Sep 04
I’m rooting for this team night and day and as much as I expected the Mets to be a .500 team, it’s killing me that they can’t get over the mark and contend.
Today’s question is: If you can put your finger on it, what is the one thing that the Mets are lacking that accounts for sub par year?
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17 comments
Anonymous
9/4/2011-1:42pm at 1:42 pm (UTC -4)
Health.
Mr North Jersey
9/4/2011-3:36pm at 3:36 pm (UTC -4)
Good suggestion. If the question is what is the one thing keeping the 2011 Mets from possibly being a .500 team then health along with talent as Kingman suggested are 2 easy choices.
It would of been interesting to see what the 2011 Mets would of done with a Healthy Santana all season a healthy Ike Davis all season a healthy David Wright all season and a healthy Jose Reyes all season.
.500 would seem within reason had they all been healthy especially a Johan Santana.
Anonymous
9/4/2011-3:53pm at 3:53 pm (UTC -4)
Had Ike not gotten hurt, nor Wright had a broken back. Had Young not fallen apart. If Murph still had 2 good legs. Reyes having good hammies… All ifs and whatnot, but I can’t see this team not being a .500 ball club or better. Not saying wildcard, but certainly better.
Anonymous
9/4/2011-4:30pm at 4:30 pm (UTC -4)
Sorry NJTX, but all of those things we did indeed have in April, and the team started out 5–13.
Anonymous
9/4/2011-5:00pm at 5:00 pm (UTC -4)
And Boston started 2-10. Those things happen.
Anonymous
9/5/2011-4:52am at 4:52 am (UTC -4)
We’re not Boston!!!!!
Anonymous
9/5/2011-4:58am at 4:58 am (UTC -4)
LOL BTW IF ones Grandmother had balls she would be that persons Grandfather. LOL
The football Giants have suffered an inordinate amount of injuries this pre-season (they use the same medical staff as the Mets) yet we still expect them to contend. If you look around the league baseball teams have injuries of all shapes and sizes. Based upon the initial amount of talent in the organization and the areas and amount of injuries teams either preserve or they don’t. Such is life.
Anonymous
9/4/2011-3:22pm at 3:22 pm (UTC -4)
Talent. Unquestionably.
The team hustles, I think largely thanks to Collins, but we have a lot of past their prime vets and a lot of very average youngsters.
The pitching has been mostly healthy and is not good. Remember, everyone was healthy to begin the year and we charged out of the gate to a 5–13 record. It’s just not a good team.
It’s nice to want Niese and Gee to be like Worley and Hanson, but they are not in the same league; Niese and Gee are mediocre back of the rotation pitchers. Our bullpen compared to the guys in PHI and ATL is just also not in the same league. Parnell is now nearly 27 and has never had sustained success above A ball.
Bay and Wright are likely never going to again approach what they were 3–6 years ago, Murphy can hit for average and do nothing else, Thole is mediocre at best, Tejada’s a good-field mediocre-hit player, Pagan stinks, etc.
Hopefully Reyes stays and can be healthy again like 2005–2008, and Ike and Duda fulfill their promise and we have the beginning of something.
But the talent we have in the everyday lineup, the rotation, and the pen is precisely the talent that leads a team to a fight for .500 assuming the players hustle, which this year they generally have.
It’s not a good team, and isn’t going to be very soon.
Darknova306
9/4/2011-3:37pm at 3:37 pm (UTC -4)
Hell, I think you’re understating how bad the pitching has been. They’ve been healthy all year and have been consistently in the bottom third or bottom quarter of the NL in most pitching categories. That’s not the making of contender. The most realistic expectation for the “ace” after his minor league rehab is a 3 or 4 type pitcher, which does nothing to help. Add to that fact the complete lack of desirable pitching on the market and the only real pitching potential in our system being in the low levels, contending will be extremely tough for the next 2-3 years.
