Looking Ahead to San Francisco

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And if you want to go back further, 23 innings against the very mediocre St. Louis Cardinals, and I'm being generous. They're probably worse than that. And this offense managed one run. One freaking run. They have opportunities with the Manfred man on second in the tenth inning. And immediately Francisco Alvarez taps one back to the mound and Marcus Simeon gets caught in a rundown . Juan Soto hacks at the first pitch with the bases loaded and pops it up. You get another great opportunity in the 11th inning, and Brett Beatty grounds out, and Marcus Simeon gets a good pitch to hit and hits a regular fly ball to right field. And we witness the New York Mets do nothing offensively. Absolutely nothing. And that's tough to watch. That was tough to watch on Tuesday night. And that was certainly tough to watch on Wednesday if you were lucky enough to consume it before your Seder on this Passover or before you go to sleep or during work. Where should we begin? Let me begin by calming everybody down. Because I'm in an angry mood. We are doing this series recap Rico about fifteen minutes after the game went final. Maybe for me a few less minutes because I was a little bit behind on DVR. And like everybody else, I I'm disgusted. Like that was bad. And we'll talk about the specific badness of this game and really the last two games, but I do have to remind everybody, we are six games into the season. And while you want to see your team win, I want to see our team win, and losing the way they lost today is unacceptable on a lot of levels. It is six games into the season. So before I rip Marcus Simeon a new one, which I plan on doing, and before I talk about all the other offensive struggles, which I will probably do, it is a reminder not just to myself, but to every single person listening, my fellow New York Met fan . We are six games into the seas on. Six. Okay? I want to make that perfectly clear before we say anything else. But I think what was so discouraging about the finale of this series against St. Louis is how ill-prepared they looked. I mean, immediately you get, you know, nothing from the offense early. Matthew Libertor retires how many in a row? He retires the first three, six, nine, twelve, four teen in a row. But immediately in the bottom of the first inning of this game, and granted, it didn't cause any kind of damage, but I think it was symbolic of the way the Mets looked in this game. The leader of this team , the captain of this team, in the first inning, not the fifth inning, not the ninth inning, not after a four and a half hour game in the first inning, has no idea how many guys are out. I don't know how that happens. I really don't. It is the first inning of a game. I get there was a one hour rain delay, but how does Francisco Lindor have his head up so far his ass that in the first inning, the third batter of the game hits a ground ball that should be the easiest double play ball in the world, and he has no idea . See what bothered me about that , even though yeah, it really didn't turn into much, Freddie Peralta was able to get through it. He struck out Mason win five pitches later. So yeah, it added to his pitch count, which I guess did kind of contribute later to him coming out of the game, which we'll get to. But I don't understand how somebody who's normally so into the game and normally so all over things, I don't know how that happens . Like that bothers me. How is it possible that Francisco Lindor, in the first inning of this game, has no idea how many guys are out ? And so you give the St. Louis Cardinals an extra opportunity, but more than that, and I jotted this down because you never know if it's gonna come back to hit you. Uh the roosters come home to roost, or whatever that is. The chickens come home to roost. You added five pitches to Freddie Peralta's arsenal because you have no idea how many outs there are . And I know when offense a struggle, the cliche is, it looks like they don't care. It looks like they're not trying. I get that the Mets are trying. I'm not going to sit here and suggest that this offense doesn't give a damn, but you talk about lifel ess from top to bottom. Like the one guy, and I considered him, and we'll talk about this a little bit later on for the Rico, I'm the man right now star of the series, would be Juan Soto, right? Juan Soto's probably the one guy who's hitting. And he does hit the home run that supplies the only run that the Mets score in this game . But you even look at some of his at-bats. He struck out in the fourth inning, he grounds out in the first inning, and really the one that sticks with you is he comes up with the bases loaded in the tenth inning, swings at the first pitch, and pops it up to second base. And I'm not trying to pick on Juan Soto because he is the guy who's hitting, but that's my point. He's the one guy who's hitting and even he can't rescue the rest of everybody else. But it is a top to bottom issue. Francisco Lindor's drawn plenty of walks. I mean he's got three hits this season, or whatever it is. And he took an over four today. And then to make matters worse with Lindor, and yes I will pick on him, I'll pick on everybody. I mean, they scored, they scored one run in the last how many 23 innings. So you've got Lindor make that mental mistake in the first inning where he has no idea how many outs there are. And then in the sixth inning, with one out of nobody on it. It's a ground ball right to the third baseman, Nolan Gorman, who makes an error. So the Mets are given an opportunity. The St. Louis Cardinals say, all right, here you go. Here's a run around in front of Juan Soto. Do what you gotta do. And before I could even jot down the E5, Lindor again, for whatever reason, I can't explain it, has his head up his ass and he gets picked off. I mean, how do you explain that? What was he doing? Like he was fiddling with his batting gloves. It looked like he was trying to take a monster lead off liber tor, and then he just throws over and he stands there. He was fooled, I guess. So the resume that Lindor has right now is he has no idea how many guys are out in the first inning. And then in the sixth inning, when the Cardinals are saying here, take a base rudder, he gets picked off. So I don't know what's going through his mind. He seems very off right now. Maybe there's something else going on. But I will say something. And this is not supposed to be. This is a issue we have in Little League that kids are too fo cused with putting on their gloves and their mitts. And guess what? He's not the only one today that got picked off because he was fooling around with the slotting mitt. Do you know who else got picked off? It's not the I'm looking at my sc orecard to see if I can remind myself. I don't see any other pickoffs on my scorecard, so please help me. Not in this game. But but but Jazz Chisholm got picked off a few winnings ago too. Same thing. Hold on, hold on, hold on a second. Hold on one second. I want to make something very clear. I'm not going to pick on you for bringing up the Yankees because I know that we make cross-sports references. No, no, no. But let me just hold on. Let me explain my day. All right. So we get off the air at two o'clock., I go home I'm DVRing the Meccan. I'm gonna be a little bit late, I'm gonna get home a little after three o'clock, I'm gonna sit down, I'm gonna score the game. But I was so far behind, I was behind for like over an hour and change that I couldn't even put another game on because I was afraid it would spoil it. So I say to myself, All right, well, I'll just watch the Yankees on D VR. And now you're spoiling Jazz Chisholm getting picked off. I don't need that. But my point is is that this is a stupid thing that that baseball players do in general. It's a little league thing and it's already affecting the big leagues because it's sitting there with all their stupid uh guards and shit like that. Excuse my language. It's annoying. I we watch a little little league. It cannot happen. in the biggs No, I get your point. I'm just annoyed that you spoiled a part of the Yankee game for it. Well, guess what? You want me to explore more things or no? No. No. I would prefer not. Okay. Sorry. Look, head up your ass baseball is not acceptable. It it just isn't. Like this offense is brutal over these couple of days. I am gonna take an approach of they can break out of it in San Francisco. I think this offense is better than the way they've played, which