The Dog Days of Summer Seem to Only Affect the Mets

If you've been living in the New York metropolitan area the last few weeks, you know it's been a hot summer, especially recently when temperatures have been in the 90s with heat indices soaring into triple digits.  In between breaths of hot and sticky air, you've probably heard someone mention that we're in the dog days of summer.  But what exactly are those canine 24-hour periods?

The dictionary definition of dog days is as follows:

• The sultry part of the summer, supposed to occur during the period that Sirius, the Dog Star, rises at the same time as the sun: now often reckoned from July 3 to August 11.

• A period marked by lethargy, inactivity or indolence.

Clearly, the second definition was created with the 2016 New York Mets in mind.

Just a few days after the astrological beginning of the dog days of summer, the Mets' record stood at 47-38 and they held a firm grip on the National League's top wild card spot.  Since then, the Mets have gone 10-20 and their players have developed those dreaded summer allergies - the ones that make them allergic to winning streaks longer than one game.

Since July 7, when the Mets were three games ahead of the Cardinals and Marlins, New York has the worst record in baseball.  Don't believe me?  Here, see for yourself.  Can't find the Mets?  Just look all the way down in the lower right hand corner - the spot usually reserved for last place teams.

The dog days have affected other competitive teams as well, as the Marlins and Cardinals have only been one game above .500 since July 7.  The Pittsburgh Pirates, who had the eighth-best record in the National League on July 7, are also just one game over the break-even point since that date.  But even that's been good enough to put them ahead of the Mets on the morning of August 13.  It should be noted that the Mets had the fourth-best record in the Senior Circuit five weeks ago, which means the Pirates only needed to be barely better than mediocre to leapfrog over four teams on their way to passing the defending National League champions in the wild card race.

The Mets have done nothing but fall apart since Sirius started to rise at the same time as the sun.  I mean that figuratively and literally, as Matt Harvey, Yoenis Cespedes, Jose Reyes, Asdrubal Cabrera and probably some other players you never realized were on the team (Justin Ruggiano, anyone?) have all been felled by the injury bug.  Still, even with the plethora of boo-boos, no one could have expected that this team would ever be the worst out of 30 teams for a period of just over a month.

Summer doldrums have affected the Mets in the past as well.  Just six years ago, the Mets' record stood at 45-35 on the morning of July 3, the date in which the dog days of summer begin in the astrological sense.  The team had the wild card lead and was only two games behind the first-place Braves in the N.L. East and three games ahead of the eventual division champion Phillies.  Five weeks later, they were below .500, behind the Phillies, and on the outside of the playoff race looking in.

Do you remember the 2002 season, when general manager Steve Phillips brought in a bunch of former All-Stars in Mo Vaughn, Jeromy Burnitz and Roberto Alomar to help the team go for its sixth straight winning season and third playoff trip in four years?  That team was 53-49 in late July and within striking distance of the wild card-leading Dodgers.  Then ... KABOOM!  That's the sound a Flushing Free Fall makes when the team proceeds to go 8-25 in its next 33 games, which included a 12-game losing streak in mid-August and the loss of every home game in the entire month.  For all you kids out there, that's an 0-13 record in August.

And what about the 1992 Mets, also known as "The Worst Team Money Could Buy"?  That team was actually just four games out of first place on July 24 and appearing to be worth every penny invested in it.  But less than a month later, the team was 15 games off the pace in the division after losing 19 of 24 games.

The dog days of summer affect every major league team.  Players get tired over a long season and especially when the weather is hot and humid.  But over the years, those days have been particularly rough on the Mets.  This season has been no exception.

Last night's loss to the Padres was the Mets' 20th defeat in their last 30 games.  If you believe in astrological definitions, the dog days of summer ended two days ago.  Perhaps someone should tell the Mets that the Dog Star is no longer rising with the sun and hope that this information can help the team rise in the wild card standings.  The Mets could certainly use all the help they can get.

