My apologies for not getting this up sooner but Sunday was a long day and I needed yesterday to recover and gather my thoughts…
The first and most frequent question I received since Sunday was “Are you OK?”. I answered this in the most honest way possible. “Not yet. But I am not shocked”.
The retort has been something like this each time “Jeff, how are you not shocked, your team just went through one of the greatest collapses in sports history and you are one of the biggest fans of the Mets I have ever met!?
Let me explain…
I didn’t want to believe it, but the collapse didn’t start in September. It started in June. My friend Mark, a friend from college who I hadn’t spoken to in years prior to this season but has now become a good friend thanks to our shared loved for this franchise, had been telling me all year and my Dad had the same message. “This is not a good baseball team”.
I didn’t want to believe that. We were in first again. We held first place over the past 2 seasons more than any team in the game. We were robbed of a World Series appearance by Yadier Molina and the lucky Cards and we were going to show the world that we were back this year and ready to right our wrong.
We came out of the gate playing inspired baseball. Reyes and Beltran were killing the ball in April. Wright came out of his early season funk in May. John Maine was an early Cy Young favorite. And then June hit.
Read this sentence slowly. From June 1-September 30, the New York Mets were two games under .500.
Crazy, right?
So while blowing the 7 games with 17 to play and 1 game with 3 to play is truly devastating (yes Glavine, it’s devastating), this has been going on for 4 months.
After the games on May 31st we were 34-18. From then on they went 54-56.
Does that sound like a playoff team to you? It sure doesn’t sound like one to me. How could I be shocked when my team won more than 4 games in a row once?
Which brings me to my points about the ball club moving forward:
1) Omar deserves A LOT more heat than he is getting. The questions to fire Willie are warranted but it was Omar’s choice not to make any big free agent pitching signings. It was his choice to not bring back the Bradford’s and Oliver’s. It was his choice to trade away Owens, Lindstrom, Bell, Ring, Bannister, etc. It was his choice to bring in Schoenweiss, to re-sign Mota, to re-sign a 45-year old El Duque and a 48-year old Julio Franco. It was his choice to not help re-shuffle the bullpen during the season when it was painfully obvious that we were 2 arms short at least. It was his choice to fire Rick Down, (a Willie guy) and hire Rickey Henderson (a known slacker in the clubhouse). Etc etc.
I have been a HUGE Omar fan since the Day the Wilpon’s gave him the keys. But a 54-56 record is not just a reflection on the manager. It’s a reflection on the team overall and the man who built the team. It’s still In Omar We Trust but he has a very big offseason ahead of him.
For the record, I believe Willie should be back.
2)Quick hit on the free agents and what I think we need:
- Thanks for being a Met to: Tom Glavine, Paul Loduca, Jeff Conine, Damian Easley, Shawn Green, David Newhan, Brian Lawrence, Mike DiFelice, Sandy Alomar Jr., Jorge Sosa and Aaron Sele. You can argue about LoDuca but I am not interested in a 35-year old catcher on the down side of his career who loses his temper way too often.
- Guys who will be back but we don’t really want: Duque (signed a 2-year deal), Mota (2-years), Schoenweiss (3 years), Wagner.
- Possibly on the move: Milledge, Heilman, Pelfrey, Gomez.
- Questions: Castillo, Alou, Marlon (being him back)
3) Things that need to be addressed:
- I still think, as I have all year and most of last year that we need a #2 hitter. I know Reyes had an awful September but slumps are part of baseball and he is far from our problem. I liked Castillo’s fit on this club but the guy is a singles hitter who bunts 40% of the time. I know some people want Castillo back and I would be fine with him as the #8 hitter but we must get an impact player to bat second next season. This team could score 75 more runs next season with a capable bat in the 2 hole.
