00:00The reason why it's a fantasy for any Met fan to think they're going to fire David Stearns
00:04is that this guy, Steve Cohen, that is, waited years to hire him.
00:08He waited years to give him the keys to the castle.
00:11He's not going to allow a disastrous offseason, and it was that.
00:16No one is defending it.
00:18I don't even think Steve Cohen will be able to defend it,
00:20but that's not going to be enough for him to blow it up.
00:23Yeah, I think at some point, I'm not saying we do it now,
00:26but at some point, we have to go back and talk about what David Stearns did this offseason
00:33and what he could have done differently.
00:35Not now, but at some point, we should do that because this is a disaster right now.
00:40And there's not, I don't feel like there's a safe, like Bo Bichette,
00:44not all of a sudden going to become an all-star, right?
00:46Or Mark Vientos is going to hit 27 home runs like he did his first year.
00:49Like, I don't see any of that happening.
00:52So he did something wrong.
00:54What could he have done better?
00:55Well, I'll ask it to you in a very simple way,
00:57and I hate that I'm even asking it, but the thought went through my head last night.
01:01If they had simply run back the same core, they brought back Pete Alonso,
01:06they don't trade Brandon Nemo for Marcus Simeon, and they keep Jeff McNeil.
01:10And the only changes they make are the changes they made to the pitching.
01:13I'll include that as something different.
01:15Like, they lose Edwin Diaz for Devin, they sign Luke Weaver,
01:18they trade for Freddy Peralta, they run it back with Kodai Senga.
01:20Like, the pitching is untouched, and the offense, the pitching is untouched from the offseason,
01:26and the offense is untouched from last year.
01:28What would their record be through 28 games?
01:31And I have an answer to it.
01:33I'm curious what yours would be.
01:33They got three more wins?
01:35Bingo.
01:35Four more wins?
01:36No, no.
01:36Something like that?
01:37Three?
01:37Because Linda...
01:38You nailed it!
01:38Linda nailed it.
01:39Yeah.
01:39Yeah, because we're talking about them not hitting with runners in scoring position,
01:43or just runners on base, period.
01:44You're not even advancing their runners, much less getting them in scoring position.
01:48It was the same thing a year ago.
01:50Right, and I can't assume, like, Pete Alonso's off to a tough start in Baltimore.
01:54Brandon's off to a really good start in Texas.
01:56I can't assume that those two same things occur.
01:59Yeah.
01:59But what I can assume is, all right, they're a little bit better offensively.
02:02But Mark Vientos isn't better.
02:03Brett Beatty isn't better.
02:05No.
02:05You know what I mean?
02:05So, if they had run it back, I think we're talking about an under-retrieving 12-16 team
02:11that's not buried, and we're all probably saying, maybe not me, but I know many others
02:16would be saying, why did we run it back?
02:17Why did we bring these guys back?
02:19Why did we not break up the core?
02:20Right.
02:20You might as well.
02:21You might as well take the pain now.
02:23And you know who's dealing with that right now in this moment on Sports Talk Radio?
02:27Philadelphia.
02:28Yeah.
02:29Because they're saying, why did we bring this team back?
02:32Philadelphia's felt like they've, since they went to the World Series, what year was
02:36that?
02:372022.
02:382022.
02:39And they fell short.
02:42Philly fans have been saying it since then.
02:45This isn't going to work.
02:46You've tried this with this core, guys, for two years already, three years now.
02:51It's not going to work.
02:52And here we are four years later, and it's still the same core.
02:55But Mets fans, a lot of them, maybe not me, maybe not all of us, but a lot of Mets
02:58fans
02:58also said, this isn't going to work.
03:00Yeah.
03:01And then they got what they wanted, but they didn't like what they got.
03:04And now this team is worse.
03:06Right.
03:06But I'm not convinced.
03:07As much as we'd feel better because we'd get to see Pete Alonzo and wear our jerseys,
03:11and we'd see Brandon Nemo and wear our jerseys.
03:13But at least you would have that.
03:14We'd have that.
03:14At least you would have that.
03:15But the odds are.
03:16Now you don't even have that.
03:17But with that, the odds are, they still would have not been good.
03:20Whose jersey are you buying right now?
03:22Nolan McClain.
03:25Non-pitcher.
03:26Nobody.
03:27Exactly.
03:28Not a person.
03:28Exactly.
03:29Not a person.
03:30Soto.
03:30Exactly.
03:31Well, one Soto, but you've already bought it over.
03:32Well, you've got a City Connect.
03:34How many people were in this?
03:35You left.
03:36So, I mean.
03:37Well, first of all, you're probably not a good person to ask.
03:39Tiki, Tiki.
03:40I don't like the way you left because you had Spence.
03:42It is.
03:42It's fine.
03:43It is what it is.
03:4380% of the people left.
03:45That's my point.
03:46How many people were at the second of the doubleheader?
03:48Oh, there was nobody there.
03:49There was nobody there.
03:50There was like 700 people there.
03:51That's bad.
03:52It was rough.
03:53And it wasn't a horrible day.
03:54No, no.
03:54I mean, it wasn't beautiful because it was a little chilly, but.
03:57There's a myriad of reasons why people left.
03:59Like, I predeterminedly left because I was with a kid.
04:02And I wasn't alone.
04:03Like, most of the people that left after game one were leaving with kids.
04:06Because asking your child, 12 or under, to stay for seven hours of baseball, even if it's good baseball, is
04:13asking a lot.
04:14So, we do need to recognize that even if the Mets were playing well, that ballpark was going to empty
04:19after the first game of the doubleheader.
04:21But not like that.
