Carlos Mendoza Is Not A Puppet

When a team hires an analytics-based head of baseball operations as the Mets did with David Stearns, it’s easy to expect them to adhere to the “middle manager” theory from that crock of shit known as Moneyball and install a nameless, faceless automaton to implement orders from the all-knowing front office.

The strategy persists today with clubs like the Yankees, Dodgers and Cardinals following it to their postseason doom and, worse, refusing to acknowledge the flaw in the theory that these middle managers do not know what to do when they are in the heat of the postseason. 

However, there are times when a team hires a manager and gives him a certain level of autonomy. While the Mets hiring Carlos Mendoza to replace Buck Showalter appeared to be the latest in a long line of replaceable nobodies who were happy to have the job and took short money amid the understanding that they would do precisely what they were told, his early season moves have shown that he is going to act on his independent streak and flout current trends if the circumstances call for it.

There are several examples of Mendoza having a mind of his own already and Stearns giving him the freedom to exercise his judgment. 

Against the Dodgers, he removed his starting catcher Omar Narvaez with pinch-hitter Tyrone Taylor because he was hunting for more runs. With only one other catcher on the roster, this is generally seen as a no-no. But with a 5-4 lead in the seventh inning and runners on second and third with two outs, it was a tactical gamble to get more runs and potentially put the game away. It didn’t work, but the Mets won anyway and the mere decision to take that step was indicative of his willingness to roll the dice and face postgame criticism.

Against the Giants, he removed starter Sean Manaea with two outs in the fifth inning with a six-run lead and the Giants threatening with two runners on base. Mendoza didn’t worry about Manaea getting a win, removed him and Reed Garrett got the final out. The Mets won 8-2. 

Then on Sunday, he visited the mound in the bottom of the eighth inning to talk to starter Jose Quintana with two outs in a 1-1 game and almost every observer believing he was carrying a hook with righty Adam Ottavino ready in the bullpen. Instead, he allowed the veteran Quintana to pitch to Cardinals righty swinging Willson Contreras. Quintana struck him out.

These are not moves you’d normally see today and are not moves you’d ever see from the known puppet-managers.  

Let’s not take this to mean that the Mets are going to win the World Series with an undermanned roster based solely on the strategic wizardry and fearlessness of their field boss. Barring a borderline miraculous turn of events, this team is not currently a championship contender if even a playoff team. We’re not back in 1980 when Billy Martin dragged an Athletics team to 83-79 after losing 108 games the year before. Nor are we ever again going to see any manager leave a body orchard of arms ravaged and destroyed as Billy did with Steve McCatty, Mike Norris, Matt Keough, Rick Langford and Brian Kingman.

(Just check the innings pitched at relatively young ages and the number of complete games. Even for that era, it was extreme.) 

Never again will we see a manager free to do whatever they want to win today and not worry about tomorrow in the context of the team or the player’s future. That’s a good thing. Still, the constraining influence of front offices has become so oppressive that it’s a reasonable question as to why anyone with an ounce of self-respect would want the job to begin with.

The Dodgers would win just as many games in the regular season with a mannequin sitting in the corner of the dugout instead of Dave Roberts. In the postseason, they’d likely be better off.

Aaron Boone is far better now than he was when he first started and had a blank, bewildered look on his face when the speed with which the postseason decisions needed to be made and he couldn’t fall back on orders he was given and he failed miserably. If the Yankees replaced Boone, Brian Cashman is not hiring someone who will do anything different than what Boone does. So, what’s the difference? 

Oli Marmol? He nearly singlehandedly blew the Cardinals’ National League Wild Card Series in 2022 and the team went into free fall after that. Of course, he was rewarded with a contract extension because he does what he’s told by the front office. 

Some will point to stat-centric teams hiring managers who will be granted a certain level of freedom. Often, in cases like with the Giants hiring veteran manager Bob Melvin to replace Gabe Kapler, it’s done because the front office is on thin ice and if they have another bad year, they’re going to be out the door. As much as president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi can point to knowing Melvin from their days together in Oakland, this is the fundamental reality. Desperation and self-preservation is a shaky and intellectually dishonest method of doing business.

A manager having some freedom within the current framework of numbers and tendencies is becoming more commonplace. The Cubs gave Stearns’ former manager with the Brewers, Craig Counsell, an unprecedented five-year, $40 million contract to manage the Cubs. 

That too is a bit extreme, but that’s a discussion for another day.  

