10-01-2007, 12:09 AM
Okay, now that that’s done with, it’s time to air some much needed grievances. This is a very long post with a whole lot of words, characters, periods, commas, semicolons and apostrophes, so whatever you do, don’t read it.
I don’t even know where to begin, so may as well start at the top. But first, I must say that this has been the most frustrating, discouraging, disgusting thing I have ever willingly subjected myself to. And several times I have withstood the stench of my own feces for several minutes so as to get the perfect picture. Watching every game over the last two weeks has been far more disgusting than any of those stenches. I watched probably in the area of 145 Mets games this year, most of them from start to finish without missing a pitch, so I like to think I have some idea of what I’m talking about here.
Willie Randolph. In all my years watching sports, I have never single handedly blamed a manager/coach for a team’s poor performance, and I’m not about to start now. That said, he deserves to shoulder a large part of the blame. Not all of it, mind you, but a good deal of it. It is difficult to sit here and complain about his calm, stoic, unemotional, dead pan, almost distant managerial style. He was exactly the same sitting on the bench next to Torre, so there’s no reason to believe he’d be any different sitting in Torre’s position. Nobody had any problem with his personality in 2005 or especially in 2006. It’s only when things go wrong that these types of issues are raised. But that’s just natural. It comes with the territory of being a major league manager, especially in New York. I myself said at one point this year “Randolph’s been great”. But was he? Or was he just the benefactor of a very good team playing very well together for an extended period of time?
I think he is going to get far more blame than he should, but that does not mean he does not deserve it. There needs to be some accountability, and that needs to start at the top. Personally I prefer an emotional, fiery, hothead Lou Piniella type manager. All season long I kept hoping for some kind of outburst. Every time he came out to argue a call, I was hoping for an ejection. Just to see him…DO SOMETHING! All season long I was hoping for a bench clearing brawl. Something, anything, to ignite the team. Not necessarily in September or even August. This team needed a fire lit under them back in June. There’s nothing that ignites a team more than a good old fashioned FIGHT. And really, that’s one of the biggest things that was missing from the 2007 Mets: Fight. They took on the personality of their manager. Calm, stoic, unemotional, even under the most dire, intense situations. The 2nd inning of Friday’s game summed up the entire season: 1st and 2nd, 2 out, Perez singles to left. Delgado slowly, calmly, carefully, glides into 3rd base. Then Ross overruns the ball and Delgado finally starts RUNNING around 3rd to score the run. Sure, he was safe but that kind of lack of urgency was truly stunning in that situation, in that game. Extend yourself! What are you waiting for? He displayed the same lack of urgency that his manager exudes. Sure, you can say Randolph’s a different person in the clubhouse, behind closed doors, he’s much more emotional, blah blah blah. Sorry, but I’m not buying that. Not only the fact that he’s a different person behind closed doors, but the fact that it’s okay, that it's acceptable, to be emotional off the field but unemotional on the field. I don’t care what you’re like off the field. It’s what you do on the field, in the dugout, that matters. The games are played on the field. You manage from the dugout. That’s when you’ve got to show some emotion, some sense of urgency. But again, that’s not Willie Randolph. That’s never been Willie Randolph. So to chastise him now for not being the person he never was, is completely unfair.
Still, the question needs to be asked: Does Willie Randolph have what it takes to be a big league manager? The answer to this has to be a resounding NO. I don’t think he’ll be fired, and I don’t necessarily think he even should be fired unless there is a no-brainer replacement out there, and I don't think there is. Like I said, it’s not ALL his fault. I’d just like to see a Mets manager kick some dirt on an umpire, get ejected, and toss some equipment. Minaya is undoubtedly going to support him and stick with him. But if the last month has proven anything, it’s that he lacks one important quality that is absolutely mandatory for a major league manager: Leadership; the ability to respond to adversity. Well, he lacks more than that but I’ll get to that later. And this all comes back to the lack of emotion, the seeming lack of a personality. How many great leaders have there been that exude such a calm, distant, almost apathetic, nature towards everything? His personality really comes through in his players, and it was really no different last year either. Last year the talent just won out. The biggest mistake the Mets will make this offseason is letting Lo Duca leave via free agency. He is the only member of this team that showed any emotion, any grit, any fire, any heart, on a consistent basis. The rest of team was just floating through, taking it easy, not panicking, coasting by, assuming everything’s going to work out because that’s the exact message they got from their manager. They just had no fight not only the last two weeks of this season, but the entire season. They got off to a great start, 36-20 or something like that. Then they went into that whole west coast tailspin and never really recovered. Their longest winning streak all season was five games, and that wasn’t until late August into September. Even more stunning was that this streak came after getting swept four straight in Philadelphia. They responded well to that by sweeping three in Atlanta and winning two in Cincinnati. They continued to play well against Houston and Atlanta at home, then came another Phillies sweep and they’ve been unable to recover from that like they did the first time. They were an inconsistent team since June, and the only reason they were in first place for as long as they were was because Atlanta and Philadelphia weren’t playing very well either and couldn’t seize the opportunity. All season long, the division lead wavered from about 2-7 games. Every time it would get close, the Mets would win 6 of 10 while Philly lost 6 of 10, and everyone breathed easier, relaxed, and assumed everything was going to work out okay. They were just never able to play well enough long enough to put away the division in July or August, and this is what happens.
As long as I’m on the subject of Randolph, I may as well get to the other important quality it takes to be a manager: Sound strategy. This is also known as being SMART and making intelligent, well informed decisions. I questioned a couple of decisions earlier in the season, but didn’t put too much stock in it, figuring that once again the talent would win out. Maybe I was just as deluded as the Randolph and the rest of the team. Anyway, the guy has made some of the most mind boggling, nonsensical, downright ASININE moves I have ever seen. There are so many over the course of the season that I’m sure went unnoticed and/or that I’ve forgotten, but to name just a few recent ones:
-The whole Lo Duca double switch fiasco in Washington. Was there ever an explanation given for this?
-Not pinch running for Alou until the count was 1-1. I forget what game this was, but what was he waiting for? That just makes you look unprepared and like you’re not paying any attention.
-Bottom of the 9th September 20th in Florida. It was 7-4, now it’s 7-6. Runners on 2nd and 3rd, 1 out. Matt Treanor is the batter, pinch-hitter Jason Wood is on deck. Matt Treanor’s run means nothing. So you walk him to set up the potential game winning double play, right? Instead, they treat Jason Wood like he’s Miguel Cabrera. Treanor drives in the tying run with a groundout, then the Marlins promptly win in the 10th after the Mets wasted a LEADOFF WALK in the top half. (not that that’s Randolph’s fault, but still. I’ve never seen a team fail to capitalize on leadoff walks the way the Mets did this year)
-Over the last month, Moises Alou has been their hottest hitter. The second hottest? Shawn Green. Of course, part of the reason he’s been so hot is because he only gets at bats against RHP. He got his share of at bats - and HITS - against lefties during his hot streak, but still never got a single start against a LHP. Instead he continued to platoon with struggling, inexperienced, free swinging, undisciplined rookies Milledge and Gomez.
