Disgrace

The 2008 season ended in fitting fashion - at the hands of a bullpen that has more blood on its hands than Lady MacBeth.

If Jerry Manuel made one mistake today, it was in believing that Scott Schoeneweis could get a right-handed batter out when Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez inevitably pinch-hit for Jacobs leading off the eighth inning. He obviously wasn't going to get the lefty-lefty matchup that he wanted; should Manuel have simply let Brian Stokes face Jacobs and take his chances? Well, the result tells us that Stokes couldn't have done any worse.

Then it was Luis Ayala, whose batting practice 3-2 fastball ended up in the bleachers courtesy of Dan Uggla. At that point it was time to offer silent prayers to the God who has ignored us so many times before and hope that somehow, the Cubs would find a way to outlast the Brewers. Minutes later Ryan Braun hit a two-run homer to give the Milwaukee the lead; don't expect to see me in church anytime soon.

So it's over now, with the death blow delivered by the Florida Marlins for the second straight season. Blood should flow throughout the concourses of Citi Field this off-season, from the general manager's office all the way down to the home team's clubhouse. Massive change is badly needed, but with the Wilpons inexplicably leaking word of a four-year extension fpr Omar Minaya earlier this week, there's little reason to believe that such massive change will take place.

This isn't Jerry Manuel's fault, of course, but he probably has to go too. Any reminders of the horrors we've seen over the last two years must be completely scrubbed out, and that includes the job of a man who really deserves better. Manuel will land on his feet; he deserves a shot at one of the vacant managerial jobs in the off-season.

As for me, I'd still love to see Bobby Valentine or Wally Backman given the manager's chair, but the Wilpons will probably hand the job over to a retread with a recognizable name and a timid personality. This is a loser franchise, after all, and they will surely go for another loser instead of taking a chance on someone who might upset the apple cart while winning ballgames.

There can be little to complain about with Oliver Perez's performance, even though he probably shouldn't be asked to return next season. He was simply brilliant for five innings, and economical enough that he could've easily lasted eight innings if he remained effective. Cameron Maybin's double to lead off the sixth came on a 1-2 pitch at the conclusion of a tough at-bat, and the Marlins dunked in two straight singles that were really more about fortuitous placement than getting good wood on the ball.

Manuel was right to go to Joe Smith when he did, with one out and the bases loaded in the sixth inning. The 1-1 pitch to Josh Willingham was a strike, but that doesn't excuse the next two pitches that were clearly out of the strike zone. Smith made the best of a bad situation after that, getting a pop up and a ground out to get out of the inning. The game was going to be in the hands of The Arson Squad at that point, and we all knew what that was going to mean.

My only other quibble was starting Ryan Church in right field, who has looked terrible this weekend and for large portions of the second half of the season. He looked completely lost at the plate again today, striking out in his first three at-bats, and Church brought nothing to the table that couldn't have been replaced or improved by Endy Chavez or even fan favorite Daniel Murphy.

Then again, Nick Evans made a rookie mistake by throwing to third on Mike Jacobs's deep fly ball to left, and that may have indirectly led to second run of the sixth inning. There are people don't understand why the Mets would shop for a natural left fielder after the season. They think that a platoon of Murphy and Evans should suffice.

What those people do not undertsand is that an infielder's instincts are not easy to overcome and do not automatically translate to the outfield. If you have any doubt about that, look at the play Chavez made to reel in the third out of the seventh inning. Is there any doubt that ball would've sailed over the head or Evans or Murphy and driven in the go-ahead run for the Marlins?

That's not a knock on either rookie, each of whom may have a place on the 2009 Mets anyway. Murphy has spent most of his professional career at third base, while Evans has mostly played first. It's not enough to go out and read Outfield Fundamentals for Dummies; a true outfielder understands that the ball absolutely must go to second base there, to keep the baserunner on first and allow the pitcher an opportunity to get a double play.

If Evans throws to the right base after corralling that first out, Perez might have been left in the game to face Dan Uggla, who has struggled mightily this season against left-handers. Uggla has only grounded into 10 double plays this season, but he has also struck out over 170 times and would've been a great match-up for Perez. It's all academic now, but the simple act of having to play two rookie infielders out of position for so much of the season had a profound effect on this game.

As for me, I don't know when I'll be able to come back to this blog again. It is a catalogue of failure, six months of abject failure, and there is no other way to look at this lost season. I have had my heart ripped out of my throat by this baseball team for three straight years now, and I don't know how or why I'm supposed to come back for more. Perhaps the closing of Shea Stadium closes a chapter of my life even more completely than I could've ever imagined.

I just don't see how much longer this relationship can continue.

The Arson Squad Strikes Again

Playoff teams do not employ lefty specialists who cannot get out lefties.

Scott Schoeneweis had a .167/.236/.271 line against lefties going into today's game. That meant nothing to Casey Kotchman, who singled home the game-tying run in turned out to be a 7-6 Braves victory. It was the third time a Braves left-hander had gotten a hit off Schoeneweis in the last eight days - and two of those hits ended up directly contributing to Met losses.

Just last Saturday, Schoeneweis was called upon to bail out Johan Santana in the eighth inning of a 2-o game and instead promptly gave up a single to Kotchman. Schoeneweis then turned the ball over to fellow members of The Arson Squad, and the Braves' first baseman eventually came around to score the winning run in a devastating 3-2 loss.

One day later, Schoeneweis was again called upon for eighth-inning duty. He gave up a single to right-handed hitting Martin Prado and retired switch-hitting Chipper Jones before Brian McCann stepped to the plate. McCann is left-handed and therefore should've been easy pickings for Schoeneweis; instead he smacked a single and forced Jerry Manuel to go to the bullpen to get out of the inning. Joe Smith got the Mets out of trouble in the eighth, but Luis Ayala and Pedro Feliciano fell apart in the ninth inning of a 7-4 loss.