Too many managers get into a high-stress situation and stare off into the distance like they’re trapped in Star Trek’s Kobayashi Maru – a no-win situation – to see how they respond. Trapped as they are between knowing what the front office told them and what they’re baseball instincts are saying, they’re the spinning pinwheel on MacBook, not knowing where to go or what to do as the crisis unfolds. Given the first month of Mendoza’s tenure, it suggests that he took the job to do the job and intends to manage the team instead of being a figurehead. When (if) the Mets are in a future postseason game and a moment comes where the manager needs to make an independent decision, it’s a positive sign that they have someone in Mendoza who has the balls to do what he feels is right rather than what he knows is safe.   

Bill Belichick’s NFL coaching future has more questions than answers

ESPN released an excellent in-depth report about Bill Belichick’s failed attempts to get another head coaching job after his split with the Patriots. Not counting the Patriots themselves, there were six head coaching jobs that were open-open where the team had fired their head coach and was about to hire a new one:

• Commanders
• Titans
• Chargers
• Falcons
• Panthers
• Seahawks

The Raiders had an interim coach after firing Belichick acolyte Josh McDaniels, but did a perfunctory search before giving Antonio Pierce the permanent gig.

Then there were two jobs – the Eagles and Cowboys – that were not technically open, but rumblings suggested that the coaches were on shaky ground with a chance that Belichick’s availability would have sparked a move that otherwise might not have been made. Ultimately, Nick Sirianni was retained by the Eagles and Mike McCarthy by the Cowboys.

As the article says, Belichick was hired for none of the open jobs. In fact, it suggests that he was not even particularly close to being hired. 

What does this mean and does it make sense?

Organizations need to assess two scenarios when they think about casting their lot with Belichick:

1) Am I hiring a dour prick who’ll cost a fortune; will make my life miserable; will only be around long enough to break Don Shula’s record for coaching victories; will blow up my organization to the point that when he’s gone, I’ll literally need to start from scratch; won nothing without Tom Brady; and wears the yoke of his unprecedented success being due largely to hitting the lottery with a quarterback and credible allegations of cheating?

2) Is he the tactical genius who will maximize the talent he has; can run an organization from top to bottom; has fifty years of in the trenches experience; is motivated to prove his remaining critics wrong; is fearless in doing what is best for the organization; and will give me a very good chance at winning a Super Bowl if he has the players?

The Brady question is unanswerable and will be debated forever. Still, there are indicators that while Belichick was significantly responsible for the Patriots run, it would not have happened without the luck that precipitated Brady’s rise. 

Underlying considerations aside, Belichick’s regular season record with and without Brady is what it is. It’s fact. 

With Brady, his record is 209-64.

Without Brady, his record is 36-45 when coaching the Browns; 13-8 while Brady was with the Patriots but didn’t play; and 29-38 after Brady left. 

Belichick had three winning seasons without Brady. 

Three. 

To make matters worse, the Patriots were mediocre and then collapsed after Brady left. Brady went to Tampa to win another Super Bowl with the Buccaneers. Now he’s floated the possibility of another comeback. It’s theoretical if not straight up realistic that Brady will be back in the league before Belichick after having retired twice already.

Despite the statistical realities, there is no answer and there never will be an answer. Would Brady even have gotten a chance to play in New England had Drew Bledsoe not gotten injured? Had Bledsoe remained healthy, would Belichick have felt obligated to stick with him due to the quarterback’s contract and his relationship with owner Robert Kraft? Does the dynasty even happen? Or is Belichick fired – again – after two-plus years and back as Bill Parcells’ second in command when Parcells took the Cowboys head coaching job, relegated to being an assistant, never getting another chance as head coach?

My best guess is that the 2001 Patriots would have continued to struggle under Bledsoe. Belichick, under the impression that he was on the verge of getting fired again, would have looked at a 4-7 team and said, “I’m gonna get axed anyway. Let’s look at the kid” and thrown Brady out there. 

Again, would it have been the same result or was it the confluence of events and utter serendipity (it’s true no matter how distasteful) that Bledsoe was seriously injured forcing Brady onto the field? This was a sixth-round draft pick. Nobody thinks a sixth-round draft pick is going to do much regardless of position and they definitely don’t expect anything out of a sixth-round quarterback. Then there’s the tuck rule playoff win in the snow and who knows how many other examples of divine intervention and chicanery they got away with in the Brady-Belichick era.

Another aspect of Belichick and even Brady’s success is the clear path they had to the playoffs every year. And not just to make the playoffs. More often than not, they had a bye to the second round from the moment training camp started. In most years, they won the division handily and had it locked up with about four or five weeks left in the regular season. The Dolphins, Bills and Belichick’s favored punching bag, the Jets, rarely put up much resistance in the two-decade Brady run. In the one season that is frequently referenced as Belichick’s “greatest” coaching job in 2008 as he won 11 games and barely missed the playoffs with Matt Cassel at quarterback following Tom Brady’s opening game knee blowout, it ignores that essentially the same team had gone undefeated in the regular season the year before. They might’ve won 11 games with Tim Tebow at quarterback. 

