Worst Lineup Evar: Diamondbacks 6, Mets 2

by Eric Simon on Aug 12, 2009 1:40 AM EDT

Would anyone blame me if I just posted tonight's lineup and called it a day?

C Sullivan, CF
L Castillo, 2B
F Tatis, 3B
D Murphy, 1B
J Francoeur, RF
J Reed, LF
A Cora, SS
B Schneider, C

The aggregate 2009 WAR for these eight gentlemen is 0.9, which includes only Francoeur's time with the Mets. Without Castillo the cumulative WAR is -.4. That's epically bad. I challenge you to field a less useful starting eight from the active roster of any other big league team. That's it. No recap. Go find me eight players on another team who combine for less than one win above replacement.

Jeff Francoeur's Push For .300: .295

Bryce Harper Sweepstakes: The Nationals lost, so the Mets can't gain any ground on them. However, seven teams ahead of the Mets -- including the Diamondbacks -- all won tonight, so the Mets gain ground on the whole lot. They're 12 games behind the Nationals but trail the Royals by just 7.5 in the Stephen Strasburg Redux Sweepstakes.

Swag Contest

Swag contest results can be found here and the next game's swag form already available. You can read more about the swag contest here.

SB Nation Coverage

* Traditional Recap
* Boxscore
* Amazin' Avenue Gamethread
* AZ Snakepit Gamethread

Win Probability Added

Big winners: Jeff Francoeur, +9.2% WPA, Cory Sullivan, +5.1% WPA
Big losers: Livan Hernandez, -30.4% WPA, Daniel Murphy, -9.5% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Francoeur solo homerun in second, +10.2% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Romero two-run single in third, -14.6% WPA
Total pitcher WPA: -28.2% WPA
Total batter WPA: -21.8% WPA
GWRBI!: Alex Romero

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by KeithsMoustache; his effort in the game thread embiggens us all.

Num	Name	# of Posts
1	KeithsMoustache	91
2	blueandorange4life	54
3	MetsGod	42
4	clip	33
5	Prince	32
6	Jadden Hopkins	23
7	LeiterMilnerFasterStronger	22
8	aparkermarshall	22
9	DbacksSkins	21
10	metsguy234	18

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Comments

Oh, god.

That was atrocious.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Aug 12, 2009 2:28 AM EDT reply actions

I actually stopped watching this

as soon as I realised that David Wright wasn’t playing

by deadspy3 on Aug 12, 2009 3:01 AM EDT reply actions

David Wright's quest for 10 homeruns

is the only reason to follow the Mets. That and the occasional Johan Santana start.

BTW, say David finishes this year with like 11 homers, but then next year finds his power stroke (or they move the fences in, or he goes on the juice, etc.) and consistently hits 30-35 homers for the rest of his career – where will this season rank on the list of all-time statistical anomalies? I’d say it’d be pretty high up there – not quite Brady Anderson’s 50 homer season or Roger Maris’ 61 homer season, but still pretty strange and unexpected.

by cjmulrain on Aug 12, 2009 3:58 AM EDT up reply actions

A blip

I hope this season will just be a tiny blip on Wright’s awesome career WAR graph by age. (Or whatever they’ll use in the future, decades from now, instead of WAR.)

by mnbv on Aug 12, 2009 9:04 AM EDT up reply actions

That wouldn't surprise me

if they lower that wall in left field.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Aug 12, 2009 12:56 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm looking forward to seing

if Johan can get to 20 wins.I doubt it will happen but I would love to see it

by Jadden Hopkins on Aug 12, 2009 2:30 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah

my friend asked me If I was watching and I told him that no wright and livan = I don’t watch.

by mets81 on Aug 12, 2009 2:36 PM EDT up reply actions

You challenge, I answer

The Royals playing in an NL park w/o the DH (Fangraphs WAR)

C Buck 0.4
1B Jacobs 0.0
2B Bloomquist -0.4
SS Betancourt -0.7
3B Gordon 0.4
LF Teahen 0.6
CF Maier 0.3
RF Anderson -0.2

For a grand total of 0.4 WAR.

God the Mets suck.

by dtro on Aug 12, 2009 8:40 AM EDT reply actions

and they actually TRADED for Yuniesky Betancourt

by JoshNY on Aug 12, 2009 12:20 PM EDT up reply actions

Good god, why wouldn't they play Butler?

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Aug 12, 2009 12:57 PM EDT up reply actions

Too painful to watch this team...

…counting down the days until football season. What makes it worse is the way the Yankees and Phillies find ways to win. Can’t bear the thought of those two teams in the WS.

by northernvatiger on Aug 12, 2009 8:40 AM EDT reply actions

That would be hell if that happens

by Jadden Hopkins on Aug 12, 2009 9:13 AM EDT up reply actions

Yankees all the way

anyone but the Phillies

"I reject your reality and substitute my own"
-Adam Savage

by blueandorange4life on Aug 12, 2009 11:55 AM EDT up reply actions

I'm afraid I'd have to agree with you

by fxcarden on Aug 12, 2009 12:09 PM EDT up reply actions

I'd hate myself for it

but at this point I’d rather see Jeter win another ring than victorino. It’s not Jeter’s fault they gave him all those gold gloves. It is Victorino’s fault that he’s a sniveling little bush league bitch

by HotChipWillBreakYourLegs on Aug 12, 2009 12:32 PM EDT up reply actions

I'd rather see the phillis win again

I can’t stand all the Yankee fans telling me how great their team is and telling me how much the mets suck.I live nowhere near Philly and i barley watch ESPN so I can stand them winning

by Jadden Hopkins on Aug 12, 2009 1:25 PM EDT up reply actions

I'd probably root for the Yanks

And cry during the entire Series. I’m a little inoculated from the Yankees fans since I live down here in DC, so I guess I’d rather deal with them winning it all than the Phils again.

by dcmetsfan on Aug 12, 2009 1:52 PM EDT up reply actions

Why hasn't anyone metioned suicide in case of this scenario?