The Most With The Least: Hisanori Takahashi (2010)

Ever since Hideo Nomo burst onto the major league scene with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995, creating a craze at Chavez Ravine not seen since the days of Fernando-mania, the pipeline for Japanese players has remained quite active in the United States, particularly for the Mets.  Two years after Nomo became the first player from Japan to win the Rookie of the Year award - edging out future Mets killer Chipper Jones for the honor - the Mets signed their first Japanese player in reliever Takashi Kashiwada.

Kashiwada became the first of 15 players born in Japan to play for the Mets from 1997 to 2010, making Flushing the top destination in the major leagues for Japanese players.  However, none of the 15 athletes achieved the success and adulation that Nomo (who was one of the 15, becoming a Met in 1998) earned in Los Angeles.

Masato Yoshii won 12 games for the Mets in 1999 - albeit with a high ERA (4.40) and WHIP (1.30) - then fizzled in the postseason, pitching just 13 innings in three starts.  Tsuyoshi Shinjo became the first position player from Japan to don a Mets uniform in 2001.  But after a decade of being a rock star in Japan, he became soft rock in New York and was gone after just one somewhat productive season (returning for a shorter, less productive stint with the Mets in 2003).  And who could forget Kaz Matsui?  If the Mets signed him specifically to hit home runs in his first at-bat each season, then they were wildly successful, as Matsui did just that in each of this three years in New York.  But high expectations, in addition to temporarily displacing the more popular Jose Reyes to second base in 2004, caused the Matsui era in Flushing to be mostly forgettable.

It wasn't until 2010, when a lesser-known veteran pitcher joined the Mets, that the team found a Japanese player who actually exceeded expectations in New York.  He also developed an unexpected following and redefined himself during his one season with the Mets to became a lights-out reliever, helping the team improve by nine wins after a disappointing season the year before.

Hisanori Takahashi found success in New York in multiple roles.  (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Hisanori Takahashi played ten years in his native Japan from 2000 to 2009.  Unlike some of his more celebrated peers, Takahashi didn't begin his Japan Central League career until he was 25 years old.  And although he was a popular player in his home country, his career as a starting pitcher and sometimes reliever had its share of ups and downs.  He was an All-Star who helped the Yomiuri Giants win three championships, but he also had a number of poor seasons, which made several major league teams hesitant to sign him when he declared his interest to pitch in the United States as a 35-year-old in 2010.  But the Mets were a team in disarray and needed all the help they could get, especially in the pitching department.

After winning the N.L. East division crown in 2006 and falling one game short of the playoffs in 2007 and 2008, the Mets crumbled completely in 2009, finishing the year with a 70-92 record as several key players spent a significant amount of time on the disabled list.  One of the glaring weaknesses on the 2009 team was its pitching, as the staff finished the year with a 4.45 ERA - the third-worst mark in franchise history, surpassed by only the 2003 club (4.48 ERA) and the inaugural 1962 squad (5.04 ERA).

John Maine and Oliver Perez combined to make just 29 starts in 2009 and Johan Santana also had his season cut short due to injuries.  The only pitcher who remained healthy in 2009 and was guaranteed a spot in the starting rotation in 2010 was Mike Pelfrey, who became the first and only pitcher in team history to make 30 or more starts and finish the year with an ERA above 5.00, as he posted a 5.03 ERA in 31 starts during the nightmarish 2009 campaign.  Needless to say, the Mets went into the 2009-2010 off-season needing to bolster its pitching in the worst way.

A week before the start of spring training, the Mets signed Takahashi to a one-year, $1 million deal, with the potential to earn $2 million more in performance bonuses.  At the time, Anthony Nakanishi - who worked for Takahashi's team of agents - was quite optimistic for his agency's client.

"This could work out very well for the Mets," said Nakanishi.  "Hisanori is a bit of a late bloomer and like some other left-handed pitchers from Japan, like Hideki Okajima, his pitching style may translate even better in major league baseball.  Who knows, he could win 15 games.  It's a possibility."

