Looking Ahead To The Upcoming Homestand

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Are you gonna do this for all 9,000 properties? When you want points that can take you anywhere, anytime, it matters where you stay. Hilton for the stay. Book your spring break now . It's the amazing Rico Bronia Podcast with your host, Evan Roberts . It is indeed , Rico Bron ya . The sky is falling. We do suck. The Mets aren't very good. It is now a 10-freaking game losing streak. Welcome to Rico Brilliant. You know, I said to myself after the they lost on Thursday and they got swept by the LA Dodgers, and I didn't even say it to myself. I said it on the Rico. I said, we're probably not going to do a Rico until Sunday, until the end of the Chicago series. But there has been so much garbage, so much bad baseball. Now we even have an interesting decision where the Mets are changing their rotation on Sunday. To which I said, I think we need to rico. I think we need to Rico for a myriad of reasons. Number one, to take out the trash, to kind of discuss the garbage we've watched over the last two days. So that's one reason to Rico . Number two, therapy session. I think we all need it, unless you can distract yourself with Dexter Lawrence being traded or the dicks going up one oh. But if you're a diehard, diehard Met fan and this is bothering you, this is getting to you how crappy this team is, we need a therapy session . So those were the two big reasons why we decided late on a Saturday night, if you're consuming this live on YouTube or maybe early Sunday morning, if you've downloaded the Rico Brunia, to kind of pop in during the midst of this three-game series against the Chicago Cubs to talk more about this franchise. A franchise that I don't care how positive you are, I don't care how early it is or how much you don't want to think the sky is falling. The sky is falling. We are going to break down the first two games. That's a part of the taking out the trash portion of the Rico Bronya. We will also discuss the decision that just came down late Saturday night that David Peterson is not going to make his start on Sunday afternoon against the Chicago Cubs. Instead, Tobias Myers will we'll get into some of the roster moves over the last few days. Trust me, there's a lot of crap to get into. I do want to start with something that may make everybody feel better. Because I feel like there has to be something one can say in the midst of a 10-game losing streak, in the midst of uh this team off to one of the worst starts in the history of the franchise. Uh, there is something very, very important I want everybody to realize. You are going to hear facts, whether it's from Gary Cohen, whether it's tweeted out from Jeff Passen, whether it's your friends sending it to you, about teams with losing streaks and teams with this kind of start and how rare it is to make the postseason. You have to take all those factoids and literally throw it out. It means nothing. We live in a brand new world of baseball. The New York Mets may suck, and the New York Mets may not make the postseason. In fact, if you ask me right now, hey Ev, do you think the Mets are going to make the postseason? My answer is going to be no, but I promise you, it has absolut ely nothing to do with numbers. It has nothing to do with a losing streak in April. It has nothing to do with trying to become the 1951 New York baseball Giants. It has nothing to do with any of that. And I'm telling you right now, there are enough reasons to be depressed and pissed off as a Met fan. Meaningless stats should not be one of them. And there's a myriad of reasons why none of that matters. The first being the most obvious teams make the playoffs at a greater percentage than they ever have. The New York Mets, again, may suck right now, but I promise you they haven't buried themselves to the point where the math is against them. If the Mets play better baseball , if the Mets play the kind of baseball I hoped they would be capable of playing, like at the beginning of the year, I said they're an 89-win team. If they start playing at an 89-win pace, they have plenty of time to write the ship and So when I see these stats or these figures, even Hoff asked me, and I I don't think you were doing anything malicious, but Hoff said, Yeah, so how many teams have had 11 game losing streaks and made the postseas on. And I said it to him then, and I'll say it right now to begin this Rico Bronya. It doesn't mean anything. Like, yes, I get it. It's odd that in this current age where more teams make the postseason, that we don't have tons of examples of teams that have had long losing streaks and making the playoffs. Give it time, we will. You know, the fact that last year's Guardians, who not only made the postseason but found a way to get in and didn't they win the division? Yeah, I think they won the division last year. I'm trying to remember. That that just shows you how meaningless winning the division can be sometimes because unless you get a first round bye, that does it even matter . But the Cleveland Guardians had a 10-game losing streak last year. And it was in the second half of the year. I think it dropped them to 40 and 48. And they made the postseason. So my worries about this team, which I'm about to express, especially when we go through what happened in the first two games against the Chicago Cubs, uh, those reasons that I have are legitimate and they have nothing to do with math. So everybody in the middle of April, get the math out of your head. It is meaningless. It is put out there as a shock factor. But it means nothing. Here's what matters. What matters right now, two games into the Chicago series, five games into a road trip that is a disaster, following a homestand that was a disaster. Is that right now the Mets aren't good at anything? Not one thing. Actually, you know what they're best at right now? Ironically enough, probably their defense. Bob ette has actually played a pretty good third base. I'll say it. I've gotten all the positives out of the way early. Bobichette looks good at third base . But right now, they're bad at everything. Let's go back to the first game of this series. That's how we'll break this stuff down. Here's Kodai Senga. Very significant start for Kodai because he's coming off a couple of bad ones. A bad one and a mediocre one . And so you face a Cub team that has a pretty good offense, but a real chance for Kodai Sangha to stop the bleeding. Remember back in spring training when Juan Soto called Kodai Sanga the Ace. And I actually defended it because I said, hey, that's how he should view him. He should view everybody as the ace. He's putting Kodai Senga over. Kodai Senga had a chance on Friday afternoon, even after the Mets failed to score in the top of the first inning, wasting a two-out double from Francisco Lindore. Kodai Senga had a chance to have a bounce back start , a start that stops this incessant bleeding that the Mets are on. And instead, Kodai Senga does all those little things that piss you off. First of all, for some reason he threw a million cutters. Can't figure out why. He issues a one-out walk to Michael Bush. He gives up that base hit to Alex Bregman. He gets a big strike out of Ian Hap. And