Sal Licata was back with BT Friday after a few days out of office, and it did NOT take him long to bring the Sal Licata Rant ™ back with him.
In breaking down the big news from Mets camp about Kodai Senga being shut down with a shoulder issue, BT mentioned how the team scuttlebutt is they feel they're being underestimated…and Sal just couldn't WAIT to jump all over that.
"Not only did we have to hear about David Stearns telling us how the Mets are a playoff-caliber team, now Steve Gelbs is saying that the sentiment is pervasive in the Mets' clubhouse right now that a lot of guys feel like this team is being underestimated," Sal said. "Okay…so those same guys that got their teeth kicked in two years ago by the Atlanta Braves and never got off the mat, those same guys that last year embarrassed themselves by sucking, to a man, we're underestimating them? BULLCRAP!"
Even if 2023 was a hangover, how is 2024 gonna be any better?
"They all stunk last year! McNeil, Alonso, Lindor for the first part of the season, you name it," Sal said. "Scherzer couldn't stay healthy, Verlander, Diaz was out and the bullpen stunk - 76 wins! You sucked a year ago, on top of the one good year you had you went out weakly and blew the division and lost in the first round of the playoffs….and those same guys are now telling me that we are underestimating them? I'm tired of it!"
Sal has a few different, and more choice words, to describe the Amazins.
"Call I was it is: Stearns put together a team that is barely a playoff team, and the only way it would be is because the rest of the league stinks and because expanded postseason may help you have a chance," Sal said. "I know what a good baseball team is and what a bad baseball team is, and even before Senga, you know what the New York Mets are? A bad baseball team! We're underestimating you because you stink? Prove us wrong for once!"
Welcome back Sal, indeed.