-9/26, 5th inning: Why did Feliciano pitch to Wily Mo Pena? All this guy does is his hit LHP. Sometimes matchups are overdone and overanalyzed, but sometimes they do have a place. Sometimes, this being one of them, they do make sense.
That’s just recently and just off the top of my head, but invariably there are numerous other times when things just didn’t make sense. I’m not talking about second guessing, either. I hate second guessing. I don’t second guess. I first guess. If a move makes no sense but works out, there is no second guessing. But there is first guessing. Just because it worked out does not mean it was the right move.
I don’t know, maybe Al Campanis was right after all…
The bullpen will undoubtedly receive the brunt of the blame for this epic collapse, and it is not completely unwarranted. But when trying to identify particular players/group of players to place the blame on, I would rank the bullpen third, with a tie for first between the starting rotation and Jose Reyes.
Now, when blaming the rotation it should be noted that nobody in particular is to blame. The problem does not lie with either Glavine, Perez, Maine, Hernandez, Martinez, or Pelfrey. The problem lies with Glavine, Perez, Maine, Hernandez, Martinez, and Pelfrey. The problem is the way the rotation was constructed. Omar Minaya will skirt some of the blame too, but this is largely his fault. I don’t care how many 40-year old pitchers have resurrected their careers lately. I don’t care how much more effective pitchers get the older they get. I don’t care about those trends. You simply CANNOT build your pitching staff around two 40-year olds (or however old Hernandez is), a 36 year-old coming off elbow surgery, two young, unproven, potentially erratic starters, and a rookie. The way the starters performed isn’t the problem; the way this rotation was constructed is the problem. Excluding Maine and Glavine’s rain-shortened games, do you realize that the Mets are one of only four teams this year that never had a 9 (or 8 ) inning complete game from one of their starters? The other three teams: Texas (75-85), Washington (73-89), and Florida (71-91). That is not the kind of company that a playoff contender should be in. When you need to rely on your bullpen to get 3, 6, 9, 12 outs every single day, it’s only a matter of time that until they start to wear down and make some mistakes.
It also doesn’t help when you keep trotting out the same core group of guys every night. Not so much that they fail every time (read: Mota), but that the league gets to see them every single night and eventually the scouting report gets around and teams (read: Phillies) know exactly what to look for from these guys because they are out there every single day. Random stat: The Mets were 19-33 in games in which Guillermo Mota pitched in, including 0-10 the first 10 and 2-15 the first 17. Now, not all of that is his fault; a lot of those appearances didn’t come until they were already trailing. Still, the guy gave up at least one run in 7 of his 12 August appearances, and Randolph just kept trotting him out there every single day in close games. And every single day, he’d give up another costly run or 3. Why? Because Randolph “sticks with his guys.” Another reason he is a bad manager: he lacks the ability to discipline anybody, to be tough. Instead of benching a guy for being ineffective and costing the team games, he pats them on the back and applauds their efforts. I’m not saying he should yell and scream and pull a Hal McRae and throw telecommunications equipment at everyone that underperforms. Just a little bit of balls every once in a while would be nice, though. Alex Rodriguez wasn’t producing in the playoffs last year, so Torre dropped him to 8th in the order. He didn’t care if his player was offended or hurt or embarrassed. He’s just trying to win games, and Rodriguez batting cleanup was not conducive to winning games, so he made a change. Putting Guillermo Mota in in a one-run game in the 7th inning is not conducive to winning games. This is something Willie Randolph is incapable of. Sticking with your guys is one thing, but sticking your team in a position to lose leads and lose games every night is another.
Building a rotation around a bunch of 6-7 inning guys is one thing when you’ve got a Dotel-Lidge-Wagner type of bullpen, which the Mets (and no teams since then) clearly do not have. The bullpen was above average, but not particularly good, all season. The later and later in the year it got, the more their mediocrity showed through because of how much they had to work all season. It cannot be overstated how important it is to have a pitcher that you know has the potential to give you 8 or 9 innings every time he takes the mound. Look no further than Cole Hamels. The Mets haven’t had a guy like that since…I don’t know, David Cone? Martinez was that guy in 2005, Hampton was that guy in 2000, but they haven’t had any consistency in that department in quite some time. I had a vision, an epiphany, around April of Carlos Zambrano pitching in a Mets uniform in October and for years to come. It’s for the best though that he re-signed with Chicago, because that means all that money they saved on him, Zito, et al. (plus another 8-10 million a year) will instead go towards Johan Santana. Getting him is the only way the Mets will be able to stay in contention for the next several years that Reyes, Wright, and Beltran are under contract. Glavine’s more or less done, Hernandez is not reliable for 6 months, Martinez has one more year left and his health is still a question mark, as is what to expect from Maine, Perez, Pelfrey, and Humber. They need a bona fide ace, period. Relying on your bullpen night in and night out is just a recipe for disaster. It’s setting yourself up to lose.
Of course, the bullpen wouldn’t have been in the position to blow so many leads if the offense were to put up enough runs to put the game out of reach. During that ugly June stretch, I kept waiting for an offensive outburst. They went over a month without scoring double digit runs. Just once, I wanted to see a laugher. A 10-0 game in the 3rd. No contest. They had a few high scoring games, but none of them were of the comfortable “laugher” variety. They scored early, let the other team back in it, until the 8th when they added some tack on runs to make the score look more lopsided than it actually was. There couldn’t have been more than five true “laughers” all season. Every game was close because the starters couldn’t finish the deal, and the bullpen wasn’t good enough to keep the score the way it was. Not only that, but the offense wasn’t consistent enough to have more than two big innings a game, usually coming in the 1st and the 8th. There was no balance, no steady 9-inning offensive onslaught. There was no consistency all season, they just seemed out of sync all the time. Nothing clicked.
It’s really no coincidence that the Mets epic, monumental, colossal collapse coincided with the epic, monumental, colossal collapse of Jose Reyes. As historic a collapse the Mets season was, the collapse suffered by Reyes is just as historic, horrific, and unbelievable. He was batting .308/.379 on August 10th, and finished the year .280/.353. a 28 point drop in batting average in 7 weeks. No stolen bases from September 16th to the end of the season. None. ZERO. A .195 BA for the season with 2 outs and RISP. I can’t remember the last time he came up with a clutch hit. Every single game since August 10th looked exactly the same for him. He’d have a great first inning at bat. Take a few pitches, work the count in his favor, sometimes draw a walk, sometimes reach base, sometimes not. But that patience was there, and that’s most important, especially leading off the game. Then every subsequent at bat he would swing at the first pitch, chase pitches out of the strike zone, fall behind in the count, and get himself out – more often than not with a pop-up. Whatever happened to that old cliché that “speed never slumps”? During his late-season swoon, he completely abandoned the bunt, which completely eliminated his speed and only added to the slump because, as the other boring old cliché goes, “you can’t steal first base!”