The coaching carousel this past offseason was unprecedented with a coach holding the hardware that Belichick does not just left out in the cold, but relegated to nearly begging for a job. The Falcons job appeared to be his to lose, but owner Arthur Blank checked in with Kraft and, according to the article, came away with greater reluctance than he previously had. Compounding this is that Kraft stood to gain financially had Blank hired Belichick, taking the Patriots owner off the hook for up to $25 million of whatever salary Blank gave Belichick. He gave Blank an honest appraisal even though it cost him a good amount of money.

More telling were the whispers that Belichick could not be trusted; that there was never a warm moment between coach and owner; and that the relationship was purely transactional with Kraft putting up with Belichick’s act as long as the team was winning. 

Just think about that. They were together for 24 years and never had a warm moment despite all the Super Bowl wins, the tragedies, the triumphs and the ups and downs. Why would Kraft give Belichick a strong recommendation when factoring in all these issues? 

The lingering questions of Belichick’s personality, the Brady vs. Belichick credit rodeo, and the last few years of borderline ineptitude were bad enough. But would a new team benefit from hiring Belichick if they were getting him and not Brady? 

A ready-made team like the Cowboys, Eagles or Chargers would win with him, but they could win with other coaches too and not have the challenge of convincing players to deal with the grinding work with little joy and the understanding that as soon as he found someone slightly better, they’d be gone without remorse? 

Look at the coaches who are succeeding and being hired. They’re “fun.” Mike McDaniel, Sean McVay, Jerod Mayo, Antonio Pierce, Raheem Morris – players want to play for them. There’s a commitment. There’s a buy in. The days of the czar running an organization as a one-man dictatorship and ruling based on fear are over. 

Belichick inside the building is undoubtedly different from the personality he shows to the public. He’s said to have a wry sense of humor and to truly care about the players. That doesn’t change the single-minded intensity that was a hallmark of the Patriots success in his reign. It’s not a fun place to work and the players said as much. 

Belichick, in his interviews, was said to have shown flexibility about being the de facto GM and running every aspect of the football operation. Good faith intentions or not, the likelihood is that he would have done what he wanted and either mitigated or fired anyone who got in his way. Is it any surprise that executives who he would have inherited with the clubs he was interviewing with were cool to the idea of hiring him and subtly or overtly steered the owner elsewhere?

His supporters offer a full-throated and almost “methinks he doth protest too much” defense and promotion of the Belichick way.

And they are bragging about this?

What Blank didn't say is that he and his top lieutenants had voted on the team's next head coach, ranking each candidate.

Bill Belichick didn't even finish in anyone's top three.

Comical.

— Michael Lombardi (@mlombardiNFL) April 17, 2024

They react indignantly that it was predominately Brady who facilitated the championship run. Yet that seems to be the league wide perception. It’s akin to George Costanza shrieking to Elaine on Seinfeld how he was making moves of skillful deftness when driving that she could neither see nor comprehend.

His plans as the new coach would have included hiring his trusted assistants like Josh McDaniels, Matt Patricia, Joe Judge and others. Thoroughly understandable, a great boss who is trying to succeed quickly will want people with whom he can speak shorthand or does not need to speak at all. That aside, the question as to who was primarily responsible for the Patriots’ success extends to those assistants. All three along with Bill O’Brien and Eric Mangini failed at their head coaching opportunities. Only O’Brien succeeded in not humiliating himself. The team that hired Belichick would need to deal with those guys too?

Belichick is going to get another chance. That is not going to happen until after 2024. He is not taking a job just to pass his nemesis and detractor, Shula, on the all-time win list. Nor is he going for an extended rebuild. It will be a team that is relatively close to winning so he can prove his still questionable greatness as a head coach. While many think it will be the Cowboys or Eagles, my feeling is that it will be the Giants.

Already, co-owner John Mara has taken cryptic shots at current coach Brian Daboll wishing the coach would “tone it down.” This is not done randomly. Belichick loves the Giants. He gets visibly emotional when talking about his time on the coaching staff. The owner is impatient and no longer has guardrails on his worst instincts that his father and cousin showed in the decade before George Young was steered to the Giants to save the franchise in 1979. 

While it is unfair for general manager Joe Schoen and Daboll to be on the hot seat after an unexpected playoff season and first-round victory in 2022, Belichick’s availability is too enticing for Mara to resist. Unless the Giants win 10 games and make noise in the playoffs this year, that is Belichick’s landing spot.

