The Mets starting lineup has six of eight players hitting over .300.
That’s impressive, but it means nothing to me if they are each getting their one hit in different innings. I mean, at some point, they are going to need to deliver a string of hits, in a row, to score a string of runs, in a row. Right now, the Mets are not a ‘cohesive unit,’ as Walt Frasier likes to say.
What’s worse, the Mets are hitting just .254 with runners in scoring position, while striking out roughly 20 percent of the time.
Prior to yesterday’s game, Jerry Manuel explained to reporters that his team must do a better job adjusting to pitchers late in the game.
“We’re not making adjustments to the adjustments that are being made against us,” Manuel said. “I think it’s good to a degree that it’s happened so we can recognize and identify it and say, ‘Why is this happening?’”
There is something to this, because the team is hitting the ball hard, the ball just keeps ending up in the glove of the opposition.
I know this is is a very Willie-esque excuse, but that doesn’t make it any less true. I mean, either Brendan Ryan is psychic, or the Mets are really unlucky, because the kid seems to be in the exact spot of every ground ball hit to the right side. The thing is, if this is the case, like Manuel said, he and his team must adjust.
Ordinarily, this would not be such a big issue, except that, at the same time, three of team’s five starting pitchers are working through mental or physical issues and are struggling in their performance on the mound.
In other words, if the Manuel’s hitters do not start working together, if they do not change their approach at the plate, and adjust to the adjustments, all while picking one another up, when coupled with the struggles of Maine, Pelfrey and Perez, a 6–8 start could quickly spiral in to a 10–20 start - and, while not the end of the world, in a division with three other contending teams, that would be bad.
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But at least D Wright did get the big key hit when we needed it nice double,way to turn on that pitch D.
a key hit would have been in the 4/5 inning when we had runners on…..
D got that hit when we were alreayd down by 4. Glad to see he smoked that one but he needed to do that much earlier in the game imo
that was sarcasm
ah….my bad fan. Hard to tell sarcasm on here these days lol
Dirty…I empathize. This team lacks heart and as a commenter pointed the lack, “Marbles”! Frustrating is the operative word!
He’s also drawn walks in key spots. Setting up even more possibilities. What’s the OBP with RISP?
I think the answer is simple. Manuel needs to employ the hitting strategy developed by C. Montgomery Burns:
Burns: You, Strawberry, hit a home run.
Strawberry: Okay, skip. (hits a home run)
Burns: Ha-ha! I told him to do that.
Smithers: Brilliant strategy sir.
but his late game management is questionable:
“You’re pinch hitting for me? I hit ten home runs!”
It’s called “playing the percentages.”
best. episode. ever.
well, one of them, anyway.
Season over.
Well, as long as you’re not rushing to judgment after 14 games, all is well.
There is a severe lack of beer drinking on this team.
or balls
True. Maybe if Dave and the rest of these nancy-boys would drink something that puts hair on your chest instead of waxing it off we could win a few games here.
Has everybody on this blog turned into complete morons??
no sir, but 3 straight seasons of torture will turn any die hard fan into a rabid animal.
watching these mets is like watching wrestling in the late 1990’s when stone cold was in his prime, but instead of giving stunners and drinking Beer, imagine stone cold just shook hands with his opponents and opened a can of V8 juice. its like yeah here come the mets! (stone colds music!)… yeah get em mets! – runners on 2nd and 3rd!(vince mcmahon in the ring!) ohhhhh – strike out (handshake/V8 juice). i just want to see that stunner and beer so bad
Has everybody on this blog turned into complete morons??
Morons? it is actually good to finally see some realistic fans on this site. I am sick of the “optimistic” fans that live in denial.
maybe if Carlos barrelled into the catcher – YADIER MOLINA OF ALL PEOPLE!!!!- the other night, it would set an example on how to, get this mets fans, WIN AT ALL COSTS!!! no wayyyyyyyy, what a concept!!