It just goes to show how pivotal Reyes is to the Mets success. During his nosedive, they played well and won a handful of games against Atlanta and Houston and Cincinnati. They won despite Reyes not performing, but only for a short stretch. You cannot sustain any kind of offensive consistency when your leadoff hitter, your igniter, the best basestealer in the last 20 years, fails to reach base four or five times a game. It’s that simple. And before I move on away from Reyes, I just need to point out how sick I got of seeing him constantly smiling all the time. In the dugout, in the field, (not on the bases of course because he was never there), always with a big happy go lucky, everything is right with the world, no worries smile on his face. Chatting it up with the opposing team when they reached second base, having just a fun, gay old time. All during the biggest, most monumental, colossal, inexplicable, inexcusable, incomprehensible, stunning collapse in baseball history. A 7 game lead with 17 to play. Again, this is a reflection of Willie Randolph and his “no big deal, we’ll get ‘em tomorrow, everything’s okay, no need to panic, we're still in the mix” attitude. I’d much rather see Paul Lo Duca slam equipment around and punch the dugout bench, Marlon Anderson throw some equipment onto the field, than see them smiling and laughing and having a good time during such a historically hideous stretch of baseball. It’s good to have fun and enjoy playing the game. That obviously has its place. But so does being angry, upset and disgusted. That’s not to say you take that out onto the field with you and let it affect your play. Just a little less smiling, a little less happiness is all I’m asking for when the team has lost 8 straight home games and blown the biggest lead in baseball history.
Delgado is just as guilty of this, though not so much down the stretch. During the summer, in big games against the likes of Atlanta and Philadelphia, and in games which they were LOSING, I’d see him at first smiling and laughing alongside opposing players. This just epitomizes the essence, the “soul”, the “heart”, the toughness (or lack thereof) of this team. They have no leadership, both in the coaching staff and on the playing field. After the dismal 12-4, 4-error loss in Washington following the 10-6, 6-error home loss to Philadelphia, Willie Randolph said, “I’m not angry…We’ll just regroup...We're still in the mix” Well, what about now? Are you angry now? Now is it time to panic? If not now, when? Are you still in the mix now? What will it take for you to get angry; to show some emotion; some life?
Okay, now I’m just going to point out some things I’ve observed over the course of the season. First of all, somebody needs to fire the Mets PA announcer and burn down his house. Whoever they hire to replace him; whoever is in charge of piping the audio through the PA needs to be reminded that this is NEW YORK. This is not the Midwest, this is not Arizona or Florida or Los Angeles or one of these cities that knows nothing about baseball, with clueless fans that don’t know how to cheer for their team and need the PA and jumbotron to tell them when to cheer. There are few things I hate more than comparing the Mets to the Yankees. But this is what will always make the Mets an inferior, second rate team. This is why Yankee fans will never take the Mets seriously. Because they’re a joke. It is embarrassing as a Mets fan to sit through a home game and have to listen to:
-Everybody clap your hands! I heard this monstrosity in a McDonalds commercial, which only adds to my nausea every time I hear it
-Okay, I want everyone to get out of your chairs, punch your wife in the face, smoke some crack, run to your windows, and start screaming, LET’S GO METS! LET'S GO METS!
-The “CHARGE” medley
-The “We Will Rock You”/”Let’s Go Mets” instrumental
-The Jose Jose Jose Jose bullshit. How great was it in the 4th inning today when they piped that through and NOBODY followed suit and started chanting. Do you think maybe the PA asshole could take a hint? Next pitch, he pops out foul.
-Whatever that Italian sounding thing is they play during an occasional Lo Duca at bat
-The Addams Family thing
-LET'S GO METS! WOOF! LET'S GO METS! WOOF! LET'S GO METS! WOOF! LET'S GO METS! WOOF!
What's with the bark? I have no problem with a Let's Go Mets chant, but is that woof really necessary? What the hell does it even mean?
It’s just embarrassing. You don’t hear Yankee Stadium pipe in a “Let’s Go Yankees” chant through the PA. Their fans know how to watch a baseball game and they know how and when to cheer. I’d like to think Mets fans are no different, but I don’t know any more. To the best of my knowledge, the only thing that gets piped in through the PA at Yankee Stadium on a regular basis is that annoying “DAY-O” thing, which is just as campy and embarrassing and unnecessary. But it’s not as frequent and is one of the only things they use, so it becomes a little bit more tolerable. I’m not trying to make excuses for the Mets putrid performance at home, but maybe – just maybe – part of the reason they play so much better on the road is because there are far fewer audio distractions coming at them at all times. Add to the PA nonsense all the airplanes flying overhead, and it’s just a constant flow of loud obnoxious noise in the stadium that can’t be helping your concentration at the plate. I forget what game it was this week – I’m thinking it was the Cardinals one – David Wright was up in the 7th or 8th inning, huge at bat, and they’re piping in the “We Will Rock You” thing as he’s standing in the batter’s box, and it didn’t stop until the pitch was halfway to the plate. Turn that shit off! I’m sure players are used to dealing with distractions, and they’ll never use this as an excuse, but that’s still no reason to provide any more distractions than normal. Again, this is not the Midwest or west coast. New York fans deserve better, and it’s embarrassing as a Mets fan that this has gone on so long with nobody saying, “um, that’s really annoying. Do you think you could stop that?” It makes not only the Mets but Mets fans look like morons.
Whenever Aaron Heilman got in trouble, it always seemed to play out the same way: He gets ahead 0-2, then starts nibbling and/or missing badly until the count is full and he either issues a walk or a 3-2 fastball right down the middle for a homer. Same goes for Schoeneweis. Speaking of which, how chills-down-your-back frightening is it that Scott Schoeneweis ended the season as the Mets most consistently reliable bullpen option? I just shuddered again at that harsh reality.
Everyone seems to have forgotten the biggest Mets scapegoat this season; Rick Down. I bet he’s been sitting somewhere either laughing his ass off or shaking his head at this collapse. I was fairly indifferent to his firing, but now see it as being completely uncalled for. Minaya’s biggest complaint was they weren’t having patient enough at bats; weren’t working the count. Having watched this team all season, there is absolutely no truth to this and in no way were they more patient under Howard Johnson. Besides, working the count has its place, and so does being aggressive early in the count. It all depends on the situation; on who you’re facing. So to fire somebody under the premise of such a blanket statement is completely unwarranted. Randolph was certainly not happy about this firing, and who knows, maybe it added to his perceived apathy down the stretch. As far as the whole patience thing goes, look no further than Carlos Delgado. I mentioned a few weeks ago his terrible at bat in that Phillies game last month. Was that Rick Down’s fault? What about Friday’s game? Kim falls behind 2-0, gets hurt, comes out, in comes Tankersley. What does Delgado do on his first pitch? Swings and grounds out. Why not take a pitch? It’s a new pitcher inheriting a 2-0 count. Make him throw a strike. Of course, the next batter Lo Duca walked on four pitches (hard to do) and then advanced on a wild pitch. So he was having some control issues early on. Force the issue. Make him throw strikes. Instead he is overanxious and chases the first pitch he sees. It’s all Rick Down’s fault, right? Then there’s Moises Alou, one of the best first-ball hitters of his generation. Should he display more patience at the plate? That’s not his game; never has been. So to say they needed more patient at bats is completely unfair because it all depends on the situation. On the batter, on the pitcher, on the situation in the game.