Of course, Nakanishi had to say positive things about Takahashi to give Mets fans a reason to be optimistic and not boo his client from day one.  Those same fans had seen several Japanese players try to succeed in New York, with most of them failing miserably.  But predicting 15 wins for a pitcher competing for the role of fifth starter on a 70-win team?  That seemed like quite a stretch.  But before long, Nakanishi's words almost seemed prophetic, even after his client failed to earn a spot in the starting rotation coming out of spring training.

"What has my agent gotten me into?  15 wins?  Really?"  (Kyodo News, via AP)

Takahashi pitched very well for the Mets in his first spring training outside of Japan, holding opposing hitters to a .170 batting average and collecting 14 strikeouts in 13 innings of work.  But even with Jonathon Niese struggling in his Grapefruit League appearances, opening the potential for Takahashi to sneak into the rotation, manager Jerry Manuel preferred to see Takahashi in the bullpen.  When Opening Day arrived, the Mets' rotation consisted of Santana, Maine, Perez, Pelfrey and Niese, with Takahashi joining Pedro Feliciano as the team's second lefty option in the bullpen.

Takahashi's major league debut did not go well.  On April 7, 2010, the Mets erased a five-run, seventh-inning deficit against the Florida Marlins, scoring two runs in the seventh and three more in the eighth to tie the game, 6-6.  Closer Francisco Rodriguez had been used to preserve the tie in the top of the ninth inning, but was due to lead off in the bottom of the frame, causing Manuel to insert Ruben Tejada (who was also making his debut in the big leagues) into the game as a pinch hitter.  When Tejada and the rest of the team failed to push across a run, Manuel gave the ball to Takahashi to start the tenth, who allowed the Marlins to score the go-ahead run on two singles and a walk.  Takahashi was saddled with the loss in the debut, as the Mets fell to Florida, 7-6.

Although Takahashi did not have the debut he wanted, he quickly learned from his mistakes.  Manuel started to use Takahashi as a long man in the bullpen and was rewarded instantly.  From April 13 to May 16, Takahashi made 12 relief appearances, pitching three innings or more in four of those outings and striking out 32 batters in 23⅔ innings.  His best performance during the five-week stretch came on April 23, when he struck out seven Atlanta Braves hitters in three innings, earning his first big league victory in the process.

As the calendar flipped from April to May, the Mets found themselves in a surprising position - first place in the N.L. East.  But the seeds planted in April did not lead to a full bloom in May, as the Mets lost 13 of their first 18 games in the season's second month.  Games weren't the only things being dropped by the Mets, as three-fifths of the starting rotation went down, either to injury (Jonathon Niese strained his right hamstring) or ineffectiveness (Oliver Perez allowed too many long balls and John Maine allowed too many balls).  With all the tumult going on with the starting rotation, manager Jerry Manuel needed to make some decisions.  One of them was made when R.A. Dickey was inserted into the rotation, launching what became a magical three-year tenure in New York for the rejuvenated knuckleball pitcher.  Manuel's next decision involved Takahashi's move from the bullpen to make a start against the New York Yankees on May 21.  It was then that Takahashi's season really took off.

Takahashi pitched six scoreless innings against the Yankees in his first big league start, scattering five hits and striking out five batters.  But one year after Mets second baseman Luis Castillo made a costly error to give the Yankees a come-from-behind victory, it was another second sacker - Alex Cora - who tossed the game away.  Cora's throwing error on a potential double play ball was followed by a two-run double by seldom-used outfielder Kevin Russo.  (Russo had just four RBI in his entire major league career, with half of them coming in that one game-changing swing.)  Those were the only tallies needed by the Yankees in their 2-1 victory over the Mets.

