By DjackThe Mets are not dead, I don't care how bad things have been, I don't care about the team's history of misfortune, all I care about are the facts, and the facts lead me to believe the Mets are going to turn this around. I know I've been saying it all year long, but this team is built on starting pitching, and that's been maybe the biggest problem they've had so far this season. The concern coming into the season was the lineup producing enough runs to win games, well turns out the lineup is just fine, and it's the pitching that has dug the Mets into this enormous hole that seems impossible to climb out of.
Once again, Mets fans have already begun to quit on there team before July. This has become somewhat on a past time for this organization and the sad sack of people that root for this franchise. Don't worry, I'm here to help sway your opinion of this team back the other way, so when the Mets do turn this season around you don't feel like a complete asshole for already quitting on your team months prior. The Mets backbone for the past 3 seasons has been the starting pitching. That's what won them the division in 2015, that's what got them back to the postseason last year, and that's what has dug them into this God forsaken hole this year. As the Mets look to turn this season around the way they are going to do it is through pitching. Jacob deGrom has been fantastic in his last few starts. He hasn't been trying to strikeout every batter so he's lasting much deeper into games, which couldn't be more important with how bad the Mets bullpen has been, along with cutting down the hefty workload they had in the beginning of the season. That gives the Mets one pitcher that essentially gives them an almost guaranteed win every 5 days. Unfortunately, one guy isn't enough, so they need help from their other young bucks. The addition of Steven Matz back into the rotation has been huge. The Mets now get a second legit starter back in the rotation, Matz has looked better than ever, and if he can stay healthy the Mets have a nice 1 2 punch at the top of their rotation. The addition of Seth Lugo back into the rotation is another huge cog in the Mets pitching machine. Lugo has had good stuff in his last few starts, he seems to struggle as he gets deeper into games, but that may just be due to fatigue. If Lugo can keep giving the Mets quality starts while building his arm back up to peak form he'll be another starter that consistently put's the Mets in positions to win. Hopefully, Noah Syndergaard will come back before August giving the Mets their most dominant ace back, reinventing this starting rotation single handily. Who knows when Thor will be back, though. Can't rely on him coming back to save the Mets season. Another unreliable guy is Matt Harvey. He's hurt again and honestly I think we've seen the best of Matt Harvey. He just doesn't have that dark knight chip on his shoulder anymore. The Mets were relying on him to return to peak form this season, so obviously this is a big blow to their original plans, but they'll just have to absorb the blow and move on. The two x-factors for the Mets will be Robert Gsellman and Zack Wheeler. Both these guys have shown flashes of being very good pitchers. Unfortunately, they've also shown flashes of being pretty poor pitchers that are also injury prone. Tough to say which guys the Mets will get with these two, but if they get the very good pitcher version they'll be in great shape. The Mets with a healthy rotation that is pitching effectively can reel of wins in streaks like no tomorrow. I know we haven't seen much of that, although when have they had a rotation of these 5 guys when they're all healthy and effective. Almost never, so we've never truly seen what they're capable of. All I'm saying is don't sleep on the Mets because they may just surprise you. It's also been reported the Mets are interested in signing Bartolo Colon since he was DFA'd by the Atlanta Braves. I know Colon has been atrocious this season, but he always seemed sharp with the Mets, and his presence alone in the clubhouse is worth the risk of picking him up. Sandy Alderson better make the right decision and bring back Big sexy. In a division with the Braves, Phillies, and Marlins the Mets have a ton of potential easy victories in their path the rest of the way. If the starting rotation can pull this together I believe Terry Collins will once again get credited for saving the Mets season after it seemed so far gone for the third straight year. Just gonna have to wait and see if the miracle Mets can pull off maybe their hardest task yet. Do you think the Mets are dead? Do you think they have a chance? How should the Mets approach the rest of the season? Let me know in the comment section. By Muk To say Cody Bellinger is on fire is an injustice to what he's accomplishing right now.
