Life may not be so swell these days in Queens, New York.
By Chris Hurd
Chris is a loyal and long time Mets and baseball fan, so of course, we expected his next blog to be on his favorite ball club from New York, right? Any who, here are a few thoughts from Hurd on his beloved New York Mets.
Is it too early to be worried about where the New York Mets season is going? As a long suffering fan of the Amazin‘s, I know that we are only 11 games into the young 2011 season, but a few things have become blindingly obvious with Terry Collins squad.
* Pitching/Bullpen: After Wednesday’s, 5-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies, the Mets bullpen ERA is a collective 5.21. Games are not going to be won by the offense alone. If the pitchers at the back end of the games can’t hold a lead, which has happened in the Colorado series, how are the Met even going to be a .500 team this year? In addition, the team’s ERA is above 5.00, too. An IF, IF… Johan Santana were to come back in 2011, is he really going to make much of an impact on a team that could do better than Mike Pelfrey, who has an ERA over 10.00?
* Terry Collins: I know that Mets owner Fred Wilson and G.M. Sandy Alderson wanted to bring someone in that would change the recent culture of bad managers the Mets have had. For the record, I was against the Collins hiring from the start. He is a .500 manager, so how exactly is a .500 managers going to turn around the Mets? And I know he wants to be an optimist but a quote from Wednesday is almost too much to take; “We’re one pitch away and we’re one swing away from being 9-2,” Collins said. “And we’re not. But the next 11? We need to be 9-2.” Come on Terry, the team is not that good; the Mets are not one pitch or one hit away from 9-2. He and pitching coach Dan Warthen need to get this pitching staff in line or call it like we all see it, they are not that good.
* The Losses: The Mets started the season, [3-1], taking the series from the Marlins and the opener vs. the Phillies. Things were looking up. Then the Phillies survived in a 10-7 win, after the Mets realized they needed to play against this team and hit the gas in the fifth inning, and then got thumped, 11-0 the next day. Then the Mets dropped two of three to the Washington Nationals, and can now at best salvage a split with the Rockies today. Then the Mets travel to Atlanta, and the optimism can’t be high with that series.
So the long and the short of it is this; the Mets by the end of this weekend will have played the other four teams in the NL East, and very well could be 4-8 in the in the division. The Phillies are not as down as many though they would be with the loss of Chase Utley, and the Marlins, Braves and Nationals are at least meeting expectations in the early part of the season.
Is there ay positive that the Mets can take away from the first 11 games of the season? Yes….at least they are not as bad as the Boston Red Sox.
Until next time……Be Good All!
