How bad is it? As the fat guy Clemenza said in The Godfather, “pretty damn bad”. I say this because the Mets are opening a 3-game set against the Dodgers and they’re still banged up as bad as ever. That doesn’t bode well against Joe Torre’s crew. Pitching and batting, they’ve got it all, and Manny too. Some teams have all the luck.
An analysis of the at-bats for the two teams leading the NL East, the Phillies and the Mets, points to how bad things have really been for our locals. The Mets have only one guy with 300 or more at-bats, David Wright. The Phils have three, Rollins, Victorino and Howard, and four more of their players have 250 or more at-bats. That would be Werth with 289, Feliz and Utley with 282, and Ibanez, who hit the disabled list a couple of weeks ago, with 250.
For the Mets, after David Wright, Carlos Beltran, who hasn’t played in a very long time, seemingly forever if you’re a Mets fan, has a comparatively measly 241 at-bats. Just three other Mets have over 200 at-bats. That would be Castillo, Murphy and Church, not exactly a Murderers Row.
Surprisingly enough, it’s bargain pick-up Gary Sheffield with the next highest number of plate appearances with 185. The other comparative workhorses are Alex Cora, Fernando Tatis, Jose Reyes (in just 36 games) and Omir Santos, all of whom have 142 to 162 at-bats and have appeared in from 36 to 54 games out of the 80 games in which Wright has played. So, all in all, the only regular has been Wright.
And thank the good Lord for that. Wright’s batting .326 with production numbers to match. But of the steadier healthier players this year, only Church and Sheffield have been even somewhat productive with a .290 BA for Church and a remarkable10 homers and 31 ribbies for the dour Sheffield.
The good news is that, in one of those ridiculous statistical anomalies, this banged-up Mets team currently ranks second in the National League in batting average. Their .270 is exceeded only by the Dodgers who collectively bat .272.
The bad news is that it’s a noticeably unproductive .270. The Metsies have scored only 355 runs, ranked 20th among all major league teams. That basically means that not only do the teams with higher batting averages score more than our lovable locals but even the thirteen teams with lower averages all score more than do the Mets.
I would have assumed that it has been the Mets pitching that has kept them respectable. That’s not necessarily the case however. Although their collective team ERA is 4.26, that ranks just seventh in the National League. An even more interesting stat is that their team WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) ranks 14th in the National League. That means that they’ve either been lucky or very good defensively or that their pitchers on average are better in the clutch.
It also means they have more heart-rending moments than just about any other team in baseball, with runners always on base and either strikeouts or double plays required to take them out of troublesome situations.
Without even looking it up, we know the Mets haven’t been very good defensively, or has it just been Murphy? A glance at the actual figures shows the Mets in the middle of the pack defensively but in runners left on base, they rank third, behind only Boston and Philadelphia. And when you think about individual pitchers, Pelfrey’s seemingly always getting out of trouble, Hernandez, Maine and Santana too. So the Mets do seem to have something going for them.
And looking ahead they could get better. Beltran, Reyes and even Delgado will probably return. Oliver Perez, the flaky starter who can dazzle at times, will probably be back. I won’t belabor the point but things can’t really get worse for the Mets and they’ve managed to at least nominally stay in the hunt thus far.
The schedule doesn’t look that intimidating either. In the National League, the only really threatening team is the Dodgers. After this coming series with them, the Mets will face the Reds for 3 games. Then there is the long awaited All-Star Break. Immediately after the break, all their opponents are beatable, especially with a rejuvenated team.
The likes of Atlanta, Washington, Houston, Colorado….these are beatable teams, infinitely beatable. So is San Diego, likewise Arizona. It looks like the Mets could have clear sailing for 33 games before having to face the Phillies again, then the Marlins and the Cubs, who’ll probably be leading their division by then.
But if the Mets can take 22 out of those 33, they should be 18 games above .500 with all of September still left to play, with their regulars rested, with their bench having gained experience, including all those AAA guys playing like AAA guys right now but not necessarily later.
