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…this stinks…it really does…i’ll write more tomorrow, but before i shut it down for the day, let me just say how disappointed i am…
…i was painfully disappointed in 1988, when the Mets lost to the Dodgers in the NLCS; and i was painfully disappointed during 1999’s NLCS, when after a miraculous come back against the Braves in Game 5, they lost in Game 6; and i was disappointed last season, after Endy Chavez’s outstanding catch, and with momentum on their side, the Mets layed up and squandered yet another NLCS…
…this time, they didn’t even get the 
opportunity…
…this year, they had a seven-game lead with just over two weeks of baseball left to play…instead of seizing the opportunity, they lost 12 of their final 17 games, to finish with one more loss on the year than the Phillies, who saved their bad play for April and May, instead of September and June, like the Mets, and such is baseball…every game counts…and so the Mets played one additional bad game…one game, some place between April 1 and September 31, and they will not get to the post-season because of it…
…as you know, i never lost faith, actually…for whatever reason, unlike the previous let downs, i never doubted that this team would lose…yet they did…and i think that’s what makes this so hard to accept…
…in the end, i believe this current group of players got a bit sloth like through much of the summer, and those bad actions became habit and spilled over in to crunch time…i hesitantly blame Willie Randolph, because while i respect his confidence and believe it is ultimately a good thing, i suspect it may also have helped to create a sense of entitlement that morphed in to a sense of apathy, which led to the team’s uninspired play…ultimately, however, i mostly fault the players, who are professionals, and yet who actually went on record as acknowledging their malaise, like Carlos Delgado, who in early September told reporters, “We’ve got so much talent, I think sometimes we get bored.”…there’s nothing worse than wasted talent unfortunately, a price will be paid for this disappointment, and that’s what i am most disappointed about…
…i like these guys…i have enjoyed cheering for them…and, for the most part, they have been a ton of fun to watch…i liked the smiles, the hi-five dances, the walk-off wins, the celebrations, the quirkiness, the SI covers, and the electricity that we saw so much of over the last two seasons…but, because of the last 30 days, that is all going to change now…
…this team almost certainly cannot return in its current form…when you think about it, ever since Carlos Beltran’s strike out in Game 7 of last season’s NLCS, this team has done nothing but retreat, and i don’t know how the same group of men can re-group after all that disappointment and unfulfilled potential…this is not to say they must rebuild, not at all, but the general dynamic of this team will need to change…there are people who need to go, and who that will be remains to be seen…
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Well, I bet there will be another SI cover for the team.
Lol, thanks Wyoming Met, that gave me a chuckle. I needed that!
Bittersweet,
You’re gonna be the death of me.
I dont want you, but I need you.
I love you and hate you at the very same time.
A little Mets Haiku:
Today’s little tease
Yet another disaster
The ‘07 Mets
this sucks. The 15,000+ in the facebook group are all calling for Willie’s head.
Global New York Mets
Matt,
Thanks for all the work you have done and helping us to live viacariously (sp?) through the team!
Excellent job Matt, wish we could say the same for the Mets…
Matt,
I could not agree more. Great job this season.
Piling on: Staying positive and giving a ton of fans a forum to vent/celebrate/bs, etc. Thanks, and congrats to Matt and the whole staff.
Who is ready for the Gary Carter Era?
I’m dissapointed of course.. but lets face it, they wern’t going far into the playoffs. Last year was so different, you were pumped up about the mets even before they got into the playoffs.. this year they just trudged along.. didn’t really impress anyone. It was a lackluster year and they got exactly what they paid for..
Better luck next year, maybe when we don’t have so many old guys
I definetly agree with bringing Gary Carter to coach the Mets. We’ve been watching this guy coach the Mets with no emotion. People in NY without emotion are the ones no one likes. Not even Joe Torre is liked because of his approach, but he wins because of the over abundance of talent on the team. We want Bobby V or Lou Pinella, anyone notice any similarities. I can’t stomach another season with Willie running the team. We give kudos to managers with over achieving teams, but some fans want to blame Omar for a losing team. You can’t complain about the hand your dealt. You have to go out and win. It doesn’t matter how you do it just get the job done. New Yorks loves characters L.T., Joe Namath, Pedro, the 86 Mets, Bill Parcells and so on. No one likes the soft spoken leaders, Art Howe, Don Chaney, Herm Edwards, Joe Torre’s of the world.
