On the first Monday of each month we roll out our Monthly MLB Report Card (forever to be known as MMLBRC) for the Mets, Phillies and Yankees. We’ll still check in from time to time with short posts to quickly take the pulse of each team, but think of the MMLBRC as an in depth physical (anal probing not included). Truthfully, a month is probably too small of a sample size to make overarching claims like we will attempt to, but dammit, you want content! So rather than write well-reasoned quarterly updates, we’ll make rash decisions based on far too little data. Last up: the Metropolitans.
DISCLAIMER: Despite our best efforts, the way a team plays in the week preceding our MMLBRC updates slighty clouds our judgment when writing these posts. Both Kev and I are, of course, rational, logical fans. But at the end of the day being a fan presupposes some level of emotional attachment. So no matter how rational and logical we attempt to be in our opinions and analysis, there will always be a modicum of emotion that slips through or tinges the posts we author. As such, and given that the Mets have gotten my hopes up far too often only to rip my heart out, I’m warning everyone to take the following post with a (at least one) grain of salt. I promise I’ll try to be as fair and balanced as possible.
After a winning road trip (5-3) against the Cardinals and Phillies, two of the best teams in the National League — believe me when I say it pains me deeply to include those two teams in a sentence with any level of praise involved — I want to believe.
I want to think the win tonight in Philly to take three of four from the front-running Phil’s is a signal that this team has turned a corner.
You see, this was a bad movie we’d sat through many times before. Except we kept watching even though we knew how much the ending would hurt: Mets bounce back from a bad loss Friday to take two of three from their nemeses, stirring hope in our hearts, only to drop a game like tonight’s and pass up a chance to shave another game off Philadelphia’s lead and poke their heads above .500.
Then a funny thing happened — the plot changed. Credit renewed energy (cringe) on the Mets part. Or Damion Easley and Fernando Tatis. Heck, credit Adam Eaton if you must, I don’t care. This was the type of game we haven’t won since 2006. This was a game we’d gotten used to having Philly claw back and kick some more of the life out of our season.
Instead, we looked somewhat like that 2006 team. Scoring multiple runs early on the road. Putting the opposition on their heels. And getting a solid, albeit short-lived outing from Pedro Martinez.
And with that, an excruciating, frustrating, gut-wrenching first half of missed chances and spinning wheels was virtually all erased. All of a sudden, the Billy Wagner blown saves, the squandered leads (Wednesday in St. Louis and Friday at Philadelphia), the offensive struggles, and the internal drama, while still maddening, are things of the past. Things to be forgotten, because for the first time in a long time, it feels like we have a season. The Mets are over .500 for the first time since June 5th. They are only two back of Philly in the loss. They are 7-3 against Philly (outscoring the boys from the City of Brotherly Love by a count of 63-39). What felt like a lost summer now has new life.
I apologize for the above, and I’m sure the Amazin’s will find some amazingly crippling way to drop games to the Giants and Rockies this week to make me utterly regret ever writing this…
Now, onto the five Truths I can realistically posit about the Mets this year:
1) Johan Santana will never get run support. Never. And as a result, he will continue to be unfairly skewered by the NY media.
2) Carlos Delgado isn’t as good as I hoped he would be; but he isn’t nearly as bad as I thought either. He was brutal in April and May, but since June started, he’s been much improved. Digging deeper, maybe Delgado has just become a slow starter. Check out his splits from last season. In 2007, his post-All Star break OPS was .840, over 100 points higher than his first half production. What’s more, he clocked 10 homeruns in just 207 at bats after last year’s Mid-Summer Classic (as opposed to 14 in 331 ABs pre-break). Delgado will have a better second half than first this year too. In a perfect world, he would still be platooned and sit against lefties, but he’s serviceable as a sixth hitter right now.
3) Jerry Manuel has totally won me over. I was vehemently opposed to naming him interim manager after firing Willie Randolph, and he’s made some mistakes since taking over, but I’m officially in his corner now.
4) Billy Wagner cost me a grand. Seriously. I was at the June 12th day game against the Diamondbacks when he blew his third save of the week. Had he nailed down the save, the game would’ve been over before rush hour and traffic would have been allowed to exit onto Roosevelt Ave and the convenient entrance to the Grand Central Parkway Eastbound. Instead, the game went extras, spilled into rush hour, and traffic was diverted away from Roosevelt, which led me right into the back bumper of a Benz. Thanks Sandman!
5) Aaron Heilman totally, completely utterly baffles me (as I type this he serves up a gopher ball to Geoff Jenkins — like I said, there’s no comprehending what to expect from this guy).
P.S. After the end of that game, I need to wash my boxers. Three months left in the regular season, God baseball is a marathon! You gotta love it!
1 Comment
August 4, 2008 at 6:50 pm
[...] rotation tossing gem after gem; to the resurgence of Carlos Delgado, which we’ve mentioned in this space before, and Fernando Tatis partying like it’s 1999 (pay no attention to the poor grammar from [...]