The full complement of the Mets should be very hard to beat. After all, Omar did fill all the holes. He got the depth he needed and he picked up the required relief pitching. He and this Mets team just ran into an incredible string of bad luck. Judging from the schedule, that luck could turn the other way in an awful hurry.
So how bad is it really? It’s easy to despair when the Phillies just kicked your butt and you’re off to face the best team in the league. But if the Mets can play tough headed into the break and not totally lose heart, the post-break picture looks exceedingly nicer.
So as bad as it looks, things are looking up. Could things go the other way and even get worse? Sure. It’s possible but it sure as hell isn’t likely. This could be the year the Mets rise from the ashes after years of coasting through regular seasons only to lose in the end.
And it’s just around the corner, Mets fans.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
From Bad to Worse?
The Mets season is over. I’m declaring them dead.
They’re not the Mets anyway, not the Mets I expected and not even the Mets I foresaw if they had some bad luck. Even though I realized at the season’s inception that the Mets had been awfully lucky over the last few years from an injury standpoint, especially with their core players, I never thought they’d lose them all.
Even their ace pitcher can’t win these days. Santana has lost four of his last six. There is just no hitting usually, and last night the fielding went with it. It’s really too sad a story to stay with. You could liken it to hanging around a hospital. That’s not for me, especially when there are so many other stories, so many other channels.
For good reasons or bad, Omar has decided to stand pat with a AAA team. He’s done it too long. I’m tired of watching minor league ball. The only baseball-related things I can look forward to this year are the All-Star game and my fantasy team, which has been almost as unlucky as the Mets.
This somewhat stubborn refusal by the Mets to get better comes at a bad time. Oh sure, there has been Wimbledon and the U.S. soccer team, the NBA Draft and some other stuff, but really, it’s kind of difficult, y’know? I mean, how excited can I really get over the Williams sisters? The gracious Venus is as easy to root for as her younger arrogant sister is not. And unless and until an American man can break into the top echelon, it’s tough to follow the men’s action.
As for soccer, after cheering like a mad man for the likes of Donovan and Dempsey, Howard, Spector and Davies, only to watch their heartbreak in the final against Brazil, can I really stay motivated until the World Cup? I don’t think so. It was a great game though, and coming on the heels of their victory over Spain, they played valiantly for the full 90 minutes, even if their efforts were fruitful for only 45. They just seemed to run out of gas in that second half, especially after giving up that almost impossible to stop goal in the first minute or so of the second half.
But it’s the beginning of July and I shouldn’t have to amuse myself with other sports. The American pastime is still baseball, isn’t it? You wouldn’t know it from watching the National League action in New York though. Did I say action? I don’t know that you can call it that.
The Evil Empire is impossible to root for, at least for this fan, and maybe I’ll take notice if they should fire Cashman, or reduce ticket prices, or just shut up about how many pitches have been thrown, how many strikes, how many balls and on and on. They won’t catch the Red Sox anyway, this despite Papelbon’s failure to close out last night’s deal.
Besides, the team I can root for down the stretch is the Brewers. That became obvious to me last night as I watched those big dudes from Milwaukee, Hart and Hardy and Fielder and Braun. You even get sausage races if you’re a Brewer fan. They’ve got representative pitching, at the very least, and the players seem to have character.
In the American League, I’ll continue to pull for the Rangers, another lovable team that’s been together now for several years of mostly hard luck and is now coming of age, even without their superstar Josh Hamilton. The Twins are a nice team too, with lots of good pitching and a similar situation with home-grown guys making it big. And, last but not least, they pay absolutely no attention to pitch counts.
The Yankee obsession with pitch counts continued last night as Joba reached about a hundred pitches after 5 1/3 innings. The idiots on the bench took him out again, of course, and the Yanks relievers took over. Last night, they did the job and Bruney eventually picked up the win as Arod hit a gargantuan 2-run homer. But those idiots on the bench and in the GM’s office sure put a lot of pressure on Joba. You could look at each failed Joba performance as a self-fulfilled prophecy.
Aah! Who am I kidding? I’ll still be sucked in to the Mets action. Even now, I find myself with the tube in the background, watching Gary and Keith recap yesterday’s failures. Now Jerry’s talking about the need for them to relax a little bit, an almost impossible wish, given the whole Mash-unit situation.
