Noah Syndergaard Missing Start is Latest News in Mets Downfall

By Djack

Today, it was reported that Noah Syndergaard would not make his start due to a tired arm. A tired arm in April, bad bad news for the Mets. If this doesn't end up being something worse I'll be shocked, honestly I'm not sure I've ever seen this happen in April with an ace. Just the other day I was saying on the podcast how the Mets need their starters to go deeper into games, meanwhile Syndergaard has left a couple of his starts early due to blisters and his arm is already tired. I'm calling bullshit on his arm being "tired", his arm is hurt he's barely thrown this season.. The guy throws the hardest slider I've ever seen in my life and his average velocity is the fastest in the MLB for a starter, so it's no surprise his arm is shot. Hopefully this turns out to be nothing big, the Mets need Syndergaard if they want to do anything this year, and the last thing a baseball fan wants to see is one of the most entertaining pitchers in all of baseball fall off due to injury. Unfortunately, I'm embracing for the worst with Syndergaard, after all he is a Met meaning this obviously can't end well.

The Syndergaard being scratched from his start debacle is the most recent woe in the Mets difficult start to the 2017 season. The injuries continue to pile on, it all started with David Wright in spring training, then Steven Matz went down, followed by Seth Lugo, Juan Lagares, Yoenis Cespedes, Lucas Duda, Wilmer Flores, and Travis d'Arnaud. Jeurys Familia, the Mets closer, also missed the first 15 games due to suspension, basically same thing as injury since he had to miss time. That's a ridiculous number of key players to go down this early into a season. The Mets have had no consistency in the lineup for years, they've had the same group of guys basically, and still they can'y figure how to configure the batting order. The day to day lineup changes constantly, Terry Collins just doesn't know what to do to get these guys to score runs. When he doesn't start guys like Michael Conforto every night it's hard to defend him, though.

Terry Collins, isn't the problem. He's in a shitty fucked up situation, he's got an overload of outfielders that are all good at different things and awful at others. Granderson hits for power, has decent glove, but his average sucks and his age is showing. Conforto is a stud and is the only chance the Mets have at a good #2 hitter for this team, for the love of God start him everyday Terry. Lagares is an outstanding fielder, however at the plate he just hasn't been able to figure it out. Bruce is a beast, a little streakier than I like in my big time hitters, although when he's hot he's as dangerous as anyone in the MLB. Granderson is the odd man out, Lagares is a nice fill in guy that you don't need to bring in everyday, so he can still be valuable off the bench. The same cannot be said for Granderson. Grandy is a great teammate and person, but father time is calling, and no one can avoid father time.

The infield is a whole other disaster. Reyes is awful, he's terrible in the field and at the plate. You gotta keep running him out there though. The Mets need Reyes to turn this around to have any chance at making a run. I've said it time and time again this guy is a sparkplug, his energy is contagious, and when he gets on base the offense is a lot more potent. Whatever is messing with Reyes, possibly the off the field issues, need to be left off the field because he really needs to get going. The deeper he falls into the slump the worse it's going to get, these guys need to figure out a way to get him going. Try bunting for a hit, sometimes that's all you need to break out of a slump. Asdrubal Cabrera is a beast, his body just can't seem to keep up with him, if he can stay healthy he'll be just fine production wise for the Mets. Neil Walker needs to return to last year's form, I don't know what happened, all I know is the Mets are paying him more money than Daniel Murphy for a lot less production. Lucas Duda sucks, get rid of him, keep Jay Bruce at first, and then you can keep Granderson in the outfield. Otherwise, you'll have to get rid of Granderson. It's a pick your poison type of situation, Duda or Granderson. Travis d'Arnaud, has actually looked a lot better this year, he's swinging the bat well, he looks better behind the plate, just needs to get healthy and continue to do what he's doing.

A lot of criticism has fallen on the bullpen for good reason. My only defense for them is they have been asked to do a lot. The bullpen just needs to stop throwing so many innings and then when July rolls around they need to add another arm to the pen. The starters need to go deeper, however it seems like their arms can't hold up long enough to do so. Bullpen needs to improve or the Mets have no chance at competing for anything. 

The Mets have a lot to fix, my biggest thing with them is this clubhouse has always had great chemistry and looked like they were always having fun, now it looks like they're beginning to lose that. That concerns the shit out of me. Mets need to get a win badly because winning cures everything. If the Mets keep this losing trend going they're going to spiral out of control rapidly. The problems on the field are easily fixable, just need to get healthy, and some players just need to step up production, but the clubhouse bond breaking is not fixable, so make sure that doesn't happen.