we'll stress. But I don't want stupid baseball. None of us do, especially from someone who we thought a year ago was the captain of the team. It can't happen. You know, Francisco Lindor isn't hitting right now. That happens. He gets off to bed, starts. Who knows if the hammaid bone is affecting him? I don't know that. But you can't commit the dumb mistakes that he made. Because those are the two things that jump out at me. The rest of it is inept offense. And look, we can go through the players and talk about who we're worried about. I'm not worried about Lindor. I'm not worried about Soto. I'm not worried about even Bobette. I think Bo Bachette is giving you signs. He's giving you signs of life. In the first inning, he had a nine-pitch at bat. He ended up flying out the right field. Okay. Nine-pitch at bat. He had a base hit in the sixth inning right after the Soto home run. And then in the 11th, it was just bad luck. He comes up with that runner on second, nobody out in the extra inning, and he pounds one off of the pitcher. And somehow it just ends up close enough to Mason Wynne, who makes the play at first base. Like I feel Bullou Boubchette is close. I do. He ended up taking a one for five in this game. Luckily, there were other than the the bad luck situation in the 11th, it wasn't like he came up with a bunch of big opportunities and failed. So with B Boobachet, I feel okay. With Jorge Polanco, I also feel okay. And he hasn't really done that much. He's the one who came up in the ninth inning and pounded the double. Think about it. The Mets actually had, because of Polanco's leadoff double in the bottom top of the ninth inning. They actually had three straight innings with a ghost runner on second base . So it wasn't just the 10th and the 11th, it was the ninth where Pol anco's pounding a double. So I feel okay about him. Luis Robert Jr., this was not a great series for Luis Robert Jr. Let's just be honest. His defense obviously hurt them in the Sangha starting game too. And offensively,, you know he comes up in the ninth inning with that runner on second and nobody out after the Polanco double, and he strikes out. And I did think for a second, like Luis Robert Jr. has a lot to prove. I don't care how much money he makes . I don't care what he did three years ago. Luis Robert Jr. is still the guy from the last two years who's done nothing. And while I appreciate the walk off home running hit on Saturday, you know Luis Robert Jr. to me is not above laying down a bunt to advance that runner. Now, he only has one sacrifice in his career, but you know when that sacrifice occurred? Last year. So at least it happened recently. I thought about it. Because what was going through my mind is I got to advance that runner. And the New York Mets, in the three opportunities they had, to advance the runner in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh, three chances to simply move him to th ird base, they didn't do it once. Not once . And if you're unable to do it the old fashioned way of hitting, then maybe you should do it by laying down a freaking b unt. And Luis Robert Jr., until proven otherwise, is not above that. Francisco Alvarez would have been been the guy in the tenth angle. I don't either, quite frankly. I don't know if he's capable of it , but he's not above that . Mark Vientos. I mean, Mark Vientos now has five at bats. He actually ripped a double with two outs in the fifth inning. That was encouraging. I don't know what to say about Mark Vientos. He barely plays. So get another opportunity likely on Thursday against the left hander in Robbie Ray. But let me get to the guy I'm concerned about. Because so far, and hopefully I'm being fair here, not worried about Lindor, obviously not worried about Soto despite the bad at in the tenth. I think Bo Bachette is showing signs of coming out of it. Polanco had that double before they pinch ran for him. Robert Jr. mostly has been good. Viento's too early to tell. How about Marcus Simeon? Big deal brands are up to 25% off right now at Designer Shoe Warehouse. You're not gonna want to miss this. These brands almost never go on sale. At DSW, we'll give you something to brag about. Like up to 25% off select styles from Adidas, Crocs, Nike, Revox, and more brands you love. Find shoes that get you at prices that get your budget. Save today at your DSW store or dsw.com . DSW, let us surprise you . Introducing Fidelity Trader Plus, the next generation of advanced trading from Fidelity. Customize your tools and charts and access them seamlessly across desktop, web, and mobile. For faster trades, anywhere you go. Try the all-new Fidelity Trader Plus. Learn more about our most powerful trading platform yet at Fidelity.com/slash Trader plus investing involves risk including risk of loss fidelity brokerage services llc member ny s e s i pc marcus simeon and, we have to remind ourselves of this, and this is why I'm not panicking, right? I think I preface this episode with ah, six games into the season. Okay, let's everybody take a deep breath. Panic City hasn't arrived yet. But we do need to remind ourselves, Marcus Simeon has been declining the last few years . He has. He's been declining. He's not getting any younger. And so of all the guys on this roster who is an everyday player who they need production from, yeah, I'm a little worried about Marcus Simeon. A little bit. He's the first one. He took an O for how many? One, two, three, four. Over four. In the 11th inning, he comes up with the bases loaded, gets ahead of the count two and oh. I'm I'm thinking, ah, this would be this would be the moment. This would be such a big moment for a guy who's done absolutely nothing in the five minutes he's been here, and he flies out the right field. Got a good pitch to hit, drove it decently, but not decently enough. Marcus Simeon has done nothing. He came into this game two for eighteen. He was O for four. He's two for twenty-two. And currently Marcus Simeon is O for his last eighteen. And not only is he 0 for his last 18, think about the opportunities he had in those 18 at bats . A lot of them comes up in the seventh with a guy on base, comes up in in the ninthning with a runner on third and two outs. He strikes out. He comes up with the bases loaded in the 11th, flies out. He ends up leaving six guys on base in this game . And that's just this game. Then you have Francisco Alvarez. I thought we saw bad Francisco Alvarez in this game. He is so freaking streaky. Not even just his performance, but his approach. When he just starts swinging from his feet. I mean, Alvare z was all over the place. Terrible at bats. I mean, really the best moment he had was getting on base for the catcher's interference. That was his best moment . But top to bottom, I mean, this is awful offensively. Now let me get to Mendy, because I do have a problem with Carlos Mendoza. And that's that's fair. Like, what's the problem, Evan? What do you got? Is it the bullpen usage? No. And if anything, Carlos Mendoza in this loss was vindicated. He was vindicated before I rip him, he was vindicated for the Dicky Love Lady thing. On episode six, six, one, because we've been basically doing Rico's every day. I gotta slow down on that . I defended what Mendy did with Love Lady because Mendy's got bullets that he's being careful on how he uses. And he wanted in game three of this series a rubber game with his ace on the mound, all his bullets available. Devin Williams, Luke Weaver, Wascar Brasabon, Brooks . He wants them all available. And he had them. And those bullets, let's be honest, I'll get to them in a little bit. They all fired off beautifully. Wasn't their fault this they lost this game. Wasn't their fault the LD offense has showed up. That ain't on them. So Mendy's decision, some of you like to call it punting. I don't. I like to call it, you know, you're being strategic with how you use your guys. And it sucks. My biggest problem is that Dickie Love ladies on the team. Not that Mendy used him. But he gets vindicated on his bullpen usage because he has this cavalcade of arms he can use at his disposal in a close game. It happened to go ele ven . But my problem with Carlos Mendoza was the situation he put Carson Benge in in the seventh inning of this game. Carson Benge is a rookie, and at times he looks a little overwhelmed. He doesn't look fully ready. Now that doesn't mean I'm sending him down. That doesn't mean I'm giving up on him. But let's be honest. Like he has his home run uh on opening day. That was great. That was a great