Yeah, because Dallas Green worked out swimmingly.
Look, let’s just hire a manager who is smart, has a winning baseball philosophy, and can motivate his guys.
You can’t criticize Torre. You just can’t. He has won a ton.
LaRussa isn’t a psycho and he’s in the playoffs every season.
Gary Carter is all wrong - - he’s a press-hound. a glory hog, an egomaniac. His teammates didn’t even like him. They thought he was a joke. Terrible idea. Next . . .
Fine, how about Hojo? Or god forbid, Keith?
Nobody complained about Bill Parcells, but you want to complain about Gary. What’s the worst that can happen. At least when the team loses i know something will be broken. Just like Reyes not running yesterday and Willie didn’t say anything to him. I want someone to rip him and not just stare. I’ll take anyone over Willie.
Just to clarify - I am not saying I want Willie gone or Gary as manager. I just think that Willie can’t possibly survive the offseason of questioning that the Wilpons will get about what went wrong, and we all know Omar isn’t going anywhere.
As far as Carter as manager, I think he would be a cheap guy (while the Wilpons cut checks to Art Howe AND Wille next year) that the media and fanbase would embrace (at least early on). So he’s my odds-on favorite if Willie gets the ax.
Agree-but only if Gary still has the perm.
i dont believe willie should be fired but something big has to happen and thats the only thing i can think of.
this team has so much talent, its a shame they couldnt make something of it.
i just dont know how we can improve for next year.
c- its either lo duca, castro or ivan rodriguez at catcher. i rather have lo duca back
1b- no matter what people say, delgado will be back at 1st
2b- i dont think we can get much better than castillo at 2nd
ss- reyes, no way he gets traded so no one bring that up
3b- wright
LF- Alou, i want him back, this guy knows how to hit.
CF- beltran
RF- people want milledge to start but we must use him and the otehr prospects to acquire a big time pitcher.
SP- Acquire an Ace, pedro, maine, perez and humber/pelfrey or humber
RB- Must sign/acquire a lock down setup man
Players that you can trade away to acquire a a shut down setup man and Ace:
1) milledge or gomez 2) heilman 3) 2 of mulvey humber and pelfrey
Yeah, we have to resign LoDuca and Castro. There just aren’t any better options at catcher. The question will be about the years on the contracts.
I think Reyes will come back strong next year, he is going to have a fire lit under during the offseason.
I also agree with keeping Castillo, though, again, like the catching situation it will be about the years on the deals.
Despite the frequent time off he acquires, I want Alou back too.
Again, agree on the pitching stuff. It will take a trade to get someone since there are really no good free agent starters.
No LoDuca he’s too predictable behind the plate, plus he sets up way to early. I wonder why everyone was hitting the crap out of the ball when someone was on second. They stole on him like we had Mike Piazza behind the plate. I’ll take Castro over him any day.
LoDuca has to go. And there is no way I want Pudge either. Castillo shouldn’t be resigned either. He played hard for us, but he is on the decline.
Let’s sign Javier Valentin to split time with Castro behind the plate. He swings the bat well from the left side and they would complement each other nicely, and they provide solid D.
Let Gotay start at 2b and bring in a Pokey Reese type RH hitter with a nice glove to come off the bench and spell him against tough lefties.
Milledge needs to be our starting RF.
Wright, Milledge, Beltran, Reyes, Maine, and Perez should be our only untouchable. Everyone else is tradeable. Even Fernando Martinez.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…..if Reyes is the name that gets a conversation going with the Twins about Santana, then that has to be considered. This team needs a bonafide number one starter who can eat up innings. Santana is that and more. He is young. He’s going to be a free-agent after next year. The Twins probably can’t afford him. The Mets don’t have enough prospects to entice them. Unless……….
…unless you consider moving an all-star shortstop who while leading the league in steals, also led the league in the single greatest rally-killing stat of them all: caught stealing. A man who regressed in the field. A man who had maybe one triple in the last quarter of the season. A man who’s understanding of all facets of the game seems to be regressing.