Okay, my favorite blue and orange team is still only 2 games below .500 and just four games behind the Phils, a game behind the Marlins, a game ahead of the Braves. Is that really such a good reason to despair? After all, if we Mets fans know anything, it’s that big leads can be lost, and a lot depends on how the team plays in September.
And Beltran’s bone bruise is indeed just a bruise. Reyes and Delgado will be returning too. The pitching staff remains fairly strong, strong enough to compete in this weak NL East anyway. So I’ll wait and see. I’ll be a true fan.
But DeRosa was right there for the taking. And Holliday is supposed to be available. Couldn’t management see its way clear to picking up somebody? Wouldn’t even one addition to the roster help these guys out a little. When Church and Schneider are the glue holding a team together, that’s pretty sad.
Okay, that’s enough. Besides, Wright is up now. God willing, they’ll pitch to him.
They’re not the Mets anyway, not the Mets I expected and not even the Mets I foresaw if they had some bad luck. Even though I realized at the season’s inception that the Mets had been awfully lucky over the last few years from an injury standpoint, especially with their core players, I never thought they’d lose them all.
Even their ace pitcher can’t win these days. Santana has lost four of his last six. There is just no hitting usually, and last night the fielding went with it. It’s really too sad a story to stay with. You could liken it to hanging around a hospital. That’s not for me, especially when there are so many other stories, so many other channels.
For good reasons or bad, Omar has decided to stand pat with a AAA team. He’s done it too long. I’m tired of watching minor league ball. The only baseball-related things I can look forward to this year are the All-Star game and my fantasy team, which has been almost as unlucky as the Mets.
This somewhat stubborn refusal by the Mets to get better comes at a bad time. Oh sure, there has been Wimbledon and the U.S. soccer team, the NBA Draft and some other stuff, but really, it’s kind of difficult, y’know? I mean, how excited can I really get over the Williams sisters? The gracious Venus is as easy to root for as her younger arrogant sister is not. And unless and until an American man can break into the top echelon, it’s tough to follow the men’s action.
As for soccer, after cheering like a mad man for the likes of Donovan and Dempsey, Howard, Spector and Davies, only to watch their heartbreak in the final against Brazil, can I really stay motivated until the World Cup? I don’t think so. It was a great game though, and coming on the heels of their victory over Spain, they played valiantly for the full 90 minutes, even if their efforts were fruitful for only 45. They just seemed to run out of gas in that second half, especially after giving up that almost impossible to stop goal in the first minute or so of the second half.
But it’s the beginning of July and I shouldn’t have to amuse myself with other sports. The American pastime is still baseball, isn’t it? You wouldn’t know it from watching the National League action in New York though. Did I say action? I don’t know that you can call it that.
The Evil Empire is impossible to root for, at least for this fan, and maybe I’ll take notice if they should fire Cashman, or reduce ticket prices, or just shut up about how many pitches have been thrown, how many strikes, how many balls and on and on. They won’t catch the Red Sox anyway, this despite Papelbon’s failure to close out last night’s deal.
Besides, the team I can root for down the stretch is the Brewers. That became obvious to me last night as I watched those big dudes from Milwaukee, Hart and Hardy and Fielder and Braun. You even get sausage races if you’re a Brewer fan. They’ve got representative pitching, at the very least, and the players seem to have character.
In the American League, I’ll continue to pull for the Rangers, another lovable team that’s been together now for several years of mostly hard luck and is now coming of age, even without their superstar Josh Hamilton. The Twins are a nice team too, with lots of good pitching and a similar situation with home-grown guys making it big. And, last but not least, they pay absolutely no attention to pitch counts.
The Yankee obsession with pitch counts continued last night as Joba reached about a hundred pitches after 5 1/3 innings. The idiots on the bench took him out again, of course, and the Yanks relievers took over. Last night, they did the job and Bruney eventually picked up the win as Arod hit a gargantuan 2-run homer. But those idiots on the bench and in the GM’s office sure put a lot of pressure on Joba. You could look at each failed Joba performance as a self-fulfilled prophecy.
