But I think TRex23 is right on. Ultimately this year the blame should lie on Omar’s shoulders. He gambled on a bunch of old and injury prone players and so far he seems to be losing that bet. I am also not impressed by Reyes. He has a lot of talent, but he doesn’t have the focus to be a consistent player. I was actually for the Mets trading Reyes for Santana and I still stand behind that.

I was panicking last week–and feeling bad about Willie–but oddly feel better after yesterday’s ugly result. We did well enough to get all those scoring opportunities and most games you’re gonna get at least one clutch hit in those situations. (As a coach in Little League I tell my kids that the hall of famers fail 7 out of every 10 trips to the plate). It was a fun game in terms of all the opportunities but ultimately frustrating because of all the blown chances. Hopefully, they can build on the good things that happened, and on the frustration they must feel for letting one like this get away.

I think doing badly like this will help Ollie because he too often thinks he knows best and gets off the game plan (which was why WIllie yanked him early last week and complained about him afterward–OP had lost his stuff and couldn’t tough through it, as he did again yesterday). This had to be a humbling loss, one that will force him to listen better to his coaches and catcher (as when Schneider sets up outside but Ollie’s pitch floats inside to be crushed as a homer in the first inning). Ollie has tended to rebound from these types of outings and do well over his next starts, which, with Phillies coming up, is a good thing.

It’s what the Mets do with this loss that counts now. Maybe starting off sub-500 will be part of the wake-up call for this team. It’s the team that needs a reality check (they already have their huge pay checks!), not Willie. Maybe they’ll respond to attacks on Willie. There’s obviously no margins going to be given by the fans, who are on this team with boos at every bad turn. (Wow, even Santana gets booed, and it’s clear he was upset by this). They can listen to these boos crescendo over the next few weeks, and they can do one of two things: they can turn on the fans and hunker down with a bunker mentality, or they can figure out that the fans are simply waiting to reward the type of behavior and attitude they expect from this team. To wit, don’t they want fans to expect them to find ways to win? Still, it could be like last season when they barely broke .500 at home and did well on the road where they played looser without all the fan scrutiny.

Way too much of the panic button being pressed by the fans seems to be the problem right now. Are the Yankees looking to blame everyone right now? No, and they are a game under .500 as well.

Right now I have to be very happy with the performance of Church, Schnieder, and Pagan.. Delgado and Wright have played okay. I see some encouraging signs with Delgado, especially since he didn’t hardly play this spring..

Reyes, Castillo, and Beltran don’t look so hot right now though. Beltran and Castillo are proven players and I expect will put up decent numbers and have good years. Reyes has the skills to be something special, but he does need good AB’s and do whatever it takes to get on base. As for batting .400? Well that hasn’t been done in 67 years and I wouldn’t bank on him doing it either. Agree though that if he worked and thought like Gwinn he could be awesome.

Sanchez is coming. Moises is swing a bat and on his way back. Once the offense gets on track it should take some pressure off of the pen. If we get a few games and innnngs out of Pedro and El Duque then we are a better team. Let’s not lose hope week 2.

No Wille doesn’t look like a baseball genius but I just can’t blame him for everything right now. Once the Mets start clicking on all cylinders Willie will certainly look a lot smarter.

I do blame him for pitching Sosa for two innings, though. He never pulls Sosa off the mound and the guy is killing the Mets in close games this year, if you look at the numbers.

Two years ago going to game 6 out of the blue was a great thing. However, it raised expectations for last year and we all know what happened. As a fan since 1967, I can tell you I have never been so angry and so down on baseball as I was last fall. It was a disgrace, period. When Alou said. “I hate baseball right now,” I related 100 percent. So now we get Santana and the team plays well in spring and we start to get charged up and then …poof…. the season starts and the Mets fall right back to crappy, unispired baseball. (that doesn’t mean they aren’t trying but it is what it is). That’s why the fans are so hostile. How much hype followed by flop can they take (even in NYC) before “venting” their collective frustrations. A fast start was the cure all and that didn’t happen.

I overreact, like other fans, when Willie manages games terribly. And maybe he shouldn’t get fired, but it should be a discussion. You talk about managing your way out of a game, what about yesterday’s game? Castillo (our best bunter) is up at the plate with Mota on the ropes and two men on and none out. Why is he not bunting Pagan over? We have our two best RBI guys in Wright and Beltran coming up next and we have Castillo swinging away? What are the chances he’s even going to hit a fly ball to score Clark? You want to talk about terrible managing, that’s it right there.

My point is that no one on this team plays like these games really matter. Sure you see some flashes of anger from time to time, but the first time I heard anyone saying anything making me feel like these games are important was Figeroa saying how important it is to take 2 of 3 from the Phillies. And now a group of fans, like yourself, are starting to display the same sentiment where you act like we can just start winning whenever we feel like it. I understand its frustrating that fans seem not to appreciate their team, or that fans seem to be getting too angry too quick, or that we just don’t understand how long a baseball season really is.

I offer this explanation. A lot of us Mets fans who have been watching this team for many years, probably not unlike yourself, feel that this team’s attitude is going to waste the most talented team we’ve had in a very long time. And that is very frustrating for us.