Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Come On

I know they suck, and they deserve some of the criticism that has been meted out this year, but the injuries that the Mets have sustained this year are staggering. The following TWENTY-ONE players have (or, in two cases, are about to) miss/missed games due to injury. And the vast majority were for more than a few games:

Alex Cora
Angel Pagan
Billy Wagner
Brian Schneider
Carlos Beltran
Carlos Delgado
David Wright
Fernando Martinez
Fernando Nieve
Gary Sheffield
J.J. Putz
Jeff Francouer
Johan Santana
John Maine
Jon Niese
Jose Reyes
Luis Castillo
Oliver Perez
Ramon Martinez
Ryan Church
Tim Redding



Dude, we're going to need a bigger truck.

I do not think there is a single team in baseball that could have made the playoffs with this kind total annihilation of their core guys and many role players.

I am starting to think that the only people who truly deserve to lose their jobs are the trainers and medical staff. And even for them, only if there is any basis to the suggestion that poor conditioning, training, stretching, etc. is responsible for some of the injuries (or at least the severity/duration of the injury). Jerry Manuel has made some questionable moves here and there (that sound you hear is Open Bar smashing his head against his keyboard as he reads this), and Omar can be questioned for the decision to sign certain guys (but the biggest question mark - Luis Castillo - has actually had a solid year). I just do not see how you fire Omar and Jerry with such an incomplete record on which to judge them.

I know this is a bit of a 180 for me, but with Wright, Santana and Francouer all going down in the last week or so, I think I sort of threw up my hands. This could all just be really bad luck. The baseball gods may indeed have had it in for the Mets this year.

We'll get 'em next year.





3 comments:

Open Bar said...

I agree that no team could have done much with that many injuries, especially not with how severe many were and that all of the best hitters (and now, sigh, the best pitcher) are out for the year. The training/medical staff definitely needs to be fed to starving pumas.

But Omar and Jerry aren't off the hook. I don't want to get into how bad an in-game manager Jerry is, but I have said before that I don't think a manager really has that much effect on games, and I would like to rephrase that: I don't think a manager can have that much of a positive effect on games; he can certainly have a significant negative effect. After watching Jerry this year, I'm confident in that revision.

As for Omar, I'd say this:

GOOD: Pedro, Beltran, Johan
BAD: Everything else

The latest example: Sheffield was claimed by the Giants off waivers, and for some reason, the Mets pulled him back. If the Giants had offered an old Connect Four and a book of already-filled-in Mad-Libs, this deal should have been a no-brainer. Why keep Sheffield? Why? Only Omar knows.

ChuckJerry said...

What really gets me is that the Mets MVP this year, without question, is Luis Castillo.

Instead of hot dog guys, they should just take five dollars and then punch you in the face.

Open Bar said...

Mets MVP this year? Congrats, Luis. You've won the equivalent of Best Actor in a "Transformers" movie.