moment for him. He's had a couple of base hits. He's played mostly good defense in the outfield till the 11th. We'll get to that. But I would think that the Mets are still trying to protect him just a little bit. Just a little bit. So when Matthew Liberator is on the mount, they don't play him. Now why didn't Carson Benge start this game? He didn't start this game because they didn't want to put him out there against a tough lefty. Is that why he didn't start the game? That's why he didn't start the game. So Tyrone Taylor, who hasn't all this season, but we know Tyrone Taylor, he's a capable major leaguer. He goes 0 for 2. In the seventh inning, after Francisco Alvarez gets on with catcher's interference , Carlos Mendoza in a spot in which I know and you know he's got Jojo Romero warming up in the bullpen, who's actually a capable reliever who's really tough on lefties. He's warming up. Why is he warming up? Is he warming up ? Because Carlos Mendoza played a horrible game of chess in which instead of letting Tyrone Taylor hit against Ryan Stanick, who I felt like in my bones will hit this guy. We weren't able to do it the other day, but man, I feel they'll eventually get to Ryan Static because he's Ryan Static . You make a decision that not only allows Marmel to take out his worst reliever. But you put this kid who, if we're being fair, doesn't look a thousand percent ready in this small sample size. Again, not saying I'm sending him down. I'm just being honest with what we've seen. You put him in a spot to face JoJo Romero , but you didn't want him to face Liberator to start the game, which I agree with. On episode 661 of the Rico, I told you how I would have lined it up. I had one slight difference. I probably would have played Beatty over Tyrone Taylor and Wright. But you know what? I get that. I get why Tyrone Taylor needs to play. You gotta get him some hap-ats . But pinch hitting for him in the seventh inning was stupid. Let's just call like it is. It was dumb. Because I'll ask you, I'll ask the audience, and I'm sure there's a lot of Yankee fans who are drinking our second series of the year tiers. So I'll ask the IBO out there, and of course the Met fan. What's a better matchup for the New York Mets? Tyrone Taylor, professional major leaguer against, R yan Stanick, who is due to implode , or JoJo Romero, who holds lefties to like a 520 OPS , against Carson Bench, who 's a rookie, who you've avoided having to face too many lefties. And the reason you sat him to begin with is because a lefty was on the mound . It was stupid. It's called like it is. It was a bad move by Mendy. For everyone bitching and whining about his usage of Dickie Lovelady, there was a reason for it. What was the reason for this ? And then what what happened? What do you think happened ? Carson Bench looked awful. Hold on a second. Did I lose everybody? Oh, I'm sorry about that. All of a sudden my laptop went out, so I wanted to make sure we were good. Did you lose me for a second? No, we still got you., Aguapo All right. I'm plugging it in just in case. I apologize . It was it was dumb sending him out there. And look, Carson Ben struck out. You want to blame him? Blame him. I mean, again, he's at his moments where he doesn't look great. He comes up again in the 10th inning against the lefty, pops up to shortstop. And then obviously what happened in the 11th inning just sucked. He had a terrible read on that pop-up. This game should have gone to the 12th. So Carson Benjamin's going through his rookie struggles. Don't make it more difficult for him . Don't use them as a pinch hitter in a situation in which everybody knows. We all know they're going to a lefty . See, this is the only thing that's making me scream. I've been very calm today. That's probably surprising, Hoff, right? You probably thought it wouldn't be me screaming about using Carson Benge as a pinch hitter for Tyrone Taylor. That wouldn't be my breaking point, but it really pissed me off. It was stupid . Yeah, I was expecting a lot of other breaking points, you know, the Lindor stuff you you mentioned. Um I'm actually surprised that they didn't go to Dicky Dicky Love Lady in the extra innings just to blow the game. Uh because it saved the bullpen. Sorry. You're just being it. Now you're being a jackass. Okay. Now I'm gonna turn on you. The reason they went to Love Lady, and and look, I'm gonna show you how this is done, how you can be so pissed at a manager, rip them to shreds, and then give him all the love. The reason they went to Dickie Love Lady on Tuesday was exactly the bullpen he had in this game. Look who we went to Brasnabon, Rayleigh, Weaver, Devin, and Myers. Those are their best relievers. If he uses any one of those guys in a game in which the LD offense was doing nothing, they're probably not available in this game. They did not lose this game because of the bullpen. They lost this game because the LD offense was as LD as possible. Right. And that listen, through the past five games in particular, the pitching performances have been amazing, bullpen included. I mean, really, we can't really sit there and knock even the love lady stuff. We really can't knock so much. And they're getting nothing out of it because there's no offense. And that that is the most frustrat ing thing. I'm surprised that was not your biggest bugaboo was the fact that the offense has been so dead the past few days. Because because look, I'm upset the offense has done nothing. I also know the offense is better than this, right? Dumb moves are dumb moves. That probably bothers me more. Like this offense has been awful in this series. I mean, really, let's do the math here. I got my there's the beauty of scoring these games. I can just m add it up all together. They did not score in their final three innings of the game on Monday. And by the way, the last run they scored was on a basis loaded walk in which not a pitch was close to Juan Soto. So really Jared Young's RBI double in the sixth inning against Kayleahy, who was on fumes at that point. That was the last time they essentially scored a run. They go scoreless for seven. They go scoreless for nine , that's twelve, and then this eleven inning run, they get one run on a home run that I still can't believe got out. So they scored one run in twenty-three innings, they've lacked a big hit. Look, it is what it is. And look, I went through all those guys. The one guy I have a level of concern about would be Marcus Simeon. Are you really concerned about every other guy in this lineup? You think Bo Bach ette is going to hit 095? No, but can I tell you something? And people are gonna hate me for saying this, but I'm being realistic, unfortunately. Like Brett Beatty, and I'm not gonna make this about Brett Beatty because it's the entire team, but Brett Beatty has yet to prove that he could do what he did the last half of last year consistently. Honestly, he hasn't, he, besides his uh the O'Neill Cruz triple uh that O'Neill Cruz screwed up, he hasn't had an extra base hit yet. Who has? Who has this Mark Vientos hit today? Uh surprisingly. Well, but look, luckily he's getting a chance to play, and I bet she's gonna get another chance to play on Thursday against the lefty . Like, I'm just glad the opportunity is there for Mark Vientos. By the way, they didn't play Beatty in this game, and they didn't in the game before. And I was thinking about this when the lineup first came out because I mentioned on episode six, six, one who I wanted to have out there, and it was Beatty in right field. When I saw Tyrone Taylor there, I was like, you know what, I get that. The guy's gotta play. The guy I would have considered sitting for Brett Beatty is Marcus Simeon. I mean Marcus Simeon should not be earmarked to play every single inning of second base. Because I hate to break this to everybody, and I hate to break it to David Stearns, who consumes the Rico Brogno all the time. It's early, so I'm not there yet. It's possible I'll whisper this 'cause it's it's it's possible that he's washed up. It's possible that Marcus Simeon at his age is donezo . N Iow, hope he isn't, and luckily he's gonna have more time to prove that. But because of his age, and that's the reason I say it could be, because of his age and because of the decline of the last two years, it's possible that what he did last year is what he does this year, and that ain't good. I like his defense at second base. I'll give him that. He's got to hit a little bit. That's the guy I would circle more than everyone else and say I'm concerned