Note To Mets Fans, Just Chill Out
The past series against the Philadelphia Phillies highlighted the major issue with the New York Mets this year.
Its the offense.
Do you want to know the Mets regular season rankings in offensive categories? Yeah, I don’t either, but here they are: 26th in batting average (.248); 24th in home runs (90); 23rd in runs scored (459); 27th in hits (980).
It’s gotten even worse lately. 2.8 runs a game since the All-Star Break, with a batting average (.212) that would make Dave Kingman proud. The team batting average has dropped 12 points since the break and if it wasn’t for the pitching staff throwing six shutouts (including three 1-0 games) they would have a worse record than 11-19.
Its not the manager or the GM. Well partially it is, but the larger problem is the offense. Yes, you can blame the GM for putting the pieces together, or the manager for using the pieces, but remember they are the ones who also put the pitchers in place and they’ve done pretty well this season.
The pitchers have more than held up their half of the bargain this season. They have 18 shutouts this season, that is more than 30% of their wins. How can you blame the GM for putting together this staff? Yes, it could be better, it could always be better. They could use a real number two starter and a shutdown 8th-inning guy, but who couldn’t.
At least the future looks bright, Jon Niese and Mike Pelfrey have shown signs of making the leap to big-time starters. Cast-off R.A. Dickey is having a resurgent season and could be an innings eater for years to come, something that all good staffs need. Don’t forget about Jenrry Mejia and Bobby Parnell either, the Mets youth movement isn’t confined to the offensive side of the ball.
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Back to the offense. Its non-existent. Name someone -who isn’t Angel Pagan- who is having anything but a less than productive season.
I’m waiting…
I could sit here all day while you think about this. Yes, Josh Thole has a higher average than Pagan, but he’s also got less than 100 plate appearances, so you can’t count him.
Jose Reyes is never going to steal 70 bases again. David Wright may rebound, but his last two seasons are his worst ever. Carlos Beltran circa-2006 is long gone and isn’t going to patrol centerfield anytime soon. And Jason Bay seems destined to join the ranks of disappointing Mets free agent signings.
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You could also say that part of the problem with the offense is the youth movement. On Saturday the Mets started four guys with less than year of experience. They’ve been cleaning house in the dugout (Fernando Tatis, Gary Matthews Jr), making way for the next generation. Let’s give them a chance before we get rid of those in charge.
I understand that getting rid of the GM and the managers are among the easiest of fixes, but what exactly is it going to change? They will still have the same players in the dugout. A kickstart may occur with a new manager (see Buck Showalter in Baltimore), but it could also have the opposite effect. Its not like getting rid of the GM will make all those bad contracts disappear. It doesn’t matter who is in charge next year, the Mets will still be paying Oliver Perez an ungodly amount of money.
I am as disappointed in this season as much as anyone else, but calling for the firing of the manager and/or GM is only going to solve some of the problems and may create more. I want a winner in Citi Field as much as the next Mets fan, but lets think about it more instead of just shooting from the hip because we are pissed the Mets have scored nine runs in their past six games.
Mets Epic Stretch Of Futility
The New York Mets string of futility has reached a new level.
Its been eight weeks since the Mets won back-to-back games. Eight weeks!
42 games (and counting) since the Mets have had a winning streak. The last winning streak was June 22-23 against the Detroit Tigers. Its almost the whole summer without winning two games in a row.
Mets history is littered with bad teams, yet they have just four streaks of 40 games or more without winning consecutive games. The current streak stands 42 games. It is the second longest in the history of the franchise, trailing only the 65 game streak of the implosion-that-was the 1993 Mets.
The 1993 Mets went from the middle of April until the final week of June between two game winning streaks. 65 games. Think about it, that’s forty percent of the season.
The streak began with their record at 6-4, it ended at 23-52. They dropped 27.5 games in the standings, got a manager fired (Jeff Torborg) and were 29 games under 500 when the streak ended.
During those 65 games they had a record of 17-48.
The 1993 team won two games in a row 8 times and three games in a row just twice all season. That’s truly sad. Somehow they managed to win the final six games of the season, but still ended up with the most losses in franchise history since 1965 and ended the year 59-103.
To put in perspective just how bad those numbers are, the 1962 Mets (who won a total of 40 games) won two games in a row 7 times and three games in a row twice. To be fair, the 62 Mets had losing streaks of 17, 13, 11 and 9.
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The other two seasons containing streaks of 40 or more games without consecutive wins were 1979, when they went 40 games without a winning streak. And 1964, when they played 41 without winning consecutive games.
Those three teams (64, 79 & 93) averaged 104 losses for the season. Now, there is no way that this current team loses 104 (only because they would have to go 1-47 to end the season), but staying at 500 is going to be a struggle.
During this current streak the Mets always seem to come out flat the day after a win, even a good win.
Remember when the walk off win against the Diamondbacks 10 days ago after being down 4-2 in the 7th? The next day they were shelled 14-1.
How about Jeff Francoeur hitting a homer off ex-Mets closer Billy Wagner last week to beat the Braves 3-2? Mike Pelfrey gets hammered and they lose 8-3.
During this stretch the Mets have thrown seven shutouts, in the previous six they allow an average of six runs in the next game and score less than three runs. Hopefully tonight’s outcome will be better.