+100 or whatever the kids are calling it these days, you are dead on. Beltran needed to barrel over Molina and wake this team up or at least provide some entertainment to the Mets Fans. That was the ideal situation for a play like that, but instead he makes himself and the rest of the mets look lame.
Yadier is very fortunate, I mean talk about being vulnerable, Carlos could have ended his season right there…………………. where have you gone Pete Rose ?
matt please STOP feeding the paranoid fans…
I have been very critical of manuel for good reason. He just doesnt make sense sometimes and is rather hypocritical. Why he sits omir after going 2-3, why now he is going to bench our hottest hitters in castillo and murph, why he chooses to sit church who was on fire is beyond me. Im glad he FINALLY realized beltran is seeing/hitting the ball very well and is giving him more opportunities. David will come around but it looks like he will take some time. Hopefully david will use this as motivation to get back to the #3 hole. We dont have a consistant offense because our manager is too stubborn and hard headed to realize what works and what doesnt(remind you of someone). I feel manuel said the right things and did the right things as a bench manager to just get the job….now that he has it, all his “philosophies” are out the window. Manuel has lost alot of points in my eyes.
You are fighting a losing battle here today Dirty. Common sense has long since perished on this site.
i guess your right lol….i think ima take some time off of here….pull a real and just take the first half off and come back at the allstar break…
I hear that.
Please do so.
Well doesn’t the idea that the opposing manager is managing to set up his defense in the best way to defend point to Manuel being out-managed by the opponent?
ugh..its just im tired of our managers getting out managed. Granted its larussa and ya gotta step your game up….manuel has not proved he can do that yet.
i posted on your blog ceet…
..”STOP feeding the paranoid fans”..
thats a solid basehit with RISP
lol
There would be no issues if the Mets signed Manny and Hudson.
yes because the mets would have gone 15-0…please….
That was a joke post, sorry you didn’t catch it.
lol my bad ecto…hard to tell jokes and sarcasm on here these days…
mets should’ve signed manny – that’s a given. but i also think they should’ve hired a new manager and cleaned out the staff.
you can’t really fire the players. and making deals ain’t easy.
but if you see your team feeling the pressure, as they did last year, then the quickest route is to find a new voice in the dugout. removing all the coaches and inserting a new staff gives players a different perspective and might alleviate pressures. but it could work the other way also and make the team worse. but imho, it’s a change they should’ve made. i don’t think jerry is a good in game manager. watching how larussa had the infield playing perfectly 2 nights ago for sheffield and reyes at the end of that game tells me how much better a guy like larussa is and why he seems to always win with teams that don’t have major talent from top to bottom.
Let’s not forget that the Mets made Pinero look like Cy Young last night. They also made Suppan look like Seaver.
I agree the season is over I am counting the days till the NFL is back.
It’s 14 games into the season you twit.
I am a twit? 14 games into the season? Where have you been? The Mets have been playing this same kind of garbage baseball since the end of the 2007 season.
All of Jerry’s talk this spring about the how aggressive the Mets where going to be. Please tell me where is it? They are not doing any running on the bases, not forcing the issue at all. They have hit and run 3 times this year which all happened to back fire on them but they are not playing aggressive baseball.
So I am a twit because I see this team for what they are? To me they are the same team since 07 and nothing has changed. So you are right I am a twit because instead of spending my time sitting and watching them get a 4 nothing lead just to watch there starters walk the park give up the lead and the offensive shut down I rather be doing something else.
I am twit because I had enough of watching all the stupid bone head plays that this team makes. Yup I am a twit. Get back to me at the end of the season when the Mets are not in the playoffs and you spend 6 months and over 3 hours a day watching this team just sitting there getting annoyed and frustrated and we will see who the twit is then
….
I’m guessing you’re a fan of the team.
Sure, the team is playing worse than molten garbage right now, but if you’re a fan, you should stick with them until at least June.
