Reflections in a Lost Season

It’s another day for day-games, the travel day for the Yanks, Orioles, Cubs and Phillies at the very least. Just my luck, the Phils are down 5-3 just now as Feliz drives in a couple. Looks like Zambrano, my fantasy opponent pitcher, is, as we used to say “blowing up”.

I can’t watch the Yankees-Orioles, it’s too uneven a match. The O’s still haven’t scored and it doesn’t look as if they’re going to. Burnett is just wacking them down and he doesn’t look troubled by the prospect of continuing. My fantasy opponent, though, is playing Roberts so maybe I’ll just root against him.

What is with this necklace on Burnett. I preferred the days when men didn’t wear jewelry. Me, I don’t even like the wedding band, and not because I have any bad intentions. If you want jewelry, wear a watch. You know, the thing you don’t need anymore because the time is staring you in the face from your cell phone, Blackberry, i-phone, and every electronic device in your house.

Hey-hey, the O’s finally scored two, and on a wild pitch too, but I’d rather blame Posada, one of my Yankee kicking-boys this season. The pitch wasn’t that bad, Jorge just missed it. Nice to make this thing competitive though for the 8th and 9th.

Over in Philadelphia, the Phils are getting thrashed by the Cubs. It’s 7-3 now and did you really expect much from Moyer? I think that if you want to pay a 43-year old guy to take the mound every 5th day or so, you deserve what you get.

For many baseball fans, though, the actual playing of the game has become secondary, even the watching of the actual game. But I have to admit, some of the peripheral action is pretty interesting…who’ll get Halladay (nobody), who’ll get Holliday (nobody), and who’s a buyer, who’s a seller, yada yada.

My beloved Metsies, alas, seem to be racing towards the seller side of things. Give them an opportunity to lose and most times they’ll take it. But one constant in the games they lose in awful fashion is the absence of pitching. In the games that are competitive, about every other game, they get good pitching. Let’s check the game log….

In the last 10 games, going back to the last game at LA, they lost two, then Santana pitched a beautiful game against Cincinnati and the Mets won 4-0. Then they won again with Pelfrey allowing only 3 runs over 7 innings. They won that one 9-7, so the relief pitching was horrible, but as the Mets decided to hit that day, it didn’t matter.

Then against the Braves, things started to unravel. They lost a tough 5-3 decision after Perez had turned in a good performance for him, and the Mets relievers couldn’t hold those pesky Braves off, giving up two runs in the last three innings. Pelfrey was awful the next day and the Mets got killed 11-0.

Then it was Santana’s turn. The Mets won 5-1. Getting my drift here? Then it was Nieve’s turn and he immediately got hurt so he could watch Tim Redding get blasted. The Mets lost and it wasn’t very close. But, behind a very creditable performance from Livan Hernandez in the Washington opener, the Mets won. Then Ollie the crazy man Perez turned in a clunker so the Mets lost again.

As bad as all this sounds, the Mets finished that ten-game stretch 4-6. Two wins from Santana, and one each from Pelfrey and Hernandez. Perez really wasn’t that bad, giving up 7 runs in 12 innings in his two starts. The relief pitching has been dreadful except for the rock, K-Rod.

My contention had been that the Mets could still contend if they got their big guns back soon. That was based on the schedule too, which didn’t seem daunting, but the Braves were one team the Mets should have split with, and they only took one of four. They have to do better than that. They did take 2 of 3 from the Reds though, and they’ve split with Washington so far. This last game against the Nats will show me a lot about the Mets, and whether they should be buyers or sellers thereafter.

The Mets will have Pelfrey going on his fifth day. Stammen is the Nats pitcher and he’s nothing to write home about. And I’d think, as Pelfrey is the team’s union representative, that the Mets will try hard to get him the win. The Mets have to win this game, if, for nothing else, my stick-to-it-iveness.

If they can’t beat Washington with their number 2 starter, they’re in really terrible shape as a team. Then I’d say they should be sellers. But Beltran and Reyes are both coming off injuries, minimizing their current market value and who really wants them to go anyway? Beltran had been one of the “rocks” before getting hurt and Reyes is Reyes after all, which is to say, alternately good and bad. Make that very good and bad, quite a distinction actually.

Until Beltran and Reyes get well, there’s really no point in dealing. That goes for Delgado too. But the needs are very clear in the long run, at least a reliever or two and a legitimate starter.

Of their two big relief acquisitions Green has been a real bust, for the most part, and Putz is an unknown after shoulder surgery. That’s a lot of money tied up in two relievers who haven’t been able to perform up to expectations. The Mets must hope that those two come back strong, thus mitigating their relief situation.

The more it’s analyzed, the more depressing it gets. The only logical thing to do is stay pat for now and hope that a Niese or somebody else from the minors will fill that 5th starter position. The relief will just have to get better with experience.

Next year is the best time to deal.