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In the Bergen Record, Steve Popper takes time to assess what has gone wrong for the 14–12 Mets, so far this season.
According to Popper, five factors can be blamed for the team playing over .500 baseball: 1) age, 2) the bullpen, 3) poor defense, 4) quiet bats and 5) a manager on the hot seat.
…he’s right on all accounts, but i shudder to think what this article would like if the team was 12–14, not 14–12 and essentially tied for first in a fight-to-the-finish division…
…to me, age and injuries are part of the game…the bullpen has been bad, but the starting pitchers are not helping the cause…the other three, in my opinion, are the result of what i feel is most troublesome, which is a) a lack of focus and confidence, and b) a lack of team unity, or team direction, i.e., playing with a common goal, mission, mindset, etc…and that does fall squarely on the manager, which is probably why he is on the hot seat…
I agree on all accounts. There is not much more to say than whats all ready been said.
I don’t know if I can fully agree with the bullpen problem. That needs to be qualified. If you take Heilman and Sosa out of the equation, I think the bullpen has been pretty solid so far this year, even Show, who I HATED last year. Granted, that may not keep up all year, especially if our starters are averaging about 5 innings, but at least thus far, I’ve been pleased with the pen (minus Heilman and Sosa).
The bullpen, in my opinion, will be a problem all year. I say that because the starters are not doing them any favors. Almost every game I watch, the starter is up to 100 pitches by the 5th. The bullpen can’t come into every game and have to pitch 3 to 4 innings. Sosa and Heilman are not looking good, but again, how many games have they appeared in? With Sanchez back, if the mets can get to the 8th inning with a lead, the game is pretty much over. So I have confidence going into the 8th with a lead.
Imagine what it’s going to be like when Pedro comes back and gives up 2 runs on 6 hits, on 98 pitches through 5-1/3…
I don’t by the age argument. 57% of what should have been our opening day roster is below 30. Its just that some of our guys that are over are way over 30, and have gotten hurt.
OF – 1 of 3 (Alou)
IF – 2 of 4 (Castillo/Delgado)
C – 1 of 2 (Schneider)
SP – 2 of 5 (Martinez/Hernandez)
RP – 4 of 5 (Show/Wags/Sosa/Feliciano)
Bench – 2 of 4 (Anderson/Easley)
Plan and simple, we need more fire. And that comes from the top down. The sense of entitlement needs to go away fast. Maybe after Wagner’s comments and a long plane ride to address them, this team can get it going against good competition this weekend. Do that to start off May, and April (and maybe last Sept) can become a distant memory.
Is Carlos Gomez still fast?
Yes, he is.
Beltran is over 30 as well.
And so is Ramon Castro.
And so is Endy Chavez, did you check the ages before you posted?
Granted we have a lot of problems but lets look on the bright side of things.
We have a home record of 9-5. That’s much better than last season.
We are still near the top of the division and leading in the LB. All while the other “threats” in the division have played much weaker schedules than we have. We have played the 7th toughest schedule in the NL while the Phillies, Marlins and Braves have played the 14, 15, 16th in that order.
I realize that we are not playing our best baseball and even may need to make a change but it is not time to panic. Get through this season and make the playoffs and replace some dead weight next season.
i agree. If you look around the league theres not many teams doing way better than we are. In our division there is not team doing way better than we are. As someone posted a few days ago we are treading water. Hopefully when we field the team we are supposed to field then i think we should pass judgement. Remember alot of our team is injured. Duque was good for us last year(before injury), Pedro was good for us in 05/06(before injury), Castro was big for us….
Lets just hope one day we will field the team we were supposed to field and then we can see how we stack up
Scoring only 119 runs this season is a major issue, I don’t care who you play.
I don’t want to hear about injuries. Phillies have 134 without Jimmie ROllins. Cubs have 174 without Soriano. Dodgers have 142 with there version of Delgado (A Jones) cloggint their lineup. Hell…even the Cardinals have 135 with guys named Shumacker, Ludwick, Kennedy, and a pitcher playing outfield.
ONLY 119 RUNS!!!! You have got to be kidding me.
Phillies play in a joke of a park. Soriano is horribly overrated because of one great season in Washington. Pretty sure they still have Lee, A-Ram, DeRosa, Soto, etc. Do you even know who’s on the Dodgers, or the Cardinals?
The utter lack of baseball knowledge on this blog is astounding.
i’m obviously dealing with someone who has yet to file his first federal income tax statement.
so I will pass…
And we still have Wright, Beltran, Reyes, Delgado(lol I know), and Church. The point is injuries don’t excuse our lack of offense.