The Dodgers rookie 1B/OF has put on an absolute show in his first few months in the big's, blasting an astounding 24 HR's in 57 games, all while hitting .274 and adding 55 RBI's. In a season where it seemed that no player could take the spotlight off of Aaron Judge, Bellinger is doing all that he can to bring attention to the West Coast. With the Dodgers on fire as of late, winning 10 straight, and taking sole possession of first place in the best division in baseball, the NL West, the majority of their success can be attributed to Bellinger. He hit 2 home runs last night, notching yet another multi-HR game, and helped propel the Dodgers to a comeback 12-6 win over their division rival, the Colorado Rockies. Not only is Bellinger an absolute lock for the NL Rookie of the Year, he is making a serious case for the MVP award as well if he keeps this pace and productivity up. Hitting multiple HR's every other game is insanity, and while we expect his production to slow down, I can't see it completely falling off, and for that reason, he will be an issue for NL teams for the rest of this season, and likely for years to come. By DjackThe New York Yankees got slapped in the face with the cold hand of the baseball Gods this past week. A terrible west coast road trip that was filled with blown leads, injuries, and the realization our pitching staff can't maintain the level of play they've been providing for the entire season. Injuries, rough road trips, and players underperforming are all apart of the 162 game grind, fortunately the Yankees were able to avoid this for the first 10 weeks of the season. Unfortunately, an avalanche of these issues have swamped the Yankees all at once, and for the first time this season the Yankees are worrying some of their fans. The same fans that hopped on the bandwagon after we began dominating the division, but still, the point I'm trying to make is still the same. The biggest issues the Yankees have right now is health and the lack of quality pitching they're getting from their "ace" Masahiro Tanaka. The pitching staff was what worried fans coming into the season, however they had been exceptional up until this west coast road trip. C.C. Sabathia looked like a new man that had completely reinvented himself to start the season, talks of him making the all star team were starting to sprout, then of course he goes down with a hamstring injury that'll keep him out until after the all star break. Match that with more injuries to our starting lineup and the Yankees are a much easier lineup to maneuver around. Aaron Hicks, who has taken off this year as a delightful surprise for our offense and defense, went down with an injury on the west coast trip, and he shouldn't be out for too long, but you never know. Greg Bird, the guy that was supposed to bat third for us this season, has been out with a foot injury for almost two months now, that certainly escalated quickly. Who knows when he'll be back and if he'll be able to produce like he was expected to when the season began. The cherry on top to all the injuries the Yankees have run into lately was when Gleyber Torres was diagnosed with a torn UCL that will require Tommy John surgery. It's his non throwing elbow so it isn't too worrisome for his future, however the Yankees could've used him in August and September when they are trying to make a playoff push.
The biggest difference between when the Yankees were crushing everyone to now when they're losing to some of the worst teams in baseball is their pitching. When we are playing our best baseball the starting pitching and bullpen have been outstanding for us. Along that west coast nightmare they were both pretty atrocious. Pineda is untouchable at home, but is pretty much awful on the road, it's actually remarkable how much his stats vary from when he's at home and when he's on the road. Severino has been great, so I can't get on him. Montgomery is young and is learning how to pitch in the big leagues with every start, so I can't get on him either, especially since he's been pretty good for us this year. As for Tanaka, I have no words, the guy might be a lost cause at this point. On the mound you can see the body language he is displaying and it's not pretty. The guy has zero confidence in his stuff and as a pitcher that's pretty much everything. I really don't think Tanaka is hiding an injury, I just think he got shelled a couple times and now he just has no faith in his ability to pitch anymore. You rarely see this happen to a pitcher of his caliber, but what other answer is there? He's gotta figure this out or the Yankees have to stop putting him out there. Tanaka is basically a guranteed loss when he takes the mound at this point. Now, C.C. is down for at least a few weeks so the Yankees need another starter, which worries me beyond belief. We already needed starting pitching to begin with ,now with the injuries and Tanaka being God awful, we need more than one solid starter if we wanna continue to compete. I'm not going to panic yet, we've been too good for too long this season to let a little losing streak discourage me. It was a west coast road trip that the Yankees were thrown into after a long streak of tough divisional games with no rest inbetween, fatigue played a factor at some points I'm sure. Baseball is a season of streaks, just gotta hope your team has more winning streaks than losing streaks, something the Yankees have done a great job of this year, so let's not jump the gun getting all crazy that our season is completely falling apart. We still got Judge, Sanchez, Didi, Holiday, and Castro all raking, Chapman is back to give the bullpen a major boast, and Ellsbury is also starting his rehab assignment. Time to get back on track in the Bronx tonight with a win over the Angels. Still in first place after a 6 game losing streak, yeah I'm not worried whatsoever. Do you think the Yankees are in trouble? If you do tell me why in the comment section. If you aren't worried, tell me why in the comment section. By Muk
The Yankees are playing some of the best baseball in all of the MLB, and it seems that they're only getting better by the day.
