Kyrie Irving’s next insane stunt is not caring about basketball when the playoffs are about to start

Posted on May 17, 2021 by Aaron Yorke

After the Nets won their game against the Bulls on Saturday night, Kyrie Irving took the podium and talked about how even with the NBA Playoffs fast approaching, he just wasn’t very focused on basketball right now. The reason? There’s just too much going on in the world right now! I only pay attention to sports and video games and nothing else, so I don’t know what he could be talking about, but this is certainly alarming to the handful of Nets fans that exist.

I would just love to see what the reaction to Irving’s comments would be if he played for an organization with fans in a time and place that allowed for full arenas. Can you imagine? The playoffs on the horizon and his team is one of the favorites to win it all. James Harden’s legacy is on the line, and this goof is more worried about what’s going on in the Middle East (I just Googled and apparently there’s some serious stuff going down in the Middle East right now).

We all know that whatever is happening in the Middle East is way more important than the NBA on a global scale, but Irving has a job to do just like everyone who isn’t being paid by the government to stay at home right now. You worry about your job first. You worry about your family first. That’s how it should be, and Irving has a bunch of guys on the Nets who would really like for him to be focused on basketball right now.

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The Mets are still in first place, but to stay there the backups need to come through

Posted on May 17, 2021 by Aaron Yorke

Oof. This past weekend was a rough one for the Mets. Not only did they get swept by Tampa Bay, but they lost Jeff McNeil and Michael Conforto to the injured list with hamstring injuries. Brandon Nimmo continues to miss time with a finger injury, which means the active outfield consists of Dominic Smith and Kevin Pillar along with recent call-ups Khalil Lee and Johneshwy Fargas. That’s not ideal, even though Pillar has hit pretty well this month.

The good news is that everyone else in the National League East is also struggling, leaving the Mets in first place with four fewer losses than anyone else in the division despite a -10 run differential.

7-3 in the last 10 games is still good even if the run started with seven wins, right? Either way, the Mets have a chance to put some more distance between themselves and their rivals with their six-game road trip to Atlanta and Miami that starts tonight against the Braves.

That lineup is… something. The Mets will need the top of the lineup to carry the offense, so it would be a great time for Francisco Lindor to finally start playing like a superstar. The $341 million man is back below the Mendoza Line after going 1-for-12 over the weekend with six strikeouts. At least the one hit was a home run…

Frank the Tank was more impressed by DJ Kitty than by Lindor’s solo shot. That turned out to be the proper response, as the Mets’ bullpen let up six runs in the bottom of the eighth on Saturday to turn a close 6-5 game into a 12-5 blowout. That Lindor home run was rendered meaningless while DJ Kitty continues to be awesome.

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Francisco Lindor sees first New York rat, hits first Citi Field home run in awesome Mets comeback

Posted on May 8, 2021 by Aaron Yorke

In one of the craziest regular season sequences since Wilmer Flores went from getting reportedly traded to hitting a walk-off home run in the middle of a pennant race, the Mets overcame a 4-0 deficit on Friday night to defeat the Diamondbacks 5-4 and move their record to 14-13. Even when you factor in that the game-winning ground ball was hit by third-string catcher Patrick Mazeika, who wasn’t on the roster three days ago, that doesn’t explain in the slightest how wild this Friday night was.

You see, between the top and bottom of the seventh inning, SOMETHING happened in the Mets’ clubhouse tunnel that caused rampant speculation on social media and in the press box. In the only video available of the incident, we see Michael Conforto look into the tunnel, and then run inside followed by Dominic Smith, Jonathan Villar, and eventually a bunch of other Mets.

It could have been anything, but Twitter immediately decided that Jeff McNeil and Francisco Lindor had a knock-down, drag-out brawl that probably involved steel chairs and a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. The proof? In the top of the seventh, the two infielders, playing next to each other in the shift, got crossed up on a ground ball that resulted in Nick Ahmed reaching on an infield single.

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Mets lose to Cardinals, fire two hitting coaches for no good reason

Posted on May 4, 2021 by Aaron Yorke

The Mets lost their series opener in St. Louis last night. It was a sad game in which New York jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the third thanks to Pete Alonso hitting doubles in his first two at-bats and Kevin Pillar homering for the second straight game only for Joey Lucchesi to give up four runs — three of which came on a Nolan Arenado home run — in the bottom of the inning. With the score 6-5, it looked like we were headed toward a back-and-forth slugfest, but instead no one scored for the final six innings and the Cardinals prevailed.