And the phillies have outscored us on the road too.
These guys just aren’t having fun. We need Pedro
You have fun when you win. Just like you look like you have fire and passion when you win. When you lose you look sad, lifeless and have no urgency. Have you not figured that out by reading this site?
i disagree. They usually look lifeless with no urgency when they are up 2 runs in the 5th as well.
How do you play baseball with a sense of urgency?! Run really fast to your position every inning…?
and yet another example of maturity.
That’s funny, they won five straight and they still weren’t having fun.
Maybe they have to win 10 in a row?
There’s more to it than that. Let’s just hope it changes soon.
We need Pedro and/or Reyes being Reyes and just having fun. I would love for them to be pounding on teams like Arizona and building a big lead while the rest of the division struggles but on the other hand everyone outside of Arizona is playing about .500. The defending WS champs have about the same recordas the Mets. Everyone is struggling. Everyonewants parity and for more teams to have a chance we get that and no everyone is complaining. The Mets will be fine just need to let the season progress. We are above .500 and like half game out of first with like 2 or 3 guys hitting above 280.
The article was right on! I am glad to hear that someone in the mets higher echelon says the clock is ticking. Willie absolutely must go but the more I think about the problems on this team – aging veterans, chronic injuries, players with no heart – omar must pay also. He has to go. Let’s get a new GM to infuse some life into the farm system and get rid of the overpriced, washed up vets who don’t want to be here.
Reyes has fun everytime he does well and hangs his head when he does not. He is still a kid in that sense. I don’t know if that goes back on the manager or not. But it would look really strange to see Reyes having fun while he is going 0-4 and we are loosing.
No one respects the Mets. They are perceived as overpaid and unmotivated. They are labeled as gutless wimps who shy away from tough competition.
I hope Willie is making all of this clear to Met players, posting newspaper clippings and reminding them of every diss!
Willie trusts his guys…he doesn’t need to give them extra motivation. These are grown men, and he treats them like men….—–yawn….—-its early guys. Every season has its ups and downs. We are just in a little rough patch…—-yawn— You guys can panic now, but it will just make the champagne taste that much sweeter in September….
great post….but you forgot to use the word “man” 1000 times..and most importantly the ever popular “we need to get into a little rythmn”….willie is a fool….and should learn to walk the walk and not talk the talk
I love that line about the champagne being that much sweeter. I still laugh till this day.
The mets bullpen has to have the starters go into the 6th or 7th inning on a consistent basis to be successful otherwise they will be worn out by the all star break. All bulpens have 1 or 2 pitchers that get roughed up but the extra strain of having to pitch 4 innings is tremendous. 14-12 is a pretty good record so far considering the starting pitchers lack of consistency. I am a Twin’s fan but I like to follow the Met’s as well but if you look at the stats when a pitcher can give you seven innings you have a high probability of a win. With the Twin’s if they have a lead and the starting pitcher throw 7 they get Neshek in there in the eigth and Nathan closes it out in the ninth (9 saves in 9 oppotunities) which makes the game seem pretty simple. I can see the Met’s making the playoffs this year, all you need is consistency in your SP and the rest will fall into place.
Funny. I’m a mets fan who likes to follow the twins. Actually I semi-follow most Minnesota teams.
The problem here is a loss in confidence in the manager. They just don’t seem to be playing hard for him. In ‘06, everyone picked each other up, in ‘07 and so far in ‘08 the attitude seems to be like, “oh, well, we’ll get them tomorrow…its a long season”. Where was that team that gave you confidence that even down 3 runs they were still in it? This team only has one big inning a night and hopes that is enough to hold off the team, hence it seems like the bullpen blows it when they do lose.
I said it yesterday…Willie trusts his guys, but do they trust him? After the Collapse, I think its a resounding no.
Well by now the guys who have been around know that Willie is not going to have their backs. Maybe that’s why some of our newcomers are producing. They haven’t settled into the Willie-Ball philosophy yet.
Paul Lo Duca said it best when he was asked why he was getting into trouble arguing with umpires. He said, “If I don’t do it around here, who will?”
Oh yeah, I forgot, Lo Duca sucked last year.
Funny, he sure as hell didn’t when he got here.
Same as a lot of others.
If the Mets had won 4 more games, it would not likely be a fight to the finsih division race though…
You have to go out there and look to decimate your opposition… Arizona is putting their division in their pocket early…
12-14 isn’t all that different from 14-12. and we’re no longer tied for first.
Based on LB we are in the lead.
This “tied for first” nonsense has got to stop.
The standings mean absolutely nothing right now, we were in first all thru the summer last year and how did that turn out?
