Panic Time

[Willets Point]

What the hell is happening with the Mets?!?!?!

[metirish]

A shit offense right now,just not scoring enough runs.

[Willets Point]

But the offense is supposed to be our strength.

Again, I ask, what the hell is happening with this team?!?!

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

The offense sucks.

[Willets Point]

Johnny Dickshot wrote: The offense sucks. _________________ Billy Crystal sucks.

Which one is sucking whom?

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

The return of the noffense.

With all the injuries to the starters, the lineup simply lacks the depth that it had earlier in the year. When the offense was going well, the 6,7, 8, hitters were typically Alou, Green, and Valentin. That left Chavez and Easley to serve as pinch hitters. Now those same positions in the line up are often occupied by the likes of Gomez, Johnson, Newhan. Easley and Chavez are generally starting as well so the options for pinch hitters are vastly limited and far less imposing than earlier.

The DL time for Alou should have been expected given his track record the past few seasons. But losing Green and Valentin were devastating to the depth of the line up.

[DocTee]

Get used to it, since Alou's return has been pushed back (again):

From nymets.com---

Alou delayed: After doctors drained fluid from the left leg of Moises Alou on Tuesday, the veteran outfielder said he expected to be ready to play in the Mets weekend series in Detroit. But Alou experienced pain in his strained left quadricep while testing it by doing some running exercises before the game. He then expressed doubts he will return as early as he had predicted.

Alou was assigned to the disabled list May 17.

"We've done everything that we think we should do to get it better," Alou said. "I ice it three or four times at home. I've even put my horse's ointment on it."

So the guy who pees on his hands to keep them callous -free now uses equine ointment to regenerate his legs. Weird.

[Valadius]

I knew Alou was a bad idea from the start. Did not want him.

[Willets Point]

In other words this team is built too rely on old, fragile guys too keep the offense going. Good thing the rotation is nothing but hale, healthy young men so nothing like this could happent to the pitching.

Oh wait....

[Gwreck]

Yeah, we've got so much to worry about with the pitching. Oh, wait, not really.

[Guest Edgy DC]

This is easy. Our pitching has been excellent. Our replacements, young and old, have been, on the whole, very good.

[TransMonk]

I'll be pretty upset if LoDuca isn't bumped up to the number 2 slot in the lineup immediately now that Endy's gone. I mean Reyes, Loduca, Beltran, Delgado and Wright were our 1-5 guys last year and they're all moderately healthy right now. Even if our 6-8 is some combination of Gomez, Gotay, Newhan, Valentin and Johnson it should be enough to score more runs than our pitching staff is allowing right now. And Green is back on Sunday.

I think this team needs to play with a little more fire. Delgado should have scored from 3rd last night (or at least looked like he was running as hard as he could)...Gotay should have scored from 3rd last night. Little things like baserunning and situational hitting are certainly not killing the team but it's costing them some close games that they probably should be winning. I guess I'd like to see a little more urgency.

The stats and standings say that this team is better than last year's...and if they were totally healthy it might be obvious, but last year's team seemed to click offensively a lot more than this year's. Losing 3 in a row is not a sign that it's time to panic, but ATL is still breathing down our necks and Philly is now right behind them and the schedule doesn't get any easier this month. I think it would be good for the team for them to feel a little regular season pressure for the first time in a year and a half. Willie's been talking about guys picking other guys up, so there's no time like now.

[Willets Point]

Yes, it is definitely panic time.

[Guest Edgy DC]

LoDuca not bumped.

[TransMonk]

I'm pretty upset.

[Guest sharpie]

To be fair, Johnson didn't kill us in the #2 hole last night.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Not particularly, but he wasn't the one I hoped to see up in the ninth with the winning run on second.

[TransMonk]

True...but I'd rather have had LoDuca up with runners on in the bottom of the ninth. I understand that it's all a matter of chance at that point and that things earlier may have gone differently if LoDuca was batting #2. For me it's more a matter of principle...it seems like Willie's being stubborn about it. LoDuca may not be an ideal #2 hitter, but with the roster the way it is, he gives the team the most opportunities to score runs in that spot. He's not an ideal #6 hitter either.