then yeah, he gives up a blue tip, blue pit to Saya Suzuki. Little blue base hit that maybe Carson Bench has a chance to make a play on. But after that, he doesn't have to give up a three run home run to Moises Beliasatauros. I feel I I actually can't even say his name. I know he's great. He's 22 years old and he's a stud. Bala Bala Sterios. Yeah, we'll go with that. Kodai Senga didn't give up that home run. And it annoys me that after the game, through his translator, Kodai Senga talked about the little things that if they go a different way , well, it changes the whole start. I don't want to hear it. Because at the end of the day, you gave up a three-run home run in the first inning . And you know what made it worse? So you got Kodai Senga right off the bat with your team on an eight-game loop giving up four runs in the bottom of the first inning. If that is not bad enough, by the gift of God, the Met offense responded the very next inning. This limp D offense, and it has been limp basically all year since the opening day miracle. That's what we're going to call opening day against Paul Skeens. It's the opening day mirac le. The miracle is that they won, and the miracle is that they scored 11 runs. I don't know if they had scored 11 runs over the course of this entire losing streak. I'm obviously exaggerating, but I'm not that far off. So by some miracle, the bottom of the meta order, Alvarez, Melendez, Simeon, and Tyrone Taylor storm right back for three runs. And even though I was agitated, I shouldn't be agitated at Tyrone Taylor, but he rips that two-run single off the fence and gets thrown out at second base, which really short-circuited that inning . The Met offense just they didn't erase the entire deficit, but to respond with three runs after you give up four, they've essentially given you a new lease on life. Like it's a brand new start for Kodai Sangha. It's a brand new game for Kodai Sangha. I know the pitching line may not look good and the ERA may not look good, but you give up four runs in the first inning and, your limp pathetic offense and the bottom of the order actually responds by scoring three. So you could think about it this way. This is the way I would think about it if I'm Kodai Sango. I'm down one-nothing . That was his new lease on life in the bottom of the second inning. And you know what he does? You know what Kodai Senga does? And I am so sick. You know what I'm tired of? I'm tired of a lot of things. I'm tired of defending people and then having them kick me in the groin . I have defended guys like Kodai Sangha. I have been uh uh uh a staunch Sanger defender. The loyal Rico ers know that. And you probably hate me for being a defender right now because you're like, look, you defended this stiff for the last year. You didn't want to trade him this entire offseason. And look what he does to you, and look what he does to the fan base, and look what he does to his team . This stiff Kodai Sanger walks Danzby Swanson with one out of nobody on and immediately gives up a two-run home run to Nico Horner . And so immediately after the Met offense responds and basically erases the four runs you gave up in the bottom of the first inning. You turn a four to three game into a six to three game. It's tough to not be done with Kodai Senga . It's tough not to be. And I I relate Sanga's performance and us feeling this way. If I'm feeling this way, I'm sure most Met fans are feeling this way about him. I think it relates back to David Peterson and the decision that ultimately Carlos Mendoza and David Stearns m ade for Sunday afternoon against Chicago. I think the struggles of Peterson, and I was willing to give David another start. I I was expecting him to start Sunday's game against the Chicago Cubs, but certainly with a short leash in terms of his future in the rotation. But I honestly think that Kodai Senga's bad performance almost impacted David Peterson's. Where now they're on a 10-game losing streak. They've got two guys in the rotation, Peterson and Senga, who have continued their struggles from last year . I had excuses for both guys on why this year would be different. And I wasn't alone. The Mets shared those excuses. In Peterson's case, he was worn down. In Sangha's case, he wasn't healthy and his mechanics were out of whack after he got hurt . And maybe seeing Sangha struggle again, third time and four starts, following David Peterson doing that a few days earlier, maybe that was enough for Carlos Mendoza and David Stearns to say, screw it. We we just can't do this every five days. We we have to try something. We have to do something different . Because after Senga put together this embarrassing three and a third innings, six hits, seven runs, six earned performance. We'll get to why the run was unearned in a little bit . Carlos Mendoza was asked about Senga making his next start, and it was very telling. It's like when a head coach is asked about the quarterback, usually they will say, No, he's my quarterback. He's my quarterback. He's my quarterback. Until the day where they say we have to reevaluate. The moment they say that after a game, uh, Brian Dable, I think, said that about Russell Wilson right before he pulled him. Aaron Glenn said it about Justin Fields. It's it's such a telltale sign that you're ready to make a quarterback change. So when Mendy was asked after Friday's game about Sangha making his next start, Mendy did not say, well, of course he'll make his next start. He's on the rotation. He went with uh, we'll see. I don't know. Game just end ed. That's all you needed to know about Senga . And I think that maybe having both of these guys continue their struggles from last year, and you combine that with the losing streak, getting to ten. I think that's what made the Mets say, Screw, we gotta make a change . I'm sure some listening to this, this Rico Bronia may have gotten more information if you're listening to this closer to game action on Sunday afternoon and whatever Carlos Mendoza explains, but it doesn't sound like it's an injury. It sounds like the day before David Peterson was scheduled to make a start. The night before, we're talking 18 hours before first pitch. The Mets made a switch. And I think that switch is related to the fact that they're desperate. And Steve Cohen can tweet that they're not, and David Stearns can say Mendy's doing a heck of a job . Like Brownie's doing a heck of a job, for those that remember that . But there's panic. It is panic city . Because even though I'll say at the top, the math doesn't eliminate the Mets as bad as things are. 7 and 14 doesn't eliminate you. But what if this gets to 15 in a row? You know, what if this gets to not seven and fourteen, but 10 and 29? You know, whatever crazy record you want to come up with. The point is, what if this gets worse? Right now there's seven games under 500. I mean, it's it's something that you could erase in a week and a half if you play really good baseball, if you're a streaky team . But I think right now, whether it's the manager or it's the team president, or dare I say it's the owner, they realize we got to do something . And so Tobias Myers is going to make the start in game three of this series. More on that later. A few more thoughts about