The Starter & The Defender

It was yet another disappointing weekend for the New York Metsies. So far, on Saturdays and Sundays in 2019, the Mets are 1-5. Sue me for the #SmallSampleSizing. For a fanbase busting their butts Monday through Friday (and sometimes through the weekend, like in my case where the most money I can make as a Lyft driver are those party days), our favorite baseball team has been anything but a respite from the work grind. Watching them has been as difficult as any job we do.

Getty Images
Photo via nypost.com

Do I sensationalize much? You betcha, but drama is the name of the game in this day and age, and as much as I personally work towards scaling it back some, my nature can only be suppressed to a point.  When my favorite baseball team's supposed 2nd starter has an ERA pushing 6 (at 5.90) you're going to be in a heightened state as a fan.

Syndergaard has not been able to hone in on finesse yet. It's power, power, power (including a homer created by Dexter Fowler's best Jose Canseco impression), but the control is not there at a WHIP of 1.28 (according to mets.com.) Seven walks in 29 innings, which means he's giving up a base on balls close to a quarter of the time he is facing batters, while also giving up just over a hit an inning. Noah (notice how I have yet to use the word, "Thor" in this post?) needs to figure out what kind of pitcher he is, because outside of his fantastic 2015 and 2016 seasons,  he has been pretty inconsistent when he has been able to stay on the mound. With a slider in the 90's and a fastball pushing 100, if he can hone in the control and consistency, the dream could seriously be reality.

Noah, however, has not gotten much help behind him these days. I'd like to hone in on one particular player whose elite defense has not come to fruition. Amed Rosario, while trying to figure out consistency at the plate, has left much to be desired with his defense up the middle. Mike, Rich and I discussed this on last week's episode of A Metsian Podcast, wondering when we were going to see the range we have been looking for out of our young shortstop. He followed that conversation up with 2 errors behind Noah yesterday. In 1826.1 innings fielded in the majors, according to Fangraphs, 20 runs have scored because of his defense. That is a far cry from the bill of goods sold to us. We have wanted him to come around offensively, but I will take a .250 avg if he can tighten up that defense ASAP.

Our "superhero" starter may be leaving much to be desired, but players like Amed Rosario are not giving him the best chance with a lack of defensive prowess behind him. They both need to tighten up considerably, but if the latter can do so sooner than later, Noah's success may follow as well.

There was a lot of concern to be had from the weekend series in St. Louis (outside of the continuing power prowess by Pete Alonso), but one of the more disappointing moments was Robinson Cano's HBP wrist injury (I'm not embedding any of these because most of them are eye-roll inducing, outside of Alonso's homer yesterday. Click at your own risk.) We'll see how it ends up affecting Cano, but he was JUST starting to hit his offensive stride. It is too cliché from a Metsian standpoint for a heralded acquisition to finally be coming around only to go down in throbbing pain.

The Mets stumble home for a weekday series against their Turnpike rivals, the Phillies. I wish I could say they desperately need some of that home cooking, but home has given them plenty of food poisoning over the years.

TIGHTEN. UP. NOW.

LET'S. GO. METS.