- The starting rotation: Pedro, Maine (playing all 2nd half with a hip injury that requires surgery makes me love this guy even more. What a game on Saturday) and Ollie are locks to start the season. Pelfrey went 3-1 in the 2nd half after a ridiculous 0-7 first half but he was still getting hit very hard. Opponents batted over .298 against him this year and .304 in the 2nd half. He has talent but harnessing that in NY is easier said then done. Not sure if he has a spot or not. Let’s be honest, we need a #1 starter. I know there are very few out there but this has to be on top of Omar’s to-do list.
- The bullpen. Do I need to say more?
It was a terrible ending to a very long season. It was both sad yet quite relaxing to go home yesterday and have no game to catch. I will watch the playoffs as I am a baseball fan at the core but it will be with very little emotion.
To end…I want to say a special thanks to the people who I spent the season with the most: My co-blogger Jason, my friends and co-workers Dani and Lynne for the nightly email chain. Mark (you were right buddy, they suck), Goldberg (although he’s a Yankees fan, he is also a great baseball fan who puts up with my daily Mets rants), the entire Giants tailgate and lastly to my Dad. For if not for my Dad, I would not be a Mets fan.
My Dad just had surgery on his knee last week. He was in the hospital recovering as we were finishing off the end of the collapse and I was calling him to update him on a regular basis. For those of you who know my father, he isn’t exactly the most optimistic fan. But ya see, he has a reason he is this way. He grew up in Brooklyn in the 30s and 40s and lived through season after season of heart break. He, like many other baseball fans of that generation naturally took on the Mets as their new team in 1962, 6 seasons after the Dodgers and Giants left town.
On Sunday, my Dad called after the game as I was in the parking lot readying for what was to be the best Giants game I can remember in a long time. We exchanged the same type of words each of you guys did with your loved ones and as the conversation ended, the only thing I could think of was the famous words of his beloved Brooklyn Dodgers…
Wait until next year….
Thanks to all for reading…please pass this along to any fans you know and I would love your comments.
3 comments:
Thank you for blogging and for being such a good support during this season!!! I am sad its over...but ready for 2008. This will be an interesting off season and i hope you keep blogging away and keep us posted!
Fink...sad i wont see you at the Playoffs...
Go get a stud pitcher. Trade Carlos for Johan and sign him.
Early reports are that not only is Ricky the worst in the locker room, but Castillo added to the demise of Reyes over the final 2 months.
Luckily I did not have high hopes for this team from the get go. So yes, I was upset at the demise but I was not shocked at all. If you noticed I watched absolutely none of that game at the tailgate. I said all year this team just does not have it. They were never able to sustain any kind of impressive winning streak and most importantly we did not have that one guy who can say, "jump on my back boys, I'll take care of this one." Wright is close to that status but he is not there yet. YOU CANNOT WIN WITH SUBPAR PITCHING. Wagner should have been traded last year and he better be gone this year. He is John Franco with a fastball.
My thoughts on some of the players Cooper put into question:
LoDuca- while I am not happy with a 35yr old catcher unless you want to give Castro the full time job (which might not be a bad idea) then you bring LoDuca back. He is a good locker room guy who the players can rally around. It seems that everyoen likes him
Pelfrey - From the first time I saw him pitch I did not have high hopes for this kid. His ball moves a lot but he cannot control it and most importantly leaves it up in the zone on a regular basis. Unless you are throwing 97mph that ball needs to be at the knees EVERYTIME. I remember one recent outing where he threw I think 12 straight fastballs to start out the game.
Gomez- keep him, I like his speed, his youth
Milledge- Last year and the beginning of this year I was not a fan, but he did start to play good baseball down the stretch and I heard some interviews he gave after the Saturday brawl game where he actually sounded a) articulate and b) mature. He might just be coming around.
Heilmann- here is a big ? mark. He obviously wants to be a starter but does he have the stuff? Problem is the more you trot him out there in a relief role the more you are hurting his trade value everytime.
It will be very interesting offseason for these Mets. Next year our young guys need to a) take more of a leadership role and b) take the next step into superstardom b/c they are certainly being paid like it.
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