game one. We get to breathe eighty. I mentioned before the defense has mostly been the strength of the team. That's not really a compliment because every aspect of this team stinks. Their bullpen has faltered recently. Their rotation, especially two fifths of it, has been bad. And we know about the LD offense. So if you had to pick a strength, what would it be? Well, what's not a strength? And I don't want to Now's the time to safe on new carpet at the home depot. Receive 10% off your total carpet project and 12 months special financing. Plus, we'll measure your space for free. Choose from a variety of stylish on-trend options fit for everyday life with life proof, lifeproof with pet-proof technology, home decorators collection, and traffic master carpets. Save 10% and get 12-month special financing now at the Home Depot. Offer valid April 16th through May 3rd, 2026. Exclusion supply for licenses see homedepot.com slash license numbers. K-pop demon hunters, Haja Boys Breakfast Meal, and Huntry's meal have just dropped at McDonald's. They're calling this a battle for the fans. What do you say to that, Rumi? It's not a battle so glad the Saja boys could take breakfast and give our meal the rest of the day it is an honor to share no it's our honor it is our larger honor no really stop you can really feel the respect in this battle. Pick a meal to pick a side. Participating McDonald's while supplies last . I don't wanna say what most of us wanna say about first base because we want to be mentally healthy and we don't want to bring up the past that we can't change . But this organization is employing a different first baseman every day. And Brett Beatty, I thought in spring training looked like a competent first baseman. And I said, and I still actually believe that Brett Beatty has a chance to be a competent defensive first baseman. But the way this team is built right now, he's not playing first base every day. He plays a lot of right field. I get why, but he plays a lot of right field. He doesn't play a lot of first base . So in the fourth inning, with Wasgar Brazzaban on the mound, and it already being a six-three game, but the game isn't over. It's the fourth inning, especially with the Met offense showing a pulse. Huascar Brazaban is about to get out of the fourth inning. He gets Ian Happy to ground ball, hit a ground ball to first base, and Brett Beatty boots it . And I'm frustrated by so many elements of that. Yes, Brett Beatty is the baseball player who needs to make the play. Of course, it's on Brett Beatty. I'm frustrated by the fact that the Mets have a cavalry of crap just switching off at first base. I still have my running list. Right now, here are the standings in terms of first base playing time. Eleven for Vientos, four for Beatty, four for Jared Young, and two for Jorge Polanco, who is finally on the I.L. But Brett Beatty's only played it four times. Let that sink in . Four times . So So I don't want to make an excuse for him because Brett Beatty has been awful this season. And again, he's a major leaguer who has to make the play. It is a ground ball right at him. If he's playing third base, he's got to make that play. It's a ground ball right at him. But as he boots it and just hands the Cubs a seventh run, I got a lot of thoughts in my head. And yes, one of the thoughts involves the guy who played first base every day, uninterrupted for basically a decade. I mean, I'm exaggerating a decade, but you get the point. And then I start thinking about they don't even have a first baseman. They play 10 guys over there . And this guy in Beatty has only played there four times . So when he makes an error, and we all want to get upset at him, and we should, he made a miscue. It just pisses me off even more that it's not like he's just being run out there every day to learn the position . He's not . And part of me is convinced that if he was, he doesn't make that error. But he does make that error. And I can't ignore the fact that at seven of three, the Met offense then went to sleep. It's not like it did anything. The three runs it scored in the second inning, that was it . They had guys on base , and they couldn't get the big hit . And then you see the Cubbies making all the plays defensively. Bo Bouettech was about to get his second hit of the game in the fifth inning. The Mets were about to put two on and two out for Lindor, and there's Nico Horner making a diving play. That game was a slow death. Because then you get Sean Maniah letting the game slip away in the seventh inning, giving up a couple of doubles and a wild pitch, and then finally the two-run home run to Ian Hap that blew the game open. But the Mets had scoring opportunities. The LD offense had a chance. I go back to the eighth inning of this game when they had a couple of infield hits. They scored a run. They had the bases loaded and one out. Despite the score being 10 to 4, they got the bases loaded and one out. And I have this perverse thought in my head, because I'm a loser , that the Mets are going to turn their season around, and when they do, it's gonna be epic, right? It's not just gonna be a normal win, it's gonna be this this epic win . So 10-4 , bases loaded, one out for Vientos. Why not? Why can't this be the epic win? Six runs down on the road in Chicago. So much history there. And Mark Vientos bounces into a double play. What a killer. What an absolute killer moment that was. And that's really the story of this team. The story of this season. A couple of other things about game one. They made the lineup ch ange of going to Lindor batting third, and Carson Benge leading off wasn't the obvious option. But you think about it, where else are you gonna go? You want to go to Francisco Alvarez? Is because he's been get been getting on base a lot . You want to go to Luis Robert Jr. because he's been getting on base a lot. I think those are two options, I guess. I mean, the Alvarez run is weird, but I think at this point nothing's weird. The bench thinging was interest, and I thought Benge's at-bats so far in this series have actually been pretty good. He's showing a little bit of promise. He's showing a little bit of growth. He doesn't look overmatched by major league pitching, which I thought he did a couple of weeks ago. So I don't think he's been awful. He went one for four in game one with a couple of hard hit balls. He got on base one time in game two, but took it home for four, but he did have that 10-pitch at bat the first half bat of the game a game two before he struck out. So if you look closely, I don't think he's been overwhelmed, but it was a an odd choice, a surprising choice to go to a rookie hitting 15 1 as the answer at leadoff. I had no problem dropping Lindor to three. I mean, you you could try anything you want right now . But the reason I haven't spent a lot of time talking about them at lineup, even here on the RICO, is that I think it's meaningless. I think when you've got so many guys not hitting, so many guys underperforming, that you know, we can waste our time saying, well, try this, try that, try that. You could try whatever the hell you want . Until guys perform, it doesn't matter . So when I saw Bench was leading off, I was surprised, no doubt about it. I certainly