Big-money businessman Steve Cohen bought the Mets in 2020, immediately saying he wanted a winning team. For the 2021 season he left everyone there, but then he started canceling people.
It started by bringing in a new manager, Buck Showalter, and a new manager, Bill Epply, and between them they invested big money. They gave Francisco Lindor $31 million and signed Max Scherzer for $130 million and 3 years. A lot of money for a man of his age (moving towards 40).
But Scherzer doesn’t lose much ground. His mark is 10_4 and 2.15 with 133 innings pitched, and on Monday night he pitched 6 perfect innings against Milwaukee. He was removed because he had been on the disabled list for 15 days, and they controlled his pitches (he made 68).
All-star Jacob deGrom has only 54 innings, and that’s bad news. He came into action too late, he’s 5-2 and 2:32, and if they’re healthy for the postseason, the Mets have a good future.
In fact, these gentlemen have 187 innings between them, much less than the 212 pitched by Sandy Alcántara of the Marlins (note by Kevin Cabral).
But the Mets have had compensation in other pitchers. Chris Bassitt is 14-8, Carlos Carrasco, a Venezuelan, is 15-6 and Taijuan Walker is 12-4. That adds up to 41-18, excellent.
This club returns to the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and they go with all the spirit. Scherzer earned his 200th career win, the 120th pitcher to get there.
THE PLANETS
The report says that the Houston Astros have won their 5th. division title in the last 6 years. It’s a lot, and naturally we have already written several times why this club has become a dynasty.
This year they have the particularity of a great Latino presence in pitching. There are the Dominicans Framber Valdez with 16-5, Christian Javier with 9-9, the Venezuelan Luis García with 13-8 and the Mexican José Urquidy with 13-7. They are crowned by Justin Verlander, with 17-3, and who is headed for the American League Cy Young Award.
In addition, there are José Altuve, Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker, Yordan Alvarez, and since July catcher Christian Vásquez and Trey Mancini. Dusty Baker, the manager, will look to attend the world series for the 2nd. campaign followed after losing from Atlanta in 2021.
A LITTLE MORE: On Houston, there are other starting Dominicans with good performances this year, highlighting the short Jeremy Peña, substitute for Puerto Rican Carlos Correa. In relief, Rafael Montero has been a surprise, he has 13 saves and a 2.34 ERA, and they also have Héctor Neris. The team’s closer is Ryan Pressly, with 28 saves.
CAPTION: Maury Wills passed away yesterday at the age of 89. He’s not in the Cooperstown hall of fame, but he was an excellent player. He was only in the Major Leagues for 14 years, between 1959-1972, playing for the Dodgers and one year for the Montreal Expos. He won two gold gloves at shortstop, was an all-star regular, and his trademark was speed. In 1962 he had 104 stolen bases, surpassing the all-time mark set by Ty Cobb in 1915, 47 years earlier. In total he batted .281 with 458 RBIs and 586 steals.
