I am trying a new tactic with my appreciation of the Mets...
Here's the thing: I'm such a dork that I've analyzed out all of the Mets' losses and determined which of their twenty losses shouldn't have happened... my criteria being, you should not lose to Washington or Florida or Pittsburgh ever, you should not lose one-run games ever, you should not lose two-to-nothing shut-outs.
They should have the bats and the pitching to not lose those games, especially since they should've gotten Soriano and/or Manny in the off-season or at least called up Milledge and Keppinger at the beginning of the season, benching Matsui and platooning Milledge in through all injuries to the other outfielders.
One more bat, two more bats and their six one-run losses and their one two-nothing loss vanish... and probably their two losses to Washington and one loss to Florida vanish as well. By my math, if they had the balls to either (a) make the trades or (b) make the call-ups at day one, they are supposed to be 42-10 right now instead of the solid-but-underachieving 32-20 they're hanging in at right now.
They're supposed to be up on Philly and Atlanta by 16-plus games with nearly a third of the season gone.
But here's the thing... the silver lining I'm trying to convince myself of is... being just good instead of amazing and getting their outfield and starting rotation banged up early has forced them to make some of the moves they were supposed to in April. When these guys come back healthy, the team will be deeper and more experienced for it.
The struggles got Matsui benched... which is goddamned important. Okay, they're playing fill-in with Woodward and Valentin instead of calling up Keppinger's bat because a slightly shakey glove comes with it but... forcing the Mets to finally admit that Matsui was a total mistake and is an irredeemable mistake is important for the rest of this season and for seasons to come. Like an alcoholic hitting bottom to know they gotta get better, this is a good first step at second. With Valentin on a probably-short-lived hot streak, its buying some time.
The injuries got Milledge up. Maybe not as soon as he should've been, maybe not the way he should've... but he's up and he's already wowing people. This is a kid that needed to not be expected to just wake up and be the starting left fielder in April 2007 without a major league start, just some pinch hits in September garbage time. Endy Chavez being hot for about five-minutes is helping a lot too... we just have to make sure that the Mets remember that Chavez and Valentin over an entire season are going to be completely terrible, not mistake these hot streaks for actual fixes.
The injuries forced the Mets to realize that what they thought were their next-starters in AAA were actually horrifically bad and that changes would have to be made. Could you imagine going to Lima and Gonzalez as your fourth and fifth starters in the middle of a mid-August pennant race? Good. Gravy. That'd be a duketastrophe. Now, they made a few moves... Soler has the time to grow into a few more starts, El Duque is 200% better a fifth starter than Zamdrano (though, to be fair, I am completely out-of-shape and have never played organized baseball and would be 55% better a fifth starter than The Drain) and when Bannister comes back in early July, you can pick from those two whoever's in the groove to fill the last sport...
And most importantly... Jorge Julio, He Who Is Become Death, Ruiner of Worlds, Causer of Heart Attacks, Brandon Looper and Armando Benitez at once rolled together in a Satanic Burrito, is off to the land of twinkletoes to go wreck the Diamondbacks.
So, if this underachieving April and May taught them to grow and not hang onto project washouts when there's young people to bring up and trades to make? Maybe that's what needed to happen and they'll be a better team in August and September for it.
Is this new tactic delusional or am I onto something?
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Topic: Can (non-fantasy) baseball have its own thread too? (Read 8610 times)