On Tap Today: Pulling out of a nosedive.
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- June
- 10
The losing streak is at four and Arizona is in town. They’ve cooled, but are still better than the Mets. Of course, these days, most teams are. John Maine goes for your heroes tonight. He’s 6-4, not exactly the stuff of Cy Young winners.
Still, the confidence level for him is higher than anybody else on the staff, save Johan Santana.
Tonight we could get Moises Alou back or Marlon Anderson, or both. Somebody is coming because Ryan Church is on the DL.
I anticipate tonight an awful lot of booing. Willie Randolph, no doubt, will be roasted.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, the issue isn’t whether this group will play for him. It’s not whether they’ll play for anybody. It’s whether they’ll play for themselves.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 2:47 pm by John Delcos.
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I don’t think it is an issue of playing. They just are at best an 85-86 win team even when all their talent is healthy and on the field.
Five of their starting eight are meager offensively. Of the other three, two are pressing hard.
2008 I am afraid is not worth saving.
Is it really necessary to describe a man with a 3.50 ERA as having “not exactly the stuff of a Cy Young winneer?” He’s been one of the more consistent pitchers in the NL this year, and you come up with a negative comment for him? Completely pointless….
I tend to agree with Patrick. They need to get a better core/supporting cast to go along with the existing core group. Which on offense, is Beltran, Reyes and Wright (and Church, if he comes back as he was!)
The rest are either gone by year ends, or are at best secondary/supporting cast (Castillo, Schneider) and not guys that can or will do the heavy lifting.
Maybe, who knows, ALou stays on the field, Delgado continues to show some signs of life, they start getting decent production out of RF, and the team can make a run at the WC. A lot of Ifs, but it isn’t a great group of teams ahead of them.
But, that is probably a long shot, and I really don’t think Omar (or any GM!) should start trading any more of the meager prospect collection for a band aid (think Conine). Someone like Kendry Morales, that can fill a hole in the future? SUre, but no more old guys for this year!
It isn’t the worst thing in the world to admit the team just doesn’t have it this year, and start planning to be better in 2009. Much better than panicing and making some knee-jerk moves just to show you are trying.
In context of last year, it would be playing Gotay and bringing up a bat from the minors instead of trading for Castillo and Conine!
Who can predict the future? Who knows if the Mets will “play” for another manager? I do know they arent playing for this one, we need a change, a shakeup is needed.
Many share in the blame for this lousy team. But look at the Cardinals record 38-27. They are playing with no real stars, save Pujols, Glaus, and Izzy. The rest are “fillers” yet LaRussa has got this team playing good baseball. The Pirates have the same record as the Mets. This leads me to believe that Willie must go and must go now. I am fully convinced that new blood would invigorate this team. Lastly, Beltran needs to move off of batting cleanup. Lineup against righties should be Reyes, Beltran, Wright, Delgado, Alou, RF, Schneider, Castillo. Against lefties it should be Reyes, Beltran, Wright, Alou, Delgado, RF, Castro, Castillo….enough said already!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If aforementioned doesn’t work, sell Wagner, Castillo, and Beltran in that order….this teams needs youth.
Danny: Read the post. I was talking about his record. And, come to think of it, 3.50 isn’t Cy stuff. At 6-4 he’s a shade better than .500. And, he’ll be the first to say so. As far as something positive to say about this team, may I point to their record? Nuf said.-JD
I agree with you about Beltran being moved out of the 4 hole, he’s not a cleanup hitter, he should be in the 3 spot, but the way he’s hitting now is a direct result of the lack of a power bat in the lineup to protect him and Wright.
JOHN: Here’s a reason why I don’t think they’ll fire Willie Randolph. If they turn it around all of a sudden they’ll figure it was Willie all the time and not Omar’s team and misjudge how good they really are. Hey, even if they turn it around under Willie they might have that false sense of security.-JD
It’s not the 6 and 4 that upsets me about Maine. It’s the fact that the guy can not even semi pitch 7 innings with any regularity. 2 of 12 starts doesn’t cut it.
“Danny: Read the post. I was talking about his record. And, come to think of it, 3.50 isn’t Cy stuff. At 6-4 he’s a shade better than .500. And, he’ll be the first to say so. As far as something positive to say about this team, may I point to their record? Nuf said.-JD”
John,
I wasn’t claiming that Maine was on his way to a Cy Young. I was simply pointing out that you made what I thought was a pointless negative comment about him. That’s all.
Willie won’t be fired b/c then if they stink Omar will get blamed.
Not that Omar shouldn’t get some blame now. I’m sure the Wilpons look at the team and say, “I’m paying freaking 40MM for Alou, Pedro, Elduqe and Delgado to not play or to play and be bad!!”.....”What the hell were you thinking OMAR!!”
If they are not thinking the above, they should fire themselves too!
Steve O,
when (or if) JM’s secondary pitches (slider, changeup) can be thrown for strikes w/more regularity, I think you will see that he will be able to pitch deeper into games.
W/o those picthes being thrown for strikes, hitters foul off alot of his fastballs driving up his pitch count.
JD-
“6-4 is a shade over .500”
Actually, it’s a .600 winning percentage. You love to harp on the Mets mediocrity right now, but if they could win 6-of-10 games every 10-game stretch, they’d win the division probably quite comfortably.
John Maine has done his job, bar-none. No reason to throw a barb in his direction. And in case you want to say “he hasn’t been Cy Young caliber”, that is obvious…but it’s just a pointless jab at someone that doesn’t deserve it.
No offense, but determining how good a pitcher is by their W/L records is ridiculously stupid…