The Mets lost the game, but found a new starting pitcher in Takahashi.  The southpaw continued his scoreless streak by putting six more zeroes on the scoreboard in his next start - a 5-0 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.  Although he had some hiccups along the way, Takahashi allowed one run or fewer in five of his 12 starts, which included a second brilliant performance against the Yankees on June 18, a game in which he threw another six scoreless innings.  This time, the bullpen and the defense came through for the Mets, as four relievers combined with Takahashi on the shutout.  Most importantly, the victory was the Mets' eighth straight and improved the team's record to 39-28.

Unfortunately, the Mets regressed from late June to early August, dropping 23 of 34 games to fall below .500 for the first time since late May.  The wheels came completely off the Mets' bus on August 11 when K-Rod attempted to KO his children's grandfather in the Citi Field family lounge after the team's 6-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies.  Rodriguez was arrested and missed the rest of the season with torn ligaments in his right thumb, which he suffered during the altercation.

A portrait of Citi Field's Least Wanted.  (Debbie Egan-Chin/NY Daily News)

Although the Mets were under .500 and their playoff hopes were all but gone, the team still needed to play the games on its schedule.  They also needed a closer for the rest of the season, with Rodriguez out for the year.  Once again, Manuel turned to Takahashi to fill a specific role and the 35-year-old responded with aplomb.

Takahashi got his first save opportunity on August 16, retiring the Houston Astros in order in the ninth inning of a 3-1 Mets victory.  From that point to the end of the season, Takahashi was brilliant in his new role, earning three wins and going 8-for-8 in save opportunities.  In 19 appearances, Takahashi had a 0.84 ERA and 0.94 WHIP, holding opposing hitters to a .197/.247/.289 slash line, which was slightly better than the .213/.289/.308 slash line allowed by Rodriguez prior to his season-ending scuffle.

The Mets ended the 2010 season with a 79-83 record, which represented a nine-game improvement over their 2009 performance.  Takahashi's first season in the majors was an unexpected success.  Although he didn't quite reach the 15 wins predicted by his agent at the beginning of the year, he did notch ten wins and eight saves, becoming the fifth Met - and the first since 1986 - to reach double digits in wins while saving eight or more games, joining Tug McGraw (11 wins, 8 saves in 1971), Skip Lockwood (10 wins, 19 saves in 1976), Jesse Orosco (13 wins, 17 saves in 1983; 10 wins, 31 saves in 1984) and Roger McDowell (14 wins, 22 saves in 1986) in this exclusive club.  But those four pitchers combined to make one start in their spectacular seasons (McGraw got a no-decision in that start), meaning they earned all their wins in relief.  Takahashi was the only true starter/reliever hybrid of the group, earning four of his wins as a starting pitcher.  Takahashi was also the Mets' first "rookie" pitcher to earn 10 or more wins in his inaugural major league season since 1985, when Rick Aguilera posted a 10-7 record as a first-year player for the team.

Unfortunately, once the 2010 season ended, the Mets cleaned house, ridding themselves of manager Jerry Manuel and general manager Omar Minaya.  The new regime (featuring Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson) did not see the soon-to-be 36-year-old Takahashi as part of the team's future and allowed him to become a free agent, ending the respected pitcher's one-year stay in New York.  Takahashi spent the next three seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs, before returning to Japan to pitch for the Yokohama Bay Stars in 2014.

There have been many pitchers in team history who were never expected to amount to much when they joined the big league roster.  Except for his agent, no one expected Hisanori Takahashi to contribute much to the team.  But the left-hander silenced all his critics, and in doing so, became one of the most appreciated Japanese players to ever play for the Mets.

Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

"Eight months here in the United States, I'll spend most of the time in New York.  I kind of like New York."

--Hisanori Takahashi (September 2010)

 


And New York kind of liked Takahashi back.  After years of high expectations for Japanese players such as Tsuyoshi Shinjo and Kaz Matsui, it was a player originally brought in to compete for the fifth starter job that finally succeeded in every role he was called upon to fill.