Aah! Who am I kidding? I’ll still be sucked in to the Mets action. Even now, I find myself with the tube in the background, watching Gary and Keith recap yesterday’s failures. Now Jerry’s talking about the need for them to relax a little bit, an almost impossible wish, given the whole Mash-unit situation.
Okay, my favorite blue and orange team is still only 2 games below .500 and just four games behind the Phils, a game behind the Marlins, a game ahead of the Braves. Is that really such a good reason to despair? After all, if we Mets fans know anything, it’s that big leads can be lost, and a lot depends on how the team plays in September.
And Beltran’s bone bruise is indeed just a bruise. Reyes and Delgado will be returning too. The pitching staff remains fairly strong, strong enough to compete in this weak NL East anyway. So I’ll wait and see. I’ll be a true fan.
But DeRosa was right there for the taking. And Holliday is supposed to be available. Couldn’t management see its way clear to picking up somebody? Wouldn’t even one addition to the roster help these guys out a little. When Church and Schneider are the glue holding a team together, that’s pretty sad.
Okay, that’s enough. Besides, Wright is up now. God willing, they’ll pitch to him.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Opportunity Lost
Well, that was boring. I wonder how many Mets fans actually watched last night’s Mets-Yanks game. The Mets matched up nowhere, not in the starting pitching, not in the batting order certainly, and not even in relief. Pitiful is the only word for it. But ya know what? It only counts once.
You have to have a sense of humor, Mets fans, this year more than ever. The only thing we can say for sure after the last two days is this: the Mets can’t hit CC Sabathia and they can’t hit AJ Burnett either. But you can also say we’re still just 1 ½ games behind the Phillies in the NL East. And still one game over .500
WooHoo! Can you stand this much success? Have you just about had it with inter-league play? Subway Series, my butt. I admit it, right now, the Yanks are better. Of course, tomorrow though, it’ll be crafty old Livan Hernandez against Chien Mien Wang, who’s just beginning to look like a pitcher again, so the Mets could salvage that last game.
One of the players that talk-radio has been espousing is gone, so add to insult and injury a little bit of opportunity loss. I speak, of course, of the trade that sent Cleveland’s Mark DeRosa to the crafty Cards for a very mediocre relief pitcher named Chris Perez. Geez, maybe they would’ve taken our Parnell if anybody offered him up. DeRosa would have immediately become the second best hitter on the Mets team. Oh well, we’ve still got Parnell. Heh-heh.
Did I mention that DeRosa also plays a bunch of different positions? Geez, that would’ve been nice for Jerry Manuel, being able to plug in a very good hitter at three or four different positions. Oh well, we’ve still got Brian Stokes.
The thinking must be that, if the Mets are going to stay in it at all, they will do it with pitching, a theory to which I don’t even disagree. But every opportunity has to be studied for its overall effect on the team, and, well, I just think the Mets missed the boat on DeRosa.
Things don’t get that much easier either. After hopefully smacking Wang around tomorrow, there’s Milwaukee and their Murderers Row of a lineup with Fielder and Braun, Hart and Hardy ad infinitum. Strangely enough though, there is hope in that they’re all fastball hitters who may have trouble versus the Mets junk throwers. Of course, Santana and Pelfrey can’t really be considered junk guys. Oh well, we’ll get by somehow, some way.
After the Brewers, there’s the Pirates for a game, then those division-leading Phillies and then the Dodgers but why worry about them now? Let’s just beat Wang tomorrow and then maybe it’ll be Nieve’s turn again soon after that. He does seem to have become our second best starter. That says a lot for the quality of the pickups, but unfortunately, it also says a lot about the quality of the regulars.
The latest on Jose Reyes is that he’s not quite ready, which is to say almost nothing. If he can’t really run, he won’t be the Jose we had all come to know and love, at least when he wasn’t being a bonehead. Being realistic, of the three big hurts, Reyes and Delgado and Beltran, Reyes’s absence has been the easiest to overcome. Cora has performed pretty admirably. Things only got hairy when Cora was hurt too.