By then, he’ll be approaching 73. It will be his last chance to quiet the naysayers and unless he is able to adapt his style – and find a great quarterback – the likelihood is that he’ll do nothing but prove the criticism accurate and sully his reputation and how justified it is – an issue that has been eliciting whispers as to how much credit he should get for the past two decades. As great as he is, it’s still in doubt. And it probably should be. 

The Marlins’ Necessary(?) Disaster

When a team has had four owners in its history and the most committed and consistently dedicated to winning was Jeffrey Loria, you’ve got bigger problems than you realize.

That is the current situation with the Marlins.

Admittedly, the club’s ownership history is pockmarked. Wayne Huizenga built a World Series winner within five years of the club coming into existence and blew it up immediately after that World Series. Huizenga is the same guy who, as Dolphins owner, told Jimmy Johnson that there’s “no money in sports.”

John Henry owned the team for a blink and, with Major League Baseball’s shady help, traded up to buy Red Sox while passing the club along to Loria. Loria won a World Series in 2003. His teams were up and down; he fired and rehired managers like a mini-George Steinberenner; he surrounded himself with sycophants; he pocketed revenue sharing cash; and he at least tried to win here and there. He succeeded in getting the new ballpark built, festooned with gauche art and the gaudiness of a tourist trap Miami nightclub including a collection of star players Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Giancarlo Stanton and Hanley Ramirez along with a World Series-winning manager in Ozzie Guillen only to detonate it immediately when the team finished in last place. 

Then Sherman bought the team, installed Derek Jeter as team president and part owner and set about…doing basically the same dysfunctional things his predecessors did. 

The state itself is partially to blame. Florida is not interested in baseball to the degree to make it viable. Even in years where the teams – the Marlins and Rays – have been championship contenders with significant star power, they have never drawn well, almost always finishing at or near the bottom in attendance. The ballparks can’t be blamed for it as the new Marlins stadium has every amenity imaginable and people still don’t go. 

Now, the team is again in turmoil and the park will be empty except for when transplants to the state who are fans of other teams make the trek.  

After Tuesday night’s loss to the Yankees, the Marlins are 1-11. They sit seven games behind the first place Braves in the National League East and 5.5 games out of a Wild Card spot.

It’s April 10th.

Sherman is under siege from the national media. Other teams are waiting for their chance to beat on his beleaguered club while scrutinizing their roster to see who they want when the inevitable housecleaning begins and all veterans are traded off to boost a flagging farm system. Reigning Manager of the Year Skip Schumaker and the club agreed to void his 2025 contract option, all but guaranteeing he’ll be managing elsewhere (the Cardinals) next year. 

Whoever the new manager is, they’re well-advised to not win Manager of the Year. In Miami, it’s been a death knell for every manager who’s won it.

Joe Girardi won it after Loria had fired him.

Don Mattingly won it in 2020 and lasted two more before he and the club mutually agreed to part ways.

Schumaker will be out after 2024 no matter what happens. 

All told, there’s reason to be outraged.

Still, the decisions are grudgingly explainable.  

The optics are undeniably atrocious. Discounting the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the 2023 Marlins made the playoffs for the first time in two decades. They did so under the stewardship of the dual ceiling-breaker, general manager Kim Ng, who was not only the first female GM but the first Asian-American GM in North American sports history.

Buster Olney tweeted the following after the Marlins lost their first seven games:

Following their first playoff appearance in decades, the Marlins tried to demote GM Kim Ng. She turned that down and left the organization. The Marlins are behind early today and if they lose to the Angels, they'll be 0-7 to start this season.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) April 3, 2024

Technically, of course this is accurate. It is also representative of the faction that neither knows nor cares about the sustainability of the Marlins’ fluky playoff appearance in 2023. Olney understands this. Fans? Some do. Some don’t. Some are looking at it from the perspective of how Bendix plans to run the club based on his past with the Rays. Others are angry at what Bendix plans to do and that the numbers will take precedence to a far greater degree than they would have under Jeter and Ng.

But is Sherman wrong? On the surface, the detractors say the Marlins did it with a limited payroll and a patched-together roster under a female, Asian-American GM and think the team should simply have stayed the course regardless of whether that course was wise or repeatable. 

A playoff appearance at 84-78 in which they were bounced in two straight games by the Phillies when they were last in the National League in runs scored, tenth in on-base percentage, tenth in ERA, 13th in stolen bases and 14th in fielding percentage is not going to happen regularly, if at all. 

