The Mets Placing Anthony Swarzak On The DL Means That Hansel Robles Is Back In Our Lives
I’ll admit that using a gif from The Office is a little bit of a lazy move, but that was honestly how I felt when I saw that Hansel Robles was coming back into our lives. Yeah losing Swarzak in a bullpen that seemed to be clicking really well hurts. But it’s the Robles part of that tweet that sends chills down my spine. I did not spend an hour of my day yesterday blogging about the good juju that imaginary hand jobs were going to bring the Mets only to have the franchise’s juju vacuum get called up the very next day. Every baseball team has the guy that every fan hates and Hansel is ours. Especially now that Ray Ramirez is gone.
The fucked up thing about all this is that I used to actually like Robles. If you have a guy named Hansel on your team, you get to throw around some dated Zoolander quotes when he comes through. Yeah it’s a dated reference, but during a 162 game marathon, you’ll take anything you can get. Robles was also good enough during his first two years on the Mets and seemed like he was the team’s resident crazy person. You need to have one of those guys on your 25 man roster if you want to keep other teams honest.
However last year is where everything went off the tracks. An ERA of almost 5 was bad. But Robles pointing at every fucking ball a batter hit into orbit is what drove me and every other Mets fan crazy.
That shit will crush a franchise and a fan base no matter how many fake hand jobs you are doling out on the basepaths.
But you know what? I’m going to believe in Mickey Callaway. Not because he or Dave Eiland will fix Robles. It was pretty clear in Spring Training that was not going to be the case for now. But I believe that Mickey won’t call on Robles unless absolutely necessary. Like the 18th inning of an extra inning game or if Matt Harvey puts the Mets in a 7-0 hole in the 2nd inning. Callaway will pretty much use Robles as the Anti-Andrew Miller. Only the lowest of low leverage situations until Swarzak’s side heals. Or at the very least he will tell Hansel that if he points at the sky, he will cut his fucking digit off. I think I could live with that over Mickey trying to fix Robels as a pitcher. Ya gotta believe! Right? Get better, Anthony. SOON!
P.S. I’ve been hopping on Instagram Live after games to give some quick Mets #takes and just did a quick one for this Robles news. I was screaming about how Robles needs to stop pointing at the ball and let it go. Before I knew it, I was getting my Elsa on and singing “Let It Go” at full blast in an empty house. The Frank Fleming Effect is real, folks.