Pat Murphy’s brutal honesty about Brandon Sproat is something NY Mets fans would love

Things haven’t gone particularly well for Brandon Sproat this season. His 6.24 ERA would have any team losing patience, especially the Milwaukee Brewers. A coveted New York Mets prospect sent out to Wisconsin as part of the Freddy Peralta trade, Sproat is 9 starts and a pair of relief appearances into his Brewers tenure. His latest start had Brewers manager Pat Murphy getting brutally honest.

So bold you have to check if it’s legit. And it is!

Literally calling the performance a dud isn’t due to a lack of vocabulary. Murphy is smart, has been in his job long enough, and realizes there’s a standard. Sproat lasted 4.1 innings and allowed 5 earned runs to the Houston Astros. He has been on a three-start streak of not going 5+. Either a discouraging comment or one that’ll motivate Sproat, it’s a sample of something the Mets can steal rather than continuing to defend or spin a lot of the poor performances they’ve gotten this season.

Mets fans would love to hear Carlos Mendoza throw some players under the bus more often than he has

The Mets have been careful with what they say about many of their players. Behind-the-scenes, there could be far worse words used. Out in public, they’ve been mostly kind and caring which gets irritating when everyone is treated like they’re a sensitive 5-year-old.

One of the rare examples in the past two seasons is Kodai Senga. Mendoza has regularly been more honest about his performances although he tends to just stick with the facts.

To their credit, the Mets players hold themselves accountable. There’s no fingerpointing when something goes wrong. The issue for fans is it’s often a simple “I need to do better” and when your team has lost as many games in the way they have this year and in a big cluster, one has to wonder if they even mean what they say.

It can be tougher to navigate the New York media than the one in Milwaukee. Many quotes are taken out of context in the Big Apple. However, when it comes to what Murphy said about Sproat, there is no reading between the lines. Sproat is pitching badly and that’s unacceptable. Now it’s up to the Brewers to do something about it or else it’s just lip service.

On the Mets' front, there does come a point where a manager who makes mistakes of his own can't hold his players' feet to the fire constantly. In a war that requires 162 battles and your job on the line, saying these things in a more polite manner makes sense. Murphy's situation is far different than Mendoza's and based on what we've seen over the last two and a half years, the Mets skipper isn't the kind of guy to create chaos. He might have trouble enough managing it in the locker room if the rumors are true.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow