“Out Of All The Teams I Played On, This Is The Least-Hardest Working Group Of Position Players I’ve Ever Played With" - Tommy Pham On The 2023 Mets

Wake up babe, new story skewering the Mets just dropped.

God damn it feels good to have a taste of the old Mets in my life. 101 win seasons are fun and all. But you know what's really cool?Meaningless games in September along with an article that makes you question why you continue to allow this franchise torment your soul every single year without any pay off.

You can read the full article on The Athletic. I won't dare copy and paste it here since Barstool is forever in the crosshairs of journalists from Portnoy getting a new hit piece with 10+ year old quotes in it written weekly to Spittin' Chiclets getting roasted by Big J's for calling out a hockey coach for being a dick then all of those supposed serious writers becoming quiet as church mice once they found out Biz was right.

The quote everyone is talking this morning about is Tommy Pham calling out the position players for having the worst work ethic of any position players he's been around and he's been around a bunch considering he played for the Cardinals, Rays, Padres, Reds, and Red Sox before arriving in Flushing. I already loved Tommy Pham because he isn't scared to call out someone's bullshit in a fantasy league. But calling out your underperforming teammates for not trying hard enough is the exactly what every fan on the planet would want from a player.

The only thing I don't like about this quote is it doesn't really make sense when you break it down considering he said he respects the work ethics of Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, and Brandon Nimmo. Based on a simple look at the Mets 25 man roster during Pham's time here, this feels like it was just a direct shot at Jeff McNeil, Starling Marte, Mark Canha, Eduardo Escobar, Luis Guillorme, and the catchers? 

I guess you could lump Francisco Alvarez and Brett Baty in there but I feel like rookies are barely looked at as true Major Leaguers during their first full season. Daniel Vogelbach would clearly be in the crosshairs since he's struggled this season and looks like he doesn't try AKA he is a Unit. But I feel like a DH is actually a positionless position, so Vogey may be in the clear. Cheers to you, pal.

Still, I have no choice but to believe every word Pham was quoted with considering he doesn't pull any punches (See; Joc Pederson) and I need something to blame for this Mets season going off the rails the way it has other than the declining health of old pitchers, underperforming young pitchers, and the curse of the WBC taking the nuclear weapon out of our bullpen. 

Canha and Escobar are already gone while Vogey has his last year of arbitration coming up. Guillorme might be next considering the Mets have 856 middle infield prospects in their system ready to head to the Bigs. 

So I guess I am just hoping Jeff McNeil and Starling Marte take Pham's words that seem to be directed at them to heart, grinds their asses off, and turn it around next season after getting paid handsomely by Uncle Stevie for a .705 and .625 OPS respectively. If they don't that's fine since the Mets will have like 10 guys that can play their positions that could be ready to come up to Queens by this time next season.

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Obligatory Luisangel Acuna highlight with a sick stat:

Also while I love to hear that Francisco Lindor has a good work ethic and rediscovered it with Pham in town, I'd like him to become better at honoring bets. Nothing is worse than someone who welches on a bet. So buy Jeff McNeil the car you owe him so he can arrive to the ballpark before everyone arrives and turns off the lights as the last one to leave because I am not watching another dogshit season like this year because guys didn't want to work hard. 

Actually who am I kidding? I'm going to watch this team regardless no matter what because I'm addicted to this stupid sports as a fan and won't be able to rest until they win a World Series. But I won't be happy about it and will let it be known every work during the stupid podcast I do about this team.

Speaking of which, we discussed the entire Athletic article that also dug into the WBC being partially responsible for the disaster in Queens along with Pete Alonso reportedly asking for a TEN year deal and Noah Syndergaard appearing to get roasted by Alex Cooper on today's We Gotta Believe.