Palladino: Common Sense Has Fled Mets On All Levels
By Ernie Palladino
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For all their problems this year, the perfect storm of personal and institutional stupidity of the past week may finally cost the Mets their playoff chase.
On the personal side, a question: What in the world was Yoenis Cespedes and his barking quad doing on a golf course the morning before his final tweak sent him to the disabled list?
On the institutional side, why in the world does Terry Collins, apparently with the blessing of Sandy Alderson, keep running Steve Matz out there when it is obvious to anyone paying attention that he isn't successfully going to pitch through that king-sized spur in his pitching elbow?
It's pretty clear that in addition to the chronic lack of run production that has afflicted the Mets since the beginning of the season, a sudden case of numb-headedness has insinuated itself into the picture. Nobody -- not the players nor management -- is using their heads anymore. In an effort to pull every string possible to salvage a late-season run amid the injuries and physical blunders, common sense has flown out the window on all sides.
Take Cespedes, for instance. Here is the Mets' leading hitter, the guy whose power potential alone can make the trade for cleanup hitter Jay Bruce look like a genius move, playing golf Wednesday morning with retired Kevin Millar.
MORE: Kallet: Bruce Will Help Mets, But Without Healthy Cespedes They're Toast
Now, there's no way of telling whether 18 holes in the afternoon had anything to do with Cespedes tweaking that right quad in the final at-bat of a 1-for-5 showing in the 9-5 Subway Series loss that night. But it certainly didn't help. You see, for all the availability of golf carts, one still has to get out of the cart and swing the club.
A golf swing is just as complicated, if not more, than a baseball swing, at least for anyone beyond the level of weekend hacker. Cespedes, a golf addict by admission, is way beyond that. So one can assume he is deep into the mechanics of weight transference, rhythm, twist, and torque.
It's those last two that would affect an already injured quad most as the legs push and shift while the waist twirls the upper body into follow-through.
Cart or not, do that 85 or so times on a barking quad over a few hours and it couldn't have been great for a slugger who has slashed at .200/.273/.350 with one homer and three RBI over his last seven appearances.
It's true that Collins probably would have done better by sitting Cespedes on the DL instead of having him miss seven games after the quad went against the Nationals on July 8.
But Cespedes had to use his head, too. It's up to the player, himself, to be smart about his own body. And for Cespedes, that appears a greater challenge than any triple-digit, four-seamer he'll face on the diamond. Recall that golf got him in dutch for parlaying tee times with World Series games despite a bum shoulder.
He should have learned by now.
So should Alderson and Collins when it came to Matz. The left-hander's six-run, six-inning outing Wednesday was just the latest in a fall from 8-3 on June 12 to 8-8 currently. He's 1-5 with a 4.25 ERA over seven starts and probably should have been put on the DL long ago.
Problem is, management continues to fight a losing battle to keep intact what's left of an already depleted pitching staff. But what is the sense of repeatedly running a valuable, young arm in the throes of an injury-induced slump out there? All that does is increase the danger of not only another loss, but a premature end to his season.
He's acting the brave soldier about it all, taking the ball whenever called upon without complaint. But now it's time for the team to bail out the kid, for his own good. Maybe that will happen when Zack Wheeler gets back, but that won't be until early September, at best. And how much will Wheeler contribute if he does keep to the timetable?
In the meantime, the Mets did re-acquire Jon Niese at the trade deadline. He's not an ideal replacement, but Collins needs to consider him as a legitimate bailout for Matz.
MORE: Palladino: Niese Must Rebuild Bridge With Mets He Burned In Offseason
That would entail some common sense, though. And the Mets seem in desperately short supply of that right now on both the higher and lower levels.
At yet another critical juncture of the season, they'd better find some, and fast.
Follow Ernie on Twitter at @ErniePalladino
