Disgruntled Mets Fan

Top of the eighth inning, tied at three.  Bases loaded, none out.

Brian Schneider, who I’m not sure why gets any at bats at this point, as his Mets career comes to an end, pops out to third base.  Then Jeremy Reed breaks his bat on a soft line drive to second base that results in a double play to end the inning and the threat.

It’s a disappointing result considering how promising the inning started.

Apparently not disappointing enough.

The bottom half of the inning was a lesson in bad fundamentals, as the middle of the Mets infield, Anderson Hernandez and Luis Castillo, committed a pair of errors that led to Washington’s go ahead run and the Mets second loss in a row to the last place Nationals.

The game started off in the right direction, as the Mets scored three runs in the first two innings, but starting pitcher Mike Pelfrey gave up yet another lead as he fell apart in the fifth inning, allowing the Nats to score three runs to tie the game.

It was another episode in a series of consistently shaky starts of Pelfrey, and it will be his last start of the season.  Jerry Manuel said yesterday after the game that Pelfrey would miss his start on Sunday, which was scheduled to be his last of the season.

Manuel said he hopes Pelfrey will take the time during the off season to reflect on his season.  I’m not sure why you’d want to reflect on a season where you go 10–12 with a 5.03 ERA.  I’d prefer to forget it.

Pelfrey has a lot to prove to the Mets organization next season.  He needs to improve to help strengthen the starting pitching staff overall, even if he’s lost his No. 2 tag.  He’s certainly performed like a No. 2 at times, but more consistently shows the stuff of a No. 4 or 5 starter.

I hope the Mets are willing to spend some money to pick up a legitimate starter to follow Johan Santana next season.

John Lackey is at the top of my list, but he might be the most expensive arm out there, and all signs point to the Mets being frugal in the free agent market.  You can’t spend all your money on one player when there are so many holes to fill.

It’s almost over…

An ugly season can be made considerably uglier with six games remaining for the New York Mets.

90 wins is an accomplishment any organization can be proud of.  90 losses is an accomplishment in failure usually reserved for small market teams with payrolls that can’t be expected to compete.

The Mets have broken new ground.  They’ve even been called the worst organization in Major League Baseball here.

It’s hard to disagree with them isn’t it.

This team has been a flop fest since Carlos Beltran looked at strike three in Game 7 of the NLCS in 2006.

Late season collapses, injuries, mental breakdowns, errors, base running mistakes…

It’s been almost unbearable.

I’d like to see how the team would have finished, even with all the injuries, if the players on the field played to their potential, instead of playing the way they have.  Could they still compete for a Wild Card spot?  Does their talent, even with all the injuries, outweigh the talent of other MLB teams?

I think it does.

I think it’s safe to say that the Mets on the field have underperformed to a point that is almost comical.

With six games left in the season, three against the Washington Nationals and three against the Houston Astros, the Mets may be able to save a little face.

Losing 89 games just sounds a lot better than losing 90+.  The Mets would have to win out in order to make this happen.  I don’t think they can do it, I’m just pointing out that it would be nice if they did.

Looking at the active team roster, I hope it’s full of guys that won’t return next season.

Starting with the bullpen, I’d like to see guys like Tim Redding, Sean Green, and Ken Takahashi putting on new uniforms next season.

I would love to see if there’s a team dumb enough out there to take over Oliver Perez’s contract, but I think he’ll be a Met for the next few years.

I’m certain Brian Schneider has played his last game with the organization.

Utility guys like Anderson Hernandez and Wilson Valdez have done a nice job filling in while the team’s middle infield has grown paper thin, but they shouldn’t be on the roster next year unless the team’s injury situation repeats this year’s mess.

Gary Sheffield and Fernando Tatis need to go.  Omar would be out of his mind to give Sheffield another year.  He has performed well, but his body broke down the way a 40+ year old outfielder’s body does.  You would think the Mets learned their lesson with Moises Alou.

I also at this time believe Jerry Manuel should be fired.  He’s lost the team.  It might not be his fault, but it is what it is.

Guys that I think should definitely be a part of the future that aren’t part of the Mets “core” of players include Alex Cora, Jeff Francoeur, Daniel Murphy, and Pedro Feliciano.

It’s almost over.  We only have to bear six more games this season.  Let’s all hope together that the team can put together a winning streak to end the season, so they can avoid the embarrassing number of 90 losses.

That’s right Mets fans.  The Mets won a game.

They moved the Florida Marlins, the team that has dashed the Mets playoff hopes on the last day of the season for the last two years, one step closer to post season elimination by scoring two runs in the top of the 9th inning off Marlins closer Leo Nunez to come from behind for the victory.

Daniel Murphy and Jeff Francoeur got the party started with back to back singles to lead off the inning, Jeremy Reed followed with a walk while trying to sacrifice the runners over, and Corey Sullivan capped off the rally with a single to left field, driving in the tying and go ahead runs.

