I’m no fan of Mendoza. He manages just Boone for the Yankees. He changes the line up for no apparent reason and sits guys when they are hot to “get guys in”. It’s why many had an up and down year. The young kids never stood a chance to be productive which it’s a miracle Baty had the year he did with Vientos given all the time he had to play as they kept trying to get him going which was an epic failure. The Mets firing everyone but him was a bullshit move too. In real baseball days if the team underperformed it was the managers head that rolled along with the rest. Keeping him offers what exactly? Unless this really shows what he is. A figure head who takes orders from Stearns and the only thing he does is copy the line up card given to him and if that is the case then Stearns is worse than we all thought. This team better win this next season because I’ll be moving close to Nashville within 2/3 years and if they get a baseball team I’ll be throwing my allegiance to them as Nashville will have all the teams I’m interested in. Football,Hockey,& Baseball. It’s super simple to navigate to every venue plus those teams probably have a better chance of winning a championship than all these NY teams combined. This past season was unacceptable. I posted it on Cohen’s twitter last night. He better step in and keep both Diaz and Pete if he doesn’t want a fan revolt after he called the fans out for attendance and gets rewarded with record attendance and this is what they gave us.
Hahaha…I’m sure you’ve gotten Cohen’s attention on Twitter with your threat to move to Nashville and switch allegiances to a yet to exist expansion franchise…😆
I think Mendoza and Jeremy Hefner equally deserve blame. Together, they coddled the starters, beginning with Senga, instead of pushing them to get through tough spots. The starters became comfortable knowing they would get pulled, at the first sign of trouble. I don't recall a single starting pitcher displaying anger or frustration over getting an early hook. That's a problem right there.
I'm reminded of the story I've told ad nauseum about one of David Cone's earliest starts as a Met in 1987. In a late April game against the Houston Astros, on a cold rainy night, Cone was getting rocked by the 'Stros, having given up 5 runs through the first two innings. In the third, Davey Johnson came out to the mound. Cone, who thought Johnson was going to pull him was shocked when he said "I don't care if your arm falls off, you're giving me five innings tonight!". Cone would give up another two runs, but got through five innings that night. Cone, who has told that story for years, often credits that experience for making him a better major league pitcher.
That's the kind of "tough love" Mendoza and Hefner needed to give to their staff. It wasn't fair to the bullpen or the team for the starters to consistently fail night after night.
If he left guys in to get pounded he'd then be blamed for their injuries. And I think it's quite a reach to make conclusions derived from players' body language and facial expressions.
No, it isn't fair to blame Mendoza or Stearns for that matter. Some of Ottavino's comments are really harsh. Mendoza did send Helsley out there a few times after he had shown he couldn't get anybody out. The only things I can fault Stearns on are the Montas signing and the Mullins trade. Luck plays a part in sports and the Mets had especially bad luck with injuries to pitchers.
This is the bottom line for me. Leaving the mystifying Montas signing out, this season profiles a lot differently if Senga and Manaea are healthy for the entire season and pitching up to potential.
And should Montas have been healthy and been able to produce like he did in 2021 (which I think was the expectation), we're really looking at a different year.
As it is, Danny Young and A.J. Minter got hurt too early in the season to blame it on workload. Those two arms going down alone really scrambled the bullpen. Núñez only logged 9.2 IP at the major league level before going down.
Some of the others, it may have been stress. But to me, it doesn't look all that far out of line with what was happening in the rest of the league. Not only that, but our leader in games pitched was Ryne Stanek, who had fewer IP than Edwin Díaz.
So ... yeah, the pitching fell apart. Placing the blame for it isn't so simple.
Ottavino has some points, but he is the wrong guy to be saying them. Nobody pitched over 70 innings, so they were not overused unless he wants to bitch about how many times they were up and down (which he did not do.) The Mets have on the worst days, a seven man bullpen. Some days eight. If you cant handle the workload of pitching... well..