Is it just me, or has 95% of Lo Duca’s throws to 2nd base ended up on the 3rd base side of the bag? (or in centerfield)
June 6, 2007. At the time, Gary Cohen pointed to this date as a potential turning point in the season for the Mets and Phillies. Up 2-0 in the 7th, Heilman walks the leadoff hitter setting up Rollins’ three run homer to make it 3-2. The Mets load the bases in the bottom half and Chavez grounds into a double play, tears his hamstring, and the Mets lose the game. That loss was the middle game of what ended up being a 3-game sweep at home and started the Mets on their downward spiral of mediocrity. It also set the tone for the rest of the Mets-Phillies season series. The Mets won three straight in Philadelphia at the end of June, then lost the remaining 8. The Phillies always played their best ball against the Mets, who simply were not up for the challenge. Again, the accountability has to start at the top. Blame the players all you want, but the coaching staff has got bear the blame as well. They were outplayed and out coached all season by Philadelphia. Every time they needed a clutch hit, they got it Whether it be Rollins, Utley, Burrell, or Howard. Not only that, but Philadelphia’s bullpen, save for an early Geoff Geary meltdown, absolutely dominated the Mets all season. They were atrocious against every other team except the team that they needed to beat; except the team that they got up for and motivated for. The same goes for the pitching staff. The Mets bats, the best offense in the league resembling that of an American League lineup, got repeatedly stymied by the likes of Adam Eaton, J.D. Durbin, and Kyle Lohse. As frustrating as the last two weeks have been to watch, it was just as frustrating watching that late August 4-game sweep in Philadelphia. Not only were they swept, it was the way they were swept. First they lost Sunday to the Dodgers 6-2. Then they lose three straight in Philadelphia 9-2, 4-2, and 3-2. Four straight games scoring two runs, including three at Citizens Bank Park against Durbin, Eaton, and Moyer. Then the fourth game the offense responds with 10 runs, but they still lose 11-10. The Phillies just wanted it more, that’s all it comes down to. They were better prepared, better motivated, and better managed.
Another group that deserves some of the blame, but will likely get none, is the Mets scouting department. It seems like every single time the Mets faced a starter they’d never seen before, they were lost at the plate. Every single rookie or journeyman pitcher seeing the Mets for the first time dominated them. Well, maybe not every single time, but at least 85%. Meanwhile, the Mets did not receive a single quality spot start all year. Whether it be Brian Lawrence or Chan Ho Park or Jason Vargas or Dave Williams or Philip Humber. It seems every other team has at least a couple of solid “out of nowhere” performances from a spot starter. The name Clay Buchholz comes to mind. Every time a spot start was made against the Mets, they’d get shut down. Every time the Mets made a spot start against someone, they got shelled. This just strikes me as being very unprepared and unorganized and having no real reliance and putting not enough importance on scouting reports.
I'd like to see some stats on the Mets success at scoring leadoff walks this season. It seems to me that every time they got a leadoff walk, they failed to capitalize and do anything with it. Well, obviously not every time, but far too many times. I'm not sure what the league average is for scoring a leadoff walk, but I can guarantee the Mets were well below this average. Ultimately, this all comes back to the lack of clutch hitting that has plagued this team over the last month. You can blame the starters and the bullpen all you want, but if the offense doesn't capitalize on opportunities and put some extra runs on the board, they're not going to win a lot of games anyway. Confounding this is the poor pitching. Capitalizing on leadoff walks and scoring runs becomes that much more important when you know the pitching is struggling and going to give up a handful of runs.
Today's game summed up the offense over the last month - bases left loaded in the first, two left on in the second, bases left loaded in the third (on three walks), 2 baserunners the rest of the game. The bullpen gets all the blame for blowing those games against Washington and Philadelphia, but these same LOB problems were there in those games, too. Sure the offense scored 4, 5, 6 runs in some of those awful losses, but had they capitalized on more scoring chances and not left so many runners on base, the bullpen wouldn't have been in the position to blow all those leads.
Okay, now I’ve got to drift away from the Mets for a bit and focus on FOX. I hate FOX as much as anyone hates FOX, and for similar reasons. But adding fuel to my hatred is their whole ridiculous monopoly of Saturday baseball with what they like to deem the “Game of the Week.” In case you’re somehow unfamiliar with this, FOX essentially owns the rights to every single day game played on Saturdays that starts before 4:00 PT. Now, let me backtrack a bit. I don’t live in New York. The only way I get to see a Mets game is on Extra Innings or MLB.TV, usually the former since pretty much every single game has been on this year. Every single game, that is, except day games played on Saturday. Not only is Extra Innings forbidden to carry the game, but it is blacked out on MLB.TV as well. Even if the game isn't aired on FOX, it is blacked out or not available. Of course, this doesn’t only apply to the Mets. Any game that starts before 4:00 on a Saturday is blacked out because of FOX. Every game except one, that is. One “regional” game that they decide to air. For me, it’s usually a Dodgers or Angels game, or in the case of today (9/29) the Padres. All three of those teams have a local station in Las Vegas. FOX is doing nothing special by airing a “game of the week” that I would normally get anyway. It is such a waste of a perfectly good day of baseball. All the technology in the world is available to watch a game through a cable package, satellite feed, or on the internet. But I am at the mercy of FOX, only allowed to see one day game, usually a game I have no interest in. Meanwhile, I have to “watch” every Saturday Mets game in the form of a Yahoo! Box score that intermittently decides not to update. Real good, FOX. Way to bring fans together. Way to give baseball fans what they want. If I miss the first no-hitter in Mets history, as I very nearly did, because of FOX’s inane broadcasting policy, I’m going to…well actually, I’ll probably do nothing but continue to whine about it like I’ve been doing.
For the record, I wrote the majority of this Friday night. I wrote how passive they have been and how they needed a good bench clearing brawl to ignite things. Saturday: a bench clearing brawl. I wrote how they haven’t had a true laugher all season, a game where they put together a steady assault of offense. Saturday: 13 runs, 19 hits, scoring in all but one inning. I wrote how they haven’t had any complete games all year. Well, they still don’t, but 14 strikeouts in 7.2 innings of one-hit ball is good enough. It’s just a shame it’s too little too late. Where was this two weeks ago? It takes that long for a wake up call? It takes being knocked out of first place with two games left to show some life and play with some emotion? That is just unacceptable. This is usually the type of win that sparks and unites a team. Offense clicking on all cylinders, dominant pitching performance, a bench clearing brawl. The way they lost today - scoring one run against a wild Dontrelle Willis and a young, sub par bullpen, just further epitomizes the offensive inconsistency. The bullpen was phenomenal today in a tough spot, but that will go overlooked. Instead, they'll be blamed for blowing those games earlier in the week while the offensive inconsistency will go largely overlooked.
With all of that said, this is the biggest reason for this colossal collapse:
![[Image: 07mets.jpg]](http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o110/bloodyanus/07mets.jpg)
And with that, I have officially sworn of gambling on sports. I haven't made a football bet all season, and never will. Everything I put any money on turns to shit, and this is the stinkiest, foulest, most disgusting shit I've ever lingered around and endured long enough to take a picture of.