didn't expect it. But I wasn't doing any dancing in the streets. That's for sure. It was just like, all right, we're gonna try something. But what I didn't like involving Carson Bench back in game one. Little thing, but kind of a big thing. Is that in the ninth inning, the Mets are down 12 to 4. The game is obviously over. I'm not even sure how many people were watching at this point. But it's 12 to 4. It's the top of the ninth inning. And Holby Milner, the left hander, is in for Chicago to try to end the game. And there's a runner on first and nobody out, and Carson Bench, the aforementioned Carson Bench, is due up . And Mendy sends up Tom my Fam to pinch it . Why ? Number one, Tommy Fam looks cooked. Okay, it's just a limited amount of at-bats, but he looks cooked. And number two, if there's ever gonna be a moment for you to tell Carson Bench, face the lefty . Let's see what happens . Why not at a 12-4 game in the ninth inning? It's not bases loaded, two outs down by a run, and obviously we're all desperate for a win, so you're just going to put the best matchup out there and we could argue what it is. You're down twelve to four in the ninth inning . You believe enough in Carson Bench that you're leading him off, that in the midst of a losing streak, you have decided that the guy who's gonna break the leadoff spot hole with Lindor doing it basically for a year and a half straight . The guy you're going to have do it is a 151 rookie, but you can't let him face Hobie Milner in the ninth inning of an eight-run game. What are we doing? That is not a reason why they lost. They were down 12 to 4. It is not even a reason to fire Carlos Mendoza, but it's an observation, and it doesn't make any sense . And that opener was just such a dud. So it was an afternoon game. I'm not sure how many people watched it or listened to it on the radio or did the DVR thing. I did the D VR thing. I started the game at about four o'clock, so it was a little bit late. And I got it done right before I went out to dinner. And as I'm watching this game, thinking about dinner and thinking about my Friday night, I don't know if other people have had this emotion over the last two days. I didn't have this for the Dodgers series, but I had it late Friday afternoon and I had it on Saturday afternoon too, watching the Mets lose again. I was almost comat ose. Like I was watching the game and thoughts were going through my head, like I just said, you know, why you're pinch hitting for this guy? Big moment for Vientos. I'm sick of Kodai Senga, Brett Beatty, first base, Pete Alonzo, you know, all these thoughts are going through my head. But I'm watching it and I didn't even get like that stomach ache. You know, when I watch a Met game and it's close and I'm nervous, you get a little bit of a stomachache. Bigger the game, the bigger the stomach ache. I got nothing. I was like sitting there as if I was watching a documentary. I felt emotionless watching the game. Doesn't mean I don't care anymore. I do. I still score the entire freaking game, like the loser I am , but I was almost just going through the motions. And I felt the same way on Saturday. I watched that game on D VR as well. Same thing a little bit later. Uh did a whole Saturday afternoon thing with the family. I think I don't think I got this game started actually till six o'clock. I think I started WrestleMania, the Knicks, and the Mets game all at the same time. What a trifecta that was. So I'm watching game two , and I'm going through the same thing. Like Vientos hits this bomb of a home run. Great. I'm I'm I'm happy. I mean, as bad as Vientos has been, and we just talked about him bouncing into that double play with the bases loaded in game one. They need Mark Vientos. They almost have to run him out there every day because they don't have any other great options . So he hits the home run, and I'm same thing. It's like, oh, okay, that's good.' And were going to lose, but that's good. And even when Freddie Peralta in the bottom of the second inning does the thing that annoys me the most, which is immediately get back a lead. I hate that. I despise, especially from a guy who's supposed to be the ace. He's supposed to be the ace. You were just given a lead. Can you hold it for more than 35 seconds? That's what she said. And instead, he's given up a bomb of a home run to Ian Happ . But I'm watching this and I'm just shaking my head saying, we're gonna lose. Like, it's just a matter of how . How ugly it gets . But yeah, that home run that Freddie gave up to Ian Hap, that one pissed me off. I used to really uh dislike Tommy Glavin because I thought Tom Glavin would always , always give up that run as soon as his team gave him a run. Game five of the NLCS against the Cardinals jumps out at me. They gave him a lead and like he immediately gave it back. And for a guy who's a Hall of Famer, which Tom Glavin was and is , that's not acceptable . And I know that Freddie Peralta pitched reasonably well in this game, reasonably well . But that's a problem. You want to be an ace. You want to make thirty-five million dollars a year. You give it a one-nothing leak. Can you hold on to it for more than five minutes? And he immediately gives it back on the half home run and then has a second inning that in a lot of ways did him in because it was such a laborious inning. He threw so many pitches to get through that second. And he did get through that second inning. He got through two on, one out jam against the bottom of the order, pop-ups against Crow Armstrong and Sw anson . But his pitch count started to balloon. And even though he had a relatively economical third and fourth, you just had this worry aboutbout is that pitch count going to explode high enough where he can't get through six? Or does he wear down and eventually give in ? Because you knew when Vientos hit that home run, thanks for the run mark, that'll probably be the only run the Mets score. And it almost was. Almost was . But you look at Freddy's outing , and he was pitching well. He gets to the sixth inning. He's got two outs and nobody on. His pitch count at that point is in like the mid-80s. So it looked like Freddie was going to be able to erase that laborious second inning. And I'm even starting to do the thing I shouldn't do, which is wow, if he can get through this sixth inning relatively quickly and he was on his way, would they dare push him for the seventh? It's an option. You have a relatively fresh bullpen. They used Brazoban the day before. They used Minaya. So you know Minaya isn't available but Brazban should be, and the rest of the bullpen should be available . And then you get the two out walk. That is always the killer , the two out walk. And then he has that battle with Saya Suzuki. I think he had struck him out at one point, but it got overturned. Rightfully so. The pitch was off the plate. And he walked Saya Suzu ki. And at 93 pitches , I agreed. I don't know if I'm going to get killed by my fellow Met fans on this. I agreed with Mendy taking him out. And I'll tell you why. It had more to do with who was coming up and my faith in Brooks Rayleigh than anything else. Because if you keep Peralta in after back-to-back walks, you're talking about this beast who we mentioned