About Last Night: “Not yet.”
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- July
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As I was leaving the clubhouse last night I stuck my head into Jerry Manuel’s office and asked if he had anything to say to the team.
“Not yet,” he said.
The boys are simply a .500 team and that won’t cut it if Manuel wants to dump the interim tag.
They were awful last night. No life, no spark, no energy. And, they are so close to first place. It is like they have this feeling they can turn it on at will.
Last September taught them they can’t.
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on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 12:58 pm by John Delcos.
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If they have that feeling they’re crazy. I really doubt that they have that feeling. I think this is a team that plays hard but with disappointing contribuions from Heilman(better of late I know), Pedro Martinez (he’s been poor in his 6 starts), Oliver Perez (inconsistency aside his overall performance has been mediocre), Delgado (still only OPSing 727), Marlon Anderson (he has chewed up and spit out 100 plate appearances and has a 507 OPS, ouch!!), Endy Chavez (174 PAs and 606 OPS ouch again!!) and Brian Schneider (205 PAs with a 637 OPS, not good enough even for a SUPPOSED defensive position), they are struggling around the .500 mark. If some of these guys can improve and Alou and Church can contribute there is no reason they can’t finish strong and win the division.
I think they’re playing about as hard as they can. This team, alas, just isn’t much better than .500, and struggles to just be that good.
Most of the stuff that could go wrong has and unfortunately there aren’t many moves to make.
Taylor you hit it right on the head.
The core is there but too many players just can’t seem to get it on.
And it stops the others that are doing good enough, but not good enough with out help.
JD,
You are looping.
You posted this last year for a few months.
I think the problem is the bench. We have none. How do you create competition which Manuel has said several times is a good thing if you have no bench?
We have a sub for 2nd so this can be a push for Castillo. Our best OF sub is Endy who has a great glove but a weak bat. Unless we have easley playing 3/4 of the IF we have no bench.
We also have a sub at catcher, but he can’t last so it’s not the same.
This team can take their division if they play fundamental baseball. That means make the catches and the throws you are supposed to make. Don’t get picked off second with one of your better hitters at the plate. Learn to control the wood in your hands so you make contact and make the opposing pitcher work.
This team does not do that so they will lose. For the manager to make a difference he either has to get them somehow believing in the program he is preaching or if that fails bring in someone who will. The problem is there is no bench so there is no sense of urgency.
The fans boo. They lose as many as the win and there is no one else to come in who wants to play when the starters look like they are not.
For example, who is the backup for Jose and David? We have two subs, Easley and Castro. That is it. That is pretty sad. There are 25 men on the roster and we have two subs.
Clearly they’ve learned nothing about last September. What they need to remember is how they played in 2006. How they mowed down the competition. They didn’t just think they were good.. they showed it.
They’re stuck at a crossroads. They have too many big contracts to blow everything up.. yet that’s the only way out of this rut. This is going to be a bumpy ride until those contracts (like Castillo 4 yrs) are done and they can put that money to better use.
They dont try hard enough because the repercussions dont last.
As Dave said. 2nd base has a viable alternative. the outfield has been twiddled with but the infield is at best lacking.
(can every9one feel where this is going? )
We need another shortstop to keep Reyes honest. We need another 1st baseman because though Delgado started to produce he’s still erratic and his fielding just sucks. He needs to be platooned.
As a matter of fact platooning a few of the positions will definitely wake the players up. And before everyone jumps up in arms. Just remember Manuel said he wants there to be a competitions amongst the players for regular status. You cant have it if you cant replace every position. That means Every! So far between Church and Wright and Beltran those positions are sewn up. Endy is even a better player the longer he gets. he owns left field.
So lets get the rest of the infield sewn up and then maybe we have a team. We also need clutch hitters. ;-)
h ttp://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/MookieGriffin
Please help correct a mistake made over 20 years ago… My friends sister was almost named Mookie, since her family was all Mets fans. Instead they settled on Shannon.
I started up a petition to convince her to legally change her name to what it should have been… (its as a joke – so relax) if you have an extra minute or 2, please sign it.
JD: Do you think there might have been just a natural letdown after the Yankee series?
After the last 192 games, this team is 94 and 98 and showing no sign of improvement. I think we’ll just have to accept that this team is a .500 team at best. I don’t see the offense as getting any better…Alou can’t be counted on, Delgado will have the occasional flash of power but will make us long for the days of Dave Kingman. Nothing is going to make Schneider a good hitter either. The offense was a big question mark at the beginning of the season. I don’t see anywhere that has changed.
We can talk about accepting it being a .500 team, but going into the final 17 games last season they were 83-62.
They then went 4-5 before dropping 6 of the final 7.
So yes, they struggled last year but had ebbs and flows.
They added three new key faces but the big problem was the risky assumption that Delgado was more like July/Sept of 2007 vs. August of 2007, and that Moises Alou would play 120 games this year.
Patrick: Right, but the team started out 34 and 18 thru end May. To get to the 83 and 62 record from there, they were only 5 games over which isn’t great either. But your last part is dead on. Omar put too much stock into both Alou and Delgado being part of the solution instead of being part of the problem. Ah, for what it’s worth. Hopefully they can pull a 34 and 18 stretch out over the next 52 games to get us hopeful again.
Why do so many of the posters on this blog seem to believe that the pitching has been so much better than the offense? Its just not true. Look at the numbers. The pitching has been just as disappointing as the offense.