The Answer - Playing Smart Baseball

Let ‘em play. It’s May 4th, for Pete’s sake. All the brilliant sports-riders know best, of course. The Mets have no heart. The Mets have no edge. The Mets have no pitching. Oliver Perez is a bum. Gimme a break already.

Let’s go through the field and evaluate what we have:

1B – Carlos Delgado – we may not have him for the year as he’s nicked up right now, but who’d you rather have than Carlos #1 (or Carlos #2 depending upon your point of view). Carlos is a hitter’s hitter, who records every at-bat in a log. How scientific is that? What players do that? Is this a guy who needs an edge?

Tatis has been his backup. He’s only recently started to hit the way he can hit. I look forward to seeing the old Fernando again, either in left or right fields, or first base. Dan Murphy can also spell Delgado in a pinch. From what I’ve seen ths far, he may be a better risk at first than in the outfield.

2B – Castillo and Cora – Castillo has been pretty good so far and Cora, in his limited playing time, has really shown me some flash in the field. There are a lot of second basemen who hit better but I’ll take fielding consistency at this position and we’ve got that, at the very least.

3B – David Wright – once again, who’d you rather see there? He’s shown some great fielding lately and, while he hasn’t hit in the clutch yet, you can say that about a lot of players, including Texas Rangers star shortstop/third baseman Michael Young. He’ll get better in the clutch, and I’ve seen improvement since he’s been moved out of the three spot, which he couldn’t and shouldn’t be forced to handle, not when Carlos Beltran is on the team.

SS – Jose Reyes – once again, who’d you rather have? Jimmy Rollins? No thanks. Hanley Ramirez? Not me. I want to see Jose vacuuming up everything in the hole or to either side and running like crazy. He does need to recognize the game situation though, and he looks as if he’s trying.

C – Ah, now here’s a sore spot. Three catchers means you really have no catchers. Schneider just isn’t really good in any area. I haven’t seen anything from him, which is why we see so much of Castro, who’s always got a reason for not playing, it seems. Now we’re getting to see Omir Santos, and I’ll take him over the other two any day of the week. So there’s hope at catcher. If he can keep it up, Santos is the answer.

CF – still once again, who’d you rather see in center than Carlos Beltran? Great fielder, great hitter, good speed, and only occasionally seems to be sleep-walking. Time off may be the answer to that quirk, but not too much please, just enough to give him that “edge”.

LF – okay, here’s a bit of a problem, but it’s getting better. Murphy shows some signs of calming down in the field and hits the cover off the ball. Sheffield spells him and he’s a great hitter, but you can downgrade him to just good lately. All in all, they’re an entertaining duo. You’ll get excitement from both of them, but sometimes good and sometimes bad.

RF – Ryan Church just doesn’t do it for me. He doesn’t hit in the clutch, he only occasionally seems to hit at all but he fields the position really well. He doesn’t seem to come through, at least not this year, and I’d love to see anybody else in the lineup rather than him. One reason Beltran had no steals until recently is that he was followed in the lineup by a totally oblivious Church. No edge here at all.

SP – Okay, now here’s a problem being addressed. Santana and a bunch of non-producers has been the story but there are some encouraging signs lately from both Mike Pelfrey, John Maine and Livan Hernandez. The only recent dud is crazy Ollie, which might turn out to be a mistake of Pavanian proportions. Stay tuned.

RP – Putz and K-Rod have been lights out, for the most part, but then there’s Sean Green, who really hasn’t been getting it done lately. Maybe the answer for him is less usage, not more. But these young guys filling out the pen show a lot of promise, moreso than, say, the Yankees have in their pen.

Mgr – Jerry Manuel’s my type of manager. Smart with a good personality for handling all the different types you find on a baseball field. Once again, who’s better? Sciosia? Valentine? Girardi? Come on. You won’t get Francona, one of the only managers who might be better, but he’s a Manuel-type anyway.

So there’s very little reason to complain, given the makeup of the team. It’s a very tricky business. If Omar did make any mistakes, it was signing Perez and making the trade for Church and Schneider for LoDuca. Of all the myriad moves he’s made over the years, that’s not really much to whine about.

The players have to just start playing as smart as the manager. Reyes can’t over-run bases and get thrown out, Beltran can’t take a play off by not sliding, Wright has to take a different approach with two strikes or with men on base. And Manuel has to keep his prodigious baseball savvy in check . Sometimes the answer is the obvious one, not one that only a genius could even conceive.

But it’s all fixable. The most serious problem nobody talks about is the problem with Delgado. Even without him, however, the Mets should be okay, with enough pitching and defense to win a lot of games.

But they have to play (and manage) smart baseball. We haven’t seen much of that. They seem to have reverted to the form they had in Willie Randolph’s last days, which is to say they’re doing just enough to lose.