys emerge who each solve a problem.
Yes, this is still a 75 win team, but it’s a 75 win team that might be 2-3 years away from being an 85 win team, as opposed to a 75 win team that looks like it’s on the road to being a 70 win team. It might not be 1978, it could be 1981, or even 1982. That’s where the optimism comes in. I watch this team to see who might be part of that puzzle…
The context here is not “75 wins in 2013 is hardly better than 74 wins in 2012.” The context is 79 wins in 2010, 77 in 2011, and 74 in 2012. Before the flood waters can recede, they merely have to stop rising.
I just don’t get this recent run of angst-filled posts. Back in April, half the world thought the Mets were going to lose 90+ games. That they still kinda suck in August isn’t exactly a newsflash or an epiphany.