It was another disappointing
year for the New York Mets in 2012. It marks their sixth straight year of
October golf reservations and their fourth straight losing season. Here’s a
list of the ten disappointments that defined this year’s overall
disappointment.
My analysis of the why the Mets finished with a losing record yet again
10. Dillon Gee’s
injury
It can be argued that Dillon
Gee’s season-ending surgery marked the turning point for the Mets in 2012. The
team was playing winning baseball prior to the All Star Break, which is exactly
when Gee’s injury was reported, shocking Mets fans that his promising season
would be ending early.
Gee was coming off an eight-inning
gem against the Cubs, where he gave up just one run and did not walk a single
batter. In fact, nine of Gee’s final ten starts in 2012 were quality (at least
6 innings allowing 3 earned runs or less).
Dillon Gee
9. The End of
July
When Gee went down at the All
Star break, the Mets had a 46-40 record, only four and half games out of first
place, and on the precipice of the second wild card spot. But it all fell apart
with the ring of the second half bell.
The Mets lost their first
five games in Atlanta and Washington and fell in 11 of their first 12 contests
following the All Star Break. They finished July with a 7-18 record and their
season came to a screeching halt, as Terry Collins’ crew found themselves hopelessly
out of contention for the fourth straight year.
8. Ramon
Ramirez
Sandy Alderson traded Angel
Pagan for Ramon Ramirez and Andres Torres in hopes to sure up what was a shoddy
bullpen in 2011. Ramirez had posted four straight seasons of sub-3.00 ERAs and
at least 68 innings pitched. There was no more sure-thing in the market for
set-up men than Ramon Ramirez.
But Ramirez wound up falling
short in both of those key categories, only pitching 63 innings and recording
an ERA of 4.24, over a point and a half higher than his 2.62 mark from 2011.
The worst part was that Ramirez was only effective in low-leverage situations,
forcing Terry Collins to save him for games where the victor had already been
decided.
Combine that with Torres’
lackluster season, and it’s safe to say the Pagan trade falls into Sandy
Alderson’s “bad” column.
Ramon Ramirez
7. The Bullpen
Ramirez wasn’t the only sore
spot in the Mets bullpen in 2012. All in all, the pen was a disaster for Terry
Collins. The Mets were last in bullpen ERA for virtually the entire year, until
the Brewers edged them out for the dubious title on the final day of the
season.
So the Mets had the second worst bullpen in the Majors,
which offers no comfort to Sandy Alderson or Terry Collins. The primary
culprits: Manny Acosta (6.46), Ramon Ramirez (4.24), Frank Francisco (5.53) and
Miguel Batista (4.82)
The only exceptions were Jon
Rauch and Bobby Parnell, who held down the set-up role for an incapable closer
in Francisco. Francisco is the only one on the culprits list who will be
returning to New York in 2013, as Sandy Alderson tries to revamp his bullpen
yet again.
So who has he brought in to
help lead the transformation? Well, no one yet. But the third-year GM is
waiting for the bullpen market to play out before he inks some arms for 2013.
The Pen has driven Terry Collins nuts the past two years
6. Lucas Duda
After his first full season
in the Major Leagues, Lucas Duda appeared to be ready to take over right field
at Citi Field for the long term. After
hitting close to .300 in 100 games with an OPS 81 points higher than David
Wright in 2011, Duda regressed considerably in 2012.
The most alarming part of
Duda’s season was his second half. He maintained acceptable starting numbers
through the first three months, but batted just .204 after that. He earned
himself a demotion to Triple-A, and didn’t hit well there either.
The good news for Lucas is
that he’s going to get another chance to prove himself in 2013 because of a
very thin Mets outfield. He has a big
league eye and big league power, stroking a career-high 15 home runs in just
400 at bats this season. However, he still needs to prove he can be an everyday
player in all aspects of the game. The former USC star would be well-served to
get more aggressive at the plate, work on going the other way and certainly
needs improve his outfield play, especially on balls hit over his head.
Lucas Duda
5. David Wright
getting snubbed for the ASG start by Pablo Sandoval
When the All-Star rosters
were announced on July 1st, it was hard to argue David Wright wasn’t
the Most Valuable Player in the National League. He was hitting .355 with 9 HRs
and 50 RBIs and appeared to be carrying an overachieving team into a playoff
race.
But in the last week before
the voting closed, San Francisco’s late push to the polls propelled the Kung Fu
Panda in front of Wright for the first time all season, despite his severely
inferior numbers. The results prompted Mets’ GM Sandy Alderson to tweet some
controversial comments, mocking Sandoval’s nickname and blaming Wright’s loss
on Mets fans:
“Wright vs. Sandoval: A city
of 8 million was outvoted by a city of 800,000.”
For what it’s worth, Sandoval
did have the biggest hit of the All Star Game, a three-run triple off Justin
Verlander in the first inning. The hit made it 4-0, springboarding the NL to
victory and earning them home field advantage in the Fall Classic.
The hit was an interesting
foreshadow to Game 1 of the World Series, where Sandoval took Verlander deep
twice in his famous three home run game.