Francisco Rodriguez got the save, giving up one hit in the bottom of the 9th.  He struck out notorious Met killer Jorge Cantu on three pitches to end the game.

In addition to scoring the go ahead run, Francoeur also provided most of the Mets offense, hitting a three-run home run in the second inning.  Francoeur has been one of the few bright spots on this team since he came over to the Mets.  How he continues to hit, especially for power, with a torn ligament in his hand is a mystery to me.

Something tells me Ryan Church would have been on the DL for the remainder of the season if he was suffering the same sort of injury.

John Maine makes another start today.  I’d like to see him go a little deeper into a game tonight, since this will be his third start since coming back from the DL.

He’s pitched well, so well that I actually have some hope for his spot in the rotation next season.  I can’t say the same for the rest of the Mets rotation.  Mike Pelfrey has looked horrible lately, and Oliver Perez…

Anyone that’s been a Mets fan for more than 20 minutes knows what I think about Perez.  No need to even bring him up and depress ourselves more than we already are.

Let’s go 2010…

The Mets got swept at home last night, losing their 13th game in their last 16 overall.  Without a timely visit from the Nationals last weekend, who knows how much worse it could be.

Since 2007, the Mets are 33-42 in September, with most of the damage coming in the 22 games this season where they are only 6-16.

I’ve been a Jerry Manuel supporter up until this stretch of baseball.  This kind of finish, regardless of who’s on the field, has to lead to some sort of changes in personnel.  I believe that if I was making the decisions regarding the coaching staff, there would be a complete overhaul, including the trainers. (especially the trainers)

After a night off, the Mets go down to Florida for a three game series with the Nationals, whose playoff hopes wait to be dashed by the team they’ve knocked out of the playoffs for the last two seasons on the last day of the season. I was at both games.  Let me tell you, it was awful.

The Mets being the team that knocks the Marlins out of the playoffs this year would be like adding stale icing to a cake made of kitty litter.  It wouldn’t be much, but it would make the season taste just a little better.

That being said, I’m sure the Mets aren’t going to pull it off.  I’m feeling pretty confident that they’re going to get swept once again.

This team reminds me of the Washington Senators from the old movie Damn Yankees…

At least the team’s consistent
Yea we always lose

Lucky for Mets fans, the torture is almost over…

For New York Mets pitcher Nelson Figueroa, the season can’t end fast enough.

In his last start in August, Figueroa had one of the best outings of his career when he threw eight innings of one run ball while striking out ten.  Speculations were made about Figueroa’s spot in the rotation next season, as he seemed to be passing with flying colors in his 2010 audition.

September has been an unkind month to the journeyman pitcher.  He’s 0-4 with a 5.40 ERA in four starts this month, only making one “quality start”, last night against the Braves.

He hasn’t gotten much run support behind him, with the team only scoring nine runs in his four starts, but he hasn’t pitched well enough to win aside from last night.

Looking at Figueroa’s numbers, it seems his problem is a lack of a swing and miss pitch.  Even in the game where he struck out ten he only had ten swing and misses for the entire game.  Compare that to a guy like Johan Santana, who has a swing and miss change up and has produced as many as twenty swings and misses in a game.

Developing a new pitch may not be the easiest task for a 35 year old starting pitcher in the Major Leagues. Figueroa may be destined to continue his role as spot starter/minor leaguer for the rest of his career.

Analyzing the pitching of a guy like Nelson Figueroa really shows what kind of season this has been so far…  I’m running out of things to talk about.

Someone that’s not failing miserably in their audition for the 2010 roster is Daniel Murphy.

Sure his glove has been somewhat laughable at times playing his new position at first base, but his bat has come alive.

Murphy is hitting just under .300 since August, is leading the team in home runs with an embarrassing 11, and has 14 extra base hits in September alone which is good enough to be tied with Albert Pujols for the league lead.

A lot of speculation has been made about where Murphy will fit on this teams roster next season.  Whether the team decides to bring back Carlos Delgado will weigh in a lot on what happens with Murphy.

If the Mets do decide to bring back Delgado, they may want to keep Murphy as a bench player that can help give Delgado some days off while providing an insurance policy if Delgado goes down with another injury.

If the Mets decide not to bring back Delgado, keeping Murphy as the full time first baseman will mean a power position, first base, will not have a power bat.  The lack of a true clean up hitter will mean the Mets need to address the issue signing a power hitting left fielder.

Spending money on a top tier left fielder will take away from the Mets limited budget, which will result in less money to spend on a legitimate No.2 starter, which I believe should be top priority in the off season.

The one place I know we won’t see Daniel Murphy next season is in left field…

Trivia contest winner Kevin McCarthy was kind enough to send a picture of his autographed David Wright baseball.

Kevin won the contest sponsored by Sportsmemorabilia.com.

Thanks for the pic and congratulations again Kevin.