Two weeks ago today, the Mets had a 2-game lead on the Phillies and were looking at a favorable two-week stretch of games against the Nationals and the Braves in front of them. Since Washington and Atlanta happen to be the two worst teams in the N.L. East, the Mets seemed to be in prime position to have a comfortable lead in the division coming into the final week of the season.
Instead, the Mets went 6-6 against mediocre competition and today find themselves 1.5 games behind the Phillies, who won 10 of 13 games against much tougher competition (the Marlins, Brewers and Braves). If Philadelphia holds on to win the division - and really, there's no reason to believe that they won't - it will be because they earned their crown. The Phillies have won big games when they needed to and have played well enough in September to end up with home-field advantage in their Division Series.
The Mets, on the other hand, do not deserve to make the playoffs. They are an incomplete team, one with fine starting pitching and an occasionally dangerous lineup that sometimes struggles with consistency. They also have a terrible bullpen, headed by a makeshift closer and six specialists of varying effectiveness. When the postseason party begins next week, the Mets have no right to be holding an invitation.
And yet, despite yakking 3.5 games in the standings in the last 14 days, the Mets are even closer to a playoff berth today than they were two weeks ago. That's because the Milwaukee Brewers have gone 3-10 during that stretch to drop 1.5 games behind New York in the Wild Card race.
I'll probably go more into it at Flushing University this week, but every year some undeserving team makes the playoffs because of the folly that is the Wild Card. If the Mets can simply be less incompetent than the Brewers over the next seven days, they will be that undeserving team this year.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
As The End Drew Near (Flushing University)
As the Mets continue their second straight September stumble, the final inning of Tuesday night's game played out in disappointing fashion. Disappointing - but hardly surprising. Read more here ...
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Not Again
This is simply unacceptable.
John Lannan and Odalis Perez were blitzed by the Mets last week at Shea, each lasting only three ineffective innings before surrendering the baseball to Nationals manager Manny Acta in games the Mets eventually held on to win. One week later, Acta handed the ball right back to his two top lefties – and they responded with back-to-back dominant performances.
It’s one thing to give up late leads and lose games when your beleaguered bullpen finally starts pitching down to their skill level. It’s quite another to be completely handcuffed by two mediocrities such as Lannan and Perez, each of whom had just been beaten up by the Mets a week earlier. The result? The New York Mets are a second place ball club now.
If it wasn’t for the Milwaukee Brewers, perhaps the only team in baseball more pathetic than the Mets right now, the Mets would be completely out of the playoff picture with 13 games to go. Neither team deserves to be in the playoffs, but I guess one team will wind up being even less deserving than the other and will earn the right to get swept out of the Division Series.
More at Flushing University tomorrow.
John Lannan and Odalis Perez were blitzed by the Mets last week at Shea, each lasting only three ineffective innings before surrendering the baseball to Nationals manager Manny Acta in games the Mets eventually held on to win. One week later, Acta handed the ball right back to his two top lefties – and they responded with back-to-back dominant performances.
It’s one thing to give up late leads and lose games when your beleaguered bullpen finally starts pitching down to their skill level. It’s quite another to be completely handcuffed by two mediocrities such as Lannan and Perez, each of whom had just been beaten up by the Mets a week earlier. The result? The New York Mets are a second place ball club now.
If it wasn’t for the Milwaukee Brewers, perhaps the only team in baseball more pathetic than the Mets right now, the Mets would be completely out of the playoff picture with 13 games to go. Neither team deserves to be in the playoffs, but I guess one team will wind up being even less deserving than the other and will earn the right to get swept out of the Division Series.
More at Flushing University tomorrow.
Monday, September 15, 2008
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?
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?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)