The Mets aren’t the only team off to a bad start; the Indians, Phillies, Rays, Angels, etc. are all off to very bad starts. I don’t see their fanbase giving up.
Yes, the last two years have been completely miserable, and there isn’t much to suggest a super turnaround for this team.
But this is baseball, it’s unpredictable, and you never know what will happen…
Besides, making an assumption about anything this early on…well, you know
Phillies off to a slow start but they are world champs. They have proven that when the pressure is on they can get it done. The Mets have not proven that and for all there talk this spring they go through these games with this lackluster attitude. Almost with that attitude like oh well it’s early and there is always tomorrow.
I have defended this team and stuck by this team through the good and bad since I was a kid and I always will. But the good 80’s team played hard, the good and bad 90’s team played hard. This group to me just does not seem to leave it all out on the field. I don’t know, and for me to sit and watch them everyday instead of doing more productive things with my time, well I am not doing that anymore that’s all I am saying.
Then why not just quit and stop wasting time on here as well?
You are right. It is 14 games into the season and it is embarrasing that the highest payroll team in the NL is still playing like this.
There’s always next year.
I for one have been acuetly aware of and critical of my teams overall performance, that said, I think there are some substantive positives which have to be evaluated before we start breaking out the shovels and bury this season.
POSITIVE
1) For all my whinning, it really is still early
2) This team is going to hit w/ RISP you’ll see
3) Leave Murph in left he’s getting better (no he won’t win a gold glove) rest assured his bat is going to be lethal in that # 2 hole
4) We have yet to jell, and when we do it’s going to be a different team
5)The Marlins are beatable ( these clowns are not the 2nd coming of the big red machine )
6)Our team is underachieving right now, you can’t keep a good team down for long,
7) our pitching is going to come aroud one way or another (even if a big trade has to be done to aquire another bonafide starter)
8)Yes the expectations are huge subsequently the mediocrity is excruciating to say the least (I guess I don’t have a #8)
Memo: Mr. Cerone,
I only hope that you’re going to keep this format.
Bottom line, it’s a superior format, period.
Is this the same post from 2008?
Or 2007?
Of course……………………………. not.
Tully,
For all the frustrations and the compulsions to take a fork to the eyeballs, it really is early.
Can we afford to continue to play this way ?
The answer is obvious, we have a May schedule of 20 consecutive games without a day off and a total of 29 games with only 2 days off, needless to say if we don’t survive the May schedule we may indeed set the tone for the rest of the season.
Willie, is that you?
April 23, 2009….the day Met fans turned into Yankee fans.
Only the bandwagon guys. I have been a fan through it all, won’t stop now.
I’ve bled orange and blue since birth in 1982, BRO. Do not insult me as a bandwagon fan. Since when did looking at my favorite team objectively, and seeing it for what it is, make me bandwagon? True die hards can criticize and rip their team when it is necessary. Its cause we love them. Its like family. The players on the 86 mets ripped on EACH OTHER in this same way, but if anyone else tried, they wouldn’t let it happen. Same with die hard fans pal. Find me a mets fan and i’ll rip on their shortcomings with em, find me a yankees or phillies fan that does the same and i’ll show you a bandwagon, bud.
nah, i’m just tired of wanting this team to win so bad and knowing they are squaring up to kick me in the crotchal region. they are killing me smalls.
April 23, 2009….the day Met fans turned into Yankee fans.
Yawn
Pssssssss.
You are a moron. Is this the first time you have seen the Mets lose and people be pissed? This is what Mets fans are buddy – glad your dad bought you a Mets hat in 2006 or something, but some of us have history.
Whatever, keep complaing. This is hardly my first rodeo.
johan is SO right….the bitching and whining on here is beyond out of control.
Yeah, things are not looking great at this moment, but it is the 3rd week of April. Let’s give it a few more weeks before we whine and cry for Lowe and Manny and every other damn player we do not have.
Maybe Wright should hit 2nd?
