End of Season Post

Congrats to all the play off teams!

Odds

NL

Cubs: 5-1
Braves: 4-1
Marlins: 3-1
D'Backs: 1-3
Pirates: 1-2
Reds: 2-2

By all means it should be the Braves vs Cubs for the NL crown with the Cubs winning. Doesn't mean it will happen at all and probably won't if the past is any indication. Who ever gets hot at the right time wins normally.  End of season wasn't a good barometer for sure.

AL
Red Sox: 3-1
Mariners: 2-1
Rangers: 2-1
Blue Jays: 1-3
Sky Sox: 2-1
Rays: 2-1

The AL is a horse of a different color and actually hard to handicap even.  By all means it should be the Red Sox vs ummmm (I give up). But here again that isn't even a given as me thinks anyone can win it all.



The Mets had another 85 win season and could have won more but the Braves and I decided to play our AAAA players in the last three games. Actually the Mets gave up when John McInerney went down with an injury in the first game against the Phils. Hard to lose your best hitter and expect to win with the way we played all season.

Normally there is something odd in the stats that indicate why a team doesn't win when you know you have a good team. Last season it was the 1-run games and extra inning games where we couldn't do anything right. This season was a complete turnaround in that regard but wins against the division (8-22) did us in. Well, that was the glaring biggie in the end.

We played horrible at the beginning of the season which didn't help one bit. Several changes was made post-haste, actually about 30 games in really. Doesn't help that what should be your best hitter in Leo Rodney  was batting .186 but zoomed up to .230 after inter-league play. His average actually stayed there for quite some time until the season was almost over. He still led the team in home runs and walks. Marc Redman even had a bad year at the plate, most of the year he hit in the .240's until the end. In my mind the entire team hit below average, most well below except for Mac.

Pitching was horrible and spotty at the beginning but settled down after a while. R.J. Bellhorn and Harry Rodriguez both won only 7 games and lost 12. Both had 15 Quality Starts a piece, is that a sign of bad luck or what? Not sure how many games they pitched in where they gave up 2 runs or less and didn't have a chance of winning and most of the time they were losing.

Fielding wasn't one of our biggest concerns this season, must be because of the poor hitting. It showed also as we were one of the worst in the error department. Really it wasn't a big deal as a lot of players were put in different positions a lot.  But I remember a couple of those poor plays that didn't make sense to me. Like how does a 72 range, 72 glove playing 3B guarding the lines in the 9th inning be out of position? I remember Valentin misplaying three lazy fly balls in center field. Those irked me the most and I remember them because it cost us 3 games that we really needed late in the season.

Next season the Mets are gonna be struggling for sure as we are shedding $27M in salaries and only picking up $8M. Most of that is in the pitching department. We are even going to stay out of the FA market. It is gonna be a case that the offense is gonna produce or else.

Did learn something this year. The difference between a veteran 2B with a 79 range and an 80 range is 3 minus plays.