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thehorlick's avatar

Manaea threw 70 pitches. He threw 65 pitches in his first outing. They activated him before they could stretch him out. Nothing surprising or questionable about removing him when they did. What is questionable is if they know he was only gonna go 4 innings, why choose him to out of everyone knowing they’d have to go to the bullpen early in the first game of a series AND follow up with Clay Holmes who rarely gets past 5 innings.

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Andrew Steele's avatar

I disagree slightly. It isn't surprising but you can question it, he clearly had another inning in him. Sorry, but I will defend that point strongly. I don't have an issue with Manaea starting, but why go to a reliever who clearly doesn't have it. There was no reason to put Carrillo in that spot. Have relievers who can actually pick Manaea up. The bullpen should have been rested. No excuses

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thehorlick's avatar

Ok, maybe he could have gone 1 more inning but the Mets, clearly, do not want to push anyone, ever. Right now they only have 2 starting pitchers with a shot of getting out of the 6th, and not a single long reliever that’s the least bit reliable. They’ll probably lose Carrillo and Waddell today and replace them with 2 other guys that aren’t big league pitchers and today’s game will be a duplicate of yesterday. Hope I’m dead wrong.

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Joel's avatar

Butto has been good in long relief. He'll be back soon, I hope.

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Andrew Steele's avatar

I agree on the bullpen. I mean, still crazy to me Carrillo is the guy they went to straight out of the All-Star break. I do understand Manaea being ramped up too but, at some point, you can't keep these guys on a leash. Especially with the state the bullpen is in

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Joel's avatar

Long term management versus winning the ballgame. Carrillo is certainly an odd choice; you'd think he'd be reserved for mop-up duty until he establishes himself.

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Andrew Steele's avatar

Yeah, for sure. I think two things can be right in this instance - I think Manaea could have thrown 10 more pitches, and Carrillo was certainly the wrong guy to throw in there

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harvey's avatar

I don't know how, I haven't got the answer, but they have to find a way to get some traffic on the bases ahead of Soto ... and Pete when he warms up again. Yesterday's .326 and .275 OBP isn't going to cut it, especially since the lower half of the lineup is not contributing much. They're missing the old Brandon Nimmo.

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Joel's avatar

I'm afraid the Nimmo of the .404 obp is gone forever.

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Joe From the Bronx's avatar

It is somewhat weird for him to have the same or a bit less of a pitch limit in his second start. Would it have helped any to give him an extra day or two of rest?

They have to use a lot of pen with these starters, but it is not like they had seven innings of pen to use. They just needed a two-inning bridge. and then go from there. The whole pen was fresh. The game was quite winnable. They were not behind. Why go with that guy?

I think a logical move is to bring in a sixth starter -- don't they have ANYONE they trust? --for a start or two. They could even have used Clay and SM like they did last Sunday, that way.

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Jack's avatar

I share your frustration with this team, but it's probably a good time now to realize what they are - pretty good, but not good enough.

There are 64 games left in this season already. How many do you think they win? 34-30 would bring them even with last year's 89 wins. Is that enough for the playoffs? Do we even want to see this squad in the playoffs? Without a truly blockbuster deal, what we see now is what we get for the rest of the way - and there's really not much out there to deal for anyway. My pre-season prediction was 85 wins. They're on track to surpass that, barely. Another trip to the June abyss and we're toast.

In other news, what about Pete?

Do they resign him if we miss the playoffs or let him walk?

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Joel's avatar

Disagree that there's not much out there. Bednar or Keller would be great acquisitions.

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Andrew Steele's avatar

I like the idea of Keller more and more with each passing day. He'll eat innings too. Bednar would also be a smart addition. I'd also seriously consider Cedric Mullins from Baltimore too. He's having a down year, sure, but he still has 13 homers and 41 RBIs. He would offer more production from CF than Taylor

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Joel's avatar

Siri should have told us this winter that he'd spend most of the year on the shelf and Harrison Bader should have told us his 2025 production would far exceed that of Taylor, so we could resign him. His best season in years.

