I have too many hobbies…
I miss blogging.
I do not miss blogging about baseball every day.
My reasons for going into semi-retirement remain: I don’t get to go to enough Atlantic League games or minor league games to have my focus there, and I’m not going to try to find a voice among the dozens of Mets-related sites that are out there.
My solution was to start a new blog, I have too many hobbies…, which allows me to write about other things in addition to baseball.
Today I wrote about my first 2017 regular season Topps Now baseball card. Other recent posts focused on Star Wars Funko Pops and photos from my garden.
I hope that some of the folks who are still reading Paul’s Random Baseball Stuff will follow me over to my new site.
This site will remain online through the end of the 2017 baseball season, but will be shut down this fall. The majority of its content will move to the new site.
Braves outlast Mets as Colon makes his return to Citi Field
Bartolo Colon throws a pitch at Citi Field in his first game as an Atlanta Brave. (Photo credit: Paul Hadsall)
Last night, former teammates Jacob deGrom and Bartolo Colon matched up at Citi Field to the delight of me and 28,112 other fans at the park and to the larger baseball world watching on TV.
DeGrom was brilliant, hitting 98 mph on the radar gun and holding the Braves scoreless for six innings while allowing two hits and striking out six.
But somehow Colon managed to outshine the Mets’ star. Fans came out to see Colon, giving him a standing ovation during his first at-bat. The Mets realized the significance of the moment and produced a video tribute to Colon they showed before the start of the game.
Mets’ hitters were just as baffled by Colon as most of the National League was during his three-year tenure in New York. Jay Bruce hit a solo home run in the fifth inning. Yoenis Cespedes managed a single. That was it. The pitcher’s duel was delivered as advertised.
Except this is 2017, and starting pitchers are done after six innings. Terry Collins pulled deGrom after 95 pitches. Brian Snitker lifted Colon for a pinch hitter after just 80 pitches.
The Mets start the season with significantly better odds of winning the World Series than the Atlanta Braves, but after the first two games of the season it looks like they share a common weakness – their bullpens. Hansel Robles‘ seventh inning meltdown last night wasn’t as spectacular as Eric O’Flaherty‘s on Opening Day, but it was enough to allow the Braves to tie the game before Jerry Blevins came in to bail him out.
The two teams continued to match zeroes as the temperature dropped and the crowd diminished, until Rafael Montero gave up a leadoff single to Braves catcher Kurt Suzuki in the top of the twelfth. After striking out Jace Peterson, Montero walked Ender Inciarte. When Dansby Swanson grounded out weakly to first base, I started to hope Montero could escape from the jam. But he couldn’t get Matt Kemp out to end the inning – his two-run double provided the Braves with their margin of victory.
It’s worth keeping in mind that Montero is the next man up if anything happens to one of the Mets’ starting five.
A few weeks ago, we were all talking about the Mets’ starting pitching depth and debating who should get the last spot in the rotation. Now Sandy Alderson is beginning to “sniff around” for starting pitching depth and Seth Lugo is trying to remain optimistic about avoiding Tommy John surgery for his partially torn ulnar collateral ligament.
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