Following that exciting third inning, the Mets put just one runner in scoring position for the rest of the game. The Mets got surprisingly good work from the JAGs of their bullpen with Robert Gsellman, Sean Reid-Foley, and Jacob Barnes holding St. Louis scoreless for the final 5.1 innings, but it didn’t factor into the result. The worst part was how it looked like Arenado had struck out right before he hit the game-changing home run, but the umpire ruled a foul ball into the dirt. Talk about a game of inches, right?

Anyway, the “real” news happened after the game when the Mets fired their hitting coach Chili Davis and assistant hitting coach Tom Slater. We know the offense has been pretty terrible so far, but it still doesn’t make sense to make coaching decisions based on a month of play, and besides it looked like the bats were starting to come around with New York scoring 18 runs over their last three games. Based on what acting general manager Zack Scott said in his press conference, the move was more about philosophical differences than offensive production.

I have my own theory, though. I think Steve Cohen made the move because he’s upset that his $341 million dollar shortstop investment isn’t paying dividends and he reads Twitter too much. Far-fetched? Maybe. Impossible? Certainly not. Davis had been with the Mets since the 2019 season, which means he oversaw breakout campaigns by Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, J.D. Davis, and Dominic Smith. When you factor in that Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto have also performed well under Davis, we’re saying that almost the entire offense has played well with Davis as the coach.

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Aaron Rodgers isn’t a victim just because the Packers won’t do exactly what he wants with every draft pick

Posted on May 3, 2021 by Aaron Yorke

The NFL world was thrown for a loop on Thursday night when we learned that Aaron Rodgers didn’t want to play for the Packers anymore. Already bursting from the seams with NFL Draft story lines, the social media landscape exploded with takes, many of which treated Rodgers as a victim who was poorly supported by the Green Bay organization, never mind the fact that the future Hall of Famer had won a Super Bowl championship and three MVP awards during his time with the franchise.

Oh my goodness! Nine defensive guys! Can you imagine? The Packers are trying to screw over Aaron Rodgers by selecting players that he doesn’t play with on the field at the same time! Let’s also forget inconvenient facts like there being other ways besides the draft to acquire players and that Green Bay got a tremendous value by getting top Rodgers target Davante Adams in the second round instead of the first.

Also, maybe the front office made defense such a high priority BECAUSE Rodgers is so incredible. Whatever malpractice the organization was committing was good enough to win 13 regular season games last year as well as an MVP award for Rodgers. How much more support did he need? If I told you that you were in charge of a team with an elite quarterback who already had all the tools around him that he needed to succeed, which side of the ball would you prioritize in the draft? Choosing defense is just common sense.

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Edwin Diaz almost spoils the Mets’ most thrilling win of the season

Posted on May 3, 2021 by Aaron Yorke

Only the Mets can play a game in which they overcome a two-run deficit in the eighth inning by putting together their biggest, most clutch rally of the season and then leave you fuming mad at the end of the night. That’s what happened on Sunday Night baseball. The Mets trailed Philadelphia at the start of the eighth inning thanks to a three-run home run by Didi Gregorius in the sixth. Kevin Pillar started the rally with a home run. That’s right, Jeff Francoeur, rallies can START with a home run.

Anyway, the real fun started when Jonathan Villar reached on a single and made a fool of the Phillies by scoring from first on a Jose Peraza pinch-hit single to tie the game.

The Phillies have to be the new Mets after that play. The ball barely makes it a few feet into the outfield and Villar is rounding the bases like a kid playing tee ball who hasn’t learned to respect the game yet. Brilliant play, especially since the Mets have struggled so hard with runners in scoring position. How do you get past that? Score from first on a ball hit right to the first baseman.

The best was yet to come, though. Newly minted Mets villain Jose Alvarado entered the game to put out the fire, and he was only available because he was appealing the suspension he was handed for barking at Dominic Smith on Friday night. He probably should have just gotten the suspension over with because after allowing a single to Jeff McNeil, Alvarado walked both Francisco Lindor and Michael Conforto on pitches nowhere near the strike zone to put New York in front 5-4.

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Would you look at that? Michael Conforto hit a game-winning home run

Posted on May 2, 2021 by Aaron Yorke

Just a couple of weeks ago, Michael Conforto could do nothing right for the Mets. He left the bat on his shoulder in key RBI situations, and when he did swing the bat, it often resulted in a ground out to second base. The only way Conforto could get on base was by throwing his elbow in the way of incoming pitches.