[Guest Iubitul]

No time for panic - they will go 6-3 on this road trip

[Guest Edgy DC]

Ten Reasons Not to Panic:

1) Starting pitching has been money for a while. The last 14 games produced 13 quality starts and a 14th when the guy was relieved one out short.

6/7 Maine 7 innings and 2 earned runs
6/6 Hernandez 6 and 0
6/5 Glavine 7 and 2
6/3 Perez 7 and 3
6/2 Sosa 6.2 and 1
6/1 Maine 6 and 2
5/31 Hernandez 7 and 2
5/30 Glavine 7 and 3
5/29 Perez 7 and 3
5/27 Sosa 5.2 and 2
5/26 Maine 6 and 2
5/25 Hernandez 6 and 0
5/24 Glavine 6 and 2
5/23 Perez 7 and 0

2) We built up enough padding to survive a Phillie sweep. When we swept them near this time last year, it killed them.

3) Atlanta is hitting as bad as or worse than the Mets.

4) Nothing is automatc either way, but July's schedule is as milquetoastey as June's is beastly. Just got to get there.

6) Injuries are healing. Men are returning.

7) First place is still the best place to be, momentum be damned.

8) I remembered what eight was for. In addition to his generally fine work for the Mets, Jorge Sosa was 4-0, 1.13 in 32 innings with New Orleans. This is at least somewhat for real.

9) Pelfrey is also pitching well down there.

10) Wright probably maybe won't be in the homerun contest this year.

[Centerfield]

It may not be panic time, but a loss like last night's is certainly pissed off to the point you're flinging unprovoked expletives throughout the morning time.

Fucking Ben Johnson not being able to catch up to fatboy's 92 mph fastball in the 9th. Fucking Schoenweis. Fucking Wagner. Fucking Noffense.

[TransMonk]

="Edgy DC"]Ten Reasons Not to Panic: 1) Starting pitching has been money for a while. The last 14 games produced 13 quality starts and a 14th when the guy was relieved one out short. 6/7 Maine 7 innings and 2 earned runs 6/6 Hernandez 6 and 0 6/5 Glavine 7 and 2 6/3 Perez 7 and 3 6/2 Sosa 6.2 and 1 6/1 Maine 6 and 2 5/31 Hernandez 7 and 2 5/30 Glavine 7 and 3 5/29 Perez 7 and 3 5/27 Sosa 5.2 and 2 5/26 Maine 6 and 2 5/25 Hernandez 6 and 0 5/24 Glavine 6 and 2 5/23 Perez 7 and 0

None of these are bare minimum quality starts either. They are very convincing starts. As upset as I am about the losing streak, the offense and the bullpen, I am equally impressed and excited about the starting pitching staff.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Even in championship seasons, losing streaks happen.

If the Mets turn it around relatively soon, this will just be a blip.

If it's the start of one of those stretches where they lose about 18 of 21 or something hideous like that, then we could be doomed.

(Some years it seemed like a stretch like that in August was a virtual certainty.)

I'm not panicky yet. Only very mildly concerned. Still a long way to go. Let's see where we're at a month from now.

[Theoldmole]

I'd like to see a healthy outfielder or two.

[Guest sharpie]

In the last week Reyes is getting on at .482 clip. Runs scored: 0.

[Willets Point]

sharpie wrote: In the last week Reyes is getting on at .482 clip. Runs scored: 0.

That's just not fair.

On the other hand, how many times has he been caught stealing/picked off in that period. He seems to be having problems in that area lately, but that may just be anecdotal.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

His issue was a punchless Chavez and more recently, punchless Beltran, hitting behind him.

Reyes himself seems to have avoided most of his opportunities for RBI recently.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Part of his OBP is him getting walked in ribbie situations. We need Captain Redass to make people pay.

[Centerfield]

First we need Willie to put Captain RedAss into the lineup slot that would make people pay.

[Guest Edgy DC]

What I meant to imply.