Reyes, Wright, Beltran, Delgado, Sheff/Murphy, Church, Santos/Castro, Castillo?
maybe castillo should hit 2nd?
reyes-castillo-beltran-delgado-wright-church/sheff-murph-catcher
hm….thats interesting because
1) Murph would have protection with church behind him. I dont think Shef has warrented the respect to be considered protection behind delgado…but gado doesnt need it lol
2) the lineup after gado offers alot of different stuff to opposing pitchers…hard to pitch against that.
I want castillo out of the cellar but this lineup is interesting……
why not? sounds good to me.
Jerry can switch our lineup all he wants. It is not gonna chance the fact that the pitchers are throwing lollipops out there. I’m tired of Maine.
matt, i think you said it best when you wrote, “John Maine, Oliver Perez and Mike Pelfrey have a combined 7.83 ERA in eight starts.”
the hits will come, this offense is good enough. i’m worried about the batting practice being thrown by our 3-4-5 and the nightly outfield circus.
Swap the 5 with a 2, and you are spot on.
Hey dykstraw, you read that ESPN article on Lenny? A little taste:
“One thing Dykstra particularly hates paying for is jet fuel.”
This just in from Rubin and Cerrone:
Mets cancel the season. All the whinners are right and they have now decided just to quit playing because they all stink. All of the whinners please stop showing up to the games, logging on to anything Mets related period for the season is now over. Move on with your lives.
This message is brought to you by the sane rational posters on this site who are still Mets fans and still have hope for this season. These people are tired of you ruining our favorite pass time because for some reason you think the Mets owe you ANYTHING. Thank you.
Thank You TRS, that was much needed. I can’t believe the level of negativity on this site a whole 14 games into the season.
Haha…the gloom and doom and nonsense on here after 14 games is too much for words really.
Thanks for this post TRS, and I also agree Wright hitting 2nd would be interesting…why bat him 5th, where he loses at bats, and if Church/Shef/Murph/whoever behind him isn’t hitting, he will walk or K every at bat….
Agree completely. Doesn’t it make sense to give your best hitters the most at-bats? Why is Alex Cora hitting second today?
This just in from Rubin and Cerrone:
Yadda Yadda Yadda
Z Z Z Z Z Z
Thank you
Dwright, can you go change your name again or at least stay asleep? How long before you say something stupid again and get banned?
Two screen names, five or six bannings, and you STILL could not think of something to say if your damn life depended on it.
You really couldn’t.
I know you are thrilled the team is doing poorly, so you can come on here and whine and moan and annoy fans with something other than pockets of luke-warm air between their ears.
Two screen names, five or six bannings, and you STILL could not think of something to say if your damn life depended on it.
And you still sound like a broken record.
and you do not…..?
TRS, couldn’t agree more.
Why does everyone want to run and invent things about “out of sync” and “adjustments” and “cohesive units”, when the most likely explanation is bad luck (+ poor pitching, of course).
This is the kind of crap we were used to from Willie, and contrary to what Matt writes, that *is* a reason to discard it as nonsense.
Metsocrat
Hahaha, well said.
TRS86-
I have to say you are consistent. Every year, here you are, calling us Chicken Little Fans one year, Morons the next. You site high up on your all knowing perch, soothing the masses, telling us its early. Well if we saw the sky falling in 07 and it did indeed fall, and morons in 08 and indeed we were not, please tell me… what in your track record makes you a better and more informed fan? Because you watch this team with as much passion as Beltran diving into home plate for a go ahead run in the 8th? Does that make you a “better” fan? Get off your high horse, you have been wrong for 2 seasons and counting, while us morons see our favorite team for what it is.
Please, I’d love to know pal
Because for 1 I acutally AM smarter than you. LOL. Ok now seriously, I have never called you a moron that I remember of. Also, you can go back and look at any of my post. I never said “Don’t worry it’s early and we will make the playoffs”
My comments are
1) It is early so there is still plenty of time to get going. I think we have talent and should play well. My hope is those things happen.
