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I don't know why I read this guy's crap. It just gets me upset. And this one particularly gets my goat.
Mets All-Stars should just skip the game
by Bob Klapisch
Another night, another horrific loss, as the Mets keep inching closer to nowhere. They were crushed (again) by the Dodgers on Thursday, which is hardly news. Indeed the wounds have become too deep to hurt anymore — it seemed like there were a million empty seats at Citi Field before the final out of an 11-2 rout.
The road to oblivion does have a detour, however — the All-Star Game — which will be an oasis for David Wright, Johan Santana and Francisco Rodriguez.
Hey, no argument, these are three elite-caliber athletes worthy of representing the National League. But the Mets' presence at the Midsummer Classic will only serve as a reminder of their disastrous first half.
Skip the All-Star Game? It's a crazy thought, but Mets fans are already in mourning; it'll be no consolation for them to see Wright, who went 0-for-22 against the Yankees and Phillies in back-to-back showdown series, on center stage Tuesday night.
Same goes for Santana, who's respected and admired by All-Stars in both leagues — but was 2-4 with a 6.19 ERA in June when the Mets' world was collapsing.
And as for K-Rod, he's been as close to perfect as the Mets could've expected, converting on 22 of 25 save opportunities. But his greatest achievement so far may have been in staying off the disabled list.
That's been the theme of this dreary summer — everyone's hurt, even the kids, like 20-year-old Fernando Martinez, who went on the DL Thursday with a bad knee.
The Mets' karma has been so uniformly bad, keeping their remaining stars healthy is reason enough for them to take a few days off this week. It'd give everyone time to reflect on the lessons of the free-fall.
Whether the Mets can recover from a 5 1/2-game deficit remains to be seen, although the horizon is already bleak. The Phillies are closing in on Roy Halladay, and the Mets' own cavalry — Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado — is nowhere in sight.
So if it's not the Mets' year, here are a few conclusions to be digested on Tuesday night.
David Wright isn't the savior, after all: Great guy, great attitude, terrific in the clubhouse and that .328 average puts him sixth in the league. But what happened to his power element?
Wright, who hit a career-high 33 home runs last season, is on a pace to finish 2009 with just 10. Part of the problem is Citi Field's crazy-deep dimensions, but Wright seems to have morphed into a different hitter altogether.
He doesn't go deep anymore, and he strikes out all the time — almost once every four at-bats. At this rate, Wright will rack up nearly 160 Ks this season. Only three hitters in history have ever whiffed that much and still batted .300 — Bobby Bonds, Ryan Howard and Sammy Sosa.
Wright is finding out how steep New York's celebrity tax can be.
"When you're the face of the franchise and everything is centered on you, if it's all about one person, it becomes more than one person can bear," said Gary Sheffield.
The ballpark is just too big: That's obvious by now, as the Mets are going to finish '09 with barely 50 home run at Citi Field. How can they expect to keep up with the Phillies, who'll hit twice at many HRs?
Actually, the handicap cuts deeply in both directions. The stadium is oversized and the Mets are just too weak. After scoring three runs last weekend against the Phillies, the Mets became the first team this season to go three consecutive games without hitting a home run at Citizens Bank Park.
Bringing in Citi's centerfield fences is one option. So is removing the upper half of the 16-foot wall that makes it so hard to go deep. An eight-foot barrier would be more reasonable.
The club's other option is to morph into the 1980s-era Cardinals, emphasizing speed, defense and pitching. Since 2004, the Mets have become a quasi-American League entity trying to out-slug the Phillies — with limited success.
To revamp the roster, however, means getting dramatically younger and more athletic. That kind of make-over isn't easy, however, given ownership's attraction to older free agents.
The fans won't stick around forever: Those empty seats on Thursday were a foreshadowing of what's coming in August in September. That is, unless the Mets mount a strong, second-half charge when (if) Reyes, Beltran and Delgado return.
If not, the Mets need to act decisively before the ballpark is abandoned altogether. Even an SNY TV executive admitted the team's Q-rating is next to nothing. "They're unwatchable," said the network official
The Mets may have no choice but to lower ticket prices if the deficit reaches double-digits. That would be bitter medicine for the Wilpon family, which has been denied playoff revenue for the last two years. Finishing out of the running for a third straight season could impact the Mets' plans this offseason, especially when they'll be looking for a replacement for Delgado.
The manager is (or isn't) the problem: Trying to evaluate Jerry Manuel's performance in the first half is virtually impossible, given the Class AAA roster he's forced to put on the field.
Still, no one would say the Mets have over-achieved or won anyone over with hustle. Instead, everyone's been dragged into the same cesspool, notably the pitchers: the starters and relievers both had collective ERAs over 5.00 in June, the first time that's happened since 1962.
Manuel seems lost trying to fight the malaise. He's alternately asked (begged) the front office for help via a trade and tried pumping up his players in team meetings. Throughout, Manuel has been candid in addressing the team's problems.
But nothing's worked so far. At year's end, ownership will take a hard look at Manuel's motivation quotient and ask if he's the right man to ever get a healthy Met team — if one can still imagine such a thing — into the playoffs.
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