Mets Drop Another Series
The series against the Philadelphia Phillies highlighted a couple of disturbing trends about the New York Mets season since July 1. That wasn’t the exact day that the season turned around, not sure you can point to a single game, but stat keepers like periods based on the Julian calendar, so July 1 it is.
First, they haven’t won back-to-back games since July 1. They have a record of 11-22 since that date, which is the worst in the National League. That’s right, worst in the NL, worse than the Cubs, the Diamondbacks, even the Pirates.
Second, Mets fans only feel confident when Johan Santana is on the mound since July began. They are 5-3 in games he has started in that period. That means they are 6-19 in games started by anyone else. Santana has pitched well enough that the Mets should be 7-1 in those games.
No other pitcher on the Mets has been as effective since July 1, here are how the Mets have performed when others start: Jon Niese 2-5, Mike Pelfrey 0-7, R.A. Dickey 2-6. Pelfrey’s record sticks out the most, 0-7 are Oliver Perez numbers.
Third, they don’t have the ability to score when they need to. They are 14-22 in one run games despite scoring 16 more runs then they have allowed. Normally teams that have a positive run differential don’t have losing records. The Mets have a few come-from-behind wins, but they have many more come-from-behind ALMOST wins.
The only good news is that the losses are becoming less painful because they don’t matter as much any more. A game under 500, nine back in the division and fading fast.
This was one of the reasons the Mets released Alex Cora and promoted Ruben Tejada and Fernando Martinez, to get them playing time. The Mets know they are the future and want to get them major league experience without having to put them in pressure situations.
The towel has been thrown into the ring, but it hasn’t quite hit the mat yet. That will come when Oliver Perez makes a start. A Perez start is the final nail in the 2010 coffin.
Mets Fall To 500
Every time something goes right for the New York Mets, (a 9th inning homerun to win a game) the next day happens.
A night after Jeff Francoeur put the Mets up in the ninth inning with a homerun, they turned into another poor performance. Four errors by the infield, three homers allowed by the pitching staff, two hits in 4.2 innings off the bullpen and one trip to .500 from the wrong direction.
The Mets dropped the series to the Atlanta Braves with a 8-3 loss on Wednesday night. They are 1-8-1 in their last 10 series.
With the return to .500 the Mets season is over. They trail the Braves by 7.5 games and are 8 back in the Wild Card.
What had been a promising season is over and has been for a while. We are always hoping that tomorrow starts a winning streak, but deep down we all know it and just can’t accept it.
Its the slow, glacial-like demise that is killing all Mets fans. A losing streak of seven or eight games would be nice, something that definitively puts everyone out of their misery. Maybe even a fight in the dugout.
They went from 11 games over 500 to being at 500 in the time it takes a mountain range to be built. Over the course of 37 games the Mets have gone 13-24, never winning two in a row or losing more than four in a row.
Besides the offense being ineffective, its been the failure of the pitching staff to have more than two guys pitching well at the same time.
When Johan Santana struggled, Mike Pelfrey was there. Now they have switched. Pelfrey (10-6) hasn’t won since the end of June. Seven straight starts without a win and his ERA has jumped from 2.71 to 4.16.
The news doesn’t get better as the Mets head to Philadelphia, where they will fail to play well again and drop another series on the road. When they return home to face the Colorado Rockies next Tuesday they will be under 500 for the first time since late May and the talk about next year will begin in earnest.
Mets July Recap
After the month the New York Mets had in July I really shouldn’t need to do a recap. You know what happened and what the problems were. The Mets were 9-17 in July and truly horrendous at the plate.
Mets Offense: (F)
Dead last in the NL in runs scored, homers, average and on base percentage for the month of July. The 88 runs the Mets scored during the month worked out to 3.38 runs per game. In 11 game the Mets scored 2 runs or less, including being shutout five times.
The Mets hit .227 for the month with just 20 home runs, never hitting more than two in a game. They had more games where they struck out 10 or more times (5) than games they had 10 or more hits (4).
Hitter of the Month: Angel Pagan
Pagan hit 337 in the month of July and led the Mets in runs, hits, total bases and stolen bases for the month. The nine stolen bases were more than half of the Mets total for the month, and he was only caught once, opposed to Jose Reyes who was successful one of four times.
His 11 RBIs was tied for third on the team, but that has more to do with his position in the batting order than his prowess for the month. Only Ike Davis (6) had more homeruns than Pagan in July, who totaled five.
Mets Pitching: (B+)
You can’t blame the pitchers for the Mets struggles in the month of July. They did everything they could to keep them in most games, to no avail. They had a record of 2-8 in one-run games and gave up four walk-off wins.
The Mets had an ERA of 3.43 during the month, fourth best in the NL; but allowed their opponents to hit .266, 10 points higher than the league average. They added three more shutouts to their league leading total of 14.
Pitcher of the Month: Johan Santana
If you went by ERA and WHIP then the best pitcher of the month would be R.A. Dickey, but he had a record of 1-3 during the month, whereas Santana was 3-0.
Santana had very similar numbers to Dickey: ERA (1.51 vs 2.06) and WHIP (1.01 vs 1.17). Santana was on track for an epic month in Mets history until he was derailed by his final start, where he allowed seven runs in 5.2 innings. Those seven runs made up the majority of the 10 he allowed all month.
