Comments on: About Yesterday: Wright calls team “mediocre”

By: tomg

tomg — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:49:26 +0000

Josh,
ok, than lets spin this a different way. Two years ago when the mets won the division and was one game to the world series the national league was not that good. Allot of teams were rebuilding. This year allot of teams have improved in the national league but the mets have not improved. The fact is the mets aren’t as good as they were two years ago. The national league east is much better than it was two years ago.

By: dave

dave — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:47:07 +0000

David is right, they are mediocre. The best player so far has been Church. Their stars are underperforming – Reyes,Wright, Delgado, Beltran. That is half the team. As in years past when Reyes does his thing everyone else can do theirs easier. Not sure what is wrong with him but his lack of production and the ‘strong’ half of his teamates doing the same means the offense aint good.

Has anyone noticed that the two best offensive players on this team are Mr. Boots and Mr. Socks?

dave

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:12:44 +0000

What is “heart”, “guts”, “smarts”??? Those terms are just so freely tossed around, yet there’s never an explanation as for what they are…

Many Mets fans make it seem like they don’t try to come back and win games, which is a notion I severely disagree with…

Also, just because the players don’t throw their bats after an at bat doesn’t mean they lack “passion”...

I also fail to see how the Braves and Phillies have more “guts” than the Mets… What I see is that they both have better offenses than the Mets, which therefore allows them to win more…

“Guts” doesn’t win ballgames, talent and execution do..

BTW, would you rather have a team of “gritty” David Ecksteins or “heartless” Adam Dunns?

By: Steve (The Original)

Steve (The Original) — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:10:38 +0000

Taylor: Reyes and Beltran are not doing “fine” The Mets aren’t paying Beltran to have 3 home runs and draw walks almost 2 months into the season. THey aren’t paying Reyes to still be in last year’s funk either. Plus D.Wright has been extremely inconsistent.

By: tomg

tomg — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:38:28 +0000

“”Smarts”, “grit”, “heart”, “fire”.... don’t exist, at least when it comes to baseballâ€¦”

Totally disagree with this statement, the 86 mets had all that and than some and would fight to the end and would finally become the 1986 world champions. I see some of it in the phillies and the braves but the met players show no heart, guts, passion or smarts to be a winning team going to the playoffs. I do agree though firing randolph is not going to change the results of this team. This met team (players) aren’t the type of players with “heart, grit, passion, smarts” so changing a manager will not make a difference. I blame this more on Omar Minya than Willie Randolph.

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:00:33 +0000

“Smarts”, “grit”, “heart”, “fire”.... don’t exist, at least when it comes to baseball… Just a bunch of illogical excuses for why a team isn’t playing well…

They have to start playing better, period. A fiery rant won’t make them win, and neither will a loudmouth calling out teammates… If the Mets execute better, they’ll win more, it’s that simple…

BTW, Can someone give me one good reason why this team will start winning if Willie Randolph is fired? I don’t like the guy myself, but is he honestly the reason we’re not playing well?? I seriously doubt it…

By: Taylor

Taylor — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:39:15 +0000

Reyes, Beltran, and Wright are doing fine. Beltran hasn’t hit many HRs but he has drawn tons of walks and hit lots of doubles to compensate. Reyes is doing fine. He’s not a .300 hitter. He’ll hit .280 but look at his power numbers. They’re great. He has a lot of pop. Nope the only one who is killing them is Delgado.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:33:10 +0000

Carlos Delgado is a very very very big part of this disappointing performance. He has been absolutely terrible. We are giving up ridiculous amounts of offense at the first base position. What we should do is sign one Barry Lamar Bonds and stick him at first base. Or put him in LF and move Alou or Church to first base.

By: Tweeter Gammons

Tweeter Gammons — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:06:25 +0000

Willie Randolph has got to go. He doesn’t have the fire in his belly to go out and argue for his players when a 3 run HR is taken away. That being the case, how can you expect the players to play with any fire when their own Mgr doesn’t have any. Time to turn the page on the Randolph era.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:04:13 +0000

That’s the big question. Whenever anyone talks about the Mets the implication is that they are better than they’ve been playing for the last 150 games.

In support of that are the projection systems. Remember projection systems have no bias. They just take the career performance, the performance from the last 3 yrs, and the normal career trajectories of similar players at similar ages to project their performance for this year. The 2 projection systems that I’m familiar with both predicted the Mets to win over 90 games. PECOTA had 92. I don’t remember the number for ZIPS but it was over 90. These are computer programs that just take past performance, age, and similar players into account. There is no bias.

If you think these projection systems have any merit you have to say that the Mets are underperforming.

By: JM

JM — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:36:52 +0000

It amazes me how many people, be they connected with the Mets or not, believe the Mets are a better team than what they’ve shown the last 150 games. Ken Davidoff, a writer for Newsday, predicted after the Yankees series that the Mets would be in the playoffs. Mark Melusis, who appears on SNY and WFAN – and who I believe is a Yankees fan – said last night that the Mets will play better because they have too much talent not to.

I disagree. The division is lousy, to be sure. The Mets will probably keep it a close race. When it gets down to the nitty gritty though, whatever advantage in talent they have will be overcome by the Braves or Phils knack for hustle, smarts, and emotional energy.

This outcome is subject to change – if the team changes. I don’t know if Willie needs to go, or Pedro needs to return, or Jose Reyes has to be hit by a Port Authority Bus to jolt him to his senses, but something has to give. As constituted, your 2008 NY Mets look every bit as much as their 2007 underachieving failures. I have seen much worse Mets teams, yet it’s never been so hard to watch them as these last 2 seasons.

By: RMKMets

RMKMets — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:20:03 +0000

It’s not mediocre that’s the term…he’s wrong. They SUCK. I totally disagree in that I think the talent is NOT there.

Delgado is obviously washed up.

Beltran unfortunately is probably not 100%, and unfortunately he has to be 100% to be effective at all (I won’t even get into how I feel about that).

Reyes is still lost, and I wonder if he’ll ever get back to what he once was. Maybe this is what he is, and the real fact of the matter is that pitchers around baseball have figured him out and he just can’t adjust.

The bullpen, outside of Wagner, is unreliable.

The team just has no heart. When these guys fell behind 2-1 yesterday, I just KNEW the game was over. It’s been their MO all year…they blow a big chance to break a game open and as a result they go into the tank and pack it in.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:25:37 +0000

Mediocre has such a negative connotation. It makes it sound like the level of play in the league or division is lower than what it used to be. I don’t think that’s the case. I think the level of play has gradually risen over the years. It just so happens that the teams are pretty even. There is no dominant team right now. It makes for good tight pennant races.