about. And probably probably pre beatty at lefties last year in the second half of the year so I would not be afraid of starting him against the left handed pitcher. Okay but now that but now we're in a s another situation which is gonna take us in a whole different way because if you play Beatty at second base Cassimian's wash there's Of a stretcher, they're playing nine games in a row. He's old. Like, I'm not suggesting I'm done with him. I'm just saying, like, why should he be above reproach when it comes to getting an off day? That's oh, I'm I'm I I'm not don't disagree. But again, it feels like to me that they're so hell bent on defense first, they will they will put him out there every day possible because they know at least defensively he's fine. Yeah, well he's got a hit because he's a part of this. And I know that they've hit him towards the bottom of the order batting seventh. He has to hit. A few other things that were troublesome are the challenges. Like the Mets haven't challenged a lot this season. In fact, only one batter. How about that? One batter through six games has challenged. And it was the aforementioned Marcus Simeon. We saw a few more from Francisco Alvarez in this game. And I thought that his choice to challenge in the third inning in the at bat with JJ Weatherholt was just odd . It was odd. Like you have to be very careful and the fact that Francisco Alvarez lost two challenges in this game as early as he did, that can't happen. Because there were plenty of situations later on in this game where Bobichette could have used the challenge, where the Mets could have used one. So this is the first time that we walked into that. Like where, wow they, lost these challenges early. And I think Francisco Alvarez has to be better. He has to be better because I think he picked some weird opportunities. Like the sixth inning. Let's go to the sixth inning. This is Freddie Peralta's final inning. And Avon Herrera's up. And he challenged the two-one pitch. This was his last one. And I get it's a big moment. Like I understand that, but it is the sixth inning. And if you don't get it right, and he didn't, and it became three and one, and then Peralta walked him on the next pitch, you're done. You don't have any . And then you have what was the other one that was well could I could I could just later in that inning when Brazzaban came in there was a one two pitch to I forget who it was who then went and tied the game up the next Nolan Gorman Nolan Gorman. I thought it hit the inside corner, the low inside corner. That's the one I would have challenged. They didn't have it anymore. I mean, let me see if it would have, because I am curious if it would have made a difference by looking at uh so it was the one-two pitch to Nolan Gorman right before he tied the game. Yeah. In the bottom of the sixth inning. I'm gonna tell you right now. Are you ready? You excited? Are you pumped up? Is it a C V Buckner type of call? It was it would have been a ball. Yeah. It was it was a little bit inside. It would have been a ball. So menopause can change many things. Not just your mood or sleep, but even your hair. For so many women, thinning and shedding can come as a surprise . It's not something you can always fix quickly with a new shampoo or styling trick. That's why Virtue developed Flourish, a hair care collection made specifically for women experiencing hair thinning or loss, often related to hormonal changes, stress, or aging. Virtue's key ingredient, Alpha Keratin 60KU Clinical, is a combination of two bioidentical proteins that are recognized by the body as its own keratin. Unlike typical bonding or coating formulas, this keratin repairs the scalp and hair from within, restoring the strength, elasticity, and resilience that can decline with hormonal shifts. 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He just did. And the other thing is this is not a nitpick. SNY, you gotta be better, bro . I mean, I love Steve Gelbs, I think he's very entertaining. The hot dog stuff, ha ha, let's be frank. Whatever, whatever. When there's a challenge, especially early on, because I think we're all kind of into it, we're intrigued by it. When there's a challenge and I see that the catcher just tapped his head or the batter just tapped his head, you can't bring the camera right back to Steve Gebs and the dugout telling us about hot dogs. I mean you can't do that. Adjust. And I think in the early going , because maybe this will be different in July, like the challenges will be so something we're used to that um okay, some challenge, let us know. But I literally saw the tap of the head, no mention of it, it goes back to Gelbs talking about hot dogs, and I'm sitting there saying, was there a challenge? And then yeah, eventually they come back. But I SNY's gotta be better with that. I don't want to miss challenges because Steve Gelbs is doing something funny with the hot dogs. That that's just me. All right, let's get to Freddie Peralta . Freddy Peralta was very good in this game. Uh, I know that when they first acquired him, one of the things we went through is how deep into games does Freddie go ? And he doesn't really go deep into games. But what I loved about Freddie in this game, so he gets through the Lindor mistake in the first inning, which was good. He pitches uh one, two, three, second, one, two, three, third, one, two, three, fourth, gets in a trouble in the fifth, fights out of it. He gets into trouble in the sixth inning. His command is a little bit off. There's two on and nobody out. He falls behind Alec Burleson and he strikes him out. And his pitch count at that point is 92. And it's his second start. So I'm not even complaining that Carlos Mendoza said, okay, here's the moment where I take you out. What I loved was how pissed off Peralta was. You know what that shows us in the early going of Freddie's Met career? He can go deep into games, and he wants to go deep into games. So the way the Brewers handled him and the way that the Mets handled him in this game, that's not about him. That's about the organization. And I I think Mendy made the right choice. It is early in the season. It's his second start . I didn't know how much he had left also, because remember, he had gotten into so much trouble in the last two innings that his pitch count went from 51 to 92. That's 41 pitches over an inning at a third. Think about that for a second. I jotted it down. He was at 51 after four. He was at 76 after five. So he threw 25 pitches to escape that fifth inning. And he went from 76 to 92 with his 16 pitches for the three batters he faced, capped off by the Burleson strikeout. So he was he was done. I agree with Carlos Mendoza taking him out. I think he was right . But I love that Peralta was pissed about it. I love that. I think that's a sign that he wants to go deep in the games. And then obviously, whilst Garbrazaban, who's been so good, makes the one mistake. I thought he was going to get out of it when he got Mason Wynn to pop up. He gives up the base set to Nolan Gorman. So uh just to get into the weeds a little bit, why not? We're on the Rico . When Peralta walked Herrera to put two on and nobody out . I wanted to pull Peralta right then and there. I always like to tell you my first guess is what I was thinking in the moment. And I thought he was done. I thought, you know what? Freddie got nothing left. His pitch count at that point was 86. He ended up at 92. So his pitch counts at 86. It's the second start of the year. And essentially, he's put four of the last seven hitters on base, and he's walked two of them. So I was ready to make the move. The problem is, and this is what ended up killing Was kar Brazaban. He doesn't do well against lefties . Like Brazaban is tough on righties . If you look at his splits from last year, but lefties hit him. And so I think that Mendoza made the decision to keep Peralta in the game because the matchup was better. Like he preferred Freddie Peralta against Burleson, the bulking lefty , than going to Brazabon. And so my first inclination was get Freddie out. I think he's done. But then kind of going through the matchup, I'm like, all right, I kind of get it. I think the matchup is better. Like we talked about earlier with what matchup do you prefer? Tyrone Taylor versus Stanick or Carson Bench versus Romero. So I think Bendy was right on the matchup. But here's the issue you run into. So Brazimon comes in, he gets Mason went out, but then you're dealing with Nolan Gorman. So he gets burned by the lefty. And