This Week in Mets Quotes: Mickey is concerned, Vargas was surprised Eiland was fired

Your 2019 New York Mets: We’re concerned.

“We just stunk” -Mickey Callaway [MLB]

“Our record is what our record is. We’re concerned” -Mickey Callaway [MLB]

Picturing Wheeler saying this in a front of a mirror before every start.

“We know that we have to win. We have to start winning some ball games pretty soon. It’s to that point in the season where you’ve got to win games. It starts with the pitching. It starts with me.” -Zack Wheeler [MLB]

It’s not like you can ask pitchers what they think of their boss exactly, but you would think the pitchers would’ve been somewhat aware of this decision.

“[Dave Eiland’s firing] definitely caught everybody by surprise. I have a long relationship with Dave. It goes beyond baseball. We’ve had the chance to share some pretty memorable moments together. I have the utmost respect for him. He’s one of the main reasons I’ve been able to get things back on track.” -Jason Vargas [MLB]

‘Continue to give Mickey...the best coaching staff’ by firing one of his coaches?

“As you’ve heard from previous conversations and comments that I’ve made publicly, Mickey has my full vote of confidence. He’s our manager. This is a scenario where we want to continue to give Mickey the best resources and the best coaching staff to be able to help him achieve our goal.” -Broadie Van Wagenen [MLB]

Bronxville Native Harrison Bader on hitting a game tying, two-RBI double in the pouring rain.

“Mind over matter. If you don’t mind it, it don’t matter. That’s how it rolls.” -Harrison Bader [MLB]

We’ve entered the Sisyphean stage of the season.

“In the moment, obviously, it brings you down. I’m sure everybody’s feeling pretty crappy right now, but they’ll come in tomorrow like they always do and battle and grind.” -Mickey Callaway [New York Post]

Mickey’s comment on Familia started complimentary but then took a real turn.

“[Familia’s] still the guy — he’s the guy that has to have success there.” -Mickey Callaway [New York Post]

Wilson Ramos on his wife surprising him with news that he will be a father of three.

“I got very surprised. I didn’t know. She kept that secret very well. But I got very excited. It’s another blessing in my life. That made me feel really good and really happy in that moment.” -Wilson Ramos [New York Daily News]

This is what a lazy writer would name a relief pitcher.

“I know what I can do. Obviously, I had some ups and downs in my big league career, but I’m on a good path right now. … I feel like [the slider] is a pitch that I can get ahead with and put guys away with. That’s definitely one of my strengths that I’ll continue doing.” -Brooks Pounders [MLB]

I’m proud to be the shepherd of this herd of sharks.

“I don’t think my mindset or the mission statement for this franchise has changed, that our goal is to win now and our goal is to win in the future. Moves that we make will have an eye toward that. My hope and my belief is that we can be in contention over the course of the next several weeks and can continue to push that gas pedal down. As we look to beyond 2019, we’ll always be opportunistic to make moves that will put us in position to accomplish our goal.” -Brodie Van Wagenen [MLB]

On Father’s Day, we again wish you all happy birthday.

“I always looked up to my dad because he’s the type of guy that when anything goes wrong … he can fix anything. I was always following him around because he could take care of everything. He worked really hard.” Steven Matz [MLB]

It’s remarkable how Freddie Freeman took up Larry Jones’ title of being the biggest love to hate heel for the Mets.

“He’s the best pitcher in baseball. He was still throwing 97, 98 m.p.h. in the seventh inning. He had that little something extra tonight, and we caught the brunt of it.” -Freddie Freeman [New York Times]

Mickey said he brought in Gsellman in a 10-2 game instead of a RP lower on the depth chart because he wanted to protect deGrom’s ERA, and a reporter followed up and asked if he really made a decision based on deGrom’s ERA.

“Gsellman can still throw tonight, so it’s not like he’s unavailable. Sometimes you have to take care of your players and that’s what I decided to do.” -Mickey Callaway [New York Daily News]

Pete Alonso has hit 25 home runs, while seeing the lowest pitches in the zone by any Mets (min. 50 PAs) at 35.6%. (For reference, Hechavarria, Davis and Nimmo led the team with zone percentage at 45.5%, 45.1%, and 44.2% respectively.)

“I don’t think [teams are] necessarily giving [Pete Alonso] pitches in the zone. I think they’re trying to pitch him tough, and he does a great job when they make that one mistake of doing damage. That’s very hard to do. If you’re sitting there pumping fastball after fastball and challenging him and he hits one of three mistakes, that’s hard enough. But when you only get one and he’s making them pay, that’s pretty impressive.” -Mickey Callaway [MLB]

There are more important things in life than baseball.

Mets Tweet of the Week

SiteBot FacePalm of the Week

“But my bigger concern is that Jake has regularly been showing up umps. My Dad was a HS/college ump. Yeah the good ones don’t hold grudges but they’re not all good. And the pitch that he had the biggest reaction to was clearly outside the strike zone. That’s likely to hurt him more than help him.” -cpins

AA Quote of the Week

“Does it make me a bad fan that I still have no idea who Justin Wilson is?” -Kepler