It’s getting bad folks. I know there’s a lot of baseball left. I know the Mets play in the worst division in baseball so they still have a chance. When asked whether or not it’s time to throw in the towel, most Mets fan say no. They say the Mets are a hot streak away from being right back in the race. I say they’re right… and wrong.
Sure a hot streak over two weeks could do wonders for the Mets standings in the division. No one team has the ability to pull away so the Mets would surely close ground. The problem is, this roster is incapable of pulling it off. The pitching is too inconsistent, the offense is consistently bad, and the defense… well you know. We’re all waiting for the pieces to fall back into place, but no one has been able to tell us when that’s going to happen, so let’s assume the worst case scenario that it doesn’t happen at all. Can the team currently being fielded every day win 12 out of 15 games? I really don’t see it. Maybe there’s a switch that has yet to be turned on that will send them all into another gear where they remember how to play baseball the right way. Maybe we’ve seen it already. Is it possible that the best baseball that we’ve seen this season, in San Francisco in my opinion, is the best we’re going to get, meaning it will only last three or four games at a time. There’s no run there. There’s no hot streak. There’s a team with a mid-level roster and bad fundamentals that works out the kinks for a week and then goes back to the ugly crap they play every other game. Can you tell I’m frustrated?
If the Mets are really going to have a shot, it all comes down to the starting pitching. With Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez and John Maine (hopefully), the potential is there for greatness. We’ve all seen all these guys pitch out of their minds. It’s a matter of it all coming together at the same time for an extended period of time. Think about getting three to four great starts in a row from these guys. I’m not saying it’s likely, especially in the case of Oliver Perez, but think about Ollie all of a sudden finding it. Becoming the pitcher he’s capable of being, the guy that can strike out 15 batters in a game and go eight innings. We’ve seen hints of it here and there, but it’s never come full circle. Mike Pelfrey has the same type of potential. A big pitcher with a great sinker can dominate a line up top to bottom when he’s on, as we’ve all seen Pelfrey do a few times. Like most young pitchers, his problem is consistency. If he can pull it together and string a few starts together at the right time, combined with the rest of the staff doing the same, the Mets can gain ground. They can’t do it if they have to rely on their offense to win games, mainly because their offense sucks.
As a last resort, if nothing else seems to work, perhaps the Mets can suggest a rule change to MLB saying that every time a team hits into a double play they get a run. If that change goes into effect the Mets would have one of the highest powered offenses in history, and would make a run for the ages. Until then, we have to hope the pitching comes around.
PS – I don’t think it will, I’m just not ready to throw in the towel. If they lose a few more series, I’ll be ready.
I think it’s over after tonight’s (Friday’s) loss to Atlanta. I’ve been saying since May (before most of the injuries) that this isn’t a really good team (when healthy), maybe just a .500 team like last year but not really any better, but this month, they’ve really just looked too lost to be able to come back from this. the return of the injured players could be a boost, but it may end up being too little, too late, or just not even until next year.
But I think it’s also just a predicatable point in a pattern that the Mets have exhibited since at least 1988. Read about it in more detail on my blog – http://rememberingshea.blogspot.com/2009/07/pattern-of-bad-behavior.html