(by Brett Kahn)After the Mets were swept by the Atlanta Braves, they dropped to fourth place in the NL East with speculation that Willie Randolph could be fired. Now, after loosing two-of-three to the injury-plagued Colorado Rockies, the Mets now find themselves in a slump that's going to take a lot to "swing" out of.
After the first 48 games of the season, the Mets find themselves 5.5 games out of first place. But, who's fault is this really? Much has been blamed on Randolph and the pitching staff when, in fact, it's the offense that's been lackluster all season. The Mets are currently 22nd in the entire league in batting average at .253, 16th in the league with 228 runs scored, 21st with 41 HR's, 18th with 214 RBI's, and 16th with a .329 OBP. Simply put, this team needs to hit to have any chance to be competitive.
The fans and the media want to blame the pitching staff because the Mets, by adding Johan Santana in the off season, put a lot more emphasis on starting pitching because of the debacle at the end of last year with less than stellar pitching performances coming from Tom Glavine, John Maine, and Oliver Perez. However, it always seems to get swept under the rug how the Mets simply could not hit down the stretch last season.
Until Carlos Delgado boosts his batting average higher than Johan Santana's, David Wright becomes the Wright of old, Jose Reyes stops getting picked off two times per game, and Ryan Church stops colliding with other players, this team will continue to struggle. The question is: will Omar Minaya wait that long to seriously do something about it?
No comments:
Post a Comment