I don’t even know where to begin, so may as well start at the top. But first, I must say that this has been the most frustrating, discouraging, disgusting thing I have ever willingly subjected myself to. And several times I have withstood the stench of my own feces for several minutes so as to get the perfect picture. Watching every game over the last two weeks has been far more disgusting than any of those stenches. I watched probably in the area of 145 Mets games this year, most of them from start to finish without missing a pitch, so I like to think I have some idea of what I’m talking about here.
Willie Randolph. In all my years watching sports, I have never single handedly blamed a manager/coach for a team’s poor performance, and I’m not about to start now. That said, he deserves to shoulder a large part of the blame. Not all of it, mind you, but a good deal of it. It is difficult to sit here and complain about his calm, stoic, unemotional, dead pan, almost distant managerial style. He was exactly the same sitting on the bench next to Torre, so there’s no reason to believe he’d be any different sitting in Torre’s position. Nobody had any problem with his personality in 2005 or especially in 2006. It’s only when things go wrong that these types of issues are raised. But that’s just natural. It comes with the territory of being a major league manager, especially in New York. I myself said at one point this year “Randolph’s been great”. But was he? Or was he just the benefactor of a very good team playing very well together for an extended period of time?
I think he is going to get far more blame than he should, but that does not mean he does not deserve it. There needs to be some accountability, and that needs to start at the top. Personally I prefer an emotional, fiery, hothead Lou Piniella type manager. All season long I kept hoping for some kind of outburst. Every time he came out to argue a call, I was hoping for an ejection. Just to see him…DO SOMETHING! All season long I was hoping for a bench clearing brawl. Something, anything, to ignite the team. Not necessarily in September or even August. This team needed a fire lit under them back in June. There’s nothing that ignites a team more than a good old fashioned FIGHT. And really, that’s one of the biggest things that was missing from the 2007 Mets: Fight. They took on the personality of their manager. Calm, stoic, unemotional, even under the most dire, intense situations. The 2nd inning of Friday’s game summed up the entire season: 1st and 2nd, 2 out, Perez singles to left. Delgado slowly, calmly, carefully, glides into 3rd base. Then Ross overruns the ball and Delgado finally starts RUNNING around 3rd to score the run. Sure, he was safe but that kind of lack of urgency was truly stunning in that situation, in that game. Extend yourself! What are you waiting for? He displayed the same lack of urgency that his manager exudes. Sure, you can say Randolph’s a different person in the clubhouse, behind closed doors, he’s much more emotional, blah blah blah. Sorry, but I’m not buying that. Not only the fact that he’s a different person behind closed doors, but the fact that it’s okay, that it's acceptable, to be emotional off the field but unemotional on the field. I don’t care what you’re like off the field. It’s what you do on the field, in the dugout, that matters. The games are played on the field. You manage from the dugout. That’s when you’ve got to show some emotion, some sense of urgency. But again, that’s not Willie Randolph. That’s never been Willie Randolph. So to chastise him now for not being the person he never was, is completely unfair.
Still, the question needs to be asked: Does Willie Randolph have what it takes to be a big league manager? The answer to this has to be a resounding NO. I don’t think he’ll be fired, and I don’t necessarily think he even should be fired unless there is a no-brainer replacement out there, and I don't think there is. Like I said, it’s not ALL his fault. I’d just like to see a Mets manager kick some dirt on an umpire, get ejected, and toss some equipment. Minaya is undoubtedly going to support him and stick with him. But if the last month has proven anything, it’s that he lacks one important quality that is absolutely mandatory for a major league manager: Leadership; the ability to respond to adversity. Well, he lacks more than that but I’ll get to that later. And this all comes back to the lack of emotion, the seeming lack of a personality. How many great leaders have there been that exude such a calm, distant, almost apathetic, nature towards everything? His personality really comes through in his players, and it was really no different last year either. Last year the talent just won out. The biggest mistake the Mets will make this offseason is letting Lo Duca leave via free agency. He is the only member of this team that showed any emotion, any grit, any fire, any heart, on a consistent basis. The rest of team was just floating through, taking it easy, not panicking, coasting by, assuming everything’s going to work out because that’s the exact message they got from their manager. They just had no fight not only the last two weeks of this season, but the entire season. They got off to a great start, 36-20 or something like that. Then they went into that whole west coast tailspin and never really recovered. Their longest winning streak all season was five games, and that wasn’t until late August into September. Even more stunning was that this streak came after getting swept four straight in Philadelphia. They responded well to that by sweeping three in Atlanta and winning two in Cincinnati. They continued to play well against Houston and Atlanta at home, then came another Phillies sweep and they’ve been unable to recover from that like they did the first time. They were an inconsistent team since June, and the only reason they were in first place for as long as they were was because Atlanta and Philadelphia weren’t playing very well either and couldn’t seize the opportunity. All season long, the division lead wavered from about 2-7 games. Every time it would get close, the Mets would win 6 of 10 while Philly lost 6 of 10, and everyone breathed easier, relaxed, and assumed everything was going to work out okay. They were just never able to play well enough long enough to put away the division in July or August, and this is what happens.
As long as I’m on the subject of Randolph, I may as well get to the other important quality it takes to be a manager: Sound strategy. This is also known as being SMART and making intelligent, well informed decisions. I questioned a couple of decisions earlier in the season, but didn’t put too much stock in it, figuring that once again the talent would win out. Maybe I was just as deluded as the Randolph and the rest of the team. Anyway, the guy has made some of the most mind boggling, nonsensical, downright ASININE moves I have ever seen. There are so many over the course of the season that I’m sure went unnoticed and/or that I’ve forgotten, but to name just a few recent ones:
-The whole Lo Duca double switch fiasco in Washington. Was there ever an explanation given for this?
-Not pinch running for Alou until the count was 1-1. I forget what game this was, but what was he waiting for? That just makes you look unprepared and like you’re not paying any attention.
-Bottom of the 9th September 20th in Florida. It was 7-4, now it’s 7-6. Runners on 2nd and 3rd, 1 out. Matt Treanor is the batter, pinch-hitter Jason Wood is on deck. Matt Treanor’s run means nothing. So you walk him to set up the potential game winning double play, right? Instead, they treat Jason Wood like he’s Miguel Cabrera. Treanor drives in the tying run with a groundout, then the Marlins promptly win in the 10th after the Mets wasted a LEADOFF WALK in the top half. (not that that’s Randolph’s fault, but still. I’ve never seen a team fail to capitalize on leadoff walks the way the Mets did this year)
-Over the last month, Moises Alou has been their hottest hitter. The second hottest? Shawn Green. Of course, part of the reason he’s been so hot is because he only gets at bats against RHP. He got his share of at bats - and HITS - against lefties during his hot streak, but still never got a single start against a LHP. Instead he continued to platoon with struggling, inexperienced, free swinging, undisciplined rookies Milledge and Gomez.