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Steve's avatar

I think the pitch count for Manaea comes from the FO and not Mendoza. I agree that it was odd though coming out of the break. That being said, when 3 of the top 4 in your lineup can’t get a hit, it’s tough to score enough to win. The offense frustrates me way more than the pitching.

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Joel's avatar

Like it or not, Lindor, though a great player, has always been streaky.

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Steve's avatar

Yep. When he’s slumping I’d flip him with Nimmo or at least have him hit 2nd.

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Turfseer's avatar

Need your prediction. Vientos, Mauricio and Baty. Who will be the first to be sent down to Triple A?

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Andrew Steele's avatar

I don't believe Vientos has any options left, so I'd say Mauricio at this point out of those three

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Turfseer's avatar

Maybe Vientos will go on the trading block. But who would want him?

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Andrew Steele's avatar

I'm still convinced there is a good player in there somewhere, but we will see. If this slump continues the rest of the way in 2025 and into 2026, then maybe last year was a mirage. But I'm holding out hope that we'll see Vientos contribute in a big way at some point this year. Feel free to remind me of this comment at a later date if it doesn't happen haha

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Turfseer's avatar

I’m afraid I don’t share your optimism on Vientos. Even during his so-called “breakout” stretch late last year and in the postseason, the warning signs were there—inconsistency, chasing, poor pitch recognition. Now it’s all come to a head. He’s become a rally killer, plain and simple.

He’s whiffing on breaking balls in the dirt, rolling over on pitches for weak grounders to third, and popping out in high-leverage situations. It’s not just a slump—it’s a pattern.

I’d love to be wrong, but at this point, it looks like pitchers have figured him out—and he hasn’t figured out how to adjust.

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Kevin J. Rogers's avatar

Bad night last night. I disagree on Manaea — he's basically in early April, and he was 2 or 3 mph shorter on his fastball in the 4th than in the 1st — but using Carrillo at all is questionable. Having him go back out for the 6th is downright mystifying.

During the game, I was wondering if Mendy was keeping his powder dry for today. It's a big day at Citi and I'm sure the organization very much wants a win for David. But that's just a thought. More a ghost which crossed my mind than anything.

Anyway, I don't know why Vientos was batting second yesterday. In fact, I had a few questions about the lineup. To me, the fact we're not hitting is more troubling than anything. After all, the bullpen we have now is nothing like the bullpen we were looking at coming out of Spring Training. Injuries happen, and a lot of it can be fixed before the deadline.

But we need the core of this lineup to be hitting consistently.

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Andrew Steele's avatar

Hey Kevin. Yeah, I mean I can see both sides on Manaea. He's still being ramped up, but I still think he could have given you at 10 or so more pitches the way his night was going. But what we can agree on is going to Carrillo was the wrong move. And there's no defending putting him back out for the sixth.

I mean, I'm pretty sure a lot of these decisions are mapped out ahead of time, but there is no doubt that everyone in that building probably feels an extra obligation to go out and get the win today. For sure.

Yeah, Vientos showed a little something before the break, but not enough to warrant batting second. And he proved that last night. I think the two biggest concerns are the offense and the bullpen. The bullpen can get fixed at the Deadline, but it is going to be up to the lineup as is to fix things. One bat won't cure all of their flaws. You are dead right about consistency

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Karen Denzler's avatar

Just finished watching another completely flat performance against the Reds. They are really missing that "it" vibe they had last year. It seems like they win when Lindor is hitting and that's it. The problem, of course, is that Lindor is the definition of streaky. To me there also seems to be a disconnect between Syracuse and Queens. The "kids" tear it up in Syracuse and then regress terribly in Queens. Rinse and repeat. And while I like Mendoza, I don't think he's the guy to take them all the way. He just doesn't seem to have a good feel for the pitching squad. I hope they don't go too crazy in getting a rental before the trade deadline as I'm just a bit pessimistic that it will help.

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