Farm system rankings are arbitrary, but every relatively reputable voice labels the Marlins’ system as one of baseball’s worst. Overall, they are not good. They weren’t very good in 2023. So what was Sherman supposed to do? He had discarded all of Jeter’s people and Ng was a Jeter hire. For all the justifiable anger at the team’s horrific start, refusing to throw more money into the thresher is not indicative of being cheap in this case. It’s indicative of knowing the facts. 2023 was not the culmination of four or five years of work as the team took its next step into the upper levels of MLB. Objectively, it was a freak occurrence. 

Could they realistically have made a few more signings or acquisitions and risen from 84 wins to 90?

Forget the top tier of Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Aaron Nola or Josh Hader. They didn’t have the goods to trade for Juan Soto. They weren’t even reasonable options for the next level free agents Cody Bellinger, Matt Chapman or Sonny Gray. They did not even make a cursory effort to retain Jorge Soler. 

Where were the improvements coming from?  

After restructuring the team’s operations and rebuilding the farm system, Jeter expected there to be financial flexibility to make drastic improvements to the big league roster. They were not fulfilled and he left. With Jeter gone, Ng’s fate was sealed no matter what happened on the field and that was proven when Sherman decided to hire a president of baseball operations to be her boss. Essentially, she was fired because there was no way she was going to accept that power structure in which she had none of the power. For her, being an underling just happy to be invited to the party ended 15 years ago. It’s beneath her. She declined the mutual option in which she would have been a lame duck and undoubtedly discarded after 2024 had she stayed. That’s what Sherman wanted. 

Bendix arrived with the sabermetric pedigree and the 15 years of working for the Rays. He is not looking at it from a player’s perspective as Jeter was. Nor did he claw his way up from the very bottom after 30 years of toil in various roles as Ng did.

Sherman was looking for someone who might be able to achieve success under the mandated payroll constraints and found that in Bendix. The Jeter faction is a memory. Given the financial realities the owner put in place and are legitimate based on their market, you can unload on them because they’re clearly tanking, but you cannot say they’re wrong to do it when considering the circumstances. 

Tommy John Surgery For You…And You…And You

Who wants to play doctor?

Since everyone seems to be doing it with or without a medical degree, a college degree, a high school diploma or a GED, I figured I’d weigh in on the “epidemic” of blown out elbow ligaments and Tommy John surgeries.

Without going into an in-depth research study, my guess is the numbers have been similar for a long while. It’s just that some big names – Spencer Strider and Shane Bieber – are heading for the procedure. This is right on the heels of Shohei Ohtani injuring the ligament a second time and derailing his pitching career, possibly forever. Gerrit Cole is on the injured list with an elbow issue but does not need surgery…yet. In truth, if an exhaustive assessment was done of pitchers throughout professional baseball, I’d guess the number of pitchers – good, bad and ugly – who need Tommy John is around the same.

This will be a big story because it’s drawing significant attention and search engine optimization-related clicks until it recedes into the background. 

That doesn’t mean it should be ignored.

Experts – actual experts and not people who claim to have some form of empirical expertise, i.e. “I’ve been watching baseball all my life” – who know what they’re talking about have long lamented the series of “advancements” in baseball that have likely contributed to the spate of pitchers blowing out their elbows. Dr. James Andrews, who performed the then-radical procedure to save the real Tommy John’s career said the following:

And here is what the recently retired Dr. James Andrews had to say on this topic a few months ago. (Full story here: https://t.co/x9RujnQErC) pic.twitter.com/2yABbqjRiN

— Anthony Castrovince (@castrovince) April 6, 2024

Naturally, there were other notable medical professionals on Twitter like @BillytheSportsObserver2288w2283833 who replied to Dr. Andrews with, “Yes, but…”

And the obnoxious cretin Bill James – who should’ve been placed on the pay no mind list forty years ago –contributed the following:

I was writing about the increasing pitcher injuries for several years before there was any pitch clock.

— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) April 7, 2024

Thanks for that, Bill. I’m still waiting for recompense for the time I wasted on reading half of “The Man From the Train” before throwing it across the room because you’re such an arrogant asshole without a concept of organizing a piece with a linear train of thought.  

In any event, since everyone else is doing it, I’ll weigh in without contradicting doctors, trainers, pitching coaches and actual professionals. 

They’re throwing too hard

Ligaments are essentially rubber bands. The more it’s violently stretched, the more likely it is to tear. Today, when everyone is obsessed with velocity and it’s velocity that gets people drafted, signed, paid and helps them get a job, keep their job or get another job, obviously pitchers are going to try to throw as hard as they possibly can. This is endemic from the despicable entity that is Little League all the way through to the Majors. 

