After getting the not-so-hard fought win the Mets 14-3 victory over the Tigers, RA Dickey told the gathering of reporters at his locker:
“What you guys are doing here is a little bit ridiculous. If I’m even mentioned in an article, I’m going to boycott.”
It was a nice little night for the Mets offense with Jason Bay and Carlos Beltran hitting grand slams in back-to-back innings. They were the first grand slams for the Mets since Angel Pagan’s bases clearing shot on August 1, 2009. When they come, they come in bunches. Or something like that.
It was not such a pleasant evening for Rick Porcello (3.2 IP, 11 H, 7 ER) or Daniel Schlereth (1.1 IP, 4 H, 6 ER). Porcello may still be young, but his prospect sheen is quickly fading. Not only has Porcello’s strikeout rate failed to markedly improve in his third Major League season, but his groundball rate is the lowest it has ever been. Needless to say, that’s not the goal of player development.
The fierce face R.A. Dickey makes while throwing a knuckleball:
It’s like Mel Gibson crying havoc in “Braveheart” and then releasing a swarm of butterflies, or Gerard Butler in “300” shouting instead: “This is Queens!”
The Good
Why is it that “The Good” is becoming harder and harder to write? Could it be because of the up and down nature of the team? Could it be because the valleys are much deeper than the peaks are tall? Whatever the case may be, there is at least a teaspoon of good in this cup of awful. Exhibit A: RA Dickey. Robert Allen started a game last week, and Robert Allen was once again, effective. 8.1 IP, only 4 hits, and 0 runs. When do we, as a collective fanbase, start expecting great outings of him every time out? I think I’m already there. Can you say “5th starter in 2011?” It might soon be time to ask that question.
When David Wright is hot, he is red hot. We’re looking at, in 22 plate appearances, 8 hits, a double, 2 homers, 9 RBI, and 4 walks. It’s a little tough to go too crazy when his defense, especially yesterday, continues to frustrate. Still, David has the ability to carry a team on his back when he gets on tears like this. It’s just unfortunate that, right now, it’s not translating to more wins.
The Bad
The Diamondbacks are awful. Aaron Heilman is their closer. Aaron. Heilman. They’re in last place in the National League West. And they own the Mets. The Mets continue to lose against the awful teams, which confuses me to no end. They play incredibly solid baseball against the St. Louis Cardinals, and could’ve swept them (more on that later), only to come out flat and with zero pride against the Diamondbacks. They exacted no revenge for the embarrassment that was the Mets’ trip over to Arizona by letting that terrible team come to Citi Field and do nothing but spank them all over the field. How the Mets eked out a win on Saturday night was, frankly, a surprise to me. Any goodwill they could’ve gained from the Cardinals series was destroyed and more over the weekend.
The Ugly
This is a pivotal week in the Mets’ season. With back to back series’ against the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies, this is when the Mets either put themselves back in the race, or get buried so deep in the standings that climbing back up will be very unlikely. Some might say that they have to win in spite of Jerry Manuel, who thought it was a good idea to leave Pedro Feliciano in as long as he did in Wednesday’s extra inning loss to the Cards. He also thought it was a good idea to let Pedro pitch to Albert Pujols. Nicely managed, skip.
Also, Oliver Perez is still on the team. I needn’t say anything else on the matter.
The Good
Let’s see, the good… the good… the pitching’s been pretty good, yes? Great, except…
The Bad
Everything else. Especially the hitting. Will the Mets find a way to score more than 15 runs this week? If that number sounds absurdly low, I chose it because that’s all the team scored last week. 15. And 6 of them were in one game. Their batting average over that time? .195. This lineup looks excellent on paper, and I don’t remember the last time I saw such a rock solid-looking lineup underachieve at such an unheard of level. They make every single pitcher that goes up against them look like Cy Young, and I can’t think of a more frustrating display than we’ve seen over the last 7 games.
The Ugly
Will Jerry Manuel be the manager of the team for the rest of the year or not? We hear a new story about the guy after every brutal loss, so can we either get a vote of confidence through the rest of the year or the dropping of the guillotine now? A decision should be made. Speaking of Jerry, he wasn’t dealing with a young prospect in RA Dickey. He was dealing with a journeyman veteran who knew better than anybody whether he can keep pitching after slipping on Clayton Kershaw’s lousy mound hole. Dickey wasn’t very happy when he was removed from yesterday’s game, and neither were many frustrated Mets fans.
The Good - Is Jason Bay On His Way Back?
Jason Bay’s mainly here to do one thing, and that’s to drive in runs. It’s pretty obvious that he’s had a rough year so far, not putting up the power numbers that he’s used to, and he’s a very streaky player. The problem is, we haven’t seen any of those patented hot streaks yet. The hope is that he’s going to soon get into one. In the last week, Jason’s got a double, a triple, 2 homers, and 10 RBI. A big chunk of that production, however, came over the weekend against the Nationals. He’s got a double and a RBI off of Jesus Stephen Strasburg, and that triple, and 4 RBI in yesterday afternoon’s game. He’s an important piece of the lineup, and only time will tell whether he’s about to turn it on. If he does though, an already feisty lineup will become just that much stronger.
