Baseball can always be counted on to remind you that you don’t know anything about anything and that you should never be too confident in any opinion. For example, coming into this season the landscape of the league was not perceived as an overly competitive one. In most peope’s eyes, there was one division that looked like it would be close throughout the season (the American League East) with the rest being blowouts. Obviously, we can’t make any real conclusions about anything on April 14. Things are going to change from here and we’ll forget a lot of early-season trends by the middle of June. That being said, it’s hard to imagine we’re going to see the Mets just completely fade away, because they simply can’t lose right now.
The Mets simply cannot lose right now
Saturday morning’s Say Hey, Baseball includes the Mets’ impossibly hot start to the year, a bases-clearing sacrifice fly, and suspensions in last week’s other fight.
Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports
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On Friday, the National League New York squad started a series against the Brewers, and they took the first game in a close, one-run affair. The win marked the Mets’ ninth straight victory and gave them an 11-1 record for the season. Something tells me they won’t keep up a .917 winning percentage for the entire season (#analysis), but this win streak doesn’t look all that fluky. They are beating good teams -- this run inclues wins over the Cardinals, Phillies, Nationals and Brewers, all of whom were seen as at least Wild Card contenders. The Mets are getting tremendous starting pitching, and the health of those arms is the key to their success, but they are also getting strong performances in the lineup from veterans like Yoenis Cespedes, Todd Frazier and somehow Adrian Gonzalez. Jeurys Familia has also been one of the best closers in baseball for the early part of the year.
The rational way to look at all of this is to acknowledge that the Mets are probably better than we’ve given them credit for, but they still can’t be looked at as division favorites. The Nationals were the preseason favorite, and it takes pretty extreme circumstances to move on from such a heavy preseason favorite. It’s worth noting that the Mets have always opened up a six-game lead in the division. Yes, it’s absurdly early to look at standings, but these wins are banked and that margin between the two teams is real. From this point forward the Nationals have to be seven games better than the Mets, and that’s asking for a lot if New York stays healthy. These Mets might be for real, is what I’m saying.
- Whitney has a look back at the week that was in baseball, which includes casual cup checks!
- Have you ever seen a bases-clearing sacrifice fly? Well, now you have. (Pirates fans, ignore this.)
- Getting back to the Mets for a second, it wouldn’t be the Mets without some key injuries. This time, they’ve lost both of their catchers, and they need to figure out where to get some new ones.
- Across town, Aaron Judge has been incredible to start 2018, and the scary part for the rest of the league is that he might actually be this good.
- The Yankees/Red Sox brawl has gotten most of the attention this week, but the Rockies and Padres threw down that same day. Their suspensions were announced on Friday.
- The Blue Jays have quietly had a fairly strong start to their year, but they just lost Josh Donaldson for at least 10 days. That’s not going to help staying competitive in a tough division.
- Shohei Ohtani is starting to move his way up the lineup, but was it really all that bad for him to hit in the eight spot?
- The Red Sox have gotten a great start from Rick Porcello as he starts to transform back into an older version of himself, even if he doesn’t want to talk about it.
- Jose Ramirez’ numbers don’t look super impressive due to a low batting average on balls in play, but don’t let that fool you. He’s been fantastic to start the year.
- The Cardinals are still waiting for Kolten Wong to make good on his potential at second base, but he continues to disappoint. How much longer can they wait?
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