Atlanta Braves vs. the NL East…How Others are Faring

Apr 24, 2015; Bronx, NY, USA; New York Mets injured catcher Travis d

New York Mets

I had thought the Braves had troubles on their 40-man roster.  The Mets’ chart reads like a hospital emergency room docket

In stark contrast to the way the Nats season has gone, the Mets are 180 degrees out of phase.  They started out 15-8 in April, but are stumbling to a 10-13 May thus far as their NL Central foes are killing them (4-10).

The Mets’ woes right now are definitely on the offensive side of the ball.  Their pitching ranks in the top 5 of baseball, but the absence of David Wright (indefinitely) makes a huge hole in their lineup – Lucas Duda is thus the only threat left of any consequence, and teams must be pitching around him now:  .325 in April has melted to .263 in May.

I had thought the Braves had troubles on their 40-man roster.  The Mets’ chart reads like a hospital emergency room docket:

• 6 pitchers are on the 15-day DL, 2 are on the 60-day list, one is on the restricted list
• 3 position players are on the 15-day DL, one on the 60.
• Over the weekend, Manager Terry Collins was speculating that starter Matt Harvey might have a “dead arm”… along with multiple others in their pitching stable.

Meanwhile, David Wright has another setback is his attempts to get back on the field.  His latest diagnosis is entitled “lumbar spinal stenosis”.  The upshot is that he’s doing a lot more traveling across the country to see specialists rather than improving.  I’m pretty sure that the air travel won’t help his back, either.

• PROGNOSIS.  None of this is going to help the Mets in the short term, and thus their crash to the pack will likely accelerate in the next few days and weeks.  The pitching will recover, but it could easily take a month to get that squared away again.
• FORECAST.  The Mets are going to be a .500 club at best, and may have to fight to get there from below.  If Wright continues to be out, their wins will have to come from games with scores like 2-1 and 3-2.  I expect that the Braves could end up beating them out for 2nd place in the Division simply because the Braves are doing things that are more sustainable.