No Time to Panic

Okay, the Mets are stinkin’ out the joint but at least there’s Phil Mickelson. And that pilot who landed in the Hudson River with all passengers totally fine. There are lots of contemporary heroes. But don’t look for any at Citi Field.

Oh sure, things looked great after that first game. Johan pitched a gem. I haven’t forgotten that. But then there was Maine. Maine did the same thing he always does, disappoint. But what the hell, I expected that. And the Mets came back in that one, to tie it at 6, but the scoring was illusory as they did it with walks, and some truly horrible Marlins relief pitching.

Then Niese went out and pitched great but the Mets bats weren’t really there. Pagan and Francoeur got a couple of hits each but the rest of the lineup got just four more. Still, to that time, the Mets were just 1-2, and maybe it was just good pitching from the Marlins that got them.

But then Pelfrey looked better than expected, and showed a nice new pitch in his repertoire. So things are looking up, I think, when Pelfrey starts in the future. The Mets bats were back too, with new catcher Rod Barajas banging two homers and Jeff Francoeur continuing his hot hitting with two homers of his own. Now the Mets were even again, with a 2 and 2 record after four.

Crazy Ollie was up next though, another John Maine, only crazier. Perez had a typical Perez performance but he did go 5 2/3 giving up just 4 runs. And Igarashi, Perpetual Pedro and new guy Jennry Mejia gave up just 1 hit over the last 3 innings. Mets bats weren’t there again, however, except for Francoeur . Even with that though, they could have won and lost only because they got robbed by a great fielding play. So they could have been 3 and 2. Only bad fortune made them 2 and 3. And Santana would be going the next day.

But Johan threw some bad pitches and gave up a big homer to Willingham. The Mets bats produced just two runs. They got those two runs from a most unlikely source too, from Mike Jacobs, who will hit a homer once in a while, but more often will pop up or fan completely. Francoeur once again had a multi-hit game but with less actual effect, as things turned out.

So the Mets are 2 and 4. Manager Jerry Manuel assumed responsibility later on, needlessly I thought, but what the hell, what difference does it make when you’ve got guys like Mike Jacobs hitting behind Jason Bay, or Gary Matthews? Come on, would you pitch to Bay? If you would, what kind of pitch would you be throwing?

Let’s recap though. The Mets lost two games by one run and one game by two runs. The pitching really hasn’t been too bad. But Matthews and Mike Jacobs aren’t the answers. Angel Pagan should play center, not Matthews. And Tatis could play first, if you really want a lineup. Here we go…Reyes, Castillo (or Cora, they both have similar games), Wright, Bay, Francoeur, Barajas, then Tatis (playing first) and Pagan batting eighth, just to get some speed at the back of the order.

The Mets are currently 18th in batting average among the 30 MLB teams, about the same in runs scored, but significantly better in on base average. They’re pretty bad in slugging pct and home runs as you’d expect. What this all indicates to me is that they need some power (they need Beltran back pretty badly) obviously but they could improve things a lot with a better lineup. And that lineup doesn’t include Matthews or Jacobs.

I don’t understand their thinking. Didn’t any fantasy player know that Mike Jacobs and Gary Matthews were real reaches? Did they really think Gary Matthews was a significant improvement over Angel Pagan? Did they think Mike Jacobs was going to be more consistent? And how long are they going to stay with these guys? Sure, Jacobs hit one out yesterday, but with him, it’s a roll of the dice, loaded dice against the roller.

The Mets have been unlucky too, I might add. Yeah, they lost three games of four by tight margins, but they’ve also been victimized by nice plays and they haven’t had much luck at third base defensively, with Wright unable to come up with hard ground shots to the third base side twice that I can remember. Tatis can’t really play a nice third base either. So put him at first.

But there’s no reason to panic. For Manuel to say they weren’t ready isn’t really accurate to my mind. They were ready. They just aren’t good enough hitters as a group to hit Livan Hernandez, who pitched a beauty of a game. He apparently was “up” for the game, facing his former teammates, for most of whom he’s pretty familiar.

Francesa is saying this afternoon that Manuel is feeling the heat, that he needs a good start, and that after six games, pressing the panic button indicates your job is in jeopardy. And maybe that’s true. Jerry says a lot of stuff, including yesterday something about revelation that was particularly pithy, I thought.

Rather than feeling for his job though, I think Manuel was just trying to take the heat away from the players, some of whom have really been pitiful and most of whom have been average. Maybe he’s taking responsibility for that stupid lineup he’s been putting on the field. Maybe he’s protecting Minaya, who, if there is a culprit in these proceedings, should really be at fault.

The roster is unbalanced really, with too many outfielders and not enough corner infielders. With this team, to have either Pagan or Matthews on the bench while guys like Jacobs and Tatis are in the lineup, is not really sensible.

And yes, I know Daniel Murphy’s coming back to play first.