Is it necessary to throw 100 miles per hour to get hitters out? Of course not. Does it get people to “Ooh” and “Aah” at the numbers that are lighting up the questionable radar guns that are used today? Absolutely.

Pitchers like Greg Maddux, Jamie Moyer, Tom Glavine did not throw hard and that was by design. They had remarkable durability and success. Early in his carer, Bartolo Colon ripped it at 100+ as a starter and maintained it. Eventually, he became a craftsman who relied on little more than a moving fastball and pinpoint control. He lasted well into his 40s. 

Pitchers who threw that hard were once rare. They could be rattled off quickly: Rich Gossage, Nolan Ryan and J.R. Richard. Now? Every team has at least five guys on their staff or in the high-minors who throw that hard. Hitters aren’t overwhelmed by it calling into question how valuable it truly is other than a macho rite of passage.

Then you add in the hard breaking stuff that is no longer meant to be a different look and change of speeds and is instead of vicious arm snap even on pitches like changeups that are supposed to be tactical. They’re doing this for 90 to 100 pitches a start. Then they’re doing it again five days later. And even with the innings limits and pitch counts, the stress is far worse than when pitchers threw at 80% capacity until they needed to get an out and threw 300 innings a year. 

Sticky stuff bans and pitch clocks

Max Scherzer has said the pitch clock is a problem as it forces pitchers to get back on the mound and throw again before they’ve had the chance to have a few extra seconds to recover. MLB is increasingly becoming like the NFL if not worse in that it proclaims that it cares about player safety and player preferences and then does what it wants anyway. Do those few seconds matter? Maybe. It could be a psychosomatic response or there could be a legitimate medical concern.  

Pitchers were trained for years and years to take as much time as they needed before making the next pitch. It’s the same thing as the innings limits and pitch counts. If they’ve been doing it one way for 20 years and are suddenly told to change, that is more indicative in causing an injury than the change itself. If they’re trained to adhere to the guidelines from the start, fine. They’re not. 

The sticky stuff was banned in large part because offense had become so paltry. It was a knee-jerk reaction in thinking that because pitchers had increased their spin so massively that it was negatively impacting offense. 

As for complaints that players – including hitters – wanted the guy throwing a projectile 100 miles an hour precariously close to their heads to have at least some form of grip aid, MLB shrugged. “Yeah. Whatever. Get out there and entertain the paying customers and boost our ad rates, clown.” 

Regarding sticky stuff, Tyler Glasnow of the Dodgers gave his take as to why pitchers are getting hurt and he said it’s not because of pitch clocks, but because the absence of any form of sticky stuff led to he and others needing to grip the ball harder to get the same velocity and movement.

Must-listen: Tyler Glasnow's rant on MLB's crackdown on foreign substances.

"I 100% believe that contributed to me getting hurt."

He's used the sunscreen/rosin mix, then went "cold turkey" last week against the Nats. 11Ks. But woke up sore. "I felt completely different." (1/2) pic.twitter.com/BU2qCxmrtu

— Grace Remington (@GraceRemiTV) June 15, 2021

Money

There’s a disconnect between the old man yelling at cloud “In my day…” advocates of pitchers starting 45 games and throwing 360 innings and pitchers begging out of games after 75 pitches a game, throwing 160 innings a year and calling it a day. 

What routinely gets ignored is the financial realities involved.

In the 1960s, 70s and even 80s, players didn’t make a ton of money. Today, the star pitchers are making a thousand times what most pitchers made in a year in the 1970s. Before free agency in 1976, they were at risk of pay cuts if they had a bad season or were perceived to have had a bad season – based on wins and losses and ERA – they were subject to a lower salary. For the lower-tier pitchers, they would be out of a job. Injuries meant they weren’t taking the mound and weren’t doing their jobs. Many pitched through injuries and made them worse. If they didn’t pitch, they wouldn’t have a job. They’d also curry disfavor from other clubs when they sought new employment. “He’s a malingerer.” “He won’t pitch through pain.”

Jim Palmer famously took a pay cut from the Orioles after he had an injury-plagued, subpar year in 1974. This was the year after he won his first of three Cy Young Awards and was second in the Most Valuable Player voting.

He had little recourse.  

Now?

Bieber is a free agent after this season. No, he doesn’t want to be injured and need Tommy John surgery. But he’ll receive a contract after the season, probably for two years. If he pitches well in his recovery in 2025-26, he’ll get a huge contract at 30. 

The same goes for Strider who is 25, already has a long-term contract paying him $74 million guaranteed through 2028 when he’ll turn 30 and be in line for another enormous deal if he recovers well enough. 

Why pitch through pain when this is the reality?

