Disgruntled Mets Fan

Jeff Wilpon – “Omar, Omar wake up man, you missed the deadline Omar, I can’t believe you overslept”

Omar Minaya – “Oh man, Adam Rubin must have put some Ambien in my coffee.  What should we do now?”

JW – “Lets have a press conference.  It’s been a few days”

OM – “What should I tell them?”

JW – “Just say, ‘What teams were asking for, we couldn’t put together a deal’ over and over again.  Whatever you do, don’t bring up Rubin and the Ambien.”

OM – “I don’t know Jay Dubs… I feel like the people have a right to know that Rubin drugged me.  Why else would I let this deadline pass without making any deals?”

JW – “Nah, don’t worry about it Omar.  It’ll be easier to fire you at the end…  I mean… OK the press is waiting lets get this thing rolling.”

OM – “Wait What?… Oh yea the press conference, I almost forgot…  I can’t wait to tell them about Adam Rubin”

Some trades are made to fill a need.  These moves fill a hole that everyone can see.  They strengthen a weak spot that may have been there all season, or may have been created due to injury or under-performance.

Other trades are made to elevate your team to the next level.  You’re not really filling a hole, just strengthening and improving what you’ve got.  These are the types of moves that turn a playoff caliber team into a championship caliber team over night.

The Mets have had chances in recent years to make both types of trades, and have consistently failed to pull the trigger.

This season, the Mets have the opportunity to make a trade that can fit both criteria.

They can fill a hole by trading for a guy like Victor Martinez or a front end starting pitcher, but once (if) the battery of injured players returns, the trade will have added strength for the September push.

Management has said that they are “buyers” going into the trade deadline, but they don’t want to give up any of their top prospects. That idea doesn’t make much sense in theory.  It seems like an idea as absurd as trying to buy a car without giving the dealership any money.

How can you make a trade like that?

It’s not impossible…

A few National League teams have been able to pull it off trades without selling the farm this season.

The Phillies are a prime example.

They were able to trade for a legitimate ace, Cliff Lee, without giving up any of the prospects involved in talks for Roy Halladay, who were widely considered the best prospects in their organization.

This strengthens the top of their rotation, and still leaves them in a position to make a deal for Halladay.  I’m not sure how the Mets weren’t involved in these talks, if only to drive up the price on the Phillies?

Does Omar think the Mets don’t need any help at the top of the rotation?  Is he watching the same season we are?

The Phillies are not the only team able to make a favorable deal without an absurd amount of collateral damage to the farm system.

The Cardinals were able to pick up Matt Holliday for three minor league players, only one being a top level prospect.  Holliday is a middle of the line up guy that plays a position where the Mets have had weakness for the past few years, left field.

Trading away one high level AAA guy for a player of Holliday’s caliber seems like a no-brainer.  Apparently the Mets weren’t interested.

Even the NL leading Dodgers have been out there trying to improve their team.  They’ve been liked to guys like Halladay, Jason Frasor, and Matt Caps.

The Dodgers are clearly not fighting for their post-season lives, but are still looking to make their team stronger as they make a run at a title.

I feel that Omar and the Mets missed the boat on guys like Lee and Holliday.  I would have gladly parted with similar packages to have either, or both, of those guys helping the Mets this, and next season.

I still think the Mets need to make a move, if they can pull something off similar to the deals listed above.  Easier said than done.

There are only a few hours left to see, but my money is on the team that’s been taking the field for the past few months taking the field over the weekend.

Omar, Pull the trigger!

A few weeks ago, Mets fans were begging for rain outs. Anything to play less games before all the injured superstars return. Less games meant less losses. This week however, a rain out might be a recipe for disaster.

The Mets were hot.

Winners of four in a row with their ace, Johan Santana scheduled to make a start. They had been gaining ground on the wild card, though not on the Phillies every day.

Rain, at this juncture, may be the worst thing that could have happened. The team will play a day night double header today to make up the game, with Johan pitching the first shift and Jon Niese pitching the night cap. I like the Mets chances for a sweep, but I liked them better if they got to play their game last night.

Unfortunately, due to a big trade yesterday by their division rivals, the rain cooling the team off may be the least of the Mets worries.

Last season’s AL Cy Young award winner, Cliff Lee, is now on the Phillies.

Lee’s numbers are not nearly as impressive as they were last year when he sported a 22-3 record. He’s only 7-9 this season, but is still sporting a 3.14 ERA in 22 starts. His HR/9 is at 0.6 so far for the season, but will surely jump quite a bit playing in the band box that is Citizen’s Bank Park.

What does this mean for the Mets? It means the Phillies are that much better, and the Mets will have to improve in order to compete with them. How can they do so? By making a move for a new starting pitcher.

The Mets have injuries have shown some fundamental flaws with the team, but has also strengthened a lot of areas. A lot of players have gotten a lot more work than they would have otherwise, and this will help the team in the long run.

The starting pitching was an issue at the beginning of the season, and it’s become more of an issue with Oliver Perez’s ineffectiveness and John Maine’s injury. Adding a #2 or #3 starter to the rotation is the key to this team’s success in my opinion.

What kind of chips do they have to offer other teams for top teir pitching? In my opinion, Angel Pagan’s emergence as a solid fourth outfielder makes Fernando Martinez a little less valuable.

Jon Niese has showed great potential in his limited time in the bigs, but trading a pitching prospect for an established starter, especially a top tier starter, is always a good idea in my opinion.

Wilmer Flores is a top prospect at shortstop, but as long as Jose Reyes is in the long term plans for the Mets, having a top prospect at short is not a high priority, and he should be moved while his value is high.

