Meet the Mets Meet the Mets

by: Michael Mosco
I figure this blog will get a lot of Yankee attention and frankly I can’t blame anyone for that. It’s the Yankees, not talking about them is a cardinal sin right? ESPECIALLY in a blog involving sports. However, if you didn’t know, there is another NY baseball team out there (SURPRISE!). I would like to get a post or two in about them to satisfy the one or two people who may care. Maybe I’ll even stir up some debates and, if I’m lucky, heated arguments that turn into tough online threats!


As you may or may not know the Mets this season are a sad team. Front office drama involving Bernie Madoff and the Wilpon family has trickled down all the way to players on the field. It seems as though the indifference of the ownership has influenced the indifference of the team. Now, let me make something clear, I don’t want to assume that the players on the field don’t want to win or even have the talent to win. I actually feel like they have both. It’s the general attitude of the team that makes me want to rip my hair out every time I watch them. It’s the “oh well, we lost again we’ll get them next time” bull that makes my blood boil. It doesn’t seem like they think they CAN win. Barring any type of Met-like collapse from the Phillies and the Braves coupled with a Met win streak, Met fans know that their team is pretty much out of contention for this year. And I’d be damned if the players don’t have a similar feeling. Of course they’ll talk to the media as if they have a chance but a true fan knows it’s a long shot until they get their act together.



So! How do they get their act together? Welp… they need a nasty, scary presence in their lineup.. which they don’t have ever since they lost Carlos Delgado. Let’s compare a typical 2010 lineup to a lineup from 2006:



2010 2006

Reyes Reyes

Pagan LoDuca

Beltran Beltran

Wright Delgado

Davis Wright

Bay Floyd

Barajas Green

Castillo Valentin



What the lineup on the left lacks is the homerun threat (that’s taking into account that Bay has only 6 homeruns this year). The homerun is, I think, an underrated talent (underrated talent not stat; people overrate the stat –see Adam Dunn). Couple the ability to hit homeruns with the ability to put the ball in play and avoid strike outs then you have a legit threat. The bigger the threat the more the talent around you is enhanced (see 2006 Carlos Beltran and David Wright). The more those talents are enhanced the more the talent around THEM is enhanced (see 2006 Reyes, LoDuca, Floyd, Valentin). Now all of a sudden you have a terribly scary lineup. When you are scared, you make mistakes. You make mistakes, you get hit… hard. Confidence goes down for the opponent and your confidence goes WAY WAY up. There is no coincidence why the 2006 Mets were so good and the subsequent Mets since have been so bad. That 2010 lineup may have talent, but there is no threat. Wright is not a homerun hitter and neither is Reyes (even though he thinks he is). In fact, neither is Beltran. They are all talented line-drive hitters but if you need a homerun they cannot be counted on. Bay was brought here to be a threat but it seems as though he himself needs some protection.



So what should we expect? It’s actually very tough to say. The Mets always enter the season with high hopes, and then proceed to surgically remove your heart slowly and painfully until it’s finally ripped out by August. Then you, as a hollow shell of a fan, are left to wonder how and why as you watch the rest of the season searching for a glimmer of hope (maybe you’ll catch yourself saying some of the following: “Oh he’s going to be better next year!” or “This rookie will start next year and be awesome”…. sad…). It’s easy to say expect the same disappointment next year but naturally we won’t. We will hope and dream that one day something will click and we become confident in ourselves and show it on the field.



Hey! Maybe next year!