It has been a rough go of it of late. And that happens in baseball.
No one could anticipate that after getting Carlos Beltran back, the Mets wouldn’t score a run for 24 innings. But every team has peaks and troughs in its baseball season. You’re never as bad as you are at your worst or as good as you are at your best. For a 2-month period, the Mets were the hottest team in baseball, the best over that span. Since then, they’ve been pretty bad. But they aren’t this bad, and many, many Mets fans act like they are that bad.
Here’s the reality: Offense is far more volatile and inconsistent than pitching. Over time it evens out, but there will be times where you can’t score (hey, the Phillies couldn’t score with a healthy lineup for 2 months) and there will be times where an offense will be unstoppable. The Mets remain without Jose Reyes until (it looks like) Monday.
Now, when you put him in a lineup with Angel Pagan, David Wright, and Carlos Beltran, three great hitters; Jason Bay, a slumping hitter this year, but a guy with potential to be a big stick in the SIXTH spot; Ike Davis, a solid power bat; and a few role players (Thole, a slap hitter who works counts, and Tejada, who is more in there for defense), you have a lineup that can be among the best in baseball.
This is just what I say to those who say “the Mets need a bat more than pitching.” It comes down to this. In an abstract sense, the skill difference between pitchers is far wider than the difference between hitters. A pitcher with a 2.50 ERA allows 2 runs less per 9 innings than a guy with a 4.50 ERA. But a .300 hitter, over the course of a full season, is only 25 hits better than a .250 hitter, and those can be 25 bloops, warning-track fly balls, whatever. Offense will always come, no matter what. Pitching is what needs to be focused on.
This I have been saying for weeks-Hisanori Takahashi NEEDS to be in the bullpen. He’s not a starting pitcher. Outside of two excellent outings against the Yankees, he’s been below average. He’s given up a lot of big innings, particularly ones that put the Mets in a huge hole early, like last night.
Santana, Dickey, and Niese have been excellent of late, and hopefully Pelfrey will be rested up and ready to continue his trends for April, May, and June. That meaning, the Mets need another starter. I don’t believe in the philosophy that you have your 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 starters. Inherently, this philosophy “accepts” that the bottom of the rotation can be mediocre starters. A World Series caliber team doesn’t accept throwaways in the bottom of the rotation. The Yankees have Phil Hughes and Javier Vazquez down there. The Reds have 5 very good starters. You can never have enough starting pitching.
As such, the Mets need to pull one of the following off the trade market, from most realistic to least: Ted Lilly (Cubs), Brett Myers (Astros), Jake Westbrook (Indians), Roy Oswalt (Astros), or Dan Haren (D-Backs). Lilly and Myers seem like the most likely, as the Mets will wait for the price to come down then make a reasonable trade offer. Amidst the controversy of whether the Mets can add payroll or not, it seems unlikely that they will take on Oswalt’s contract. He will command a lot in the way of prospects, but maybe, just maybe, the Astros will take on a bad Met contract-they have been rumored to be open-minded to this (I think we all know whose contract I’m referring to). The D-Backs are demanding a king’s ransom for Haren, who will be under his team’s control for several more years for a very cheap price. However, no matter the price, I would love to see Haren in a Met uniform. He strikes out a ton of batters, walks very few, and is playing for a terrible team in a small park right now. I think he would thrive in Citi Field.
All in all, as I’ve been saying all along, the Mets and fans need to keep calm. They just need to add an arm.
Today Santana faces the Giants as the Mets try to salvage a game in this series. He faces Jonathan Sanchez.
Let’s go Mets!!!