-9/26, 5th inning: Why did Feliciano pitch to Wily Mo Pena? All this guy does is his hit LHP. Sometimes matchups are overdone and overanalyzed, but sometimes they do have a place. Sometimes, this being one of them, they do make sense.
That’s just recently and just off the top of my head, but invariably there are numerous other times when things just didn’t make sense. I’m not talking about second guessing, either. I hate second guessing. I don’t second guess. I first guess. If a move makes no sense but works out, there is no second guessing. But there is first guessing. Just because it worked out does not mean it was the right move.
I don’t know, maybe Al Campanis was right after all…
The bullpen will undoubtedly receive the brunt of the blame for this epic collapse, and it is not completely unwarranted. But when trying to identify particular players/group of players to place the blame on, I would rank the bullpen third, with a tie for first between the starting rotation and Jose Reyes.
Now, when blaming the rotation it should be noted that nobody in particular is to blame. The problem does not lie with either Glavine, Perez, Maine, Hernandez, Martinez, or Pelfrey. The problem lies with Glavine, Perez, Maine, Hernandez, Martinez, and Pelfrey. The problem is the way the rotation was constructed. Omar Minaya will skirt some of the blame too, but this is largely his fault. I don’t care how many 40-year old pitchers have resurrected their careers lately. I don’t care how much more effective pitchers get the older they get. I don’t care about those trends. You simply CANNOT build your pitching staff around two 40-year olds (or however old Hernandez is), a 36 year-old coming off elbow surgery, two young, unproven, potentially erratic starters, and a rookie. The way the starters performed isn’t the problem; the way this rotation was constructed is the problem. Excluding Maine and Glavine’s rain-shortened games, do you realize that the Mets are one of only four teams this year that never had a 9 (or 8 ) inning complete game from one of their starters? The other three teams: Texas (75-85), Washington (73-89), and Florida (71-91). That is not the kind of company that a playoff contender should be in. When you need to rely on your bullpen to get 3, 6, 9, 12 outs every single day, it’s only a matter of time that until they start to wear down and make some mistakes.
It also doesn’t help when you keep trotting out the same core group of guys every night. Not so much that they fail every time (read: Mota), but that the league gets to see them every single night and eventually the scouting report gets around and teams (read: Phillies) know exactly what to look for from these guys because they are out there every single day. Random stat: The Mets were 19-33 in games in which Guillermo Mota pitched in, including 0-10 the first 10 and 2-15 the first 17. Now, not all of that is his fault; a lot of those appearances didn’t come until they were already trailing. Still, the guy gave up at least one run in 7 of his 12 August appearances, and Randolph just kept trotting him out there every single day in close games. And every single day, he’d give up another costly run or 3. Why? Because Randolph “sticks with his guys.” Another reason he is a bad manager: he lacks the ability to discipline anybody, to be tough. Instead of benching a guy for being ineffective and costing the team games, he pats them on the back and applauds their efforts. I’m not saying he should yell and scream and pull a Hal McRae and throw telecommunications equipment at everyone that underperforms. Just a little bit of balls every once in a while would be nice, though. Alex Rodriguez wasn’t producing in the playoffs last year, so Torre dropped him to 8th in the order. He didn’t care if his player was offended or hurt or embarrassed. He’s just trying to win games, and Rodriguez batting cleanup was not conducive to winning games, so he made a change. Putting Guillermo Mota in in a one-run game in the 7th inning is not conducive to winning games. This is something Willie Randolph is incapable of. Sticking with your guys is one thing, but sticking your team in a position to lose leads and lose games every night is another.
Building a rotation around a bunch of 6-7 inning guys is one thing when you’ve got a Dotel-Lidge-Wagner type of bullpen, which the Mets (and no teams since then) clearly do not have. The bullpen was above average, but not particularly good, all season. The later and later in the year it got, the more their mediocrity showed through because of how much they had to work all season. It cannot be overstated how important it is to have a pitcher that you know has the potential to give you 8 or 9 innings every time he takes the mound. Look no further than Cole Hamels. The Mets haven’t had a guy like that since…I don’t know, David Cone? Martinez was that guy in 2005, Hampton was that guy in 2000, but they haven’t had any consistency in that department in quite some time. I had a vision, an epiphany, around April of Carlos Zambrano pitching in a Mets uniform in October and for years to come. It’s for the best though that he re-signed with Chicago, because that means all that money they saved on him, Zito, et al. (plus another 8-10 million a year) will instead go towards Johan Santana. Getting him is the only way the Mets will be able to stay in contention for the next several years that Reyes, Wright, and Beltran are under contract. Glavine’s more or less done, Hernandez is not reliable for 6 months, Martinez has one more year left and his health is still a question mark, as is what to expect from Maine, Perez, Pelfrey, and Humber. They need a bona fide ace, period. Relying on your bullpen night in and night out is just a recipe for disaster. It’s setting yourself up to lose.
Of course, the bullpen wouldn’t have been in the position to blow so many leads if the offense were to put up enough runs to put the game out of reach. During that ugly June stretch, I kept waiting for an offensive outburst. They went over a month without scoring double digit runs. Just once, I wanted to see a laugher. A 10-0 game in the 3rd. No contest. They had a few high scoring games, but none of them were of the comfortable “laugher” variety. They scored early, let the other team back in it, until the 8th when they added some tack on runs to make the score look more lopsided than it actually was. There couldn’t have been more than five true “laughers” all season. Every game was close because the starters couldn’t finish the deal, and the bullpen wasn’t good enough to keep the score the way it was. Not only that, but the offense wasn’t consistent enough to have more than two big innings a game, usually coming in the 1st and the 8th. There was no balance, no steady 9-inning offensive onslaught. There was no consistency all season, they just seemed out of sync all the time. Nothing clicked.
It’s really no coincidence that the Mets epic, monumental, colossal collapse coincided with the epic, monumental, colossal collapse of Jose Reyes. As historic a collapse the Mets season was, the collapse suffered by Reyes is just as historic, horrific, and unbelievable. He was batting .308/.379 on August 10th, and finished the year .280/.353. a 28 point drop in batting average in 7 weeks. No stolen bases from September 16th to the end of the season. None. ZERO. A .195 BA for the season with 2 outs and RISP. I can’t remember the last time he came up with a clutch hit. Every single game since August 10th looked exactly the same for him. He’d have a great first inning at bat. Take a few pitches, work the count in his favor, sometimes draw a walk, sometimes reach base, sometimes not. But that patience was there, and that’s most important, especially leading off the game. Then every subsequent at bat he would swing at the first pitch, chase pitches out of the strike zone, fall behind in the count, and get himself out – more often than not with a pop-up. Whatever happened to that old cliché that “speed never slumps”? During his late-season swoon, he completely abandoned the bunt, which completely eliminated his speed and only added to the slump because, as the other boring old cliché goes, “you can’t steal first base!”
