Dozing in front of a game is generally an excellent way to lose track of what's happening. But sometimes one sense is sufficient.
For example, with Brian McCann at the plate I had my eyes shut and was lying in bed, drifting somewhere between a coma and mere snoozing. The second McCann's bat connected with Mike Pelfrey's latest sinker that wasn't inclined to sink, I muttered “Fuck” and burrowed back into the pillow, eyes still shut, seeking a more comfortable position.
And I think I've found it — it's away from what remains of this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad game. Somebody wake me in 2010, OK?
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I wasn't dozing, but it occurred to me after McCann's at-bat that, when I speak of this season to my grandchildren – and I'm hopeful that I will – the story might conclude with “..and that was the nadir..the worst of times. Down 11-0 in the 7th to a mediocre Braves team, with somebody named No. 64 pitching. You have no idea how lucky you are, kids, that you didn't have to watch 'em in 2009.”
dozing through the rest of the season is an excellent choice. feels weird, been so long since a Met season was totally in the toilet so early.
“There never was much hope, just a fool's hope.”
–Gandalf the White
I actually started watching QVC with my wife…., those Dooney and Burke bags are getting more and more expensive.
I never cared for Willie Randolph and felt the Mets waited too long to fire him. That said, I'm not a big advocate of just firing guys when things go badly. I could go either way with Jerry Manuel and we're all very well acquainted with the arguments pro and con.
I think, however, that Omar Minaya's body of work should start to undergo serious scrutiny. As has been well documented, he's got trades on both sides of the ledger. Our minor league system, while it did yield enough to secure Santana, isn't going to make the Dodgers envious any time soon.
Bottom line, he's got the highest payroll in the National League (again) and his team is going to miss the post season (again). I realize he signed that extension but someone in the print media (David Lennon?) pointed out that was likely done so as not to have the G.M.'s status distract from the opening of the new stadium and is a small enough amount for the Mets to eat going forward anyway.
Which brings me finally to Bobby Valentine. His name was mentioned as someone who will likely be let go by Chiba Lotte at season's end for financial reasons. Field general? Or “head of the baseball family” ala Leon Hess and Rich Kotite a generation ago? Bobby's firing was all part of that dark, dark Steve Phillips era. That BV was cut loose while Phillips stayed on (albeit for not very long) still boggles the mind to this day.
I know it's probably a mistake to think too much about our team, the big picture and where it's all heading at times like this.
But it's awfully tough to defend Omar Minaya and the organization at this point.
Dozing in front of the game makes the fan feel closer to the team… they're sleepwalking through the season, why shouldn't we?
Can't blame anyone for the injuries so nobody is responsible for this year's demise other than the medical team which kept on telling us it was a day-to-day thing. We had a good club coming out of spring training.
But the Mets were being broken up by within long before the injuries. The new ball park nullified our power and caused Wright and Beltran to adjust their swings, turning our three and four power hitters into single and double hitters. Jerry Manuel also mishandled Ryan Church from that first day in Port St. Lucie and the acquistion of Gary Sheffield which didn't help Church or Murphy in their development. His “instinctive” decisions didn't help either.
But it's all for naught now because Jerry hasn't had a chance to prove he couldn't win with the players he was supposed to have and maybe next year Citifield will have the dimensions of a ballpark instead of a pinball machine loaded with gimmicks.
Every team in baseball has injuries. Some have more because of bad luck or because they have older, brittle players on the roster and a medical team that apparently went to med school in Aruba.
Maybe if the Mets hadn't acquired Gary Sheffield Murphy and Church would have “developed” into stars rather than the average to below average major leaguers they appear to be.
If it's your position that the Mets are a well run organization beset by a streak of bad luck, well, we can just agree to disagree I guess
The SpongeBob marathon last night was cool… lots of episodes I had never seen.
We actually agree more than you think.
Though I liked the team coming out of spring training I also felt Minaya and Manuel were messing with things that would have a negative impact on both Church and Murphy, two players we were counting on this year.
When Omar obtained Sheffield it showed little confidence in either player. Manuel badmouthing Church was a slap in the face and for some reason Church was in Manuel's dog house long before missing third. Then, after moving to first. Manuel shows little confidence in the player he used to badmouth Church by not playing young Murphy every day.