All three of these guys could be packaged in a deal for a guy like Roy Halladay? A guy like Roy Halladay would put the Mets over the top, and break the barrier between playoff team and championship team.

Depending on how the rest of this home-stand goes, the Mets may well find themselves back in the playoff hunt, and making a move like this would seem a lot more important.

Less that two weeks ago, I was saying the Mets should throw in the towel, but they’re right back in the mix now, so getting the injured players back and making a move to improve their rotation should be a top priority.

Again, this whole situation could go right back to where it was before the winning streak, and the Mets could have a double digit deficit to overcome for the wild card too. If and when that happens, I might call it a season (again).

Until then, I gotta believe.

The New York Mets have (temporarily at least) put a hold on the end of the 2009 season. They’ve won four games in a row, quite impressively in fact, and seem to have a new found swagger that they’ve been missing all season.

Dare I say, they even seem to be having fun!

The question that begs to be answered is – Does any of it matter? Is this small scale surge “too little too late”? It’s hard to say.

Winning four in a row, followed by a three or four game losing streak, and you’re right back where you started.

Winning four in a row, followed by mediocre .500 baseball and you’re a little better off than you were before, but you still have a six or seven teams to jump past in order to make the playoffs.

Taking four in a row, and building on it; making it six or seven in a row, that’s the key to making up ground. Even when the winning streak comes to an end, starting a new one should be top priority.

I was beginning to believe that these Mets were incapable of playing the type of baseball they have been playing over the past week.

They’ve played from behind and come back. They’ve played from ahead and held the lead. They’ve played solid defense. They’ve done all the things they weren’t doing for the longest time.

Even the starting pitching, although not outstanding, has been good enough to keep the team in every game. The last time a starter has had a bad outing, strangely enough, was Johan Santana’s last start.

The bullpen has been outstanding. The hitting has been clutch.

All the Mets need is for this level of play to remain consistent and they still have a legitimate shot at the post-season.

That said, I’m still not a believer. I’m standing by my decision to not pass judgement until the home-stand is over. For now, I’m happier than I was last week, but that’s not saying much. I was pretty unhappy last week.

I couldn’t care less about Tony Bernazard.
I couldn’t care less about Adam Rubin.
I couldn’t care less about Omar Minaya’s comments regarding what happened.

The only possible impact this might have on my life, is Omar being too distracted to make a move that might be good for the team…both for this season, and in the future.

The off-the-field missteps of this franchise are to be scoffed at for sure, but not by me. All I care about is what’s going on between the white lines, and for the last three games at least, things have been going well.

As far as I can see, Jeff Francoeur is the catalyst to the team’s success.

Since joining the team, he is batting .326 with 15 RBI and three HR. He is handling the New York press as well as I’ve ever seen anyone do, answering every question, saying all the right things, and doing it all with a smile on his face.

His ties to the organization are new and fresh, and he seems to push the “losing attitude” out of the team aside. He is using words like “us” and “we” that show his team-first attitude, and is quick to criticize himself when he does something wrong.

His positive attitude is rubbing off on the rest of the players, and it seems to be showing on the field.

That being said, I’m sure I’m not the only Mets fan that was screaming at the TV last night as Jerry Manuel sent Fernando Tatis up to pinch-hit…the double play machine himself, at the turning point of the game, with an inning-ending double play written all over him.

I was flabbergasted at Jerry’s decision-making process. Tatis has done nothing but kill rallies, and he was set up to do it again.

Fast forward to the 0-2 pitch that Tatis lifts into left field, and I’m thinking to myself, “well, at least we’ll get a run…he got the ball to the outfield.”

Before you know it, the outfielders are at the wall looking up, and Tatis is pounding his chest rounding second base.

The moral of the story is that Tatis has been so monumentally bad and un-clutch in situations this season that I forgot about him being the Grand Slam King of the World.

I hope his streak of badness is over, and now he can be called on reliably as a pinch hitter and reserve outfielder; a role that he filled very well in the past.

I wonder when Alex Cora will turn his season around. He had been one of the most consistent players in an inconsistent line…up until he stopped producing at the plate. He’s still doing a stellar job at shortstop, but has fallen in the line up, and seems to never get a hit anymore.

It could be a case of a 10-carry back getting 30 carries a game, and we’re just learning why he’s a 10-carry back.

There seems to be some good news regarding Jose Reyes making a return soon, so perhaps Cora will be able to return to his intended role as a reserve middle infielder…taking some of the pressure off him, and allowing him to return to form.

I take all news about the Mets injuries with a grain of salt though, so I won’t take the good news seriously until the injured players are back on the field at a major league level.

Things are looking up for this team, but as I said yesterday, I won’t be a believer until the homestand is over.

We’ll all know a lot more by then.

The Mets won a series.  Who gives?
They scored 22 runs over the weekend.  Big Deal
They hit home runs.  Good for them?

It’s gonna take more than two wins to get me to feel good about this team?  I’m too scarred to believe they’ve turned anything resembling a corner.  They’ve got a ten game home stand coming up.  If they were able to take seven or eight out of those ten games, I’d start to reconsider.  Until then, I just don’t care.  It has a lot to do with the fact that they’re still 10.5 games out after their big “offensive explosion” in Houston.  It could also be that I know what’s going to happen on the home stand.  They might play some good baseball here and there, but they’ll also play some really bad baseball.  They’ll probably be shut out at least once.  They’ll remind us all of what we were screaming about before the weekend started.

I’m going to need more than one series to change the way I feel, which can only be described as disgruntled.