Reyes and a Twin’s choice of Maine; Humber; or Pelfrey. If that gets a conversation going you HAVE to pursue it.
The lack of a number one starter who gives you innings helped destroy the Met’s bullpen this year. We don’t have one coming up from the minors.
You don’t trade Reyes for a 30 year older especially when you have no back up SS. As much frustrating Reyes has been you can’t trade him nor Maine after what he did Saturday.
Santana is 28 years old and enterring his prime.
Reyes is 23 years old and may not have a prime you can build around.
The problems the mets have had over the past month have not been their offense. Today and Friday nights notwithstanding they’ve been scoring a ton of runs with almost zero help from Reyes.
….and one strong performance from Maine does not cover up an absolutely mediocre second half of the year.
This team needs a stud number one starter. They can live with a good-field, no-hit shortstop.
You’d be a fool to ignore this opportunity. Now, I’ve also said before I don’t know whether Minny even needs or wants a shortstop. But its the only realistic chit the Mets have.
…..and there’s something about Reyese (aside from all of the pop-ups and strikeouts in the second half) that just spells “TROUBLE” to me.
you don’t trade a guy when his value is down, period. trading a locked up reyes for a possible 1-year rental is silly. who bats leadoff for this team? w/out him we’ll have another manager who doesn’t like to run and we’ll be too passive on the bases and not steal any bases. as much as reyes has been off lately you just can’t trade him.
Reyes’ value may never be higher than it is right now.
…and a Santana trade is predicated on being able to sign him.
Who bats leadoff for this team? I would suggest that anyone would have done a better job than Reyes has done over the past two months. And don’t get too enamored by 78 stolen bases when you get caught stealing over 20 times (that is a remarkably powerful stat when it comes to figuring out why so many Met rallies died on the vine).
trading the 23 yo 2nd coming of Rickey Henderson b/c of a two-month slump would be just plain stupid. who’s our shortstop next year? I can understand you’re down on Reyes right now but you have to look at the big picture.
The big picture is that we need a number one starter and there’s not one coming up in our minor league system.
Guys, we’re talking about the third best short stop IN THEIR OWN DIVISION!
…..one who’s attitude; work ethic; and baseball savvy are all open to question.
…and I’m not talking about giving him away. I’m talking about using him as a chit for arguably the best picher in baseball.
You’re being ridiculous. “also led the league in the single greatest rally-killing stat of them all: caught stealing.” Yeah, because he leads the league in stealing attempts. That’s how that works.
He has a better SB% than Hanley Ramirez, slightly lower than Jimmy Rollins, but he stole way more often. Jimmy Rollins had a career season and Reyes had a down one, but Reyes is still a FAR better fielder than Hanley Ramirez, and a better fielder than Rollins with only 4 fielding errors on the season (Rollins had 11). He had 8 throwing errors on the season, but it looks to me like this:
Reyes is still a young hothead, and the bs with Olivo the other day is evidence of that. Willie isn’t great at shutting that kind of stuff down, partly because he feels — and rightly so — that it’s for the other players to do that. When the unofficial team captain is David Wright — a guy who’s just as young as Reyes — it makes it hard to get this stuff straightened out.
Reyes has the most raw talent of any player the Mets put on the field. He could use some time not in first place to get his head on straight, but trading him would be dickronculous.
I agree with you almost entirely. I add pedro to the untradable list, and pull Reyes and Milledge–but only for some crazy, blockbuster-type trade.
There will be plenty of time for this in the next few months. For now, let me just say this:
- Wright, Beltran, Pedro & Maine are untouchable. Ollie and Reyes are nearly untouchable - one might go if we can do a sign-and-trade for Santana.
- Delgado will stay because no one will want his contract. Show might stay for the same reason.
That’s 8 players. As for the rest, who knows?
- I’d like to see us keep Milledge. I think we’ll trade him this fall.
- Heilman absolutely should stay. 2.26 ERA in the second half (only 11 earned runs since the break), 3.03 overall. Forget the occasional home run — he is still the best setup man in the NL. I’d rank his chances of staying at 50-50.
But even if we keep all of them, that’s only 10.
The 2008 Mets will be a very different team.
Do not trade Milledge. The one guy that shows some emotion. The only person on the team that reminds me of ‘86.