Mechanics

One would think with all the research and development there would be a set of mechanics that are deemed optimal to maximize ability and avoid injuries. 

There aren’t. 

The debate is ongoing with a seemingly endless stream of pitching labs where one advocates a theory and another one that advocates a completely different theory. Is it drop and drive? Tall and fall? Inverted W (why isn’t it called an “M”)? Flip and flop? Bounce and rebound? 

Who knows?

Athletes are always willing to listen to a theory that sounds like it makes sense and are persistent in tweaking their motions, arm angles, head position, movement, training tactics, whatever. They’ll listen to a noted medical professional and some drunk schmuck in a bar. Even anecdotal evidence and a history of success is irrelevant.

To me, a big problem is changing the way a pitcher naturally throws. The Orioles dumped Jake Arrieta after he was labeled a “bust” when they tried to change his natural throwing motion from throwing across his body and his lead foot landing toward third base to stepping straight toward the plate. One of the first things the Cubs did when they got their hands on him was to change him back to his natural way of throwing.

The Giants and every other team were told that Tim Lincecum’s mechanics – designed by his father – were not to be messed with. Teams that were already reluctant to draft him because he was small were completely scared off by that edict. 

When Madison Bumgarner was drafted, the team tried to alter his motion from his preferred slingshot style. It didn’t work, he went back to what he was comfortable with and became a star. 

The Giants were smart enough to know when to back off. With most organizations, there is so much data and so many voices along with people trying to make a name for themselves or just make sure they keep their own jobs by trying to look busy that they screw with their charges and make adjustments that didn’t necessarily need to be made. 

The human anatomy is a mystery

Stephen Strasburg officially retired over the weekend. He was babied in college; he was babied in the pros; the Nationals had strict usage guidelines for him and he still blew out his elbow.

When he returned, he was on a Scott Boras-mandated innings limit that the Nationals didn’t think would be a major issue because in 2012, they weren’t expecting to contend. Contradicting their plans, they won 98 games and, but for the ridiculous shutdown in which they refused to use their best pitcher even though he was healthy, they might have won the World Series. Despite all the protection and medically approved guidelines, that Hall of Fame arm which comes along once a century never fulfilled its potential. For all intents and purposes, he was done at 31.  

Who can explain why someone who lived a Spartan life like former bodybuilder and actor Steve Reeves and never touched drugs or alcohol died of lymphoma?

How did Andy Kaufman die of lung cancer when he never smoked a cigarette or cigar?

How is Keith Richards still walking around? 

Nobody, not even experienced doctors, can say. Obviously nor can some dick on Twitter…or with a blog.   

Frank the Tank v. the Mets

Say this about Frank “The Tank” Fleming v. SNY (SportsNet New York): It’s already a far more entertaining and cohesive story than Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

So, there’s that.

For those of you who missed it or are unfamiliar with Tank and his toxic relationship with the Mets, he is a die-hard fan in more ways than one. He loves and hates the team and, during one of his explosive, shirt-chewing rants, it’s highly possible that his heart or brain will explode leaving his loved ones with a viable wrongful death lawsuit against the Mets. 

He works for Barstool sports, is an influencer and has gained popularity by encapsulating the anger of a vast percentage of Mets fans while simultaneously getting attention from other fan bases and even teams (the Braves watch and laugh at his videos). For the Mets, he’s become something of a bane to their existence. Is it because he goes batshit insane with his reactions to the club’s inevitable flailing no matter what they do? Or is it because what he says about the team is true?

Possibly both.

Recently on X (Twitter), Tank revealed that SNY directors have ordered that he no longer be shown on television when he attends Mets games.  

“I have been told that the directors on SNY have strict orders not to show me on tv again” –@NjTank99

“If they try to kick you out or do something it will be the greatest content of all time” –@StoolMintzy

“I’ll become more powerful than they could ever imagine” –@NjTank99 pic.twitter.com/xh8a9MCh1F

— Viva La Stool (@VivaLaStool) April 2, 2024

The team does deserve much of the ridicule heaped upon it. SNY sending an edict not to show images of a fan who expresses the frustrations of many will not change that.

How many other organizations would be sold to one of the ten richest owners in sports after a previous ownership known for its cheapness, ineptitude and impulsiveness and within five years have fans looking back fondly at that previous ownership wondering whether things could be much worse if they never sold the team?

