SU gave up on the Yankees back in April but surely the Mets were on track to be a playoff team. Well, after a bad series vs. a bad Arizona team, the Yankees actually have a half game better record than the .500 Mets. How did that happen? Sure, injuries are a factor here but their offense has just been bad from day one. The homeruns masked just how poorly they hit with RISP but they have fallen off as well. Are they in free fall? SU says no – they will make one more run but the clock is ticking.
Meanwhile, A-Rod finally gets a start tonight against the Red Sox. While SU is a Joe Girardi fan, he has really mishandled this. He continues to say he is not in the business of farewell tours for retiring players and he is trying to win games. He is also batting Chase Headley 3rd in the line-up. SU says: “case closed.” You put Texeiria in the line up with his .190 average and Aaron Hicks out there every game with his .190 average. Surely, A-Rod is no worse than these guys. Absolutely ridiculous.
Apparently A-Rod wanted to play 3rd base Friday night and Girardi said no. Actually, I can’t blame him for that but DHing is a no-brainer. Jayson Stark of espn.com did a phone survey of MLB GMs to see if they thought A-Rod would land somewhere in 2017. 9 of the responding 21 GMs say he will play somewhere in 2017 and Miami seems to be early favorite. SU says good – put him out there. Why not? He actually looked good pinch hitting last night. Somehow I don’t think he will get the Jeter/Mariano treatment tonight from the Red Sox fans.
One more day and that will be it. Unless he hits 2 homeruns in the next 2 days. Stay tuned.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
The Yankees are now proving what I expected a month or two ago. They can really play just as well without Beltran and 2 of the big 3 relievers as they could with them. Beltran was having a nice year but he was also an OF/DH on a team that has plenty of those (one of the reasons they shouldn’t have signed him in the first place). What has shocked me is how Girardi has been so willing to bar Rodriguez from the lineup. Also McCann. Their performance justifies it but what about Texiera and Hicks who continue to play more regularly?
Other than Miller (who was great and had a year left) the Yankees haven’t really lost anything. The question is whether they gained anything. Time will tell if any of these prospects pan out. They have gotten younger but the bottom half of the standings is regularly filled with younger teams. There is some evidence of a lack of planning as they’ve really built the pipeline for SS when their current SS is one of the few bright spots over the past two seasons. There’s also chatter about the free agent classes over the coming years which could be exciting but also seems like the fast track back to contracts like Rodgriguez, Ellsubry, Sabbathia, etc. What they did with free agency leading up to the 2009 WS year is still haunting them and what they did 2 years ago was even worse as there was no payoff.
The Terry Collins speech from yesterday was great. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a new manager by the end of the weekend which will be a shame because I kind of like him. The problem is that they really aren’t as good as they thought they’d be. The pitching staff isn’t the 2nd coming of the Atlanta Braves and somehow many people are shocked. I’m not. Not because they don’t have good pitching but because the Braves of the 1990s had something that just doesn’t happen in baseball. They had 3 Hall of Fame starters and a regular supply of other starters who would give them 1 or 2 seasons as good as the other three. To do what the Braves did you need a Maddux, Smoltz and Glavine plus a whole bunch of Hamptons and Neagles and Millwoods. Many fans thought the Mets had this. I did not simply because the rest of baseball history tells us that this just doesn’t happen. What Mets fans have to hope for now is that DeGrom, Matz, Syndergaard, and Harvey aren’t their Hampton/Neagle/Millwood. If so, the long term expectations drop off considerably. Oh, they also need to figure out how to score some runs. And on that note, how would A Rod look at 3rd base in citifield?
You mean Generation Next with the Mets from the 1990s? To be fair, the Mets have been hit with injuries. I wouldn’t write off their crop of starters just yet. Their need is on offense. I understand Hicks playing as they need to determine if they just traded for a bad player (hint: they did). But Texeiria is worse than A-Rod. Sure, he can field but please – why does he get the free pass? For the shortstops being stockpiled, that’s ok as they will be used as chips for future trades. I don’t mind that – you aren’t going to keep all of your prospects anyway.
Girardi is coming off as looking very petty in this whole thing. While I’ve never been a huge A-Rod fan, he is getting the sympathy vote in all of this.
Not sure what is going on with the Mets. Even with weak hitting they should be doing better than what they are.
Girardi is no doubt counting down the minutes til this game is over. He has had a bad few weeks. I can’t help but believe that he is under orders to not play A-Rod to some degree. I really hope A-Rod gets picked up by someone for the last month and a half of the season. That would be cool. I say the Mets still have a run in them. Too early to throw in the towel, wave the white flag, call it a day.