It just goes to show how pivotal Reyes is to the Mets success. During his nosedive, they played well and won a handful of games against Atlanta and Houston and Cincinnati. They won despite Reyes not performing, but only for a short stretch. You cannot sustain any kind of offensive consistency when your leadoff hitter, your igniter, the best basestealer in the last 20 years, fails to reach base four or five times a game. It’s that simple. And before I move on away from Reyes, I just need to point out how sick I got of seeing him constantly smiling all the time. In the dugout, in the field, (not on the bases of course because he was never there), always with a big happy go lucky, everything is right with the world, no worries smile on his face. Chatting it up with the opposing team when they reached second base, having just a fun, gay old time. All during the biggest, most monumental, colossal, inexplicable, inexcusable, incomprehensible, stunning collapse in baseball history. A 7 game lead with 17 to play. Again, this is a reflection of Willie Randolph and his “no big deal, we’ll get ‘em tomorrow, everything’s okay, no need to panic, we're still in the mix” attitude. I’d much rather see Paul Lo Duca slam equipment around and punch the dugout bench, Marlon Anderson throw some equipment onto the field, than see them smiling and laughing and having a good time during such a historically hideous stretch of baseball. It’s good to have fun and enjoy playing the game. That obviously has its place. But so does being angry, upset and disgusted. That’s not to say you take that out onto the field with you and let it affect your play. Just a little less smiling, a little less happiness is all I’m asking for when the team has lost 8 straight home games and blown the biggest lead in baseball history.
Delgado is just as guilty of this, though not so much down the stretch. During the summer, in big games against the likes of Atlanta and Philadelphia, and in games which they were LOSING, I’d see him at first smiling and laughing alongside opposing players. This just epitomizes the essence, the “soul”, the “heart”, the toughness (or lack thereof) of this team. They have no leadership, both in the coaching staff and on the playing field. After the dismal 12-4, 4-error loss in Washington following the 10-6, 6-error home loss to Philadelphia, Willie Randolph said, “I’m not angry…We’ll just regroup...We're still in the mix” Well, what about now? Are you angry now? Now is it time to panic? If not now, when? Are you still in the mix now? What will it take for you to get angry; to show some emotion; some life?
Okay, now I’m just going to point out some things I’ve observed over the course of the season. First of all, somebody needs to fire the Mets PA announcer and burn down his house. Whoever they hire to replace him; whoever is in charge of piping the audio through the PA needs to be reminded that this is NEW YORK. This is not the Midwest, this is not Arizona or Florida or Los Angeles or one of these cities that knows nothing about baseball, with clueless fans that don’t know how to cheer for their team and need the PA and jumbotron to tell them when to cheer. There are few things I hate more than comparing the Mets to the Yankees. But this is what will always make the Mets an inferior, second rate team. This is why Yankee fans will never take the Mets seriously. Because they’re a joke. It is embarrassing as a Mets fan to sit through a home game and have to listen to:
-Everybody clap your hands! I heard this monstrosity in a McDonalds commercial, which only adds to my nausea every time I hear it
-Okay, I want everyone to get out of your chairs, punch your wife in the face, smoke some crack, run to your windows, and start screaming, LET’S GO METS! LET'S GO METS!
-The “CHARGE” medley
-The “We Will Rock You”/”Let’s Go Mets” instrumental
-The Jose Jose Jose Jose bullshit. How great was it in the 4th inning today when they piped that through and NOBODY followed suit and started chanting. Do you think maybe the PA asshole could take a hint? Next pitch, he pops out foul.
-Whatever that Italian sounding thing is they play during an occasional Lo Duca at bat
-The Addams Family thing
-LET'S GO METS! WOOF! LET'S GO METS! WOOF! LET'S GO METS! WOOF! LET'S GO METS! WOOF!
What's with the bark? I have no problem with a Let's Go Mets chant, but is that woof really necessary? What the hell does it even mean?
It’s just embarrassing. You don’t hear Yankee Stadium pipe in a “Let’s Go Yankees” chant through the PA. Their fans know how to watch a baseball game and they know how and when to cheer. I’d like to think Mets fans are no different, but I don’t know any more. To the best of my knowledge, the only thing that gets piped in through the PA at Yankee Stadium on a regular basis is that annoying “DAY-O” thing, which is just as campy and embarrassing and unnecessary. But it’s not as frequent and is one of the only things they use, so it becomes a little bit more tolerable. I’m not trying to make excuses for the Mets putrid performance at home, but maybe – just maybe – part of the reason they play so much better on the road is because there are far fewer audio distractions coming at them at all times. Add to the PA nonsense all the airplanes flying overhead, and it’s just a constant flow of loud obnoxious noise in the stadium that can’t be helping your concentration at the plate. I forget what game it was this week – I’m thinking it was the Cardinals one – David Wright was up in the 7th or 8th inning, huge at bat, and they’re piping in the “We Will Rock You” thing as he’s standing in the batter’s box, and it didn’t stop until the pitch was halfway to the plate. Turn that shit off! I’m sure players are used to dealing with distractions, and they’ll never use this as an excuse, but that’s still no reason to provide any more distractions than normal. Again, this is not the Midwest or west coast. New York fans deserve better, and it’s embarrassing as a Mets fan that this has gone on so long with nobody saying, “um, that’s really annoying. Do you think you could stop that?” It makes not only the Mets but Mets fans look like morons.
Whenever Aaron Heilman got in trouble, it always seemed to play out the same way: He gets ahead 0-2, then starts nibbling and/or missing badly until the count is full and he either issues a walk or a 3-2 fastball right down the middle for a homer. Same goes for Schoeneweis. Speaking of which, how chills-down-your-back frightening is it that Scott Schoeneweis ended the season as the Mets most consistently reliable bullpen option? I just shuddered again at that harsh reality.
Everyone seems to have forgotten the biggest Mets scapegoat this season; Rick Down. I bet he’s been sitting somewhere either laughing his ass off or shaking his head at this collapse. I was fairly indifferent to his firing, but now see it as being completely uncalled for. Minaya’s biggest complaint was they weren’t having patient enough at bats; weren’t working the count. Having watched this team all season, there is absolutely no truth to this and in no way were they more patient under Howard Johnson. Besides, working the count has its place, and so does being aggressive early in the count. It all depends on the situation; on who you’re facing. So to fire somebody under the premise of such a blanket statement is completely unwarranted. Randolph was certainly not happy about this firing, and who knows, maybe it added to his perceived apathy down the stretch. As far as the whole patience thing goes, look no further than Carlos Delgado. I mentioned a few weeks ago his terrible at bat in that Phillies game last month. Was that Rick Down’s fault? What about Friday’s game? Kim falls behind 2-0, gets hurt, comes out, in comes Tankersley. What does Delgado do on his first pitch? Swings and grounds out. Why not take a pitch? It’s a new pitcher inheriting a 2-0 count. Make him throw a strike. Of course, the next batter Lo Duca walked on four pitches (hard to do) and then advanced on a wild pitch. So he was having some control issues early on. Force the issue. Make him throw strikes. Instead he is overanxious and chases the first pitch he sees. It’s all Rick Down’s fault, right? Then there’s Moises Alou, one of the best first-ball hitters of his generation. Should he display more patience at the plate? That’s not his game; never has been. So to say they needed more patient at bats is completely unfair because it all depends on the situation. On the batter, on the pitcher, on the situation in the game.