we live in a world now, unfortunately, and I do say unfortunately, because it would have been managed completely differently, where you got the three batter minimum. Because otherwise Prasdebahn comes in, gets a batter. Here comes Brooks Rayleigh. It's exactly what I would have done . But look, Brasdabon has been mostly good. He was able to get out of the inning as well after he gave up the hit to Gorman, so he didn't let the game slip away. Like mostly good. And you cannot have your team in this area where there's no margin for error. There's no margin for error. So he gives up the base hit. The Cardinals score a run. I mean the pet offense wasn't doing anything. And then you got the rest of the bullpen. You have to feel if you're looking for positives and hey, we're 34 minutes into this Rico in which the Met LD offense was about to call it by its name, but I'm trying to be family friendly. Where the Met'LD offen se was pathetic. I do want to give you positives because positives exist. I'm not trying to give you positives. I'm not trying to make everybody feel better. I'm being real. The bullpen looks good. And the roles are starting to develop . Brooks Rayleigh . I mean, the guy's been unbelievable. He comes into this game, he tacks on two more strikeouts, calmly makes the play on the Victor Scott Bunt. Luke Weaver danced around some hard contact. I thought Burleson really drilled one against him, but bottom line was one, two, three inning. And the other guy I'm really impressed by is Devin Williams. Because here's what I want. What I want from Devin Williams, because we know his stuff. We know the airbender. We know what he's capable of. I want him to have the stomach. And he did not have good command in this game. He walks Mason win. He falls behind Nmanolan Gor, and he finds a way through the inning . Even in an outing where Devin Williams isn't his electric self like he was two days earlier, he comes out and calmly gets through the ninth. And then you got Tobias Myers. How great has this guy been? Runner on second nobody out. No biggie. I'll strike out Pies. I'll get Scott the ground out. And then credit to Brett Beatty for making the play that feels routine, but that ground ball to first base in which you gotta find the pitcher moving for us as Met fans is not routine . And then and this is the crazy part. This is why I'm happy, but I'm annoyed. I'm really not happy. I'm I feel good about things, but I'm annoyed. Tobias Myers, after getting through the 10th inning, and the LD offense gives him nothing in the 11th. They walk Carrera and he gets Burleson to do exactly what he wanted him to do, which is roll it over and ground it to a double play. And then he gets Mason Wynne to hit a lazy fly ball to right like Tobias Myers did his freaking job . But, and this comes back to the offense, believe it or not . You can't make any mistakes. This offense is putting everybody, the defense, and the pitch ing in a spot where any mistake will kill you. And look, Carson Bench got a terrible read on it. It is what it is. I think he's been mostly good defensively in the six or five some odd games that he's played. He screwed that one up. He's got to make that play. And right off the bat, I felt icky about it. And it dunks in for a base set, and that's how the Mets lose. Sucked. But it all goes back. It all goes back to you can't only manage one run. You can't go 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position in a game that follows an O for four and a game that followsl a one for fifteen . So according to my math , they were one for thirty with runners in scoring position in this three game series against the Cardinals. That's the Evan Math. So if it's off by a batter or two, it's close enough. That's pathetic . That is unacceptable. And it sucks because and this is not something that Bo Bachet and Jorge Polanco and Marcus Simeon should deal with, but this is the same crap we saw early last year. Where the pitching's great, and when they win, it's because the pitching's great, and the offense is not only awful, not only not scoring enough runs, but they can't get a big hit. And what we marveled at with this offseason, whether you liked it or not, and I don't want to relitigate the offseason, especially through every series of this year, and I'm not, but what we liked, even for those that were skeptical, is well, they brought in a lot of guys who were clutch. We haven't seen it yet. We haven't seen any clutch yet. And we're still waiting on that. But the good news is, because I do have more good news. When you go to City Field, you can knock one out of the park and raise the apple with Takara Chuhai, a sparkling cocktail that blends real shochu spirits with the delicious flavors of fruits locally grown in Japan. It's available at City Field in Fuji Apple, of course, white pe ach and lemon . Before we get to some emails and some thoughts, some more thoughts, as the Mets lose two out of three to the Cardinals, and of course we'll look ahead to what's coming up with the series against the Giants. We do have some business to attend to. The I'm the man right now, star of the series, and the net negative . Let me address the net negative because on the last series recap of the Rico Bronya, we received an email and an accusation that the net negative award that we hand out, which began after last season started, coincided with the Met collapse. So that person made clear that we should cancel the net negative because they believe it's bad luck since we started it right around June. What I said to the emailer is we need to look that up. We need to find the audio. So thanks to the official archivist of Rico Bronya, Dan, we have the audio of the birth. The birth of the net negative award. So here is the audio from the May fifth edition. Oh, wait, one second. Come on, Hoff. I know it's my bed. I'm the man right now. What about my whole setup I gave you? That didn't give you enough time to figure it out? No, I had to download it and I had to find out where you sent it. Hold on. One second. It's gonna be there in uh thirty seconds. Just g keep on rambling. All right. Well, I'll tell you this. I give Sean more ashin edge over you when it comes to playing audio. What? Uh he because Sean would read my ramp up and say, Oh, okay, okay. I know what he wants. And then even if he forgot, he'd eventually find it. But yeah, that accusation was very tough because it said to us, hey guys, the net negative is like jinxing the New York Mets. And I didn't really remember because I knew that the I'm the man right now, star of the series began at the beginning of the year because I do that in my scorebook where I have a star of the game. So I wanted to bring that scorebook feature to the Rico Brunha and there were suggestions of what about a net negative? And of course that term, in case you're fam unfamiliar with it, is the term that Gary Cohen famously used on Beningo and Roberts in referencing Daniel Murphy, who he now who he now works with. But yeah, famously after the twenty fifteen season, uh, he said that to Joe and I. He said, Yeah, Daniel Murphy's a net negative. So that's where that name comes from. Anyhow, here's the audio from the May 5th, Rico Bronya, the birth of the net neg ative. All right, Scott Stern has a scorebook question. I believe Mark Vientos has now struck out three straight times with the bases loaded and less than two outs. Okay, that was more of a statement than a question. But here's a question. Should we have a goat of the series that we lose? Yeah, a few people have brought that up that along with the Rico star of the series, we should have a net negative of this series. Here's my own O C D with that . I would have wanted to have done it from the beginning of the season. I don't like having the Rico star of the series and then all of a sudden in the middle of the year we started announcing the net negative of the series. So here's what we'll consider. And Holf, it's it's a little bit of a research project. I'm okay with creating based on what the people want, the GOAT or net negative of the series, but I feel like you and I probably privately, I don't think we have to do it on the Rico , have to go through the first eleven series and name net negatives just so we have record of who the goat of each series would be . That's how I am. I'm O C D. So first of all, the person to blame is Scott Stern, who's a frequent emailer to the RICO. It was his idea, so thank you, Scott. And B , we're gonna keep the net negative because it didn't jinx the Met