I am struggling with what to write right now. I want to make a case for how the Mets are still in this and maybe they are but I also don't want to embarrass myself further by being the last guy to hold out hope when the ship has clearly sailed. More than anything I want to talk about how displeased I am with the Mets front office.
The Mets have gone 9-1 since the break, losing virtually of all these games because of our bullpen.The part that bothers me about this is that we are using this is an excuse to not go out and get bullpen help. To reiterate: the Mets were doing good and we were going to be buyers and seek out bullpen help, the bullpen blows games so the front office decided now we aren't good and won't be getting bullpen help. Does anyone else see the insanity in this!? Now is the time more than ever to get bullpen help, five games ago was the best time to get bullpen help. It makes absolutely no sense to let the team fall apart just because we hit a tough streak. After the break Sandy said these next 8-10 games were very important in deciding the direction of the team, my question is: why? It's a 162 games season why would they arbitrarily designate one 10 game stretch as any more important than other? If we had gone 9-1 would we all of a sudden been worthy of going after Huston Street? It's only ten games, this season is only over when the players and front office act like it is and sadly it appears this season is over.
My other big problem is the fact that Jason Bay is still on this team. Bay currently has an fWAR of -.3. Keeping a player who is playing below replacement level on a team is a waste of money and blatantly illogical. Several players right now in the Mets farm system of capable of playing better than Jason Bay yet he remains on the roster. Terry Collins said recently that we cant judge Bay too harshly yet because he hasn't even had 125 PA. This would make some sense if this was Bay's first slump, Ike has an even lower WAR than Bay but most people can agree that Ike has shown promise and needs to get more service time to reach his potential. Bay has proven over the course of years to no longer be a good player. TC wants 125 PA? He had 509 last year and hit .240, not enough? He had 401 the year before and hit .259. How many PA do we need before Bay is deemed unworthy?
The thing that makes me the most upset is simply the sheer illogical nature of this move. The only reason Bay keeps getting game time is because we are paying him 16 million dollars this year. Let me get this straight, we have one of the highest paid players in baseball who has proven he can longer play but we keep playing him just because he cost us so much and we want to get some value out of it? What?! When do we cut our losses. If we just got rid of him we would still be losing money but at least have a slightly better team, right now we are just doing both. Look, I get that Jason Bay is a nice guy and tries hard and probably feels bad when people boo him but frankly 16 million dollars is not proper compensation for trying hard. If the Mets won't sign an impact player in season the best they can do to prove to us they want to win is cut Jason Bay, but they won't because it doesn't follow Mets logic.
Bullpen was a problem since mid-April and very evident by the end of April. The good thing though was that it was masked by the great starting pitching and timely hitting. If the Mets had done what the Angels did, i wouldn't be surprised if the Mets were 10-12 games over at the break.
ReplyDeleteNow that the Starting pitching and timely hitting has gone, the bullpen problem has magnified and completely melted down. The division chances are probably at less than 1% now(i would probably peg their chances during the break at around 25-30%) and their wild card chances are less than 5%(during the break it might have been 50-60%).
It is sad when the GM gives up on a season.