earlier, Moises Balasterios, who has been tremendous, hit the home running game one, had a base hit two innings earlier, and I don't know about you, he scares the crap out of me. So I didn't like Peralta facing him again. I just didn't. I wasn't up for it. And Brooks Rayleigh's been very reliable. He really has. I know in his last performance against the Dodgers, he gave up the lead. A lot of it was bad luck. He did issue a walk, but he gave up a bunch sack and a blue base hit the left field to Kyle Tucker . So I didn't lose confidence in Brooks really based on that performance, but maybe I should have . Because the very first pitch he throws to Carson Kelly is a bomb of a three-run home run. And there's no defending that . This is one of the rare times, and we haven't said it very often over the last couple of years on the Rico , where we can look at Brooks Rayleigh and say, Bro, you cost us . He has been so good out of the bullpen. He has been so reliable out of the bullpen, which is why I like the move, which is why I was in favor of the move. And I think one of the big arguments that I'm sure many Met fans will have is that we gave up two prospects. He's supposed to be an ace. What are we doinging? Pull them out in the sixth inning? And may I say that those are great points. Like I get it . I get that when you give up two top 100 prospects for a starting pitcher in a contract year, your expectation is you're an ace, and I believe my ace could be able to get through two on, two out in the sixth inning with a pitch count of 93 . I I totally get that sentiment. But here's my sentiment. My sentiment is what gives me the best chance to win? Not is this what an ace is supposed to do? We could have that argument on sports talk radio. We could have that argument on the Rico , but in the midst of the game, I just want the matchup that makes the most sense. And so what I would ask every single person out there is what matchup going in, not knowing the result, going in , did you have more confidence in ? Freddie Peralta, who had walked two guys in a row versus Moises Belister os, who's sitting 370 . Literally, that's his batting a verage. Or Brooks Rayleigh against the pinch hitting Carson Kelly . I to me it's Rayleigh versus Kelly. It just didn't work. Sometimes that happens. It just did not work. And with this team, nothing works. I mean, with this team, even the smart moves don't work and the dumb moves don't work. But after Raleigh gives up that three-run home run, allowing the two Peralta runs to score, so it it closes a book on Freddie that's not very good. Five and two-thirds innings, three runs. But if Rayleigh does his job, it's five and two-thirds innings, one run. Our view on Peralta's performance is very different if Brooks really does his job. I don't have an answer for this, but I almost feel like there needs to be some kind of stat that shows that the runs the pitcher gave up. Yeah, they were yours, but someone else was the one that allowed them the touch home plate. I don't know how to do that. I don't know what you would possibly do. We have inherited runners stranded as a reliever stat, but what do we have for the starting pitcher? Because again, if Brooks Ray does his job, it's five and two thirds innings, one run . He doesn't do his job. It's five and two thirds innings, three runs . But after Rayleigh gives up that three run home run, and again, comatose feeling watching this game, you know, the Mets had nine outs . They had nine outs to rally against the Chicago Bullpen. And you know what they managed ? Three hits, which is great. Three hits, that's fine. Three in field hits . It did get them a run on the Alvarez one, but three infield hits. That's what this offense did . Against Ben Brown and Caleb Fieldbar. That's what they did. This episode is brought to you by Indeed. Stop waiting around for the perfect candidate. Instead, use Indeed sponsored jobs to find the right people with the right skills fast. It's a simple way to make sure your listing is the first candidate C. According to Indeed Data, sponsored jobs have four times more applicants than non-sponsored jobs. So go build your dream team today with Indeed. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and Conditions apply . 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It'd be great. I I I'm excited to see Ju . Is that gonna fix everyone else in this lineup ? Is that gonna change it for everybody? They mentioned on the SNY broadcast a fascinating stat that since Soto's left, the chase rate as a team is through the roof and the walk rate has shrunk . I can see how Soto has an impact on his teammates, maybe specifically on Luis Robert Jr. But he can't perform magic . He just can't. These guys need to, as like a collective unit, just hit a lot more. And I said the other day their identity can be their starting pitching. Well, they got two liabilities in their rotation, one of which may have just been pulled in David Peterson Now let's get to that decision because there are some interesting ramifications from it. And one thought I want to throw out there immediately about this is that when they decide not to start David Peterson. They had another option besides Tobias Myers. And I'm not talking about anybody from the minor leagues. Christian Scott has made two good starts after his bad beginning to triple A. Uh is Christian Scott ready ? Like the Mets calling up Christian Scott next week reeks of we're desperate. We're rushing him whatever. Like this kid is off Tommy John surgery and he's made three starts in triple A . And the Mets are in a rush to call him up. I wouldn't do it. Jonathan Tang has been inconsistent at AAA . He's not ready. Weninger looks more impressive in the handful of starts he's made at AAA , but before I even get to that, the other option for Sunday was, wait for it, Nolan McClain . It's his fifth day . The reason it's not going to be Nolan McLean, despite it being his fifth day, is that they probably, if they planned on having him start, needed him to know by Wednesday or Thursday so that he could have begun or begun his off-day program. And when he throws his bullpen, it would have been altered for him to pitch on Sunday. But clearly the Mets made a last second decision, which goes back to my original thesis: that even though one thing doesn't necessarily have to do with the other, I'm convinced the losing streak and Senga pitching horribly on Friday led to Peterson's decision. Because David Peterson pitched on Monday. Let's keep that in mind . Six days ago . And when he pitched that game, the Mets very well could have looked at it. What was his final line? Let me pull it up real quick. Five innings, four runs . It was not a horrendous performance, but it certainly wasn't a good performance. Tuesday morning they could have decided we're not starting David Peterson. Wednesday, they could have decided we're not starting David Peterson . And if they had decided that days earlier, then Nolan McLean could have just been, hey, you're going to start on your fifth day. Your fifth day is Sunday . I always assumed when I jotted down the Met rotation, he wasn't going to do it because they have a full rotation, and why not steal a couple of extra days of rest? Because it's not