And Citifield is a hitting monstrasity that severly affected the play of the entire team. I don't know how much input Omar had but the vast outfield and stupid quirks are indeed the fault of management.
The real question regarding the injuries may not be the medical staff issuing bad advice, but the front office refusing to heed the doctors' advice.
This article by Adam Rubin is pretty damning, and I trust Rubin. Certainly I trust him far more than Met front-office spin about each new “day-to-day” injury.
Witness this from a Rubin article yesterday: “A source Friday relayed to the Daily News a recent conversation between two players. One player noticed swelling in the other's knee and asked why he wasn't getting it treated. 'They don't want to hear about it,' the injured player replied, according to the source.”
Just more evidence for the case that what this team needs most is a front-office housecleaning, with Omar, Bernazard, Ricco and everybody else replaced by people who have some vague understanding of modern baseball statistics, listen to the doctors and tell the truth.
You may have liked the team coming out of spring training, but looking back “Church and Murphy, two players we were counting on this year” is somewhat of a damning statement. Those two would give them little to no power from either outfield corner while trying to catch lightning in a bottle a second time by deploying Fernando Tatis. Sheffield, it's worth noting, was the Mets home run leader before his leg fell off or whatever befell him. Acquiring Sheffield is a curious choice to question among Omar's many moves.
This crew's been at the stick since 2005. They've spent lavishly and have one division title to show for it. They have no talent down below to replace the guys who've inevitably gotten hurt.
The trend is not upward.
Time to clean house.
Baseball is a team effort so anyone who is slated to play every day (or at least be part of a lefty-righty platoon) is one to be counted on.
Wright, Beltan and Delgado gave us clout in the middle of the lineup. Church's power was modest in comparision but before his concusion was proving that many of the 41 doubles he hit (mostly in canverous RFK Stadium) in 2007 would have been home runs in most other parks. He was also getting his share of hits against lefties.
Nothing wrong for the sixth place hitter.
Murphy impressed everyone last season with his mature approach to hitting. His success was not deemed as “lightning in a bottle” (as was Tatis) but the real thing. With the power we had from three thru six, his lack of punch was not deemed a liability and hhis steadily improving bat would have given the Mets a viable one-two leadoff combination for Wright and company.
Their are flaws on all levels of this team, its management and its organization. The injuries just exposed them with unfortunate glaringness. The blame game is always dreary work.
One thing I don't buy, though, is blaming the dimensions of Citifield. Yeah, it's big. But truly good hitters like Wright and Beltran a) should have enough pop overcome pitchers' parks, but b) and more importantly, they should be able to adapt their swings/approach to the dimensions of each different ballpark they play in. Wright simply hasn't displayed any power in any park this year. Is that David's fault? Hojo's? Lady Luck? I don't know, but you can't just lay it at Citifield's doorstep.
Let's not forget that the other teams have to deal with Citifield's dimensions, too. I'm much more worried about Jason's point about the disconnect between doctors and management and the black hole that is the DL for this team.
And I do think there is a distinction between counting on and hoping for production from players. Perhaps the relative disregard of this distinction by Minaya et al. has contributed to the problems that have become all too familiar.
Batters will not fool around with their swings ballpark to ballpark – their batting stances and swings need to remain consistent in order for them to produce. Batting slumps are usually caused by changes in swings and stances. And David Wright has admitted adjusting his swing due to the new ballpark.
Unlike a Carlos Delgado, Ryan Howard or Albert Puljos, Wright and Beltran do not have the strength to hit balls out of any park regardless the distance The extra distance at Citifield has curtailed their natural ability.
David Wright used to hit many opposite field shots over the fence. Beltran's power was from the left side.
Right center at Shea was seven feet closer, deep right center was 19 feet closer. Except for the extreme corners, the fences are more than double the height.
The left field power alley was 353 at Shea compared to 364 at Citifield.
Whenever balls hit the fence or are caught on the warning track try to determine what the result would have been if hit at Shea. Most of the time, they would be home runs.
If the Mets were built primarily around pitching, speed and defense then Citifield would have played to their advantage. But they were a team that was also built around power. Citifield took that element away from them.