I’m no fan of Mendoza. He manages just Boone for the Yankees. He changes the line up for no apparent reason and sits guys when they are hot to “get guys in”. It’s why many had an up and down year. The young kids never stood a chance to be productive which it’s a miracle Baty had the year he did with Vientos given all the time he had to play as they kept trying to get him going which was an epic failure. The Mets firing everyone but him was a bullshit move too. In real baseball days if the team underperformed it was the managers head that rolled along with the rest. Keeping him offers what exactly? Unless this really shows what he is. A figure head who takes orders from Stearns and the only thing he does is copy the line up card given to him and if that is the case then Stearns is worse than we all thought. This team better win this next season because I’ll be moving close to Nashville within 2/3 years and if they get a baseball team I’ll be throwing my allegiance to them as Nashville will have all the teams I’m interested in. Football,Hockey,& Baseball. It’s super simple to navigate to every venue plus those teams probably have a better chance of winning a championship than all these NY teams combined. This past season was unacceptable. I posted it on Cohen’s twitter last night. He better step in and keep both Diaz and Pete if he doesn’t want a fan revolt after he called the fans out for attendance and gets rewarded with record attendance and this is what they gave us.
Hahaha…I’m sure you’ve gotten Cohen’s attention on Twitter with your threat to move to Nashville and switch allegiances to a yet to exist expansion franchise…😆
See ya
I think Mendoza and Jeremy Hefner equally deserve blame. Together, they coddled the starters, beginning with Senga, instead of pushing them to get through tough spots. The starters became comfortable knowing they would get pulled, at the first sign of trouble. I don't recall a single starting pitcher displaying anger or frustration over getting an early hook. That's a problem right there.
I'm reminded of the story I've told ad nauseum about one of David Cone's earliest starts as a Met in 1987. In a late April game against the Houston Astros, on a cold rainy night, Cone was getting rocked by the 'Stros, having given up 5 runs through the first two innings. In the third, Davey Johnson came out to the mound. Cone, who thought Johnson was going to pull him was shocked when he said "I don't care if your arm falls off, you're giving me five innings tonight!". Cone would give up another two runs, but got through five innings that night. Cone, who has told that story for years, often credits that experience for making him a better major league pitcher.
That's the kind of "tough love" Mendoza and Hefner needed to give to their staff. It wasn't fair to the bullpen or the team for the starters to consistently fail night after night.
If he left guys in to get pounded he'd then be blamed for their injuries. And I think it's quite a reach to make conclusions derived from players' body language and facial expressions.
No, it isn't fair to blame Mendoza or Stearns for that matter. Some of Ottavino's comments are really harsh. Mendoza did send Helsley out there a few times after he had shown he couldn't get anybody out. The only things I can fault Stearns on are the Montas signing and the Mullins trade. Luck plays a part in sports and the Mets had especially bad luck with injuries to pitchers.
This is the bottom line for me. Leaving the mystifying Montas signing out, this season profiles a lot differently if Senga and Manaea are healthy for the entire season and pitching up to potential.
And should Montas have been healthy and been able to produce like he did in 2021 (which I think was the expectation), we're really looking at a different year.
As it is, Danny Young and A.J. Minter got hurt too early in the season to blame it on workload. Those two arms going down alone really scrambled the bullpen. Núñez only logged 9.2 IP at the major league level before going down.
Some of the others, it may have been stress. But to me, it doesn't look all that far out of line with what was happening in the rest of the league. Not only that, but our leader in games pitched was Ryne Stanek, who had fewer IP than Edwin Díaz.
So ... yeah, the pitching fell apart. Placing the blame for it isn't so simple.
Ottavino has some points, but he is the wrong guy to be saying them. Nobody pitched over 70 innings, so they were not overused unless he wants to bitch about how many times they were up and down (which he did not do.) The Mets have on the worst days, a seven man bullpen. Some days eight. If you cant handle the workload of pitching... well..