Sandoval's bases clearing triple comes at the :30 mark
4. Mike
Pelfrey’s injury
Despite another rocky Spring
Training, Mike Pelfrey came out of the gates hot in 2012, allowing just five
runs over his first three starts, capped by an eight inning, one run gem
against the Giants.
But elbow discomfort quickly developed
into the one prognosis any pitcher shutters over – Tommy John Surgery. The
operation marked the end of Pelfrey’s career with the Mets, as he’ll try his
luck in Minnesota next season after being non-tendered by New York at the end
of November.
Pelfrey appeared headed for a
strong season in 2012, and the pattern of his success in even years suggest he
could have been a big factor in what would have been one of the best rotations
in the National League had he stayed healthy.
Chris Schwinden and Miguel
Batista floundered in his absence before Chris Young was able to solidify
Pelfrey’s spot in the rotation. There’s no telling how many games Pelfrey’s
injury cost the Mets in 2012, but I reckon it was more than one or two.
Mike Pelfrey
3. Kirk
Nieuwenhuis’ Second Half
After Andres Torres came up
lame running down a ball in the gap on Opening Day, the centerfielder with the
blonde flow whose name no one could spell got a call earlier than anyone
expected. For two and a half months, Kirk Nieuwenhuis could do no wrong,
spraying balls all over Citi Field and consistently making highlight-reel
catches.
He reached his peak line of
.311/.386/.444 on May 5th and maintained an average around .300 into
June. But his bat began to ware down around the middle of the month and Kirk’s
playing time dwindled. Shortly after being sent down to AAA after five straight
hitless games in late July, Nieuwenhuis was diagnosed with a serious foot injury,
ending his rookie campaign and costing him many September at bats and additional
Major League experience.
His line finished at
.252/.315/.376, certainly adequate for a fourth outfielder, but Nieuwenhuis
showed he is capable of much more. His defense and athleticism are his greatest
assets, and he has the pop to be a star in the league. In a mid-December
interview, Nieuwenhuis claimed to be 100% healthy and ready to compete for the
starting centerfielder spot in Spring Training. And unless the Mets sign someone
else, it appears to be Kirk’s spot to lose.
Cool promo. I see Kirk as a reason the Mets improve the next few years
2. Frank
Francisco
Talk about making a bad first
impression, Frank Francisco pitched to the tune of a 7.71 ERA in the month of
April, and his May was not much better.
But the veteran is known as a
second half pitcher, so things would get better right? Not exactly. The former
Ranger and Blue Jay spent the entire month of July on the disabled list and
continued to struggle after his return, finishing with a post-All Star Break
ERA of 6.75.
Francisco issued a walk
every-other inning and posted a WHIP north of 1.6. The worst part for Mets fans
is that he’s under contract for another season and Terry Collins has already
pronounced him as the likely candidate to close games again in 2013.
Francisco did strike out more
than a batter per inning, so he’s still difficult to hit. But he isn’t getting
any younger, and will be 33 on Opening Day.
The Mets better hope
Francisco won’t become another name on their long list of bad contracts. 2012
was the first time in five years that Francisco’s ERA exceeded 3.83, so the
Mets can hope that his first season in Queens was simply a stroke of bad luck.
Frank Francisco
1. The Catching
Situation
There was no bigger weakness
for the Mets in 2012 than whoever had the number “2” next to his name in the
batting order. Whether it was Josh Thole, Mike Nickeas, Kelly Shoppach or Rob
Johnson, the Mets got almost no offensive production from behind the plate.
Mets catchers batted a
combined .218 in 2012. That’s good for 14th in the National League. Somehow,
the Cubs and Marlins had averages that were even lower. The Mets’ catchers were
last in the NL in OBP and dead last in all of the Majors in slugging percentage…by
a lot.
Their .286 slugging mark was
38 points below the 29th-ranked Padres, 38!!
Josh Thole has to bear the
brunt of the blame on this one. He started 90 games behind the plate for New
York and batted a career-low .234, a number that is simply unacceptable for a
guy with only seven career home runs. Needless to say, his slash line of .234/.294/.290
was also the worst of his career, and one of the lowest in the Majors.
Thing is, Thole had no help.
Mike Nickeas drowned at the plate in his first real Big League opportunity,
ending the season with a .174 average.
The relatively cheap acquisition
of Kelly Shoppach didn’t help matters either. Shoppach batted just .203 with
the Mets after leaving Boston with a respectable .250 average. His slugging
percentage also dropped 129 points after arriving in Flushing.
No matter how you cut it, the
Mets catchers’ provided no production in 2012, and it’s fair to say they
haven’t even had an average offensive catcher since Mike Piazza, except for maybe Paul Lo Duca.
Let’s just say there’s a
reason Thole and Nickeas are in Canada. Sandy Alderson also recognized this
deficiency as the biggest disappointment for the Mets for 2012.
And to his credit, he did
something about it. Let’s just hope Travis D’Arnaud lives up to the hype.
The Mets needed a lot more of this out of Josh Thole in 2012
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