I don’t know if losing the lead at 4:00 AM is really more painful than losing it at 11:00 PM, but it sure felt like it. The Mets blew  yet another game in the World Series. They really could have won the Series, but ultimately didn’t deserve it. The Royals just played better this week. Here are some thoughts (if you are not a baseball/Mets fan, feel free to skip this post entirely):

It is pretty easy to second guess Terry Collins: The Mets manager was on a great run where everything he did seemed to work and then in the World Series nothing worked. His robotic approach to his bullpen, which is justifiable (maybe) in the regular season, was exposed. Clippard hasn’t really pitched well in weeks, yet Collins brought him in to pitch a crucial inning in Game Four (rather than Familia) because he was the guy who pitches the eighth. Coming into the Series, one of the Mets’ great weapons was Familia, but in the Fourth and Fifth Games, Collins waited too long to use him and ended up putting him in impossible situations. The Fox guys kept comparing leaving Harvey in the game to Jack Morris and the Twins, which is valid, but they might have also referred to Grady Little leaving Pedro in too long and losing to the Yankees, which, as it turned out was the better analogy. I didn’t mind sending Harvey back out, but I would have brought in Familia after the walk. But I don’t really know what he could have done to get them to hit, which was ultimately the biggest problem.

The aliens who kidnapped Daniel Murphy gave him back: The Murphy in the Series was, unfortunately, the one that Mets fans know: He is a journeyman player whose only real skill is making contact with the baseball when hitting (which is a real skill, not to be minimized). But as the Series showed, he is a barely competent fielder and proved it by making some critical errors. He really is not a power hitter either, despite his post-season heroics. I’m not complaining, since his historic home run binge helped get the Mets to the Series to begin with and was a nice cap for his Mets career. I’d be very surprised if the Mets pay him what it would take to keep him as a free agent and I won’t miss him that much.

The Mets never saw the real Cespedes: In the last two months of the season, especially August, he was just incredible. A Willie Mays-like Superman, having probably the best two month stretch of any position player in Mets history. In October, not so much. He didn’t really hit well at all. He was over-swinging terribly and there seem to be holes in his swing that top pitchers can exploit. To make matters worse, he looked pretty bad in CF, starting with misplaying a fly ball in the fist inning of Game One into an inside-the-park homer. He is a much better player than he was during the World Series and for much of the playoffs and not close to the god-like player he was in August. He is a free agent and someone (maybe the Mets) is going to give him a truck load of money. But what will they be getting?

Defense is key in the post-season: And the Mets didn’t play good defense in the Series. Good teams that are playing well (who are the teams that end up in the World Series) are teams that capitalize on mistakes. If the Mets had played tight defense, they would have won the series. But Cespedes kicked the ball around in the outfield, Murphy’s lousy fielding was exposed, Duda threw the ball away when a good throw would have ended Game Five and Wright made a couple of errors. And d’Arnaud and the Mets pitchers proved incredibly easy to run on, playing right in the Royals strategy. The couldn’t turn double plays against a ground ball hitting team. The often-criticized Wilmer Flores, shockingly, was the steadiest fielder on the team.

The Royals played really well: Their pitching pretty much stopped the Mets offense and their defense was good, although they made a few big errors. And you have to appreciate their approach at the plate and their willingness to cut down on their swings and just try to make contact when they have two strikes. The majority of Mets hitters (and the majority of MLB players) just don’t do that. The Royals give up power and are essentially a singles hitting team, which is a tough way to shape an offense, unless you can take lots of extra bases and keep games close with pitching and defense. They are well designed for their large stadium, although I’d have to say that they had the worst bunch of hitters on their bench that I can recall in a post-season. A team with a tighter middle infield that could control the running game would have given them trouble. But they took advantage of the breaks and lucky bounces they got and never gave up. I’d like to say that the Mets blew it, but, really, the Royals won it.

Wait ‘Til Next Year: The Mets are going to be good for a couple of years going forward, simply because they have historically great young starting pitching, combined with a great closer. Conforto has a chance to be a star and you could do worse that Flores at second or short. D’Arnaud is a good young hitter and catcher, but they need to work on his throwing. I’ve come to really appreciate Granderson, who was the Mets MVP this year. Wright’s a pro, but his back is a perpetual concern. Duda is too streaky, but I don’t know that they can really do any better. Murphy is likely gone, but how much money do they want to blow on Cespedes? I’d like to see him back, but not with contract that cripples their budget for years to come. They have some decisions to make, but, for the first time in a very long time, they are starting from a strong position,