Folks, because I know you’re tuning in here to find out what happens next in the continuing adventures of Korak and Rhubarb, but they’ll have to return in a couple of weeks…because I think I’m contractually obligated to talk about Steven Matz today.
FLUSHING, NY – I like to think this site has been around since Short Matt would sneak into his 8th grade English classroom to run off mimeograph newsletters that vented about trading Tom Seaver, and to get high off the fumes. In fact, MeetTheMatts.com is fast approaching an entire decade of existence, which is as Sisyphean a piece of effort as just about any the Internet has seen. And really, what are the odds that two guys whose names were Matt, who were both Met fans, and who both owned computers would start a site with this name? Well, New York is a big town, there are lots of Mets fans and lots of biblical names, so I’m gonna say maybe fifty-fifty. George Costanza poo-pooing DeSoto’s discovery of the Mississippi River, “Oh like they wouldn’t have found that anyway.” Still not just any Matt found Meet The Matts…our Matts did, and in all the years this little site has been chugging along on the backs of its downtrodden writers, I guarantee nobody has phonetically invoked its name more times that it has been invoked this morning.
We are looking into officially changing our name. Go #Mets … #MatzSanity https://t.co/BcTDreBWAi
— Meet The Matts (@MeetTheMatts) June 28, 2015
It’s Matz-mania. The Amazing Matz. Matz the Matter You. The Bon Matz are flowing today after a wonderful debut by the Long Island native and lifelong Mets fan… an obvious glutton for punishment. He looks like Jimmy Fallon crossed with a puppy, but with high-90s heat and a big curveball, plus he can apparently swing a bat. He led the team in hits (in one fewer at-bat) and drove in more than half the runs in his first big league victory. This is a welcome addition, for when it comes to the worst hitting teams in all of baseball, the Mets (.235 avg.) are only ahead of the hapless Seattle Mariners (.230, and that’s with a DH! Angry Ward’s two favorite teams, he must’ve used all this year’s karma on the Warriors’ championship). It’s so bad that if the Mets were an American League team, they’d be better off eschewing the DH and leaving their pitchers in to hit.
Take a look at their team batting leaders, Matz is now number one (small sample size be damned…who’s taking bets he ends the season on top?), followed by two guys on the DL, and then Noah Syndergaard is eighth, with a higher OPS than Cuddyer, Flores, and Wilmer, all behind him. Even John Niese is hitting above the Mendoza Line, which is better than platoony types like John Mayberry and Eric Campbell (who are both basically Jacob DeGrom at the plate). How soon before Terry Collins starts batting these guys in the middle of the order? Could this be Sandy Alderson’s ultimate goal, a team of pitchers who can all platoon at defensive positions, rotating to the mound as match-ups dictate? Ahead of the curve!
Too early to start dreaming big about Matz after just one game? Bah! Go ahead! The Mets have won four in a row and now face Chicago to take on a reeling Cubs team that’s lost five straight and are but a half game ahead of the Mets in the Wild Card standings. Too early to look at the Wild Card standings? Matz to you!
Fake Sandy Alderson/Big Al Sternberg, tomorrow.