The Bad - Josh Thole, But Let Me Explain
Call me crazy, but I’m starting to think Josh Thole is the goods. He seems to call a good game, has good, solid hands - he makes catching RA Dickey look like child’s play - and is clearly a contact hitter. Did you see his at-bat against Strasburg on Saturday? Exactly. The problem here is that Mets fans are going to get attached to him very quickly since he’s a homegrown, while Rod Barajas slowly sinks back to earth and Henry Blanco just sort of exists. He has a bit of a spark to him, which fans always love, but the problem lies in the fact that he’s probably just becoming some juicy trade bait. I’m not going to call him a hall of famer or anything, but it’d definitely be a debate as to whether to ship him off to Seattle for a Mr. Cliff Lee, who yes, is a rental.
The Ugly - What the Hell Was Going On In Puerto Rico?
Listen, I love Puerto Rico. My family’s from there, and the best vacation of my life took place there last year. But we need not ever see another Major League Baseball game in that lousy stadium in San Juan ever again. Astro-turf, or whatever it actually was, combined with the fact that a “CHARGE!” horn was played every time the Marlins got a hit - with the ball still in play - aggravated me to no end. I could only imagine what the players thought of that stuff. Oh, and by the way, Jose Reyes still isn’t starting tonight against the Reds because of his “turf-related” injury. Ugh.
The Good - Pitching
It’s pretty hard to argue with the fact that the Mets have appeared to have hit their stride. Are they as good as winning 8 in a row? Probably not. The real breakthrough this year seems to be that even when they take a punch to the jaw (read: on Saturday), they bounce back with a crisp, convincing win. They’re winning series, which is what you’re supposed to do, and refuse to let a loss turn into a skid. The main reason for this consistent success is the pitching. Yes, the offense has come around and does its best to come back, but the pitching is what’s been keeping the wins flowing in. The Mets threw 2 shutouts last week, for a total of 11, best in the majors, and guys like R.A. Dickey, Jonathon Niese, and shockingly, Elmer Dessens have been pitching at an extremely high level. Dickey, whose career high in wins is 9, is on a pace to set a new personal mark this year. He’s got 6 wins already which yes, is 1 more than Johan Santana. Jon Niese, who I’ll give a pass for the “rain delay game,” threw 6 shutout innings against a tough Twins lineup yesterday. Elmer didn’t give up a run last week, and now has an ERA this year of .66. As a matter of fact, he hasn’t surrendered a run since his first appearance on May 21st. It’s hard to lose if you don’t let the other team score. Once Johan comes around (and I believe he will), and if Niese and Dickey can maintain even a semblance of this success, it’s hard to see the Mets fall victim to any sustained losing streaks.
The Bad - Is Angel OK?
Angel Pagan, hitting .302 on the year, has been a huge part of the Mets lineup this year, providing a clutch bat that fit extremely well in the #2 spot. He’s hitting .296 with 2 outs and runners in scoring position, and .429 in late and close games. The problem is that he’s been out of the lineup since the 23rd, and it seems like nobody’s sure when he’s coming back. Will he eventually be DLed, leaving Jesus Feliciano to play center field? It seems as if we’ve heard “tomorrow” 4 times already, and according to Metsblog.com, he won’t be playing tonight in Puerto Rico against the Marlins either. I feel like we’ve seen this movie a few times before the last couple of years, so hopefully this situation turns out to be different, and we won’t nickname Angel “Godot.”
The Ugly - Beltran’s Return is Making Everyone Delirious
So how about we trade Pagan now because Carlos Beltran played a little DH in Buffalo? How about we move him to 2nd base, because you can totally just do that? How about we just wait and see if Beltran is even remotely close to what he was before he was injured before we come up with one idea which I strongly disagree with, and one idea that I simply refuse to entertain because this isn’t video games? Let’s explore the other side of the spectrum now. Chemistry? Do you know what makes chemistry? Winning. And do you know who instantly makes the lineup better, deeper, and more powerful? Carlos Beltran. I can’t listen to the Joe Benignos of the world saying that they’d rather Beltran not come back and disrupt the team’s chemistry because, frankly, it’s asinine. I have no other words for it. Let’s all take a breath, and wait. He’s not here yet, and he won’t be here tomorrow, or the day after. Thank you.
Bonus: The Uglier
The Phillies were on the road this past weekend, and had to travel all the way to Philadelphia to play the Toronto Blue Jays, who had the luxury of rolling out of bed right onto a plane that flew them to the warm confines of not their park. Again, asinine.