It's not just the Braves' left-handers that have Schoeneweis' number lately; Nationals rookie Roger Bernadina smacked a single off Schoeneweis in the ninth inning of a 7-2 Mets win on September 18. That's four lefty batters who have beaten Schoeneweis in the last eight days, and if he can't get out the likes of Bernadina you have to wonder what on earth Schoeneweis is still doing here.

Manuel's only other alternatives at this point are Pedro Feliciano, who can't get anyone out either, and the well-traveled Ricardo Rincon. Met fans will be calling for the general manager to restock the bullpen in the off-season, but Scott Schoeneweis is Exhibit A for why you don't give multi-year deals to middle relievers, no matter how bad your bullpen was the year before.

As bad as Schoeneweis has been lately, he'll be here next year as well, costing the Mets $3.5 million to take up space in the back of the bullpen and to give up big hits to left-handed batters when you need him the most.

Weekend in Review

It hurt like hell to watch the Mets drop two out of three to the Braves this weekend. The lead in the NL East is down to one game and the comparisons between 2007 and 2008 have been flying for about two weeks now.

Here's the difference: the tough losses the Mets have had this September haven't been particularly out of the ordinary. In 2007, the Mets were losing games that they simply had no business losing. Everything fell apart against inferior teams - the starters pitched poorly, the bullpen blew leads and the lineup didn't hit.

This year's team has a glaring and obvious weakness - its bullpen. Yes, the lineup did a very bad job of tacking on runs this weekend, but the relief corps bears the brunt of responsibility for the most recent losses. That is exactly what you would've expected to happen to a team running out a series of mediocre or worse hurlers to nail down important games in a pennant race.

Bad set-up men give up leads in the eighth inning. I was actually happy that Jerry Manuel let Johan Santana start the eighth on Saturday afternoon, because it showed me that he knew his "tired" starter was more effective than his bullpen. Scott Schoeneweis is a bad reliever, so it's no surprise he couldn't get the batter he was supposed to. Brian Stokes has given the Mets 25 good innings, but his track record suggests that he is a bad reliever. It's also no surprise when he fails to get the job done and gives up the lead.

Bad closers blow leads in the ninth inning, the way Luis Ayala did in Sunday's loss. There's a reason why the Mets were able to pick up Ayala at the low, low cost of Anderson Hernandez last month. Ayala simply hasn't been that good since ruining his elbow in 2006. He's given the Mets 10 good innings this year and has filled in servicably for Billy Wagner, but we're not exactly talking about Eric Gagne in the prime of his career here.

The Mets are a very good team with a very bad bullpen. Those teams are going to struggle to win consistently when the bullpen is always on the verge of giving away a lead. That's why this feels nothing like 2007 to me, because it's unfair to expect this team to keep winning at the rate they have been with such bad relievers.

One final note: I originally went on a vitriolic rant about how the Mets are screwing ticket holders like myself for Friday night's rainout by only offering an exchange to any game the rest of the 2008 season. Perhaps you already know this, but this is the final season the Mets will play home games at Shea Stadium, so ticket sales for the final homestand have been selling ... somewhat briskly.

I could not understand why the Mets would not offer fans the option of sitting in the cheapest seats for a game of their choice (subject to availability, of course) at Citi Field next season. I noted that the Mets could even limit exchanges to "bronze" or "value" games and it would still have been looked upon as a good-faith gesture that many fans (such as myself) would appreciate the opportunity to have.

And now I'm confused. Originally, the word was that the tickets could be exchanged for one of the final six games of this season. But following the links from the team website, I'm getting the message that you can exchange them for Citi Field games next season. Anyone know the definitive answer to this question?

Relax, Jerry

Jerry Manuel is managing scared, and in doing so he's only making a bad situation worse.

Look, if there's anything that the first five months of the 2008 season has taught us, it is that the Mets' bullpen isn't very good. Mets fans have gotten spoiled in the last few years, so despite the way they may be feeling about their relievers they really don't remember what it's like to have a truly bad bullpen. But it's safe to say that, as currently constructed, this bullpen is in the lower half of the National League and certainly isn't of a playoff team's caliber.

The bullpen is a weakness, but Manuel isn't helping by showing absolutely no faith in his relievers. He has kicked the mixing and matching into high gear over the last 10 days, even with relievers who are not specialists by nature. It's fine to use pitchers like Scott Schoenweis and Pedro Feliciano as specialists, but at some point you have to show enough faith in your other relievers to get the outs they need to get out of the inning.

It's gotten to the point that every time a reliever comes in, there's another one already in the bullpen warming up. That's no way for a reliever to gain confidence and leads to a natural tendency to press. What's more, it tires out relievers who, even if they don't get into the game, never get a day or two to fully rest their arms.

Today's win was very nice, especially since the bullpen combined to put up four scoreless frames. Even so, with a 6-2 lead in the ninth inning, Manuel had Luis Ayala warming up behind Brian Stokes. All Stokes had done to that point was to allow a leadoff single and then run a 3-1 count on Alfredo Amezaga. It wasn't a great start, but you have to believe that a major league reliever can nevertheless get out of this situation without giving up four runs.

The Mets will begin the month of September with a one-game lead over the Phillies. Help clearly is not on the way, even though it was announced during the game that the Mets were calling up nine more players (including four relievers) when the rosters expand tomorrow. It's hard to imagine Manuel isn't going to look at the new arms as a fresh troop of reinforcements, ready to be plugged right into the situational matchups that call for them. But if Manuel continues to over-manage, he's going to wear out the Mets' bullpen in the same fashion the former manager did last season.

No one wants to see a repeat of that.