season. That was well a month before things took a downturn. And I do think, even in good series and in bad series, and I think we would classify this as a bad series with the Mets losing two out of three. I think it is important to acknowledge. So let's start off with the net negative. I really have two guys that jump out at me, and you could pick really anybody offensively, and it needs to be someone offensively. Like there is no pitcher I'm picking for the net negative. You're not doing Dickie Love Lady. You're not doing Wascar Brazzaban for giving up the base hit. Like it that it's an offensive award considering the Mets somehow managed to score five runs in three games. And the two guys that jump out at me. You know what? Before I tell you the two guys that I think are candidates, let me see if Hallfield's the same way. Who jumps out at you as the net negative of this series loss to the St. Louis Cardinals . Well, clearly Marcus Sim Marcus Simeon is clearly the first guy that is honest been terrible. Um, but the second guy, yeah, I I think it'd be Lindor, but he actually had he actually had some big hits, so I'm leaning towards uh Simeon to being the number one gu y. M Marcus Simeon to me is the clear net negative. I think it's easy. He's the clearly one of them. And just to give you some numbers, he was oh for nine in this series, and he was 0 for four, which means almost half of his 0 for nine came with runners in scoring position, including coming up with the bases loaded and a chance to win the game in the top of the 11th inning. So Simeon is the winner. The other guy who deserves honorable mention is Luis Robert Jr. He was one for eight in this series, so he didn't do much offensively. And his defense and I get the Mets didn't scoring runs, but his defense pretty much led to Kodai Senga giving up two runs. More so than the throw, missing the cutoff man. And his arm has been very unimpressive. Misjudging the leadoff double changed the entire trajectory of that inning. And it is certainly possible that if Luis Robert Jr. reads that ball the right way, Kodai Sega doesn't give up a run. So I don't think it's enough to hand him the net negative. I think the clear net negative is Marcus Simeon. O for nine and oh for four with runners in scoring position. And that 0 for 9 goes back to the middle of the Pittsburgh series. I think it's easy. Congratulations. Marcus Simeon is the net negative. So last week's net negative was Bob Shat. This week's ne negckative is uh Marcus Simeon. So clearly the new guys are all through great stuff. I am writing that down . Yes, well done. Well done. Now, the I'm the man right now star of the series. Yes, I'm the man right now. Which I do feel like I need to explain. That is Jordani Valdespin, who famously said, I am the man right now . So I wrote down about five names, believe it or not. And they did lose the series. I totally get it. So why would there be so many candidates? Because I think they're actually are a lot of people that you can look at and say, hey, they did a good job. There's only one offensive player I would even consider, and that's Juan Soto, who ended up going four for twelve with two walks, a home run, and two RBIs in this series. But I'll tell you, that last at bat. The opportunity of that. Like he hit and he did get on base six times in this series. And he did hit the home run, the one run they scored in 23 innings. But I don't know, man, he did have some big moments, including that at bat in the tenth inning. So it's like a half honorable mention, but I cannot in good conscience give the Om the man right now, star of the series to any offensive player after what we just saw. I think there's four pitchers that are that are obvious. And I'm just not sure which ones you're going to do, but I I think that Kodai Senga is number one. I think that Freddie Peralta number two, and then out of the bullpen, I'd go Tobias Myers because he's been awesome. Yep. And I'd even give Devin Williams because even he, I know he ran into some trouble today, but he pitched well enough and he made it flawless on uh on the first game of the series. So those are the four guys that I think you'd go with. I would almost lean towards Korai Sanga because if it wasn't for a defensive miss cue, he throws a a big shutout. Yeah, all those guys deserve credit. No doubt about it. I think the one guy you're also leaving out is Brooks Rayleigh, because Rayleigh's two performances were were brilliant. He did a great job. I I am fighting between two people, and it's not Kodai Sanga. Like, with all due respect to Kodai Sanga, he pitched well. Hats off to him. And this is always kind of the controversy around the I'm the man right now, star of the series. He's a starter. He impacted one game, and they lost that game. Devin Williams and Tobias Myers impacted two games and did nothing wrong in contributing to the loss and did a lot in contributing to the win. Tobias Myers, let's not forget , got four outs in the opener of this series, including ending the sixth inning after Clay Holmes gave up the home run to Nolan Gorman. He came in in the sixth inning of this game with a four to one lead and very easily got the final out of the inning and then struck out the side. And then you tack on what he was asked to do in Wednesday's game, in which he gets three outs with a run-around second, and then gets two outs after an intentional walk. So if you add up the outs that Tobias Myers got, he ended up getting four plus three, nine outs. And honestly did nothing wrong. He gave up a lazy fly ball to right field that Carson Bench misjudged. Nine outs. Devin Williams, the other guy I want to strongly consider, got six outs. But he did a great job. Like he comes in with save situation, his first real save situation is a New York Met and just mows everybody down. And then even what he did in the finale of this series, in which again comes into a tough spot this time of tie game, does not have his command and fights through it. So it to me it's either one of those guys, it's Devin Williams or Tobias Myers. But ultimately , before I tell you who I side with between the two of them, and I and I respect your view on Kodai Senga, I just don't feel it with Kodai. I want to give the bullpen the love that it deserves. So if deciding between Tobias Myers and Devin Williams is the way to go, which one would you give the edge to? Think Tobias Myers because he had a tougher challenge in my opinion. I agree with you. I I agree with you. And it it's crazy that we're gonna hand it to the guy that got the loss in the finale of this series, but he did a great job. And again, just do the math on the outs. I mean, that's that's all you need to know. He got four outs in game one, handing the baseball off to Brooks Rayleigh and Devin Williams, who got the final six, but he got four, and then is called upon in the toughest of situations. Like when you come in in the bottom of the tenth inning in a tie game because your LD offense didn't give you any margin for error, and you very calmly get those three outs and then have to do it again and get one of their better hitters to bounce into a double play. And then all you did was give up a fly ball to right field. So I give it to Debias Myers. Do me a favor real quick off because I don't know if anybody could change my mind. But I want you to check the chat, which I still have not figured out how to do on YouTube . Give me an idea, and I'll ask the people that are are consuming this. Who is the star of this series? Do you go Tobias Myers? Do you go Devin Williams? Or if there's somebody else you want to write in in the chat, write it in and give me like a quick kind of view on what the people are saying. But I I believe it should be Tobias Myers. I don't think you want to know what the people are saying today. That's fine. Go ahead. Uh they're they're not about uh a Stearns, let's put it that way. So far, I've seen Tobias Myers. Um that's that's the clear-cut one. Someone gave Brooks Radily , uh, but right now it it seems like uh Tobias Myers is the guy. And they're ripping David Stearns? Is that what you just said? I couldn't figure it out. Yeah, they're ripping Stearns. They don't like what he's done with That's fine. That is fine. Uh you can rip whoever the hell you want. The Mets lost two out of three. They've scored one run in three g ames. Marcus Simeon socks like go to town. I just wanted to get an idea on if Myers is the right way to go, and I think he is. So congratulations, Tobias Myers. You are the man right