This Week in Mets Quotes: Mets bat out of order, Collins loves and wishes Harvey the best

Your 2018 New York Mets: It’s Frustrating.

”I should have noticed [the Mets were batting out of order] but I didn’t. It’s frustrating.” –Mickey Callaway [New York Daily News]

”It was a frustrating day. There’s no magic potion or anything that’s going to make it come. You can hope all you want, but you have to work and you have to continue to work. … I’m still completely on board with what this team is capable of doing, and what we’re going to end up doing.” –Jay Bruce [MLB]

Getting some Terry Collins flashbacks with this quote.

”We dig and dig and dig and try to figure out what’s going on exactly. We’re going to continue to grind. We’re going to figure out what’s going on, and work on it diligently to right the ship. Because we’re better than this, and we’re going to start figuring it out.” –Mickey Callaway [MLB]

My sweet, naïve Wilmer, I don’t have the heart to tell you that there might be a pretty obvious reason.

”We are way better than how we’re playing right now. We’ll figure it out. There are good players here. There’s no reason to play this bad.” –Wilmer Flores [MLB]

To be fair, at least Crew Chief Jerry Meals saw a team bat out of order before…32 years ago…in the minors.

“Doesn’t benefit the Reds to say anything, they already have an out. So they wait for Cabrera to hit, he got a base hit. Now it benefits them, they bring it up, ‘Hey, you batted out of order.’ And they were right. So now the proper batter is Bruce. So, when they bring it up in that situation, you take Cabrera off the field, you call Bruce out. And now the next batter is Gonzalez.” –Crew Chief Jerry Meals [New York Post]

Well, at least batting out of order wasn’t a big deal and didn’t cost us the game…

”It was early in the game. It was not a big deal in that moment, but we lost the game. There’s nothing that we can do now.” – Asdrubal Cabrera [MLB]

…oh.

“It probably cost us the game.” –Mickey Callaway [New York Post]

Vargas is working hard to get back to his career 94 ERA+ form.

”You have to keep doing what you’ve done to get yourself this far into a career and it’s doing the work between and then having that translate out there and giving you good thoughts and good pictures to go back on when you’re in those situations and need to make those pitches. It’s not about being able to make them in the bullpen. It’s being able to make them out on the field.” –Jason Vargas [New York Daily News]

Mickey talking about AJ Ramos or Jason Vargas or, I don’t know, maybe Michael Conforto or somebody.

“He’s making too many mistakes. He was hard on himself after the game, saying that’s unacceptable. But he’ll get there. He’s just definitely not there yet.” –Mickey Callaway [Newsday]

I might be misreading Harvey, but I think he wants to continue talking about Mets.

“There’s a lot of good memories, there’s a lot of bad memories. After today, I would like to not talk about my past experiences with the Mets. I’d like to move forward with my new organization and do everything I can to help them. But overall, there was a lot of good times. I have a lot of good friends on that team and will for a long time.” -Matt Harvey [MetsBlog]

Managerial decisions aside, Collins did seem to care for and went to bat for his players.

”I love Matt Harvey. I love him like a son. We went through a lot of wars. I saw a guy, when he got to the big leagues, within two seasons he made himself, if not the best, then one of the top three pitchers in all of baseball. So what happened the last few years, injury-wise and how it affected him, was really tough to see and go through for him. I just hope he just goes and catches his breath and doesn’t stop the work process that it’s going to take to get back. I told him last year, ‘Matt, your only problem is you set the bar so high, you expect so much of yourself that anything besides that is not going to be good enough in your eyes. You’ve got to learn to become a little bit different guy.’ I just hope he bounces back. … I just wish him the best.” –Terry Collins [New York Daily News]

At least there was one nice moment for the Mets this week.

”I’ve gotten unbelievable support, and all these people reaching out to me yesterday and today. It means a lot. You could see them in the stands, waving the Irish flags. They’re proud of it, and I’m proud of it.” –PJ Conlon [MLB]

SiteBot FacePalm of the Week

“City too big. The only bigger thing than Matt Harvey’s ego is the city of New York. He truly thought he could take over the city with his talents but he came up short and in the end he’s probably built for a smaller town where the pressure to win isn’t as great as here.” –costelloct

AA Quote of the Week

“The whole thing was just sad. Never mind the tabloid nonsense. He couldn’t get back what he had. It happens often enough, but it’s always sad to see someone—especially at this age—not able to do the things he could do with ease anymore.” -StorkFan