I listen to New York's Major Sports talk radio stations daily and each and every time I am amazed by the delusional Met fans that call up the station complaining about how their team isn't winning and how they're falling out of the race. To which the obvious response is, "What the hell did you think was going to happen when half your team got injured?", yet everyday there's still a new caller spitting out the same garbage. Please just take a look at the blatant facts.
Currently the Mets are without Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado, effectively 3 of the 4 major pieces of their lineup. In 2007 these 3 players combined for 71 of the Mets 172 Homers, 81 of the Mets 138 Steals, 315 of the Mets 799 Runs scored, and 295 of the Mets 755 RBI. Currently these players are being replaced in the lineup by Jeremy Reed who has 11 career homers with zero coming this season, Daniel Murphy who's hitting a robust .246 in his "breakout" season, and Alex Cora a perennial utility man with no power.
Now for good measure lets toss in the pitching injuries. John Mayne and Oliver Perez were supposed to combine with Mike Pelfrey to formulate the 2-3-4 spots in the rotation. Instead, Oliver Perez blew up and has been on the DL for months and a few weeks ago Mr. Mayne joined him. Last season the two combined for 58 starts and 20 Mets 89 wins, they combined for 302 of the Mets 1181 strikeouts, and if you take out Santana's stats from the equation they pitched superior to the average Met in their 334 IP. These two are being replaced by a guy cut by the Astros in Fernando Nieve and a guy cut by a multitude of teams Tim Redding. On top of all that JJ Putz was brought in to be the setup guy and for awhile he was doing the job, but like Mayne he fell to injuries and now the ripple effect of the Mets bullpen is taking place.
If you had to pick the 10 key components to a succesful Mets season these 6 players along with Wright, K-Rod, Santana and Pelfrey would accumulate this top ten. 60% of Mets key players are injured and yet their delusional fan base still expects them to win. It's time for a reality check.
Currently the Mets are without Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado, effectively 3 of the 4 major pieces of their lineup. In 2007 these 3 players combined for 71 of the Mets 172 Homers, 81 of the Mets 138 Steals, 315 of the Mets 799 Runs scored, and 295 of the Mets 755 RBI. Currently these players are being replaced in the lineup by Jeremy Reed who has 11 career homers with zero coming this season, Daniel Murphy who's hitting a robust .246 in his "breakout" season, and Alex Cora a perennial utility man with no power.
Now for good measure lets toss in the pitching injuries. John Mayne and Oliver Perez were supposed to combine with Mike Pelfrey to formulate the 2-3-4 spots in the rotation. Instead, Oliver Perez blew up and has been on the DL for months and a few weeks ago Mr. Mayne joined him. Last season the two combined for 58 starts and 20 Mets 89 wins, they combined for 302 of the Mets 1181 strikeouts, and if you take out Santana's stats from the equation they pitched superior to the average Met in their 334 IP. These two are being replaced by a guy cut by the Astros in Fernando Nieve and a guy cut by a multitude of teams Tim Redding. On top of all that JJ Putz was brought in to be the setup guy and for awhile he was doing the job, but like Mayne he fell to injuries and now the ripple effect of the Mets bullpen is taking place.
If you had to pick the 10 key components to a succesful Mets season these 6 players along with Wright, K-Rod, Santana and Pelfrey would accumulate this top ten. 60% of Mets key players are injured and yet their delusional fan base still expects them to win. It's time for a reality check.
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