just five days rest, it's six days rest because they have an off day on Monday . Why not ? Well the why not is that you've lost ten in a row ? The why not is that you're pulling David Peterson out of the rotation . So what kind of operation are they running right now? A last second. Ah, this isn't working. Let's try this. If you plan this out on Wednesday or Thursday, Nolan McLean makes the start. And it's not even that big of a deal. It's his fifth day, like I said . And with the Mets having it off day on Monday , you were gonna find an extra day for him at some point if you want. You could keep him on his fifth day and say, hey, we're so desperate that he's our best pitcher. We're just gonna pitch him every five days, which you have every right to do. He's young, he's strong. Why not? What are you saving him from? What are you worried about? All pitchers are walking time bombs . But they didn't decide to do that. Instead, they decided Tobias Myers. And I don't know how long Tobias Myers can go. It's been not quite a month since they stopped stretching him out, but it's been four weeks since spring training when they were stretching him out. So what are you looking at? Three for innings from Tobias Myers and then you go to Austin Warren and you go to Luke Weaver , and maybe you go to Waskar Brazban. I don't know if you go to Brooks Rayleigh, who now has had two so-so performances in a row, including giving up a home run for the first time in like three years . For an organiz ation run by David Stearns that gives off a perception that they're very smart and they're very organized, it does feel like they don't know what they're doing. And I try not to immerse myself, especially early in the season, with all the things around us to make us feel worse. Like, hey, how the Braves pitching with Jeremy Hefner at pitching coach? Oh, wait, they got one of the best TRAs in baseball. Or Brandon Nimmo is tearing it up. How do you compare him to Marcus Simeon ? Or Jeremiah Jackson looks great in Baltimore, once property of the New York Mets . Or uh Cameron, what's the kid they traded for uh Tyrone Taylor and Adrian Hauser? Crow . Coleman Crow, who they traded to the Brewers. Look at his stuff. It's amaz ing. I I try not to just get inundated with more stuff to piss us off . But it's tough . And you know, my wife said something to me. She is not a sports fan. And she said something to me today that uh most people are gonna say, oh God, don't, don't tell your wife who cares. But I was explaining the 10-game losing streak and how every move looks bad and David Stearns blew the team up. Like maybe he's not as smart as we think. You know, just giving her the the thumbnail on what's going on . And she said, well, how do you think he feels ? And I said, what ? And she said, how do you think he feels? He's the one who made all these decisions. He can't be happy right now. And I said, I don't care how he feels . Like I'm sure when you're bad at your job or bad at your job is a is a general statement. We'll we'll have more time to judge if he's bad at his job. So far, his moves this season look horrendous. I'm sure you don't go to bed feeling good , but we feel worse . We as fans, I think are taking it worse. And you know why we're taking it worse? Not because we're fans and we care more, but because we so passionately disagreed with some, if not a lot, of the things he did. And so when you disagree about something and you're bothered about something and then you realize because you're a healthy human being, hey, I gotta move on. All right, I didn't get what I wanted. Let's hope for the best. Or maybe even you talk yourself into thinking things are going to be okay, and then it all sucks. I mean, it's all awful 21 games in, you just get really resentful. And you say, Come on, bro, we tried to tell you . But what I would remind everybody listening, and I remind myself, this is why I said it's a therapy session, we're 21 games into the season . And I said this in 2024 as the season kept spiraling and spir aling and spiraling, I said one of the things I love about baseball is everything can change on a dime . And right now, this team needs everything to change on a dime badly. Speaking of not knowing what they're doing, Jorge Polanco , how do you explain how they handled this over the last two weeks. We all know he's hurt . He can't play the field. He has not played the field since the second game of the season . He looks terrible at the plate. He can't run balls out late in games when the game is close. And they waited until yesterday to put him on the injured list. Goes back to what I said. It looks like they don't know what they're doing . This looks like a Met team from 12 years ago. This feels like so many different Met moments, the Brody era, part of the Omar era , the uh three general manager era , like so many awful recent eras in Met history where you looked and said, Boy, they really don't know what they're doing. It feels like they don't know what they're doing . Why was Jorge Polanco allowed to play baseball for the last two weeks? We all were looking at it saying, why isn't this guy on the I.L. So he's finally on the I.. L I do agree with calling up Hayden Singer . I had mentioned this not even here, but on Evan Tiki on Tuesday. I had said to Tiki, you know what I would do? I'd put Polanco on the I. L and I'd call up Hayden Singer. And he said, why? And I said, not because I want Hayden Sanger to play, but because I think Alvarez is such a valuable weapon right now offensively, and we know how good Terence is defensively. And he's also a right-hand ed bat you can use off the bench. It allows you more flexibility in terms of starting both Terenz and Alvarez or just having Terenz come off the bench by having a third catcher . So I like that move. That that was excuse me. That was a move I liked . They also brought in Austin Warren, another reliever that I wanted them to call up. He had pitched well at AAA . He had pitched well last year when he was on the Syracuse shuttle. He's not quite in the circle of trust quite yet. He's only pitched once since being called up, and it wasn't very good. But I agreed with giving him a shot up here. Craig Kembroll has looked good out of the bullpen so far. I think we'll see his role start to to elevate . But right now, going into the finale of this series, and then eventually a nine game homest and . They they they just have to find a way to not win a game. Like winning a game will make us feel good because it will stop this temporary embarrassment, but they got to find a way to just get hot. And the more you watch them, the more it's tough to imagine that's going to happen. They just don't feel like it. They don't, they don't feel like a good team. And I I try to remember the old baseball adage and certainly something my dad would always say, which is you're never as bad as you are when you're bad, and you're never as good as you are when you're hot, and we tend to over exaggerate the good and over exaggerate the bad. And unfortunately the bad is occurring very early in the season . But it's tough to imagine that all of a sudden they're just going to be good. That all of a sudden they're going to win a game and it starts. It's just gonna like like