This Week in Mets Quotes: Showalter wants team to Play Better, Eppler believes in roster he constructed

Your 2023 New York Mets: Play better.

“There’s a lot of things I can say, but it sounds like excuses; we’re not going there. Play better. That goes for all of us.” -Buck Showalter [MLB]

Narrator: They would not figure out a way to ‘shorten this’.

“We did score six runs, but we just couldn’t seem to hold them. You try to stretch out the good times and shorten up the bad ones. Right now, we’re trying to figure out a way to shorten this.” -Buck Showalter [MLB]

This is the longest series of quotes from Vogelbach I’ve ever seen...

“It’s probably not going to be the last time that something like this goes on this season. I’m not very good at math, but we have a lot of games left. We’re starting to get healthy, we’re starting to get guys back, so we just have to stick together. I think that’s something that this group does very well; when the game challenges you like this, it’s easy to separate and it’s easy to start pointing fingers. This group doesn’t do that.” -Daniel Vogelbach [MLB]

...he’s still going.

“I regretted it all game. I came off the bag to try to find the ball, thinking the throw was going to go home for a ricochet. Kris made a heads-up play; I barely came off the bag and by the time I looked up, the ball was on me and I just couldn’t get back. I messed up. We were having good at-bats, we had the guy on the ropes; you look back and if I don’t make that play, who knows where the game goes? It’s the old saying, ‘When it rains, it pours.’ Things aren’t going the way we want right now. The game is challenging us, but we have a lot of baseball to play.” -Daniel Vogelbach [MLB]

Technically Pete’s arguing ‘ball-and-strikes’ but shouldn’t amount to anything.

“It’s tough being on the bad side of the stick. Let’s say the strike three to me is called a ball as it should have been, maybe the momentum doesn’t shift when they get to hit. It’s tough to say.” -Pete Alonso [MLB]

At least someone had a good week.

“I was still making some mechanical adjustments, trying to get my timing and everything. made a few little minor tweaks during the game, especially there in the third inning, that all of a sudden felt right, and I just kind of went from there and kept that feel.” -Justin Verlander [MLB]

Requisite ‘If you smell-lalala’.

“[Verlander] smelled it the last couple innings. You could tell he was smelling it.” -Buck Showalter [MLB]

Just for reference, Verlander was able to go 7+ innings 12 times last year and it would be sorely needed on this team.

“When I’m getting weak fly balls, that’s when I’m at my best. Swing and miss and weak fly balls is kind of my MO. They did hit a couple balls decent in the air, but I kind of forced the issue a little bit and kind of put pressure on them to put the ball in play. If I can get a quick fly-ball out, then great.” -Justin Verlander [MLB]

Verlander on defeating all 30 MLB teams in his career.

“Any time you do something that not many people have done in this game, it’s pretty cool.” -Justin Verlander [MLB]

Tough to beat a pitcher like.../checks notes/...Austin Gomber when he’s on the uptick.

“We knew that [Austin] Gomber was coming off a good outing. We knew he was a lot better than what he had shown [earlier in the season]. So we kind of caught that on the uptick.” -Buck Showalter [MLB]

Getting some real ‘We have a plan and I like our plan’-vibes.

“I believe in this roster. I believe in this team and the players that are here. There’s too much track record. There’s too much these guys have accomplished.” -Billy Eppler [MLB]

“There’s times of the year where you over-perform in 10-game, 15-game stretches, and there’s times when you underperform in those stretches. So it’s kind of [about] striking a balance there and not succumbing to the recency bias.” -Billy Eppler [MLB]

I am looking less forward to ‘continuing to watch these guys go’.

“It’s a club with a lot of experience. It’s a club with a lot of know-how. So we’re looking forward to continuing to watch these guys go.” -Billy Eppler [MLB]

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