now, star of the series. And Marcus Simeon , boo you you're a loser. Now let's get to some of your emails. Derico B at Gmail dot com. Mark and Phoenix writes, enjoy your forties, fifties, and sixties, because the Mets will never win a World Series with Juan Solo as a Met. Mark it down. Okay That that's that's come on. That's a little bit too much . Uh all right. What's this? Carson Bench has been a bit too aggressive. All right, Gordy writes. I don't mind the effort enthusiasm that Carson Bench has as a rookie, but I think he's been a bit too impulsive. Simeon had a great read on that ball and Beatty and Benge were hesitant. I don't know whose that ball is, but it's because it seemed tough, but Simeon would have definitely made that play. Okay . I I gotta watch it again. I was so disgusted when it ended. To me, it felt like Benge got a kind of a bad read on that. Gordy also writes, dude, you need to realize how powerful your mic is. Not saying you have to be positive Tommy, but dude, stop feeding into the narrative that the Mets are gonna met. When you interview the manager or whoever, just encourage him instead of giving him suggestions. Come on, that's that's ridiculous. Interview him ? I will interview him and give him suggestions. We can do both. Can I can I just can I can I just stop with Gordy real quick because I want people to know something. You're not a freak and shill. You're a fan, you're as honest as as they come. Maybe I'm more negative than anybody else, but the people that were seeing there and popping champagne for 11 runs and five off of pole schemes on day one are the people that are blind and not looking at like the fact dude, it's a lot you're allowed to in six games evaluate every game and and realize some days are gonna be good, some days are gonna be bad. I I I I know what I say here on the Rico and on the fan and honestly I I give you positive and negative. I think I've done that today on this podcast for an hour. Whether it's ripping the offense but then putting over the bullpen talking about a move that Mendy made that ninety percent of people hated but was the right move with Love Lady while also destroying him for the decision with Carson Benjamin pinch hitting. Like you can do both. I want to remind Met fans. You can do both. You can be critical. You could also look at things that are positive, such as the pitching performance. Like, it doesn't have to be one or the other. Like it's not a choice. Just honest. Honest assessment. That's what I try to do. If you don't like it, you know what? I don't have to tell you. I'm always honest. That's it. Michael writes, hey Evan, can you explain to me what the Mets practice in spring training? Do they practice bunting? Do they practice squeeze plays? Or do they spend the summer working on their tans? We know Mendy spends his spring training playing MLB the show on rookie, so he doesn't need to practice his situational awareness. He's had more faith in stat ic hitting a Mets player than a Mets player actually getting a meaningful hit. At least Conforde knew when to lean into it. They did run the wheel today. That was kind of cool. They they ran it like five times in a row Brian writes, Evan, long time listener, first time writer, why why why why is Jared Young playing every day? Remember when we said we didn't know when he would play? Why is Richard Lovelady pitching every time I turn the TV on? Tell me Wilmer Flores, Dom Smith, Starling Marte isn't better than Jared Young. Shoot even MJ Melendez. Why does this team look the same as last year? Dumb bad losses already. I have a feeling the San Fran cisco trip is going to be a nightmare . Um this goes back to Jared Young being on the roster. You know, and MJ Melendez is a nice counter. Uh we all know Mike Tochman was initially going to be on this roster, but it's it's tough to kill Jared Young right now when you think about it. Jared Young starts the opener of this series. I didn't want him to start the opener of the series. He gets an RBI double. He starts game two of this series, he gets a base set, makes a great diving play at first base, and hits a line drive that because of maybe not the best base running, Bobashek gets doubled off on. And in this game comes in as a pinch runner and draws a walk. Like, I was critical. See, this is an example of this. I was critical of Jared Young starting in game one. I stand by that, but I also can admit he was not the problem in this series. He wasn't even bad in this series . So I get it . I get it. But let's be fair. Tyler writes, Evan, the Mets always seem to take the worst swings ahead in the count two and oh and three and one, not even just this year, but last year as well. I notice it all the time. I would love to hear if there is a stat that would show their average exit velocity compared to other teams, fouling off and popping up middle fastballs up in the count is not acceptable. Yeah, they they struggle on fastballs and they struggle in hitters counts. We've seen that. And one of the great hitters counts is the first pitch. I know Hoff and I have argued about this, but the numbers are the numbers. You swing at the first pitch, you're going to have success. At least that's what the numbers say. And there were a few examples in this game, specifically Juan Soto popping up, where it didn't work. In fact, I'll tell you real quick how they did swinging at the first pitch with the ball in play. Obviously, you swing at the first pitch and you miss. It doesn't really count. Uh Bob ette swung at the first pitch after the Soto home run, base hit the center field. Jorge Polanco swung at the first pitch, flyed out to right field. Luis Robert Jr. swung at the first pitch, base hit. So so far I'm two for three. And then leadoff double by Polanco first pitch. Three for four . Soto pop-up three for five. I mean, it think about that. Think about that. The Mets ended up having five hits in this game and three of them came swinging at the first pitch. Edward writes, My finger is on the red alert button. Uh-oh. The other night you advised me to stand down when I voiced my concerns regarding this offense. I'm sorry , but like you, I watch pretty much every pitch of a Met season and have done for so many years. So Evan, come on, you can't deny this offense is looking like it's gonna be a continu ation of the limp dickness of last year. I had to say that even for the kids in the audience, because I like the way he took the LD and made it a different word. So I appreciate that. I appreciate your creativity . Where where am I? Hold on. Hold on. You said on the pod the other day that we should have confidence that this offense will do better. Why, I ask you? As a long suffering Met fan, I can just sense this season is ultimately going to be a repeat of last year, and my instincts usually don't I don't care that we're only six games in. If you recall, the pitching and plate appearance is really what carried the Mets to the best record in baseball after the first couple of months of last season. And it's looking like the same scenario is going to play out the first few months of this season. And then the inevitable will happen. The pitching will hit a wall and the offense will then have to do the heavy lifting. But it didn't last year after the pitching hit the wall, starting with Sangha's injury, there's no reason to believe this offense will be different this year after the pitching success dwind les. All right. A lot of thoughts on that. Let me respond. Number one, this rotation's better. I know that's not the main point of your email , but last year when the Mets had like a 2-8 ERA in late May, early June, do you remember what I used to say on the Rico ? I would say it's not sustain able. I would say, boy, this offense really needs to pick it up because this pitching staff is not that good. And it wasn't. So keep this in mind when you compare this year to last year. And I'll get to the offense in a second. This rotation is far different. Freddie Peralta wasn't here last year. Nolan McLean wasn't here last year. Kodai Senga's a wild card. Like Kodai Senga was here last year until he wasn't. Obviously that could happen again, but maybe he actually does stay healthy . I feel good about Clay Holmes. I think even the question marks about Clay make you feel better about him sustain ing for a full season. Even the same with David Peterson. So I reject that notion about the pitching. Look, the pitching's been great. Like we're not complaining about it. And there are aspects of what they've done early this season