a faucet opening. They're just gonna pile up victories. It's tough imagining that. It's also tough imagining that Juan Soto's just gonna walk through that door and be red hot . And I'm worried, I've said this on the last Rico, I'll say it again. I am worried that they're gonna rush Juan Soto back. This is a desperate organization right now. Everybody feels desperate, especially with these moves they're making right now in the rotation. It all feels desperate. Do not bring Juan Soto back too soon. Now let's address the manager in terms of firing him or not . I feel like a broken record because I know I've said this many times over the years, and I feel like it needs to be said again. Because sometimes I'll get emails, the rico be at gmail.com or I'll see the interactions on Twitter where the question is framed as is this Carlos Mendo za's fault? And that's in response to should they fire him or not . It doesn't matter. I don't know how many times I have to say this. It does not matter if it's his fault or not . This is the way baseball has been for a hundred plus years. We can go through midseason managerial changes until the Cows come home. How many times is it truly the manager's fault? Not often , but sometimes, whether it's late in the season or the middle of the season or right now, twenty-one games in , you gotta make changes . So I've been asking everybody if the clock strikes midnight as the moment where you fire the manager, what time is it? And a couple of days ago I was at about 8:15. Here's where I'm at. It's 10:30. It's getting very late. Not because it's Mendy's fault, but because they are 7 and 14. The season is spiraling. And when the when the ship is sinking, like you're on the Titanic and it is going down . What are you gonna do? Are you just gonna jump in the ocean and swim? Are you gonna try to plug some holes? What are you gonna do? I'm a believer that you have to try something. I'm not just gonna give up. I'm not just gonna say, well, you know what? I have this nice furniture. I guess I'll just sit in it. Hopefully, it doesn't sink . So I would try something . And if they lose the finale of this series to the Chicago Cubs and we are looking at an 11-game losing streak coming home, I think you have to try something. And I'll give you a few reasons why. Again, not blaming Carlos Mendoza for every ill of the New York Mets. Number one , and I wonder how much this matters with a veteran team, it changes the conversation. Like all of a sudden, Tuesday night becomes a new opening day. It's like a new beginning at 7 and 15. Instead of all the conversation being around how all of these players have underachieved, and everything that's gone wrong with the team. Like it just changed. It's all about the manager . Number two, we have seen teams for whatever reason g spetsarked by a managerial change, it just happens. I don't want to even say sometimes you need a new voice because there's so many new players on this team. So it's like, why would you need a new voice? But ultimately, you have to try something, you can't just let the ship sink . I cannot believe that it's mid-April. It's not even late April. It's mid-April. And we are talking about a season spiraling . So you gotta try something . I think it's going to be very difficult for David Stearns to fire Carlos Mendoza this early because two days ago he sat there and said Mendy's doing a heck of a job. So I don't know how three days later you could fire him. Which is why I thought when David Stearns met the media on Friday and was as positive for Mendy as he was, I said to myself, wow, okay, he's not getting fired. He's not getting fired anytime soon . But right now, he doesn't have answers . And his answers tend to be the same over and over and over and over again . So it's not his fault, but you have to try something. So my clock on when I would say fire him is at ten thirty. If they lose Sunday, I may be jumping an hour and a half like it's uh like it's New Year. What's that thing called where we where we changed the clocks? Uh Daylight savings. Yeah. My clock may jump like daylight savings if they lose Sunday to Chicago. Pete Hoffman, I ask you, you are a big giant clock . What time is it in terms of getting rid of this manager? I mean I am not at twelve o'clock. I am not even at 10 30. I'm not even at 9 o'clock right now. I'm at 7 . Wow. Okay. Yeah. I I gotta be honest with you. Like this is to me , this is absurd that we have to talk about firing this manager. And I understand we can sit there and say whose fault it is, whose fault it's not. This is a whole completely different team, a whole completely different coaching staff. What the what are we doing? What this guy was set to fail. Why would you even bring him back if that was the case . And and all these decisions that we're sitting there saying it's Carlos Mendoza that you know is making these decisions, is it really Carlos Mendoza? I know we've gone through this before we say this with boone all the time is he really making the decisions but when you have a team that doesn't have a first baseman they they don't have a first baseman . Whose decision is that who's playing first base today? Is that Mendoza? Is he going through? I think it's a bit of let me let me let me try. Let me try uh Vieto. Send me to the keep this in mind. But keep this in mind. It's like I said before. When a team fires a manager, how often is it truly their fault? Never. You're right. Well, that's not true. No, no, I'm sure sometimes it it is their fault, but my point is I'm not trying to litigate or put this on Carlos Mendoza but I am a believer that sometimes you you gotta try something. I was a big uh I kind of feel guilty about it all these years later to a degree, because I really like Willie Randolph and I thought the Mets the way they fired him was dirty. But I was on the radio saying they needed to fire Willie Randolph. And it wasn't because he was bad at his job and it wasn't because I didn't like him, it was because I saw a team that was in the mud and they had to try something. And people would call up and say, well, it's not Willie's fault. No, I'm not saying it was Willie's fault, but they had to try something and they finally did it. And forget about how dirty it was or, if Jerry Manuel stabbed them in the back. Let's take that stuff out for a second. Sure. It worked because the Mets played better baseball. And so managerial changes will sometimes get a team going, even if it's a newly built team like the one we're talking about. You know what though? And I understand I get it. I liked the David Stearns from two years ago when his moves weren't working. They got the hell out of town. When when Joey Wendell didn't work out, you didn't see his ass here anymore. We saw them with a couple of relief pitches. Okay, fine. But guess who's not working here? Jorge Polanco's not working here. Guess who's not working here? Marcus Simi is not working. Kodai Sang is not working. I know you can't get rid of the whole team, but some you have to put fire under the players too, because you get rid of Carlos Mendoza, that's great. Kai Coran is going to take over, or Carl Speltran, or whomever, and we just expect Marcus Simeon to start performing again? Probably not . Marcus