04:22But, yes, it got added to by the fact that you're literally just watching worthless out after worthless out after
04:29worthless out after fake rally after fake rally after 1-2-3 after 1-2-3.
04:34And it's a good thing you left because they got zero runs in game two.
04:37I was going to say, first, I say, bad team.
04:39Yeah, horrible team.
04:40I mean, dude, Michael Lorenzen, who started Friday, had a 6.5 ERA.
04:44Jose Quintana, old friend, who started game one of Sunday's game, had like a 5.5 ERA.
04:49The kid who threw the second game is actually pretty good.
04:51He's a former top pick, Chase Dolander.
04:53But, overall, they got shut down by crappy pitching.
04:56Mike's in Brooklyn.
04:57Hey, Mike.
04:58Hey, guys.
04:59What's going on this morning?
05:00Paul's Will.
05:00What's up?
05:02Listen, I was going to actually talk about why Stearns is not going to fire Mendoza.
05:08And I was thinking of the reasons why.
05:11And then Evan absolutely nailed it because Cohen was looking for Stearns.
05:18He was like waiting and waiting.
05:21He had Sandy Alderson there just as a placeholder.
05:25Mendoza will never get fired because if he gets fired, now the fire goes to or the heat goes to
05:33Stearns.
05:33And when you're an X's, when you're a ones and zeros guy, like when you're an analytical guy like that,
05:40you always tune out emotion.
05:43So, you're not going to hear what the fans are going to tell you.
05:46You're going to say, well, okay, well, according to my stats, but Shett is going to turn it around at
05:51this point.
05:52He's going to do this.
05:53And that has been the core problem of this team ever since Stearns has taken over.
05:59And when you look at it, the reason why they don't hit with runners in scoring position, this all has
06:05started when he took over the team.
06:08So, for him to fire Mendoza, it cannot happen because, A, he's going to come up with some analytics or
06:15something in a sense that says that he's going to do the right thing because Stearns is going to tell
06:20him what the right thing is to do.
06:21Yeah, but I don't even think the analytics back up that this offense is going to turn it around.
06:27Like, Gary Cohen actually uttered into a microphone yesterday, and I love Gary, that there's been some unluckiness to the
06:34MET offensive struggles.
06:35Yeah.
06:35And I can't rule that out completely because, look, Bo Bichette had a base hit robbed on a great defensive
06:40play by Ezekiel Tovar.
06:42I understand.
06:42There are moments where Mark Vientos lines into a double play on Friday night.
06:46Like, I get it.
06:46There is some bad luck.
06:47But there's also just a lot of worthless, pathetic at-bats.
06:51There's also the good luck when the opponent makes an error and you don't take advantage of it.
06:56So, I don't buy that the METs are just unlucky.
06:59And I think if David Stearns goes under the hood, he's going to see that too.
07:03But here's what's tricky about David Stearns.
07:06I'm going to ask you a trivia question.
07:08How many managers has David Stearns truly, officially fired in his career with Milwaukee and now with the New York
07:17METs?
07:18None.
07:18The answer is none, Tiki.
07:20He inherited Craig Council and then made a decision to keep him.
07:24Yeah.
07:24He was his manager until he left.
07:27He left.
07:28Until Stearns left.
07:29Yes.
07:29Right.
07:30With the METs, did he technically fire Buck Showalter?
07:33I don't know how you want to word it.
07:34I mean, probably.
07:35Wasn't he out of contract?
07:37Buck Showalter?
07:38Yeah.
07:38Was he kind of...
07:39I don't remember now.
07:40I don't remember either.
07:41Can you look that up, Sean?
07:42I think he may have had another year left.
07:43Did he have a year?
07:44He said he was going to retire.
07:45It was just weird.
07:46It just ended.
07:47And technically, they got rid of him the day before he took over.
07:50Right.
07:51So, yes, David didn't want him back.
07:52I think we all know that.
07:53But if you want to count that as a firing, that's fine.
07:55He had one year left.
07:56He had one year left.
07:57Okay.
07:57So, you want to count that as a firing, fine.
07:58An inherited guy, he decided not to bring back.
08:01He's never fired a manager.
08:04He's never fired a manager mid-season.
08:05So, it's not like we even have a track record on what he would do or not do.
08:10Because he hasn't done this before.
08:12Right.
08:12Now, ultimately, don't you think that would be also on Stern?
08:16Not Stern's on Cohen.
08:18Steve Cohen's going to help determine that.
08:19Right?
08:20Or is this fully in the hands of David Stern?
08:23Because you would think an emotional Steve Cohen, despite being an emotional fan that he sometimes is, would not say,
08:31yes, Dave, you can fire Carlos Mendoza.
08:35Because as soon as he says that, then his hiring of David Stern's is flawed.
08:40Well, it's a major black mark on David Stern's tenure.
08:44You picked the manager.
08:45And while there was success in year one, it's been an outright disaster for almost going on a year.
08:51So, who's that on?
08:52It's on David Stern's.
08:53I think we all agree that 90% of the met issues is on David Stern's.
08:57But they're not firing him.
08:59No.
08:59And I'll admit this, as terrible as he's been at his job, and as much as looking at his face
09:05bothers me right now, I wouldn't even fire David Stern's.
09:08I think that's the site of a dysfunctional franchise when you're firing team presidents after two years.
09:13Right.
09:13I really do.
09:14And that's not a defense of David Stern's, trust me.
09:17I mean, the moves he has made, they could not come up worse if you tried.
09:21In fact, even in your worst imagination, you couldn't have had all of these moves sucking as much as they've
09:27sucked.
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