2) If you think that it is impossible for us to get going, then why are you waisting your time?
cause, its not 15 games into the season. its 339 games of a continuing malaise. (07 + 08 + 09). its not that we are losing games, or are 2 under .500 that bothers me. Its just that it is THE SAME EXACT crap that i’ve watched 2 years in a row, and i was actually hopeful i’d see a new attitude this year. Its just very frustrating to not see that.
TRS, you may not have called me a moron directly, and if not others like me, your tone is that is what you think. no hard feelings, you will prob live a few years longer than myself b/c of ur approach to watching baseball. its all good.
so if you are one of the ones that predict we are going nowhere…whats the point in continuing to watch the games…or post on a mets blog. What is your purpose here…to deter the rest of us from rooting for the team to succeed. The ones that realize its a new year and things will work out differntly. You claim you love your team yet you already prejudge them to fail(15 agmes in mind you) and use the last two years as justification…on top of that critisize and mock the fans that actually want the team to succed…Do us all a favor and if you believe this team is going nowhere dont bother posting or watching the game…let us “dilusional/loptimistic” fans continue to root for our team to win.
People act like the team has been awful the past 2 years. They literally finished as close to the playoffs as a team can without making it. That doesn’t make it seem like there would be much need for the drastic improvements all of the mini-GMs/managers are calling for.
Maybe cause it will continue to be SO Close with this team. Always almost. While close to the playoffs is good for some, and IN the playoffs is even better, I look at it differently.
This Mets core is the best talent-wise group to build on since the mid 1980’s, and it is being wasted. You have to understand, we are not often blessed with such talent, and to get nothing out of it just plain sucks
Slappy, not comparing us to the Phiiies, but look at there finishes the last 5-6 years before they actually made the playoffs in ‘07 and ultimately won it in ‘08. They were always the bride’s maid.
‘06 miseed WC by 3 games (up .5 w/ 7 to play)
‘05 missed DIV by 2 games WC by 1
‘04 missed WC by 5 games (.5 back w/ 6 to play)
Sometimes a team has to be really close and fail a few times before they actually get over the hump.
That should have been ‘03, not ‘04 on the last one. In ‘04 they missed the WC by 6 and were never really close.
Not worried about this team. The fact that the hitters are individually doing well means it’s just a matter of time before the hits start coming in bunches.
The idea of a “cohesive unit” in a lineup is ridiculous, this isn’t basketball. It’s a string if individual plate appearances. If you’ve got a lineup where 4-5 guys are hitting .300, the runs will come.
good thing the mets didnt need manny’s production and winning/clutch attitude
Ah, excellent and sparkling new comment!
Vibrant with originality, cutting edge in all ways, congrats!
Maybe Omar is trying to work a trade right now, as no one else would have ever thought of this…..
We should have signed Eckstein. According to Ron Darling, all he does is makie “winning plays”. That sounds like a guy you want.
Man, it was really annoying hearing that for 5 at-bats during the home-opener. It was even worse that Ecken-scrappy-clutchman had 2 doubles, a single and 2 RBI’s.
2 plays that sum it all up…..Castro’s hard hit down the third base line takes an odd bounce and goes directly to the left fielder to hold him to a single and Beltran at third. Next inning, Cards hit triple off the wall and Church has it set up to play off the wall but it hits the concrete below the pads and its an easy rbi triple.
don’t forget the liner DW smoked right into the 2B’s glove for the IEDP.
Matt- since you admit the Mets have been unlucky (unless you were making an actual claim that Brendan Ryan is possibly psychic), why the need for offensive adjustments? How can you adjust for luck?
Your advice to work together, change their approach to the plate, and adjust to the adjustments (???), all while picking each other up (what does that even mean?) sounds like a bunch of nonsense to me.
Am I missing your sarcasm here or something?
no hits with RISP + 4 out of 5 pitchers can’t pictch 5 innings = 75 wins. they need to turn things around now.
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