Is it just me, or has 95% of Lo Duca’s throws to 2nd base ended up on the 3rd base side of the bag? (or in centerfield)
June 6, 2007. At the time, Gary Cohen pointed to this date as a potential turning point in the season for the Mets and Phillies. Up 2-0 in the 7th, Heilman walks the leadoff hitter setting up Rollins’ three run homer to make it 3-2. The Mets load the bases in the bottom half and Chavez grounds into a double play, tears his hamstring, and the Mets lose the game. That loss was the middle game of what ended up being a 3-game sweep at home and started the Mets on their downward spiral of mediocrity. It also set the tone for the rest of the Mets-Phillies season series. The Mets won three straight in Philadelphia at the end of June, then lost the remaining 8. The Phillies always played their best ball against the Mets, who simply were not up for the challenge. Again, the accountability has to start at the top. Blame the players all you want, but the coaching staff has got bear the blame as well. They were outplayed and out coached all season by Philadelphia. Every time they needed a clutch hit, they got it Whether it be Rollins, Utley, Burrell, or Howard. Not only that, but Philadelphia’s bullpen, save for an early Geoff Geary meltdown, absolutely dominated the Mets all season. They were atrocious against every other team except the team that they needed to beat; except the team that they got up for and motivated for. The same goes for the pitching staff. The Mets bats, the best offense in the league resembling that of an American League lineup, got repeatedly stymied by the likes of Adam Eaton, J.D. Durbin, and Kyle Lohse. As frustrating as the last two weeks have been to watch, it was just as frustrating watching that late August 4-game sweep in Philadelphia. Not only were they swept, it was the way they were swept. First they lost Sunday to the Dodgers 6-2. Then they lose three straight in Philadelphia 9-2, 4-2, and 3-2. Four straight games scoring two runs, including three at Citizens Bank Park against Durbin, Eaton, and Moyer. Then the fourth game the offense responds with 10 runs, but they still lose 11-10. The Phillies just wanted it more, that’s all it comes down to. They were better prepared, better motivated, and better managed.
Another group that deserves some of the blame, but will likely get none, is the Mets scouting department. It seems like every single time the Mets faced a starter they’d never seen before, they were lost at the plate. Every single rookie or journeyman pitcher seeing the Mets for the first time dominated them. Well, maybe not every single time, but at least 85%. Meanwhile, the Mets did not receive a single quality spot start all year. Whether it be Brian Lawrence or Chan Ho Park or Jason Vargas or Dave Williams or Philip Humber. It seems every other team has at least a couple of solid “out of nowhere” performances from a spot starter. The name Clay Buchholz comes to mind. Every time a spot start was made against the Mets, they’d get shut down. Every time the Mets made a spot start against someone, they got shelled. This just strikes me as being very unprepared and unorganized and having no real reliance and putting not enough importance on scouting reports.
I'd like to see some stats on the Mets success at scoring leadoff walks this season. It seems to me that every time they got a leadoff walk, they failed to capitalize and do anything with it. Well, obviously not every time, but far too many times. I'm not sure what the league average is for scoring a leadoff walk, but I can guarantee the Mets were well below this average. Ultimately, this all comes back to the lack of clutch hitting that has plagued this team over the last month. You can blame the starters and the bullpen all you want, but if the offense doesn't capitalize on opportunities and put some extra runs on the board, they're not going to win a lot of games anyway. Confounding this is the poor pitching. Capitalizing on leadoff walks and scoring runs becomes that much more important when you know the pitching is struggling and going to give up a handful of runs.
Today's game summed up the offense over the last month - bases left loaded in the first, two left on in the second, bases left loaded in the third (on three walks), 2 baserunners the rest of the game. The bullpen gets all the blame for blowing those games against Washington and Philadelphia, but these same LOB problems were there in those games, too. Sure the offense scored 4, 5, 6 runs in some of those awful losses, but had they capitalized on more scoring chances and not left so many runners on base, the bullpen wouldn't have been in the position to blow all those leads.
Okay, now I’ve got to drift away from the Mets for a bit and focus on FOX. I hate FOX as much as anyone hates FOX, and for similar reasons. But adding fuel to my hatred is their whole ridiculous monopoly of Saturday baseball with what they like to deem the “Game of the Week.” In case you’re somehow unfamiliar with this, FOX essentially owns the rights to every single day game played on Saturdays that starts before 4:00 PT. Now, let me backtrack a bit. I don’t live in New York. The only way I get to see a Mets game is on Extra Innings or MLB.TV, usually the former since pretty much every single game has been on this year. Every single game, that is, except day games played on Saturday. Not only is Extra Innings forbidden to carry the game, but it is blacked out on MLB.TV as well. Even if the game isn't aired on FOX, it is blacked out or not available. Of course, this doesn’t only apply to the Mets. Any game that starts before 4:00 on a Saturday is blacked out because of FOX. Every game except one, that is. One “regional” game that they decide to air. For me, it’s usually a Dodgers or Angels game, or in the case of today (9/29) the Padres. All three of those teams have a local station in Las Vegas. FOX is doing nothing special by airing a “game of the week” that I would normally get anyway. It is such a waste of a perfectly good day of baseball. All the technology in the world is available to watch a game through a cable package, satellite feed, or on the internet. But I am at the mercy of FOX, only allowed to see one day game, usually a game I have no interest in. Meanwhile, I have to “watch” every Saturday Mets game in the form of a Yahoo! Box score that intermittently decides not to update. Real good, FOX. Way to bring fans together. Way to give baseball fans what they want. If I miss the first no-hitter in Mets history, as I very nearly did, because of FOX’s inane broadcasting policy, I’m going to…well actually, I’ll probably do nothing but continue to whine about it like I’ve been doing.
For the record, I wrote the majority of this Friday night. I wrote how passive they have been and how they needed a good bench clearing brawl to ignite things. Saturday: a bench clearing brawl. I wrote how they haven’t had a true laugher all season, a game where they put together a steady assault of offense. Saturday: 13 runs, 19 hits, scoring in all but one inning. I wrote how they haven’t had any complete games all year. Well, they still don’t, but 14 strikeouts in 7.2 innings of one-hit ball is good enough. It’s just a shame it’s too little too late. Where was this two weeks ago? It takes that long for a wake up call? It takes being knocked out of first place with two games left to show some life and play with some emotion? That is just unacceptable. This is usually the type of win that sparks and unites a team. Offense clicking on all cylinders, dominant pitching performance, a bench clearing brawl. The way they lost today - scoring one run against a wild Dontrelle Willis and a young, sub par bullpen, just further epitomizes the offensive inconsistency. The bullpen was phenomenal today in a tough spot, but that will go overlooked. Instead, they'll be blamed for blowing those games earlier in the week while the offensive inconsistency will go largely overlooked.
With all of that said, this is the biggest reason for this colossal collapse:
And with that, I have officially sworn of gambling on sports. I haven't made a football bet all season, and never will. Everything I put any money on turns to shit, and this is the stinkiest, foulest, most disgusting shit I've ever lingered around and endured long enough to take a picture of.