Delgado is supposed to be coming around too but I won’t be holding my breath. Carlos Beltran may turn out to be the most seriously injured of the three with that bone bruise that may not be just a bone bruise. So things are not looking rosy, Mets fans, and now we can’t even fantasize about DeRosa anymore. Oh well, we’ve still got Feliciano.
Anyway you look at it, letting DeRosa escape to the Cards was a big mistake, a very huge missed opportunity, especially for a team that should have been exploring all of its options. And, if I’m recalling this correctly, it was the Cardinals that beat the Mets on their last and best chance to get to the World Series. I can still wince just thinking about that Wainwright curve ball totally locking up Beltran for a called strike three.
Oh well, we’ve still got Sean Green.
You have to have a sense of humor, Mets fans, this year more than ever. The only thing we can say for sure after the last two days is this: the Mets can’t hit CC Sabathia and they can’t hit AJ Burnett either. But you can also say we’re still just 1 ½ games behind the Phillies in the NL East. And still one game over .500
WooHoo! Can you stand this much success? Have you just about had it with inter-league play? Subway Series, my butt. I admit it, right now, the Yanks are better. Of course, tomorrow though, it’ll be crafty old Livan Hernandez against Chien Mien Wang, who’s just beginning to look like a pitcher again, so the Mets could salvage that last game.
One of the players that talk-radio has been espousing is gone, so add to insult and injury a little bit of opportunity loss. I speak, of course, of the trade that sent Cleveland’s Mark DeRosa to the crafty Cards for a very mediocre relief pitcher named Chris Perez. Geez, maybe they would’ve taken our Parnell if anybody offered him up. DeRosa would have immediately become the second best hitter on the Mets team. Oh well, we’ve still got Parnell. Heh-heh.
Did I mention that DeRosa also plays a bunch of different positions? Geez, that would’ve been nice for Jerry Manuel, being able to plug in a very good hitter at three or four different positions. Oh well, we’ve still got Brian Stokes.
The thinking must be that, if the Mets are going to stay in it at all, they will do it with pitching, a theory to which I don’t even disagree. But every opportunity has to be studied for its overall effect on the team, and, well, I just think the Mets missed the boat on DeRosa.
Things don’t get that much easier either. After hopefully smacking Wang around tomorrow, there’s Milwaukee and their Murderers Row of a lineup with Fielder and Braun, Hart and Hardy ad infinitum. Strangely enough though, there is hope in that they’re all fastball hitters who may have trouble versus the Mets junk throwers. Of course, Santana and Pelfrey can’t really be considered junk guys. Oh well, we’ll get by somehow, some way.
After the Brewers, there’s the Pirates for a game, then those division-leading Phillies and then the Dodgers but why worry about them now? Let’s just beat Wang tomorrow and then maybe it’ll be Nieve’s turn again soon after that. He does seem to have become our second best starter. That says a lot for the quality of the pickups, but unfortunately, it also says a lot about the quality of the regulars.
The latest on Jose Reyes is that he’s not quite ready, which is to say almost nothing. If he can’t really run, he won’t be the Jose we had all come to know and love, at least when he wasn’t being a bonehead. Being realistic, of the three big hurts, Reyes and Delgado and Beltran, Reyes’s absence has been the easiest to overcome. Cora has performed pretty admirably. Things only got hairy when Cora was hurt too.
Delgado is supposed to be coming around too but I won’t be holding my breath. Carlos Beltran may turn out to be the most seriously injured of the three with that bone bruise that may not be just a bone bruise. So things are not looking rosy, Mets fans, and now we can’t even fantasize about DeRosa anymore. Oh well, we’ve still got Feliciano.
Anyway you look at it, letting DeRosa escape to the Cards was a big mistake, a very huge missed opportunity, especially for a team that should have been exploring all of its options. And, if I’m recalling this correctly, it was the Cardinals that beat the Mets on their last and best chance to get to the World Series. I can still wince just thinking about that Wainwright curve ball totally locking up Beltran for a called strike three.
Oh well, we’ve still got Sean Green.
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