Seems like the best option to me.

"We must win and we must know how to win rather than win because we have statistical people."

by Evan_S on Aug 12, 2009 4:53 PM EDT up reply actions

Take it from someone who grew up in NY and went to college outside Philly

Terrorists >>> Yankee Fans; Yankee fans >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Philly fans

by cjmulrain on Aug 14, 2009 9:45 AM EDT up reply actions

its like shooting fish in a barrel with a rocket launcher but heres one for ya

Pittsburgh

C Doumit 0.3
1b Pearce 0.2
2b R. Cedeno -0.1
SS L Cruz 0
3rd R vazquez 0.3
LF Salazar -0.4
RF Moss 0.2
CF Milledge -0.4

Grand total = 0.1 if my math is correct

by KeithsMoustache on Aug 12, 2009 11:30 AM EDT reply actions

Oh man

ha ha. That’s dreadful!

by TheBigStapler on Aug 12, 2009 12:00 PM EDT up reply actions

yeah it took some work to find the worst possible combination of Pirates

so many wonderful (terrible) choices

by KeithsMoustache on Aug 12, 2009 12:04 PM EDT up reply actions

It's horrifying that

A. Hernandez and Santos may have improved that lineup.

by David G on Aug 12, 2009 11:39 AM EDT reply actions

If Jerry benched Pagan for poor play

why the hell didn’t he bench Murphy also? There’s room on the bench that we could have called someone up right? He was horrible last night and that DP error monday night was inexcusble

"I reject your reality and substitute my own"
-Adam Savage

by blueandorange4life on Aug 12, 2009 11:56 AM EDT reply actions

I love that picture.

Grission and Husart - that is either the non-union Mexican equivelant of "Starsky and Hutch" or the key to winning the World Series.

by IanB in MD on Aug 12, 2009 12:31 PM EDT reply actions

Frenchy's Quest

I’m more interested to see if he can finish the year dead last in P/PA.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/sort/pitchesPerPlateAppearance/type/expanded/order/false
(I know there’s a better list somewhere…)

Right now, he’s 5th among qualifiers with 3.31 (only 0.31 more than I would average and I barely know one end of the bat from the other).

I think he can do it, but he has some stiff competition.

"If on-base percentage is so important, then why don't they put it on the scoreboard?"

by hotspur on Aug 12, 2009 12:50 PM EDT reply actions

He's still fouling off too many first pitch sliders two feet outside

he has to figure out how to pop that to the first baseman

by HotChipWillBreakYourLegs on Aug 12, 2009 1:11 PM EDT up reply actions

Nice to flip the chart around

and see two Mets in the top 10. Castillo (6) and Wright (9). None of those other names surprise me except for Jayson Werth. I didn’t realize he was so patient.

by TheBigStapler on Aug 12, 2009 2:13 PM EDT up reply actions

That's exactly how Werth turned his career around

He was a busted prospect and somebody told him that if he learned pitch recognition he would be a better hitter. And guess what: HE DID! even though pitch recognition isn’t on the scoreboard.

I hate Jason Werth, but he’s owed a hat tip for turning around his career to the point where he’s a valuable hitter on a good team.

by mets81 on Aug 12, 2009 2:40 PM EDT up reply actions

fingers crossed

that Frenchy gets smacked in the head and learns the same thing

by cjmulrain on Aug 14, 2009 9:46 AM EDT up reply actions

Don't want to make a whole fanshot

and there’s no applesauce today so I’ll just ask here. How do people feel about Pedro Martinez? I’ll be very interested to hear him pitch though I’m not sure how I still feel about the signing.

by TheBigStapler on Aug 12, 2009 2:26 PM EDT reply actions

Pedro who?

by Michkin on Aug 12, 2009 2:34 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm more concerned about Mexico v USA

maybe US Soccer can finally break their duck in Mexico City.

I doubt it, but it’s still my sports highlight for the day.

"He's definitely mixing it into his repertoire. That's French for 'repertoire' " - Keith Hernandez

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Aug 12, 2009 2:37 PM EDT up reply actions

The Mexicans are cheap bastards

moving the game up so it will be hotter. Are they that afraid of USA Soccer? Maybe we’ve finally arrived!

by mets81 on Aug 12, 2009 2:41 PM EDT up reply actions

They are afraid.

For some reason. I mean, we’ve had a good year but even in our best years we haven’t been able to win away.

The good news is that it is supposed to top out in the mid-70s in Mexico City so maybe that gambit didn’t pay off.

"He's definitely mixing it into his repertoire. That's French for 'repertoire' " - Keith Hernandez

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Aug 12, 2009 2:53 PM EDT up reply actions

I hope he gets rocked

by Jadden Hopkins on Aug 12, 2009 2:51 PM EDT up reply actions

I wish Pedro all the best

and I probably even would in a Braves or a Yankees uniform. He’s one of the great pitchers of all time, seems like a great (and whip-smart) guy, and it was a privilege to see him work for the Mets even at the tail end of his career. If Fred and Jeff didn’t want to give him a paycheck I can’t blame him for working as a mercenary — I just hope that he pitches lights-out, and that the bullpen blows every single game for him.

by anonymous on Aug 12, 2009 2:55 PM EDT up reply actions