Hisanori Takahashi had a short career in New York, but accomplished things that very few pitchers in team history had been able to do.  In a year that provided very few highlights for the Mets, Takahashi was a bright spot, making the most of his varied opportunities and giving Mets fans a reason to cheer whenever he set foot on the mound.



Note:  The Most With The Least is a thirteen-part weekly series spotlighting those Mets players who performed at a high level without receiving the accolades or playing time their more established teammates got, due to injuries, executive decisions or other factors.  For previous installments, please click on the players' names below:

January 4, 2016: Benny Agbayani
January 11, 2016: Donn Clendenon
January 18, 2016: Tim Teufel

Joorray for Jenrry!

The late Nino Espinosa would be proud that Jennry Mejia is in the Mets rotation.  What else would he be proud of?

John Lannan imagined himself as the Mets' fifth starter in 2014, but got an "oh, no" from his bosses.  Similarly, Daisuke Matsuzaka pressed his luck for the spot, but all he got was a whammy.

The race to fill the fifth slot in Mets starting rotation is now over, as Jenrry Mejia has locked up the coveted role, pushing Dice-K off the 25-man roster and sending Lannan to the bullpen.

The news of Mejia's inclusion in the rotation comes four years after former manager Jerry Manuel made a foolish comparison between Mejia and Mariano Rivera, then rushed the then-20-year-old to the majors, only to see the promising right-hander wilt under the big league spotlight.  Poor performances and a magnetic attraction to injuries kept Mejia to 55 innings pitched at the major league level from 2010 to 2012, before a late-season call-up in 2013 showed what he was capable of when not rushed into service by a gangsta manager who was clearly wearing the wrong prescription glasses.

Mejia started five games for the Mets in 2013, posting a solid 2.30 ERA and 1.17 WHIP.  His 27-to-4 strikeout-to-walk ratio was a significant improvement from what Mejia accomplished in his previous stints with the team (30 strikeouts, 29 walks in 55 innings).

Daisuke Matsuzaka could potentially be brought back to start for Jonathon Niese if the disabled lefty can't make his scheduled start on April 6, but that's still up in the air.  One thing that isn't is Jenrry Mejia's status with the Mets.  For the second time in five seasons, Mejia has made the team out of spring training.  He wasn't ready for the big show in 2010.  Now with four extra years of minor league seasoning, Mejia has his health (mostly) and his outstanding repertoire intact.

It will be quite interesting to see if the former top pitching prospect can became a mainstay in the Mets rotation.  He's certainly earned the right to do so.
 

Mets Teams That Played Their Best Against The Best

With a 77-49 record, the Atlanta Braves have the best record in the major leagues.  And yet, somehow the Mets have a 8-8 record against them.  It's by far the most wins they have against an opponent this year, as the Mets have not been able to defeat any other team more than five times.  (They're 5-7 against both Philadelphia and Washington, and 5-10 vs. Miami.)

It's quite unusual for a team with a sub-.500 record to play its best against the best team in the league.  But it's happened before for the Mets. 

Just three years ago, in 2010, the Mets finished the year with a 79-83 record.  However, they split their 18 games against the Philadelphia Phillies, who boasted the league's best record at 97-65.  The Mets did not win more than nine games against any other team in 2010.  They also went 9-9 against the Washington Nationals.

The only other time the Mets won more games against the league's best team than they did against any other team was in 2003.  That Mets squad had a forgetful season, going 66-95.  But they did go 8-11 against the Atlanta Braves, who won a league-high 101 games.  The eight wins were one more than they had against the Marlins and Phillies, against whom the Mets went 7-12.

Should the Mets win their final series against the Braves in two weeks, they will clinch a winning record versus Atlanta for the season.  If Atlanta maintains its grip on the best record in baseball, it would mark the first time the Mets finish with a winning record against a team that led its league in victories in a year the Mets defeated that team more times than they defeated anyone else.  (Got that?)

