Author: Greg Pomes
I've been on the blogosphere and the internet the last 2 days and Met fans are in a positive mood after all the press the Mets did on Monday and I just don't understand why. I feel that the Mets just said whatever Met fans wanted to hear and the fans seemed to buy it hook, line and sinker. Is it just that 2009 was so horrible that when we hear of improvements coming our way we are buying it up too easily?
Jeff Wilpon made it clear that the Mets will have one of the highest payrolls in 2010. They had one of the highest payrolls in 2009 too. He says the Mets don't have a figure in mind on what their budget will be. The Mets have been rumored all year long to be cutting the budget down for the 2010 season. The Mets could have the 5th highest payroll in the majors and I think most people will agree that is one of the highest payrolls in MLB.
The fact that the Mets did not fire HoJo and Dan Warthen does not encourage me. I know the Mets had a high team batting average as well as a good on base percentage but let's not forget that the Mets were horrible with runners in scoring position. They could not move runners over and their situational hitting was horrible. David Wright only hit 10 HR's. The excuse the Mets used was Citi Field but what about the other 81 games that he played on the road? He had 5 HR's at Citi Field and 5 on the road. Wright knocked in 72 RBI this season. Howard Johnson convinced Wright this season to adjust his swing. Obviously the new swing didn't work and HoJo didn't try to get Wright to go back to his old approach. Since HoJo took over for this team as the hitting coach the situational hitting has been bad. In the last 3 games, all games the Mets needed to win they scored just 5 runs in 3 games against the Marlins.
The pitching staff under Dan Warthen has regressed. Pelfrey showed so much promise at the end of 2008 but took giants steps backwards after the 2009 season. We are now back at square one with Pelf, wondering if he has what it takes to be a major league pitcher. Oliver Perez has gotten worse this year, his command was horrible and it was not just this knee injury he suffered. Warthen had no idea that Santana was hurt and skipping bullpen sessions. His job is to lookout for the pitchers and to let the Mets ace pitcher risk his arm is inexcusable to me.
The excuse Jeff Wilpon gave Mike Francesa on WFAN about the injuries was lame and using a word the Mets like to use "unacceptable." The fact that other team doctors diagnosed player injuries and the Mets who have some of the best doctors in the country if not the world on retainer did not send them for 2nd opinions is plain dumb. I cannot say it any other way. I'm not giving them a pass on this at all, in fact I don't know why Wilpon even brought this up it only made the Mets look more foolish.
Omar continued to backtrack and stutter as Mike Francesa of all people grilled him. Omar said he would still sign Oliver Perez even after this season. He even had the audacity to compare Oliver Perez to Jason Verlander.
There were 2 good things that I heard on Monday. Number one is that they recognized the error of not putting more of a team presence in the ballpark. Jeff Wilpon and Dave Howard promised a Citi Field Mets museum that will be ready for next season.
The only other I good thing that I heard on Monday was Jeff Wilpon said that it was time for Omar and Jerry to step up. It sounds like the Mets are not going to take anymore excuses from management on the shortcomings of this team.
Now I'm not trying to be pessimistic, I really hope the Mets do spend money on quality players to fill the many holes they have coming into 2010. I also hope that this team will improve but as far as I'm concerned the Mets have lost all credibility. This was a team that promised changes last year and did not deliever on that promise. This is a team that told us over and over again that our injured players would return to the team after the all-star game and would guide us into the playoffs. That did not happen. Reyes has not returned, Delgado never returned and Beltran took almost 2 months past the promise the Mets gave us to return. The time for promises is over and the time for action is now!
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