The Mets: Just Mediocre

Nothing To Celebrate

Like other fans of the Metropolitanitos, I thought 2008 might just be The Year. I thought they were old, yes, but talented. I thought they would make up for last year's terrible fade. I thought they'd be a playoff team at the least and maybe, just maybe, win it all. I thought they'd play hard and be exciting. Wrong. This team is mediocre, and if it keeps going the way it is now, it'll continue to play sub .500 ball through the All Star Break, through the entire regular season, until that ignominious day in September when they are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. I seriously doubt this team will make the playoffs. They're just not playing. They're below average.

There are so many things wrong it's not worth listing them. Just a highlight? How can a team score 15 runs in a day game and then play the same team at home and score 0? Don't ask. No. Let's forget the anecdotes, that will just get me disgusted. The Mets fired Willie. That was supposed to make a dramatic change. Did it? Not yet. The Mets are still 2 games below .500 at 39 wins and 41 losses. They play the Yanquis again today. More runs have been scored against them (378) than they have scored (375). They've lost 2 in a row. They are 5-5 in the their past 10. Did I say they were playing below .500? I'm afraid that this is how it goes until the end of the season. Why would it change? Why would they start playing? Nobody can imagine how that could happen.

By the way, there are 10 National League teams, including the Mets, playing less than .500 ball, and the National League East this year is terrible, so the Mets are still only 4 games behind the lackluster Phillies and the Fish and tied with the Braves. This could give fans hope, if they believe that somehow a team that is 6 or fewer games over .500 will win the division, or that the three rivals are going to continue to falter for the rest of the season. The Mets could, diehard fans might think, win the division if they turn it around soon. But, folks, that's just not going to happen. See, paragraph 1.

And my hero, the aging first baseman, former star Carlos Delgado? He of the career .278 batting average. He who hit .301 for the Fish in 2005. He who hit 38 homers in 2006 for the Mets. He had 9 RBIs in the day game on Saturday. A career day. Wonderful. But other than that game, he's been hitless since June 21, in 6 of the last 7 games, going 0 for 20. And his BA is now .230. I cannot blame the Mets' mediocrity on Carlos, but he sure is not helping things.