2003.  2010.  2013.  Neither year produced many great memories for the Mets.  But they did produce a statistical oddity.  Those three seasons are the only ones in which the Mets won more games against the league's best team than they did against anyone else.  They may not have had winning records in those seasons, but they certainly played their best against the best.

Will John Buck Be Another Rod Barajas?

Photo by Ed Leyro/Studious Metsimus

Ever since the Mets sent Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey to Toronto in December, the hot topic of conversation has centered around when the Mets would call up Travis d'Arnaud, the key player acquired from Toronto in the deal.  Would it be in June?  Would it be earlier?

But the Mets also acquired another catcher in the trade, one that would be the team's No. 1 option at the position until d'Arnaud was deemed ready to take over behind the plate.  John Buck - a catcher with a reputation of being a fine handler of a pitching staff, but not a fine handler of the bat - was sent to the Mets in the Dickey deal to keep the immediate area behind home plate warm for d'Arnaud (and also to prevent a plethora of passed balls, as Casey Stengel would have wanted from his backstop).

Buck is now off to a tremendous start for the Mets, hitting .421 with two homers and a league-leading nine RBIs.  He has also started two day games after night games with no ill effects, as clearly evidenced by his four-RBI performance on Saturday against the Marlins, just hours after catching every pitch in a 3½-hour loss to Miami the night before.

As great as Buck's first five games have been, causing many a Mets fan to reconsider how long they want d'Arnaud to remain in Las Vegas, we've seen hot starts by journeymen catchers before.  Anyone remember how we went bonkers for Barajas?

In 2010, Omar Minaya signed Rod Barajas to a one-year deal to become the starting catcher for the Mets.  Barajas was coming off a year in which he had a low batting average (.226) and low on-base percentage (.258), but showed good pop (19 HR) in his final year with the Toronto Blue Jays.  Barajas became an unexpected offensive sensation for the Mets, hitting .269 with 11 homers and 30 RBIs through the end of May.  During his hot two-month stretch, Barajas had three multi-homer games and provided Citi Field's first walk-off home run when he took Giants' reliever Sergio Romo deep for a two-run blast on May 7.

But once the calendar turned to June, Barajas went into a swoon.  Following his torrid start, Barajas began to hit like the pitchers he was asked to catch.  From June 1 to July 19, the former Hot Rod displayed a cold stick at the plate, batting .161 with no homers and just two ribbies in 101 plate appearances.  Barajas finally ended his seven-week homerless streak on July 21, but only started two more games for the Mets after his final clout.  Four months after endearing himself to Mets fans with his powerful bat, Barajas was a Dodger, as Los Angeles claimed him off waivers on August 22.

The Mets allowed Rod Barajas to walk off to Los Angeles three months after he walked off against the Giants.

Prior to becoming a Met, Barajas was a lifetime .238 hitter who had reached double figures in home runs in five of his previous six seasons.  In his final year before coming to Flushing (2009 with Toronto), Barajas posted his lowest full-season batting average since becoming a No. 1 catcher.

Meanwhile, John Buck was a .235 career hitter before becoming a Met.  Buck hit ten or more homers in seven of his nine seasons, but in his last year prior to his trade to the Mets (2012 with Toronto), Buck posted a career-low .192 batting average.

I don't know about you, but I think I see a similarity there.

It's great that John Buck is off to a fast start.  He's helping the team at the plate with his bat and he's also helping the team behind it by getting the most out of his pitchers (Mets starters have combined to give up five earned runs over the team's first five games).  But don't automatically assume that Buck's quick start will allow Travis d'Arnaud to stay at the Triple-A level for a long period of time.

The Mets have been down this road before.  They've seen a journeyman catcher perform brilliantly out of the box, only to see his production tail off dramatically before the first day of summer.  I tip my hat to John Buck for a wonderful first week, but I'm not ready to announce that he should be the team's starting catcher past the All-Star Break just yet.  We have our recent catching history to thank for that.