Anonymous
9/4/2011-4:50pm at 4:50 pm (UTC -4)
I agree totally. Our pitching is terrible. I see the almost .500 record as a testament to hustle and Collins a lot more than I see it as a bunch of up-and-coming stars. Turner, Thole, Tejada, Evans, Pagan, etc., are not up-and-coming stars.
And the pitching is just a classic case of serious mediocrity. Dickey’s fine as a number 3 if you have real good number 1 and 2s, but he’s our best pitcher.
Winning is years off. I still watch and I still care a lot, but I honestly am less optimistic about this team than I have been since the early-to-mid 1990s. We’re years away from serious relevance.
Adam "Prismo"
9/4/2011-4:53pm at 4:53 pm (UTC -4)
I think our starting pitching has been excellent! You know, for the back of a good team’s rotation.
We have a bunch of solid 4-5 guys, but definitely no 1-2 guys. At least no one’s pitched as bad as Ollie, right?
Adam "Prismo"
9/4/2011-4:54pm at 4:54 pm (UTC -4)
Honest to god, I was going to use the same word – “Talent.”
I don’t think it’s health, because I have a hard time believe that even with Ike and Santana (throwing 90mph fastballs mind you) this team is 15 wins better.
Anonymous
9/4/2011-5:08pm at 5:08 pm (UTC -4)
If this team was healthy, I think you can assume Beltran and Krod would still be here and they’d be in the hunt for the wildcard. And Young would have been a solid addition, as his stats were very good until he broke down. Again, it’s all speculation based on “what if’s”, but i do feel this team would be much better with Young, a full season of both Wright and Reyes, Ike’s bat and D… Playoff bound? probably not but certainly in the mix for the Wildcard.
Adam "Prismo"
9/4/2011-7:12pm at 7:12 pm (UTC -4)
You can never assume full health.
If you’re going to make the Mets healthy, lets make the Phillies healthy too. Oswalt misses no time, Utley is 100%, Polanco doesn’t miss a big chunk of the season, they don’t lose out on 2-3 closers for most of the year. Heck, they might’ve won 130 games!
MetsFan4Decades
9/4/2011-5:13pm at 5:13 pm (UTC -4)
Pitching. And secondary health. I say secondary because if Johan was on this staff all year, I truly believe this season would have been different. Throw in Chris Young and we’ll never know how much better this season could have been.
We probably would have been much closer to WC contention come mid season, even with the other injuries. Beltran might have been retained for a run at the WC. Scoring runs has never been the problem. It’s been pitching all year. Case in point, last night’s game.
Anonymous
9/4/2011-7:05pm at 7:05 pm (UTC -4)
I think we can all agree the talent level just isn’t there especially in the pitching dept.
RA Dickey should be our #4 pitcher. When that happens, then we’ll be a good team…
Anonymous
9/5/2011-2:10am at 2:10 am (UTC -4)
Before the season all the experts had us well below .500 with full seasons of Wright, Ike, Murphy, Beltran & K-Rod & Reyes thru July, getting Santana back in August and getting something resembling a 15 win performance from Big Poof. The fact that we’re even close to .500 is remarkable and a hat tip to Terry but also to the AAAA Replacement Killers who have stepped up. Before the season I had us as an 82-85 win team expecting all of the above but with a full season of Reyes. The main chink I alway’s saw in achieving .500 since spring training was the bullpen. No surprise here that’s going to continue to be the obstacle, but, with Herrerra & Stinson looking good maybe they may perform the rest of the year and we’ll make .500.
Looking beyond this year, the starters and pen need to be addressed next year as a gap filler till the 2013 crop of youngsters may be ready. If we could package Murph & Pelf to an AL team for a decent starter under control for a few years in the off season I’d be thrilled. Murph can hit but has no position so he can sweeten the pot with Pelf to maybe get a middle rotation inning eater. Who that is I have no idea, but I’d be looking to build a package around those names.