Conforto’s production was meager at the time, but it was only a matter of time before the Mets’ most valuable offensive player from 2020 got his act together. Last weekend against Washington, Scooter finally hit his first home run of the season in a 7-1 loss. Tonight in Philadelphia, he hit his second and it was slightly more consequential.

That’s right. Ninth inning with Phillies closer Hector Neris on the mound with the Mets looking to end a three-game losing streak. You can’t find a much bigger spot in an early regular season game. Plus, the Mets had blown a 4-0 lead and had not scored since the first inning. They NEEDED this one, and Conforto delivered.

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The Mets win because of a bad call, but that’s still better than losing

Posted on April 8, 2021 by Aaron Yorke

Great my favorite player is now the subject of the biggest baseball controversy since Nicholas Castellanos got suspended for literally flexing on the opposing pitcher. In case you missed it, Michael Conforto had a chance to drive in the winning run during today’s 3-2 Mets win over the Marlins, but instead he looked at a couple of strikes and then stuck his elbow out over the plate to get a game-winning hit by pitch call from home plate umpire Ron Kulpa.

What’s crazy is that Kulpa looks like he’s about to call strike three right before he calls the hit by pitch. Which means he knew that Conforto’s elbow was in front of the strike zone. That should have resulted in Scooty McBooty striking out, but instead the umpires stuck with the hit by pitch call and the Mets were walk-off winners.

That was great news considering that just minutes before, the Mets were staring another L in the face with a one-run deficit to start the ninth inning. Still, I wish the umpires did the right thing and let Pete Alonso win the game instead. We all know he would have since Miami closer Anthony Bass had already allowed a game-tying home run to Jeff McNeil and base hits by Luis Guillorme and Brandon Nimmo. Let’s not pretend that the Marlins were robbed of a win today.

Speaking of that McNeil home run, it was pretty cathartic since the first Citi Field crowd since 2019 had mostly sat on its hands all game. New York jumped out in front when Dominic Smith hit a sac fly in the fifth inning, but even that was disappointing being it looked like an extra-base hit that could have scored three runs until Starling Marte ran it down in center field.

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I won’t panic about the Mets until they lose a game to the Marlins

Posted on April 8, 2021 by Aaron Yorke

Oh no, the Mets! They lost the rubber game to the Phillies yesterday and now the sky is falling. I have to admit it was pretty ugly. David Peterson put his fastball on a tee in the first inning, leading to a three-run home run for Alec Bohm and a 4-0 hole for New York. The Mets blew chances to put up crooked numbers in the third and fourth inning when Dominic Smith and Michael Conforto were struck out by Aaron Nola with runners in scoring position.

Still, New York appeared to be on the road to a comeback by chasing Nola after four innings. Unfortunately, Peterson didn’t last much longer, allowing the first two Phillies to reach in the fifth and yielding to Jacob Barnes, who gave up a three-run bomb to J.T. Realmuto on his first pitch of the campaign.

So the Mets lost their first series of the season. That doesn’t mean it makes sense to make sweeping generalizations about them like “the bullpen will be terrible” or “they’ll never hit with RISP.” It’s just three games and there are plenty of positive to take away. Peterson bounced back from his rough first inning and looked better than Nola for the next three frames. Dominic Smith and Pete Alonso look like they are going to be serious trouble in the middle of the order. Brandon Nimmo is an on-base machine and Jonathan Villar had three hits (two for extra bases) yesterday. Sure, I would rather have seen Jeff McNeil out there, but having a versatile bench piece like Villar is going to pay dividends.

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Marcus Stroman is a ground ball king and Mets get first win of the season

Posted on April 7, 2021 by Aaron Yorke

Similarly to Monday night, the Mets got six dominant starter innings followed by shaky bullpen work on Tuesday, but this time the recipe resulted in a win thanks to better offensive production and Philadelphia’s Vince Velasquez throwing fewer than half of his 40 pitches for strikes.

Marcus Stroman was a ground ball machine, recording 13 ground outs and zero fly outs with just three hits allowed. In fact, since two of those hits were ground balls, that means that Didi Gregorius’s home run in the bottom of the fourth was the only fair ball hit into the air against Stroman all game.

The Mets jumped in front 2-0 in the top of the fourth on Dominic Smith’s first home run of the season. However, the game was really won the seventh when Velasquez, after striking out the side in the sixth in relief of Chase Anderson, walked four out of five batters to force in a run. New York kept doing damage after Brandon Kintzler came in, getting a loud sac fly from Francisco Lindor and a two-out RBI double by Michael Conforto to extend the lead to 6-1.

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