Playoff Opponent Options

[Brewcrew82]

Almost 70 pitches the last two days for Diaz heading into a 3 game Wild Card series....

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Yeah, count me in really hoping the Braves win for a bunch of reasons. I'm not all that scared of facing Gallen, Kelly, and Pfaadt, but the Mets rotation is probably the same as that lineup, plus the bullpen fatigue, plus the offense, though hot, isn't quite as scary as the Dbacks.

No easy matchups either way, but I feel more optimistic than last year.

[kestrel79]

On paper here you'd figure we'd want the Mets coming back to Milwaukee tomorrow tired and gassed so we should be rooting for the Braves here in game 2 right?

But it's playoff baseball anything can happen. We still have to do our part regardless of who we are playing tomorrow. But watching the last 3 innings of this game has got me primed and ready for playoff baseball in person tomorrow afternoon. Go crew!

[Jim French Stepstool]

28 minutes ago, kestrel79 said:

Wow. And this is why throwing Diaz yesterday seemed odd. 

What a game!

It did seem odd, and it didn't. Before Sunday he hadn't thrown in about a week. I can see wanting to get him out there, but I'm sure they didn't like seeing the outing stretched to 26 pitches. Now with him throwing 40 more today, you'd think he can't be available tomorrow. But after what we just saw, can anything be ruled out?

I have a difficult time seeing ATL losing game 2. Those fans with the stupid OMG signs must be building up a lot of frequent flyer miles.

[owbc]

Sale has been scratched with back spasms. 

[Team Canada]

Just now, owbc said:

Sale has been scratched with back spasms. 

...and there's the reason they've been holding him back. That's huge.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 minute ago, kestrel79 said:

On paper here you'd figure we'd want the Mets coming back to Milwaukee tomorrow tired and gassed so we should be rooting for the Braves here in game 2 right?

But it's playoff baseball anything can happen. We still have to do our part regardless of who we are playing tomorrow. But watching the last 3 innings of this game has got me primed and ready for playoff baseball in person tomorrow afternoon. Go crew!

Like you said it's baseball, so no guarantees. But I wanted to avoid Arizona, and the prospect of playing someone coming off two games AND having to travel just cements that.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Hindsight alert (although I did mention this prior to first pitch yesterday).

This scenario is also why I'm not sure about holding Sale. Granted, now you have him for this do-or-die game. BUT yesterday you had the Royals with little to play for in a win-and-in situation. And if you throw him yesterday, you've still got him lined up for a couple of high-leverage innings in Game 3 or possibly Game 2 if you really need him. Now, he's just totally burned for that WC round and pitching in a massive pressure game. I guess you could throw him for an inning on Wednesday if it gets that far, but, if Sale wins Sunday, you also save ALL your bullpen guys because you're just in.

EDIT: And now I see the note about back spasms. Yeesh. As someone said, maybe that's why they weren't throwing him out there Sunday.

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 minute ago, owbc said:

Sale has been scratched with back spasms. 

I still see ATL winning game two, but that's certainly a factor.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Quick thought: Do the Mets really WANT to win & go to San Diego?

[Team Canada]

4 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Quick thought: Do the Mets really WANT to win & go to San Diego?

They went 0-5 against Milwaukee in games that Milwaukee cared about, so maybe?

[adambr2]

4 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Quick thought: Do the Mets really WANT to win & go to San Diego?

Well, I can't imagine that their alternative of coming back here and facing a different 93 win team that they went 1-5 against this year is all that appealing either.  They at least had good success against San Diego this season. 

I imagine they will trot out a B lineup, preserve the heart of their roster and pitching staff as much as they can, make an earnest effort to win with their B team, and let the chips fall where they may. 

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

3 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Quick thought: Do the Mets really WANT to win & go to San Diego?

I mean, this is why today is so interesting. It's just obvious that, if it were possible and socially acceptable to agree to just split the DH, both teams would have done so. Because once you start playing, do you really trust your division rival to not totally screw you over should they win game 1?

Weird things happen when you actually have to play the games. And once you win that first one, you just relax and play loose and "it's baseball" so no pressure anything can happen.

Always funny when you see a prisoner's dilemma playing out in front of you in real time.

 

[hawing]

[Jim French Stepstool]

20 minutes ago, Team Canada said:

They went 0-5 against Milwaukee in games that Milwaukee cared about, so maybe?

OTOH one could say SD is playing a little better than us right now. Other than their last (meaningless) game they hadn't lost to anyone not named Dodgers recently. And with what the Mets have been going through, maybe even the shorter flight looks appealing. I think a taxed staff might rather face us than what the Pads run out there.

Debatable either way, really.

[Jim French Stepstool]

15 minutes ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

 

Always funny when you see a prisoner's dilemma playing out in front of you in real time.

 

Good way of putting it.😄

[wiguy94]

2 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

OTOH one could say SD is playing a little better than us right now. Other than their last (meaningless) game they hadn't lost to anyone not named Dodgers recently. And with what the Mets have been going through, maybe even the shorter flight looks appealing.

Debatable either way, really.

I'd say on paper that the Padres are the 2nd best team in the NL behind the Phillies at this point. They have the hitting, they have the rotation, and they have a super stacked leverage bullpen.

[brooks_quichenick]

31 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Quick thought: Do the Mets really WANT to win & go to San Diego?

The Mets booth was talking about this during Game 1 and decided they'd prefer Milwaukee because the Padres seem stronger.

If that's what they prefer, I say we give it to them.

[wildcat83]

Pretty significant flight difference.  NY to SD is a long trip, but I guess the start time of the games offsets it a little.

[HarryDoyle]

Doesn't look like a Sunday lineup to me.

[Jim French Stepstool]

9 minutes ago, wildcat83 said:

Pretty significant flight difference.  NY to SD is a long trip, but I guess the start time of the games offsets it a little.

It would be ATL to SD, but still a difference.

[wiguy94]

How many pitches do we think Lucchesi throws? Do Mets throw him until his arm falls off? The most pitches he's thrown this season is 94.

[yourout]

20 minutes ago, brooks_quichenick said:

The Mets booth was talking about this during Game 1 and decided they'd prefer Milwaukee because the Padres seem stronger.

If that's what they prefer, I say we give it to them.

I am guessing because of the lack of high end starters the Brewers are the team everyone would rather face.

[dlk9s]

 

[wiguy94]

2 minutes ago, yourout said:

I am guessing because of the lack of high end starters the Brewers are the team everyone would rather face.

The Padres also have a much stronger lineup and their bullpen is stacked as well. On paper I think they are #2 behind the Phillies in the NL. Dodgers have too many pitching injuries to be #2 in my opinion