First off, let me apologize for not being able to post a Sunday Question last week. My wife and I were too busy finding out that we are expecting…….a little Appendix! That’s right, there is nothing better than being in the Emergency Room from 4am to late afternoon waiting to find out that the stabbing, searing pain in my wife’s side was in fact an infected appendix that can only come out a couple of weeks from now….we are still deciding on names.
There has been a lot of talk about how the Mets have quit on Terry this month. Today’s question: Do you think the Met players quit on Terry at all? Can you name a Met that personally quit on Collins
7 comments
Stickguy
9/30/2012-10:32am at 10:32 am (UTC -4)
well, congratulations! but 2 weeks? I thought those things had to come out right away, before they burst and made a mess? In any case, you should name it Larry. Just seems to fit.
Did they quit? No. First, I don’t believe in that, since the players don’t really do much for the manager anyway, so if they quit, they quit on themselves and their teammates. And I just don’t see that. Does every guy leave 110% on the field every inning of every game? Maybe not, but that is normal for a team playing out the string.
But, overall, the team is still trying as hard as they were previously. They just went through a stretch where they sucked. But lately they have been looking better. probably because the competition came down to their level! But if they had really quit, they would still be going through the motions and losing.
the biggest fallacy though is people thinking they “quit” in July, when they were right in the WC hunt (apparently because Sandy did not add new players from outside the organization before the ASB, they all lost faith in themselves and lost on purpose, or ceased caring, which is mind boggling in its stupidity).
Fans like to find something to attribute losing streaks to, beyond the obvious of guys being hurt, slumping, or just not that good.
Oh, and Sandy DID add players in July. One of the better pen arms, and best SP in the 2nd half both joined the team in July as reinforcements. They were just internal promotions (Edgin and Harvey) that probably performed better than what Sandy could have gotten on the open market, with limited trade chips or $ to spend (which seemed to be his constraints).
Oh, and of course, bay came back!
srt
9/30/2012-10:44am at 10:44 am (UTC -4)
After reading your comment, I decided there’s not much need for mine. I agree with everything you’ve said here.
I can see how some went down the road of ‘they quit on Terry’ but I never bought it. While the lack of offense to that extent coming out of the ASB thru last month was certainly bizzare, I think it can be attributed to an entire full platoon in the OF, sitting Ike against certainly lefties and lack of production with the catching position. In other words lack of talent all the way around and a tail off of Wright’s production as well.
Hazmet
9/30/2012-10:42am at 10:42 am (UTC -4)
I don’t think they quit I think they just played to their level on the offensive side of the ledger and they just aren’t that good. When you have an overachieving team that stops overachieving this is what the fans are left to watch. As for a player like Wright with little in the line up around him other teams are going to pitch around him so he started playing outside his game and tried to do too much so that hurt him. For a player like Tejada I believe the grind wore him down towards the end of the year. Ike has produced in the power department and that’s about it. The rest of the crew are just mediocre pieces to a club. I know, I included Murph in the mediocre bin – gasp.
Their pitching actually hasn’t been that bad especially considering the loss of Santana and Gee and having to roll out the “flamethrower” Chris Young, and Heffner, McHugh, and an overmatched Mejia & Famila to start. But, it’s all Warthen’s fault in many fans viewpoint, not mine, so he must be cut out – much like your wifes appendix. Thereby, I believe the Mrs. should give birth to a happy baby bouncing appendix named Warthen.
All kidding aside, hope the Mrs. and you are doing fine and all this is behind you soon. Good luck and best wishes.
darknova306
9/30/2012-1:26pm at 1:26 pm (UTC -4)
” When you have an overachieving team that stops overachieving this is what the fans are left to watch ”
This times a million. I said it all along during those first three months: they were relying on several players playing well over their heads, and on the statistical oddity/artifact of all the 2-out runs.
srt
9/30/2012-10:55am at 10:55 am (UTC -4)
Sorry to hear that about the Mrs. I can sympatize. Wound up myself in the emergency room one Thursday night last summer with the same type of searing, burning pain. Mine turned out to be a bad gall bladder. Only they were not entertaining the thought of me going anywhere and having it removed somewhere down the road. They sent three different doctors in to make sure I wasn’t going down that road. As if…..Had the surgery two days later and good thing. Took twice as long as it usually does because it was so enlarged and badly infected. ‘Near gangrene’ was what the post op report said.
I’m sure the doctor’s know what they’re doing but I don’t envy your wife possibly putting up with that pain for two more weeks. Hope they gave her some damn good drugs.
Best of luck with the surgery and a short recovery.
gategem
9/30/2012-12:04pm at 12:04 pm (UTC -4)
I wish your wife the best of luck and a speedy recovery after the surgery.
Regarding your question I don’t believe the Mets players awoke each day and thought what’s the use of playing hard since the team sucks, the management sucks, we have no chance of winning and it’s time to work on my golf swing. However, when a team loses confidence and they’re playing out the string a collective malaise may set in. It’s not intentional but we are dealing with humans here not robotoids. Individually some may try to carry the team by trying too hard and pressing, while others may try to gain motivation by playing for individual goals (back in the old days before FA it was called the salary drive) and others may no longer play the game with emotion. While no one may have intentionally quit on TC the players may no longer respond to his rah, rah, balls to the walls motivational skills.
darknova306
9/30/2012-1:43pm at 1:43 pm (UTC -4)
Gotta love the silly and easy explanations some people use to explain their team’s failure as something other than them just being bad. It’s just the Ceetar/Coutinho mentality of “when my team plays well, that’s who they are, and when they fail it’s because of some esoteric reason that means it’s a fluke and they’ll be great next year”. Sorry, they didn’t quit, they’re just showing you that they aren’t as good as you wanted to believe they were during all those “the Mets will surprise everyone this year” comments before the season.
All of that being said, there were several games around the end of August and beginning of September where Thole and Duda looked to me like bags of shyt with their lack of hustle, bad body language, slow strolling back to the dugout, and all of that. That’s when I wrote them both off as Mets I would ever have a chance of liking and rooting for. Just garbage.