It’s the MLB Game Day Recap Day 17, that means it’s time to talk about Metsing. In baseball fan lexicon, this phrase is well known. For those who are unaware, Urban Dictory defines Metsing as “to continually take a good situation and fuck it up”. You may know that the Mets have continually taken a good situation and fucked it up. However, the Mets are certainly not the only team in this category, they just own a large streak of perpetual underachievement while playing in the largest market. Cleveland found themselves Metsian extremely hard tonight, and while it felt horrible, it’s important to remind ourselves that nearly every team finds itself Metsing a few times per season. Even worse, those not seen Metsing are only doing so because their expectations are so low. It’s a long season, no one owns Metsing more than anyone else, except maybe the Mets.
Climbing Up
Starling Marte went 1 for 4 today with 2 runs scored, 1 RBI and 1 stolen base. That’s an extremely good line, and it mirrors his production of the previous week heading into tonight. He hit safely in 6 of his past 7 and scored 10 runs over that span with 2 dongs, 5 RBIs and 1 stolen base. This is excellent productions, and also extremely common for Starling. Whatever the opposite of Metsing is, it might be Starling Marte. He is a career 115 OPS+ yet only has one season under 100 over his decade long career in Pittsburgh, Arizona and Miami. Starling is the type of player to target for your fantasy team because managers are all but guaranteed production, and guaranteed production matters. If you can swing a deal for Marte in exchange for a higher variance player, you should probably take it.
Letdown
The Minnesota Twins are home to our second Covid outbreak of the season, and it certainly won’t be our last. At this point, Covid announcements have more sadness due to game postponement than players contracting Covid. It’s a sad fact, but this entire nation has so much Covid fatigue everyone is tried of discussing it, so we don’t. The problem is, Covid is still a problem. It’s something that disrupts everything, whether we want to admit it’s still happening or not. It’s absolutely a letdown. It stinks. It’s also still here, and will be here until everyone treats as something that needs to be eradicated and not just forgotten about because we collectively don’t want to think about it.
Who’s Hot
Manny Machado is suddenly a speed demon. Today was the first time in his past 10 games he didn’t record at least one R, RBI or SB. Manny still went 1 for 4 and got on base. Often overlooked in fantasy drafts heading into this year, he was my #1 overall 3B and this is a status earned. Machado has looked everything like the player who earned his massive contract and is the current, true face of this franchise. It’s not a stretch to say that he’s a top 10 asset in dynasty formats. It’s not a stretch to even say he’s a top 5 asset. In re-draft leagues, you can’t make a mistake when you acquire him. The floor is insanely high, and the ceiling is insanely high. Buy him wherever you can.
Who’s Not
Jorge Soler went 0 for 4 today across the Royals double header. Coming into today, he had gone 4 for his past 37 with 2 runs, 0 homers, 2 RBIs, 0 steals and a .108 average. Soler is also the same player who hit .144 over his full season sample of 110 PAs in 2017. He’s also the same player who led the AL in homers in 2019 when he hit 48 bombs. He also led the league in strikeouts too. Power is not a rare commodity in today’s baseball, and when it comes with these secondary numbers it does not belong on a fantasy roster in standard leagues. If he’s on your roster, get him off.
The Emilio Bonifacio Award
Freddy Galvis went 4 for 4 tonight with 2 runs scored. The 2B and SS eligible MIF for the Orioles did this out of the 9 spot in a 6 to 1 win over the Rangers. This isn’t the stat box filling type of line generally wins Bonifacio’s, but it’s also not the type of line that is typically seen out of a 9 hole hitter in the AL. Galvis’ reputation of being a glove first player, and it’s an accurate reputation. His power isn’t worth writing off, it’s just his glove is excellent. The sheer depth at SS makes Galvis rather forgettable, but the lack of anything at 2B makes him worth monitoring. If this is the first sign of a hot streak, go get him in your lineup. This is a PSA to all managers to have at least one roster spot dedicated to guys on hot streaks.
The James Shields Award
Zack Greinke, German Marquez, Brett Anderson, Yu Darvish, and Sandy Alcantara all went 6+ tonight. Greinke more than made up for his last awful outing by befuddling the Mariners across 8.0 glorious innings allowing only 4 baserunners all on singles while striking out 6. Marquez got the very gross 7.0 inning CG in the second game of a double header against the Mets allowing only a 2 run double to Jeff McNeil with 1 other hit [a single] and 2 walks with 6 K’s. The last highlight is Brett Anderson, who pitched exactly as he should against the Pirates. 6 scattered hits with 1 walk and 0 earned [1 unearned] while picking up the win is what all should expect when streaming the Pirates. There will be a sneaky large amount of Shields going out to SPs facing the Pirates this year.
The Brad Lidge Award
Jake McGee melted down in the 9th against the Marlins today. 4 hits, 2 runs, and 1 walk while allowing the game to be tied before Jarlin Garcia lost it in extras. This is not a knock on McGee. These types of outings happen, and if they’re tied to true closer you’ll take the good with the bad. McGee had yet to allow an earned run this season while racking up 6 saves in 8 appearances. That’s a closer. If you can convince your league’s McGee owner to sell off this game, do it. Simply put, closers like McGee are rare. This isn’t 2014 when Jake was Tampa Bay’s closer, so if you can acquire someone who gets saves reliably, do it.
Conclusion
The MLB Game Day Recap is all about baseball. Metsing is a term specifically created to explain an outcome in baseball. It’s a term designed to create company is misery. There’s nothing wrong with finding comfort in your sorrow, but your sorrow is not unique. All fans experience high win probabilities become losses and they see those mixed with expectations not met. Embrace the fact that your team is capable of Mets, which means that there were expectations in the first place that did not get met. Or would that be ‘did not get Mets’? Or ‘did get Mets’? Regardless, enjoy the ride and accept there are bumps. It’s the best ride in sports.
Goodnight.