Simeon's had a good Marcus Simeon's had a good series. He's three for eight and got robbed of that ball down the left field line. This isn't the the day to pick. I picked a lot on Marcus Simeon. Even I've laid off on him today because he's actually played well in Chicago. I mean, come on. Uh again, we're getting excited over three for eight, like it's like you know, I'm just listening to walk off Grant Slam. There's not much to get excited about, so I just have to call it like it is. Let me read a couple of these emails, the Rico B at Gmail.com. Hopefully this therapy session has helped. We'll have another Rico Bronya after the series ends on Sunday afternoon. We'll give you the Rico I'm the man right now star of the series, the net negative. We'll look ahead to the upcoming homestand. We'll put a bow on this horrible road trip. Jordan writes, Evan, this sucks right now. No doubt about it. Win tomorrow. Have a good homestand season. Could be back on. Here's my defensive alignment for Sunday. Luis Terence catch, Beatty at first, Simeon at second, Lindor at short, Bachette at third, Tyrone Taylor and left, Luis Robert Jr. in center, Carson Benjamin right, Alvarez at DH. They need Alvarez's bat potential in the line up. Taylor has been somewhat showing up. Well, the one guy you forgot about is MJ Melendez. MJ Melendez, I know he got quieted a little bit in game two of this series by going 0 for three with a wal k. But Melendez has shown you a little bit of pop, a little bit of a something since being called up . Here's who I'm leaning towards playing, and this is just a general statement , not as much specifically about Sunday. I do like the idea of Terence catching and Alvarez DHing. Because I think that a Terenz is a better defender, not a knock on the way Alvarez has caught this year, but I think Torrenz is better. I think he gives you good at-ats, even if he's not going to put up big numbers overall, he'll give you quality at ads. And maybe like telling Alvarez: look , just tip, bro. Don't overthink it. Don't get banged up back there. Just slug. Maybe you could even maximize what you get out of Francisco Alvarez by doing that. My first baseman right now, I hate to say it, is probably Mark Vientos because Ron Darling said this on the broadcast, and I I happen to agree with him. Mark Vientos , of all the the in-between guys, like the in-betweeners, the Brett Beatties, the MJ Melendez, Tyrone Taylor, the in between guys who could start or not start, Mark Vientos has done the most. He's he's shown the most upside . And so even though yes, he just went through an old for a million , I think that that potential, that power potential that he has, especially when you're comparing him to all these other mediocre options, I lean towards him just because of the upside. And I think I'd play him at first base because he's just played the position a lot more than everybody else. And I think he's actually looked pretty good defensively at first base. So I would D.H. Alvarez, Vientos at first base . I think for now it's Benge , it's Robert Jr. And then that last outfield spot, Beatty M,elendez, Taylor, I don't know . Probably a day-by-day basis . That's how I think I would view it. That's how I would view until Soto comes back, the most of the time lineup . The most of the time lineup . Uh Michael writes, Evan, the Mets suck. What'd you think of WrestleMania ? I hate wrestling, but the Mets are unwatchable . I thought WrestleMania was very weird. Very, very strange. I thought the ending of it was not like a WrestleMania. That's how I would view it. And finally, Kenneth writes, because I can't I need to go to sleep and uh cleanse myself. Kenneth writes, hey guys, anybody look at Dom Smith stats this season ? Dude, and I may do an off-day recoil of this, or maybe I'll wait as the season spirals more and more out of control . I could make an all-depressing Met team this year. Like, just facts or players of guys who are either in our organization, the Jeremiah Jacksons of the world, or former players that are just performing really well elsewhere. I think I've already named a few today. Jeremy Hefner, pitching coach, Atlanta Braves. Brandon Nemo, Texas Rangers. Coleman Crow, reliever, Milwaukee Brewers. I think Brandon Spro threw the ball really well the other day, too. Throw that one in there while we're at it . It can't get worse, Kenneth. Just watch. We appreciate you listening to the Rico Bronya. Make sure you uh download and subscribe so you never miss a Rico. Like this one. This one that we recorded late Saturday night was planned out uh five minutes in advance. Basically, Hoff and I said, Hey, you're free, you're free, you're free. I think we need to Rico. I think we need a therapy session. So that's why you subscribe because you never know when some of these will pop up. Now I'm gonna do this on on the Rico to put you onto the fire here . Obviously, tomorrow we're gonna do one for the the recap of the series. If they lose that one though, and then they lose the next, should we just keep on Ricoing until they they break this losing streak? So like a daily Rico brunia until they win? Yeah, like a therapy session. Because every day it's gonna get if there's another losss, it' gonna be that much worse. Yeah, I so the answer is yes. I would also say that we have been at such a pace this year on Rico's that I don't think it matters. Like we've been doing them basically every day anyway. Yes, I know . All right, it doesn't it doesn't change much, but yeah, I I think that we will reco every single day until they win. So if they lose on Sunday, we'll not only do a series recap Sunday, we'll even do a Monday Rico to try to like get through the off day without you know giving up on baseball altogether. Yes. Well we'll try to do some rituals and some like therapy sessions and something that we could do that like you know will crack the curse. How about that? We're gonna try to crack the curse. That's that's all we can try to do. But no milk baths. Not yet. Not yet, at least . Give it time. There's a there's a guy who's emailed me a few times. I don't have it in front of me who has suggested, and he suggested this a while ago. So this was an idea that the man had during the offseason, and he's re posted it to me again that on June twelfth, we need to do something. Because two years in a row, the Met seasons have been altered around that time, two years ago for the good. And then last year, obviously, that was the day that Senga got hurt. And then the next day the season spiraled out of control. That's a big day in Met history where we may have to do something. But what will our record be on June 12th? What if we're 20 games out of first place ? Dude. And by the way, you see who's in first place right now in the NL East, who's having a field day? The Atlanta Braves. It's nice to have an ace like Chris Sale on the team, right? Well, uh, let me end with this positive. The Atlanta Braves are playing incredibly well and, they are building a big lead. I think we're seven games out now in the National League East, which is a lot. The Philadelphia Phillies have been awful. And so right now, despite how bad the Mets are, they're only a game and a half behind the Philadelphia Phillies, who are eight and