Under Steve Cohen, the Mets:

• Are currently on their fifth head of baseball operations
• Have their third field manager
• Have had one winning season and are already 0-4 in 2024
• Are scaling back payroll to look toward the future

Then, on Tuesday night, they refused to call a rainout during an unplayable storm spurring perhaps the biggest Mets fan in club history, broadcaster Gary Cohen, to give this candid reaction not meant for public consumption:

Gary Cohen does not look like he wants to be at Citi Field tonight pic.twitter.com/zf2gxNnB2Y

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 2, 2024

This so eerily mirrors the Mets’ performance under the Wilpons that it suggests the problems are structural or outright supernatural and not based on financial limitations and management strategy.

How many other organizations would hire a baseball operations crew that, within one year, had the new GM, Jared Porter, fired because he sent unsolicited and unwanted images of his genitalia; dismissed his former assistant and interim GM Zack Scott after a DUI arrest (he was acquitted) and that it was clear the owner and team president Sandy Alderson didn’t think he did a particularly good job; hire a new GM in Billy Eppler who “resigned” but was really fired and wound up suspended for misuse of the injured list; hire a proven manager in Buck Showalter and interfere with him relentlessly before firing him; and finally stumble onto the head of baseball operations that Cohen wanted in the first place, David Stearns?

When Cohen gained control of the team, I said that if the Mets intended to try and win fast by spending money, they should have hired Dave Dombrowski. 

It was true then and it’s true now. 

Will Stearns figure it out and turn the Mets into an annual contender within reasonable spending constraints with a consistent pipeline of talent? Given his history and how well-regarded he is in the industry, it’s more likely than not that this will be the case.

But it’s not guaranteed. Cohen pushed back at Max Scherzer revealing that the plan was to take a step back in 2024. Given the roster and their atrocious start, it’s patently obvious that Scherzer was accurately relating the context of the conversation.

That doesn’t make the Mets foolish for what they’re doing. Still, this is where we come to Tank and his reactive videos and rants as to the state of the team. 

Is he truly wrong?

When getting beyond his bellowing, the team has been an objective embarrassment. Even in 2022 when they won 101 games, they did so while blowing a seemingly insurmountable division lead to the Braves in August and September and were quickly dispatched by the Padres who had won 12 fewer games during the regular season. 

Is Tank’s perspective any more preposterous than the opposite end of the spectrum where pseudo “experts” defend the club and its processes? This is the same fan base where voices suggested that the Daniel Vogelbach/Darin Ruf platoon at DH had comparable production to Bryce Harper.

Bryce Harper.

Ruf has been traded or released six times and needed to spend two years in Korea to rejuvenate his career. He is not currently with any MLB organization.

Vogelbach has been traded twice, sold/waived twice and is currently on the Blue Jays bench where he will eventually be designated for assignment as well. 

Bryce Harper hit three home runs on Tuesday night, is a two-time National League Most Valuable Player and will be a Hall of Famer. 

Which is more absurd?

And it’s not just the fans. Supposed “insiders” like SNY’s Andy Martino make nonsensical assertions with no realistic foundation. Martino is the same he/him who said the following about the Mets and former manager Luis Rojas:

While I agree with the general sentiment that experience is preferable, the Yankees and Mets gambled and won with Boone and Rojas, so it can obviously work that way, too.

— Andy Martino (@martinonyc) December 6, 2021

They gambled and won at what?

During Mets spring training, he also talked about the communication and hands-on approach of new manager Carlos Mendoza and his staff. Whatever that means. 

Is Tank less sensible that this Martino nonsense? Martino says more ridiculous things in a five-minute hit on SNY than anything Tank says in a month’s worth of videos. Last I checked, Martino is still allowed on SNY camera while Tank apparently isn’t. 

Who’s dumber: Tank calling bullshit on the Mets trying to hug prospects and sell Vogelbach and Ruf as reinforcements for a team trying to win a championship? Or the “experts” promulgating the idiotic myth that the underlying numbers made those two journeymen difference-makers?

He does get secondary benefit from his self-flagellation to the degree that it’s become his career. Personally, I can’t take the endless negativity and have unfollowed/muted him on X. None of this has any connection to his right to express his displeasure any way he chooses. My take on Tank is that his Mets fandom is so self-destructive and his misery so intense that he could never feel sufficient joy to justify the loyalty. If the Mets win five consecutive World Series, it will literally never make up for the pain he clearly feels with every loss.

But he’s a fan. He can do and say what he wants. The team’s flagship network is not obligated to show clips of someone who is a fan but mocks the team worse than any other team’s fan ever could. 

Apart from that, is he over the top?

Yes.

Is it purposeful?

Probably by at least 50%.

Does it hurt anyone?

No.

If the Mets want it to stop, then maybe the first step is to quit validating much of what he says with their play and management – something they’ve done during their entire existence and have inexplicably continued to do despite being acquired by an owner who was supposed to have the cash and competence to put an end to it once and for all.