Unbelievable?
Amazin?
No. Just Same Ole Mets.
Just when you thought the Mets were going to pull themselves out of the cellar, they prove us wrong once again. The 2010 Mets are the greatest mirage in baseball. One minute they look like world beaters, the next like chumps.
Let me ask Mets nation: Is Jerry Manuel back on the hot seat?
The New York Mets were hotter than a fire cracker after an inspiring three game sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies—a 5-1 home stand that saw them beat both Philadelphia and the New York Yankees.
Not only was this a sweep of their hated divisional rival, it was the first time since September of 1969 that the Mets shut a team out in all three games of a series. That victim back in the summer of '69 ... the Phillies.
Once again this season, it appeared that the Mets turned their season around in just a weeks time. Mike Pelfrey, Johan Santana were brilliant as usual. In two starts against the Yankees and Phillies, Pelfrey gave up only one run in 13 innings of work. Santana was his brilliant self against the Bombers—we have come to expect this from those two.
But shutouts from R.A. Dickey and Hisanori Takahahsi? Who would have thunk it?
The Mets lineup finally came to the party. Jose Reyes and Jason Bay who were practically invisible for the first month and a half have now begun to hit. Before the Yankees series, Reyes was hitting a putrid .216. Over the six-game home stand, he hit .522 with six runs scored, a homer and five RBI.
Bay was hitting a consistent .270 before this past homestand, but he had yet to produce any runs. He has hit two homers and drove in six in the Phillies/Yankees series, and has raised his average to a team-leading .297.
Now after dropping the first two games to the Milwaukee Brewers in crushing fashion on the road, the Mets deficit to catch Philadelphia is back up to four, after they had cut it down to just two small games on Thursday night.
It's Memorial Day weekend, one of the benchmarks in a long baseball season to assess where one's team is, and right now the Mets are average at best: 25-25. They are not totally out of the playoff picture, yet not even close to it either.
In a National League where the Cardinals 30-20 record is the best, with everyone else hovering around .500, it gives Met fans reason to hope and mope. The Mets have the talent to catch Philly for the NL East, they the talent to catch Atlanta, Cincinnati, or San Diego for the wild card, but this team is just too inconsistent to trust.
Look at the numbers: the Mets are 6-16 on the road this year, 3-12 in their last 15 road games. They are on the precipice of getting swept by the lowly Brewers, and head to San Diego's spacious pitchers haven, which has been a house of horrors for the Mets in recent years past.
So where do the Mets go now? Even if they split the next four games of this trip before returning to face Florida, the Mets will be 27-27. Who is to blame for this new road trip meltdown? Jerry Manuel? Maybe, you could argue that he should have left Johan Santana in the ninth inning in Milwaukee, who knows?
The fact remains, that long term, the Mets have to decide who they are, and assess how far they can go. Assuming the likes of Dickey and Takahasi will pitch this well come June, July and August is asking way too much, especially from two pitchers who have never proven such at the major league level. Just look at the implosion of Fernando Nieve as an example of the Mets stretching fringe Major Leaguers a bit too far.
Eventually, Dickey and Takahasi will get hit pretty hard, then the Mets are back in the same pickle, without legitimate third, fourth, and fifth starters in their rotation. Going back to John Maine, and Oliver Perez is not an option. The Mets don't have enough pitching to remain competitive over the long term.
Omar Minaya refused to fix the problem in the offseason, and now he has to live with the consequences.
As for the lineup, everyone has pretty much contributed in some fashion, with the exception of Jeff Francoeur, but the Mets need another big bat to protect David Wright and Jason Bay. That big bat is named Carlos Beltran, and after his latest set back, who knows if we will ever see number 15 in center field this season.
Trades are about all the Mets can hope for. Roy Oswalt is out there. Cliff Lee is out there too. Kevin Millwood is a reliable arm as well. However, to get one of those guys the Mets have to do one thing—win and win every day.
Today's finale against Milwaukee and this weeks' Memorial Day trip to San Diego is the Mets 2010 season; sad though, because after the next home stand we will likely be talking about how the Mets are back in the thick of the playoff race once again.
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