This Week in Mets Quotes: Van Wagenen on being the underdogs now, Conforto likes Alonso hitting behind him

Your 2019 New York Mets: They came and got us.

“They came and got us.” -Brodie Van Wagenen [New York Post]

‘I find my life is a lot easier the lower I keep my expectations.’ -Bill Watterson

“I think now we view ourselves as the underdogs. For the second half of this year I think we have low expectations for what we can be and I think now we’ll take the underdog role and run with it and try to prove some people wrong this year and certainly try to improve on it next year with that underdog in mind.” -Brodie Van Wagenen [New York Post]

Baseball is a weird job, as most workplaces probably wouldn’t accept the reason for throwing a chair was an ‘attempt to find different ways to yield results’.

“I was frustrated. I think our fans have been frustrated and there was part of me that allowed emotion to come to light and I think emotion sometimes is good because it can rattle the cage to a degree in the attempt to find different ways to yield results.” -Brodie Van Wagenen [New York Post]

“My goal when I had the meeting with the coaches before the emotion ramped up was to try something different. It came after another tough loss and I let the emotions get to me. I’m not typically throwing furniture and I am sure our fans have thrown a few remote controls at their TVs throughout the course of the season.” -Brodie Van Wagenen [New York Post]

Best of luck to Kirk Nieuwenhuis on whatever is next in his life.

[The former Met, who was playing for manager Wally Backman’s Long Island Ducks, retired on Friday, according to multiple reports. Nieuwenhuis hit .259 with 11 homers and 41 RBIs in 62 games for the Ducks this season.] -Ted Holmlund [New York Post]

Mickey was asked how he has had a lack of concern about Cano’s power dip.

“Because I knew [Cano] was going to hit a bomb tonight. You guys didn’t realize that? Power can come and go. Power’s all about squaring the ball up as many times as possible.” -Mickey Callaway [MLB]

‘The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.’ -Aldous Huxley

“As a player, as a teammate, you just want to be successful in a situation like that. You want to help your starter, you want to help the team to win games. That’s my job. That’s why we’re here. People are going to question when you’re not doing good, even when you’re younger, even if you’re older. It’s easy to say, ‘Robbie’s older now,’ because I’m 36 years old. … I just close my ear to those negative comments. I know what I can do, I know how I feel.” -Robinson Cano [MLB]

It’s remarkable how veterans—which is a weird way to think of Conforto in itself—speak about Pete Alonso in his rookie year.

“Is Pete behind me? He’s behind me today. I’ll probably get some pitches to hit. They’re not going to want to face that big boy behind me. That’s always nice when you have a guy like him behind you.” -Michael Conforto [New York Daily News]

I’d argue Conforto has already been maybe the most consistent position player for the Mets when healthy.

“Unfortunately, over the last few weeks it’s been a little tough for [Conforto]. But I don’t think he is ever going to give up. He works his tail off every single day. He has all those ingredients to be a top-level performer and a consistent performer and I think he will be at some point.” -Mickey Callaway [New York Daily News]

No comment necessary.

“I want to see an 11-pitch at-bat from you and then you hit a homer.’’ -Mickey Callaway to Jeff McNeil about his leadoff at-bat [Yahoo]

“I’ll do it on the first pitch.’’ Jeff McNeil [Yahoo]

Pretty straightforward that Rosario was benched for not running out a fly ball...

“As Wayne mentioned, the disciplinary benching for one game of Rosario for not running out that fly ball that dropped.”-Keith Hernandez [Yahoo]

“I think it was because of the consequences of me not running out the fly ball. (Callaway) told me to run hard.” -Amed Rosario [Yahoo]

...and it’s fair that ‘stuff that [the Mets] do internally] needs to stay [internal]’...

“Some of that stuff that we do internally needs to stay with us, but I think Rosie knows some of the reasons on why he didn’t play today. I wouldn’t call it disciplinary. …We addressed that part of it after the game (Saturday) night.” -Mickey Callaway [Yahoo]

...so this is a good place to stop talking...

“[Rosario] knows that he has to be on second in that situation. And a few guys hit him up right after it happened.” -Mickey Callaway [Yahoo]

...oh boy.

“Robbie deserves the leeway on [not always hustling]. I also understand that our players, that Rosario is going to understand that’s Robinson Cano doing that, and he probably can’t do the same thing that Robbie can do, because he doesn’t have that experience and probably doesn’t quite understand the things that Robbie does when he’s doing it.” [Yahoo]

When Jared Banner, Mets current director of player development and former Red Sox employee, met Dom Smith, he let them know how highly the team regarded him.

“We talked a bunch about draft night and Boston’s seventh-overall pick and it was between me and [pitcher] Trey Ball, so they kind of remember that a little bit and they reminded me about that.” -Dom Smith [New York Post]

As a longtime Dom Smith stan, couldn’t be happier to see him happy.

“I’m very happy with everything I accomplished and was able to do in the offseason and the work I put in coming into camp. I had a slim chance of making the team and I’m just happy I was able to showcase my ability and show the organization, the team and the fans the type of player that I was and they drafted.” -Dom Smith [New York Post]

Hell yeah, Dom.

“The best players in the game, they have pretty much five tools. They can hit for average, hit for power. They are athletic enough to run around in the outfield. They take the extra base, can steal bases. So that is definitely a part of my game I want to keep improving on and I’m going to go this offseason and improve as much as I can in the outfield. Work with a couple of track coaches and get my footspeed up a little bit and just trying to become an all-around baseball player.”-Dom Smith [New York Post]

This is a refreshingly honest statement from a GM.

“You have to look at where we were and where we are now. Bolstering our bullpen was a priority. Bolstering our run production was a priority. We acquired the best closer in the American League last year, we acquired a three-hole hitter that was coming off years or production. I think we have to acknowledge those two players have not performed up to what our expectations were and the onus is on us now to do everything we can to support them to be better and to regain their talent.” -Brodie Van Wagenen [New York Post]

AA Quote of the Week

“And kudos to anyone on the East Coast who watched this game until the bitter game. That’s serious grission.” -Mookiestheman after the Mets 16 inning loss in San Francisco.