that you feel really good about. That you're like, wow, hopefully they can keep this up . The offense is not going to score one run in 23 innings often. And you ask me why I'm confident. I'm not confident they're murderous run I'm not confident they can average five runs per game. But I know they're not this bad . What's interesting about the Mets, and we don't know this yet , is what is their identity gonna be? Like in 2015, when the Mets won the pennant, we knew what their identity was. They had an outstanding young rotation. They couldn't hit all year, as you recall. Remember that? Juanya Ribe was a savior. Kelly Johnson was a savior. I look at this team and I wonder, because it's six games in. We don't know yet. We're not even two turns around in the rot ation what is the identity of this team gonna be and the thing that gives you some hope is maybe the pitching is very good and is the identity of the team. Maybe Devin Williams , who so far is off to a good start, can actually be the elite closer he was a few years ago. So it's possible, and this is far different than what I said last year. You want to know why? Because this team is different this year. It's a different roster on a lot of levels. But last year I consistently said they need to hit . They need to hit to win. The Mets identity needs to be their offense. I'm not saying that this year because it may not need to be . So we're six games in. Let us see. Let us see if the identity is something else. But that's a big difference between this year and last year because I do feel very different about one through thirteen the arms they're throwing out there. I feel different too. I I I'm not gonna jump on board and be like this this ERA is gonna be sustain able. The pitching staff is going to be, because I'm concerned that it's going to be a reminiscence of last year where you're going to burn people out. I mean, you've already got three extra inning games in six, six, six games. You're going to burn who out the rotation or the bullpen? Well both because I I don't know if it right now we're relying on the top bullpen arms to pitch almost every day. Yeah so so here's the difference. Uh so far when you look at what this rotation has done, a turn plus around. Let's go through it real quick. Uh five innings, four runs, five and a third, zero runs, five innings, two runs, five and two thirds, two runs, six innings, two runs, five and a third, one run. So they're not burning out their rotation yet. I hope that this rotation can go a little bit deeper into games. Not much deeper, because I have to be realistic about what guys do in 2026. But they're getting some innings from their starting pitching. If they could average six, which they're not that far off from, and now you're asking for on most days nine outs from your bullpen. Obviously, when you play extra innings, it changes things . There is a way to not overwork your bullpen and overwork your rotation. And they do have some pitching depth, especially if Christian Scott and Jonathan Tong are going to be impressive in the minor leagues. It's just I get it. Like their bullpen could absolutely be overworked. And that's what happens sometimes when your starters don't go deep enough. But as much as we talk about how different the offense is, and it is different, and there's a lot of questions about how good they can be, again, I'm not telling you they're gonna score five runs a game. They are very different than a year ago. They do not have as much power. They're supposed to have guys who put the bat on the ball. They're supposed to be more clutch. That stuff hasn't happened yet. We're also only six games in. But the rotation also and the bullpen has a chance to be very, very different. And I don't like the comparison of last year because like Griffin Canning was in their rotation last year. You know what I mean? Like we didn't know what Clay Holmes was last year. Tyler McGill was in the rotation last year. They didn't have Nolan McLean. They didn't Peralta. Like their two best starters. At least the guys who we think are their two best starters weren't here last year. That No, you're not wrong, but again, if you can't score runs, you're just gonna have to you're you're gonna keep on getting to these extra inning games and you're gonna have to keep on going back to your bullpen and do you think they're gonna score one run per do you think they're gonna score one run per game no but two two runs per game is not that much better either. you Do think they're gonna do you think they're gonna average two runs per game? So far, they haven't shown me anything. And you go back to the first game, their big hits have been little numbers. They've been what does that mean? Do you think they're gonna average two and a half runs per game? That means so far that everyone was obsessed with their contact. It the contact is not, you're not hit, you're not squaring up the ball right now. Their offense is completely off. I'm not talking about what they've done, because what they've done has been bad. Like I agree with you. I'm not fighting with you about that. They've scored one run in their last 23 innings. I am totally with you. I'm talking about moving forward. They're about to play four games in San Francisco. How many runs do you think they're going to score in these four games? Let's play the game. Four g ame series. It's Robbie Ray, it's Molly, it's Rupp, it's Webb. Those are the four giant starters. Two lefties, two righties. Actually I'm sorry. One lefty, three righties. How many runs are the Mets going to score in these four games? Go ahead. I'll give you nine. And all. Okay. What? That 's problem if that no, I uh you can be as serious as you want. It's your prediction. Okay. That's a problem. Yeah. I mean I I I think this offense will break out at some point. And again, don't take that as me saying everything will be fine. They're gonna be a juggernaut offensively, but they have too much talent. So I'll give you this prediction. I think they're gonna score 18 runs in the four games in San Francisco. So you're going with you're doubling my number. You said nine? Is that the prediction? I said nine. By the way, they've scored 12 in the last five. I I get what they've done. I'm talking about what's gonna happen. I know. I know. I they I haven't it's the LD, bro. It's all about the LD right now. Hey, the LD was uh in full effect here and losing two out of three to the St. Louis Cardinals. I said going into this road trip I'd like to go four and three. That was my reasonable goal. To get there, they gotta win three out of four against San Francisco. And what they need to do is they gotta jump on Robbie Ray. They really do. They need to score runs and they need to score runs early and hopefully break out of this offensive slump as far as who should play is concerned. And I'll just start with the Robbie Ray game. To me, I would sit Carson Benjamin. I'll be honest with you. In fact, I think I'd play Tyrone Taylor. I'm leaning towards, you know what? He's a good defender. He's only had two at-bats . He's a pro. I think I go Taylor and Wright . I think I go, and you can take your choice on Polanco at first base or Vientos, but one of those two. And I'm sorry. Like I'll say what I said earlier about Simeon. I'd sit him and I'd play Brett Beatty. And the lefty thing doesn't scare me because if you remember, and we talked about this a lot last season when Beatty was playing well, he was hitting left-handers . So I'm not worried about starting him against the lefty. As far as Robbie Ray and his career against certain Mets, let's see. Marcus Simeon's two for ele ven. Tyrone Taylor's oh for four, so not much there. And Brett Beatty's one for three. So th th those career numbers don't jump out at me. There's nothing really to take out of that. I'm just telling you that's what I would do. Is Carlos Mendoza gonna do that? Absolutely not. He's not he's not sitting Marcus Simeon. I would though he's old for his last 18. Like, I mean he is not above reproach in terms of sitting. Anyhow, I I appreciate you for downloading the RICO or hanging out with us live on YouTube. The Mets are about to engage in some West Coast baseball. Here's my tentative plan. Reaction. If the Mets lose a brutal game, there's a really good chance I'm firing it up at one o'clock in the morning. Same with a great win. So a tentative plan is: I'm going to give the Thursday game a break. We've done Rico's every single day. That is not sustainable . It was actually really interesting because his thought was