After winning two of the three games against the Red Sox, and beating up on the Orioles Friday night, the Yankees blew out the Orioles last night 16-3, hitting five home runs. And now, with today's game against the Orioles as good as over, the Yankees now have won five straight and are heading to LA to face the struggling Angles, and will look to pad their AL East lead. Right now they're up 3 games on the Red Sox, and with the way this team is hitting, it seems that it will only get bigger this week. This team is so fun to watch it's unbelievable. I knew that the Yankees had big things in the making coming into this year, but I never expected it to be this soon. Judge, Castro, Sanchez, Gregorius, Hicks, Gardy, and so many more Yankees are red-hot. Their pitching is getting things together, Severino is bringing the juice, he's 5-2 with a 2.75 ERA and 84 strikeouts, and CC Sabathia is feeling himself as well, with a 7-2 record and a 3.66 ERA. Even Jordan Montgomery is getting in his groove, going 2-0 in June, with a 1.38 ERA and 13 K's.
Aaron Judge blasted his 20th, and 21st home runs of the season today, and the kid seemingly gets better every single day. He now has 21 homers, 47 RBI's and is hitting an incredible .344 on the season.
Gary Sanchez is starting to catch fire himself after missing much of the early part of the season. He's racked up 10 home runs, 28 RBI's, and is hitting .278 thus far, in only 35 games. The player having the most incredibly surprising, and low-key great season, is Aaron Hicks, who has 10 home runs, 34 RBI's, and is hitting a great .313 so far. I love this team, I can't wait for what the future holds, and I absolutely expect this season to continue to play out the way it is. World Series aspirations, and you best believe that we're getting another ring real soon. By MukLast night, Albert Pujols became the 9th player in MLB history to hit 600 home runs, and he did it in style, blasting a grand slam in the 4th inning against the Twins. Pujols is the 4th youngest player to ever hit 600 home runs, behind ARod, Babe Ruth, and Hank Aaron.
Pujols added another feat to his illustrious career, as the 37-year old joins an elite list of MLB superstars who have hit 600 home runs, along with becoming only the third player in history to hit 600 dingers and win 3 MVP's (Arod and Barry Bonds as well). On top of his 600 home runs, 3 MVP's, he's a 2-time World Series champion, 10-time All-Star, 2-time Gold Glove winner, as well as Rookie of the Year. His career batting average of .308, 600 home runs, 1,859 RBI's, along with 2,876 hits, are all incredible numbers, and he is a first ballot Hall of Famer undoubtably. With this season being slow for Pujols, as age has become a factor, but he still has hit 9 home runs this year, and it's likely that he will catch both Sammy Sosa (609) and Jim Thome (612), and Ken Griffey's 630 home runs are within reach for next season. Albert Pujols is absolutely one of the greatest baseball players of All-Time, and especially of our generation, and he continues to impress. |
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AuthorDjack- Chief editor Archives
April 2018
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