No, what matters is the energy, resiliency and effectiveness of the team. Right now the Mets lack on all three counts.
Willie is very much to blame, the players (Reyes, Beltran, Delgado especially) are very much to blame. If a change is not made, we’ll be sitting at a few games over .500, hovering around the division lead until wilting in the end.
It doesn’t matter that other teams are playing poorly, notably the Phillies and Yankees, they have proven able to turn it on and win in the recent past.
The Mets have not. The have everything to prove, and have utterly disappointed.
While I agree that we should be playing better, the play of the other teams does matter. We can still make the playoffs and will be in the hunt in a tight division all season. I know I want more than that but it’s better than the alternative, I think.
Maybe 2006 was an abberation. Maybe several guys overachieved that year. Maybe last September the record just evened out to where it should be with this team. Maybe those guys who dismissed Perez’s and Maine’s 15 wins, saying they were suspect, earlier this year, knew what they were talking about. Because it sure looks so far that they are suspect. Maybe they’re just not as good as people in here had thought they were. But there are always possibilities.
The bottom line is that our being in first or second place or the 14-12 record isn’t indicative of the level of play.
The level of play, focus should have this team with much greater losses. It’s just been fortunatethat we have been served wins on a platter.
Separate our standings and recordthough with what yoou see the team doing then you will have a better sense of the concern.
I’n tired of those fallacious comments about our standings and record…use common sense.
Actually based on our expected wins we are 13-13 that’s pretty close. Unlike the Braves who should be something like 17-12.
There is, other than Pedro and Jose, no personality with this team. The Mets are bland and play that way!
“Willie’s Kids” need to grow up and mature as a team, not pout and sulk!
It’s funny how the NY sports media is divided over the Mets.
The print media tells you Willie is on the hot seat, and for the most part on WFAN the hosts laugh at the mere notion that anything could be wrong.
Of course, that’s the Mets flagship station, and Willie has a paid spot on Mike and the Mad Dog, but it couldn’t have anything to do with that, right?
It got to the point where I just had to stop listening to WFAN. I’m all for different points of view; if I wasn’t I wouldn’t be addicted to this blog after a very short time. But I feel like the hosts on WFAN are just plain lying to their listeners. The papers say a high ranking Mets official confirms that Willie is on the hot seat, and Mike and Chris say he’s not? Once a Mets official confirms it, that’s called lying. Argue on behalf of Randolph and the current state of the Mets all you want, and I will listen with an open mind, but just don’t lie to people when this is a city where good news travels fast and bad news travels much faster.
As sad as it is, I rather listen to Michael Kay on the way home. At least he tries to be objective…he often fails at that, but its better than M&MD.
The manager is responsible for the direction of the team. Its an easier task when the team is motivated, hungry, and takes care of business.
The Mets have talent and one of the highest payrolls in MLB. Why are they surprised when other teams tee off on them? Strike back! Better than that, play hard and strike first by getting teh job done. Last year, Shea was not your home field bt everyone else came in and made a statement. You can’t win by playing .500 ball at home!
It was said about New York, “This is a city where good news travels fast and bad news travels much faster.”
Are you reading and hearing that Carlos Beltran? You’re a good player, especially with a small market team. You probably would have done well with one. Here in New York, with a $119 million, seven year contract, you are overwhelmed and it shows.
New York has come at you like Wainwright’s curve ball, yu’re frozen like a deer in headlights.
Just about everyone in the media who has jumped on the Mets early are the same who picked them 3rd in the division as an 85 win team. Thier current pace would put them at 87 wins. So where’s the story and big disappointment ????? What has gone wrong ???
Now for the loyal fan who hoped for a 95 win team, it doesn’t look right now to be that kind of team, but I’d stil wait until the warm weather and about the 50 game mark before jumping to too many conclussions.
Tim Marchman has an extrememly on the money column in today’s NY Sun…
I would say check it out…
Can we please get some semblance of a Willie poll? Its been a month. That’s a fair assessment, no? Avoiding it altogether now just seems more like we are tryng to cover something up.
Come on it’s Matt’s blog. He can put one up whenever he wants. You want a poll so badly go come up with your own. And don’t say I am a Wille supporter because I want him gone too but to keep saying htat Matt does not have one because he is affraid or is being told not to or is still a supporter is just plain disrespectful.
No…I love the site. I think he does a great job. I don’t even buy the conspiracy theory that SNY had something to do with it. But we’ve had Reyes polls, Delgado polls, Booing polls…why skirt the issue? Willie is as much a problem as Reyes/Delgado/booing/the 2 hole, etc. So the numbers aren’t favorable…its reality. I understand the idea one after every series is too often to be “real”. But its been a month. A monthly/bi-monthly one would be good. I had even suggested one with multiple options like:
A. Willie is a good manager
B. Willie needs to be better in-game, but his clubhouse managing is good
C. Omar deserves more blame than Willie
D. Time for a replacement (or Fire Willie.)
While I agree that your poll sounds reasonable, to get on Mattt for not doing something on his site again just seems disrespectful.
ok. I’ll Play.
D
Well, I meant no disrespect.
I, too, choose:
D
D
D
NY Cuban
Why bother with the Willie poll? You cant get a sense of what it would show on here? Anyone reading these threads can figure out what the feelings are towards Willie. So I dont understand the insistance of a Willie poll. Matt already knows what it would say. Heck, you already have 4 D’s from your own poll. So give him a break if he doesnt want to put up a poll on something thats already shown an obvious answer.
A.
Just because i’m the type of guy that likes to skew the results….
I hate to sound negative…but I can finally read the writing on the wall……they have to fire Willie. This team is without a leader and they are desparately in need of one. When a situation such as this arises…the manager has to step up, and Willie certainly hasn’t. This team is still in the same funk as last year. The wheels started falling off about 2/3s into the season last year and nothing has changed. They’re not hitting and the pitching top to bottom is shaky…but I think it all starts with Willie and his complacency. This team needs a shake-up….and I would start with showing Willie the door. I like the guy….but right now, I think he’s the wrong guy for the task at hand. They need a leader….BAD.
The problem is….a decision won’t be made anytime soon b/c we all know Willie and his boys are going to tread water.
I’ll go out on a limb. Mets are going to come back from ARZ and LA with a 3-3 roadtrip. Enough to keep us fans somewhat on the fence, some a little frustrated, others will gain confidence in Willie. Overall…in check. Then 7 home games against CIN and WASH. OK…Mets take 4 of those 7. Then we have a 3 game Yankee series where anything goes (lets say Mets lose 2 of those games). Then 7 games in ATL and another 3 in COL. Mets go 3-4.
At first glance, this look horrible. Right? Guess what?….that’s .500 baseball. Sporadic, inconsistent, frustrating, yet not truely HORRIBLE.
Some of these May games will be exciting late inning dramatic wins, a few will be blowouts either way, throw in a few 2-1 Johan gems, and mix in a few Heilman/Sosa bullpen blow-up loses. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Willie ball. A guarantee that you won’t see anything more than a 5 game winning streak all season.
So until this organization gets fed up with treading water and .500 ‘Willie Ball”…no decision will be made. Frankly, if something is going ot happen this month, the Mets need to be out-right embarrassed. Sorta like the Cubs series, yet spread out over 7 consecutive games.
Who do you suggest take over?
Rudy from Texas
Gary Carter
Where is Wally Backman??? They need someone fiery….I love the idea of Carter managing the Mets….but I don’t think this is the team for him to take the reigns of. They need a Valentine-esque guy…..
bench clearing brawls solve everything
Not everything. But they certainly are indicative of a team’s character. That’s why I would love to see this team get pissed off and brawl.
But it’s just not part of the game anymore.
I think age is somewhat of a factor. Someone made a good point on ESPN saying this is turning into a young man’s game. The Arizona Diamondback are a prime example of that right now. Look at some of the guys who are injured or have had injuries (Moises Alou, Pedo, Ramon Castro).
Yes, injuries can happen at any age, but an older body will break down, no matter what kind of shape you’re in. I think everyone can agree that resigning Alou was one of the worst moves in the offseason for the Mets. The guy can’t stay healthy. Let’s say he comes back and hits .300 for the next couple of months, but breaks down again. It’s probably a good bet he won’t be back during the regular season. And who is to say Pedro will last when he returns. Age can be a factor.
Maybe it’s more that the young guys and replacements for the old have not stepped up enough. If those old guys are not playing then they don’t even count on our age. Arizona has some really good young players but they did not go out and get them through FA. If we had those type of guys in the minors perhaps we would not need a bunch of old farts.
Well, that is part of the problem too, not enough home-grown talent. The best talent has been used in trades and that is going to happen with a major market team. Just think about the fact the Mets could have had an outfield of Beltran, Carlos Gomez and Jason Bay. Bay was a guy the Mets gave up on too quickly. I talked once to a former Mets minor league hitting coach about Bay and he said the Mets made a mistake getting rid of him. And in case you’re wondering, he was traded to the San Diego Padres for Steve Reed in 2002. Steve freakin’ Reed.