My perverse wish

[Lefty Specialist]

Hey, it's Father's Day, so I can have what I want. (Happy Birthday to all you Fathers out there, by the way.)

My perverse wish? A 12-game losing streak. It's got to be one game longer than the winning streak, for emphasis.

Because as long as the Mets are playing peek-a-boo with the Nats for first place and treading water a little above .500 they're going to stand pat, not just at the trade deadline, but in the offseason, too. ("Hey, we'll be adding Wheeler and Wright, that's like trading for two All-Stars!")

A 12-game losing streak now will put an end to that foolishness at least in the eyes of the beat writers, Terry and Sandy and Jeffy's true constituency. Because to stay on this path just portends more pain in the future. You can't assemble this kind of a pitching staff and this kind of offense and defense. It's just ridiculous. But there's no impact player coming, no Hernandez or Carter or Piazza unless it's made so perfectly obvious that 'The Plan', such as it is, isn't going to work.

What will work? Well, to begin with, you have to identify your problem. This team is playing defense that a bunch of eighth graders would be ashamed of. I've seen more brain farts this year than Rick Perry on a bad day. And this is not only because you have the wrong players playing positions, although that's a big part of it. Why does Grandy play right and Cuddyer left? Why do you play Ruben Tejada at third and Flores at short? You can have 5 Tom Seavers on the pitching staff but it won't matter if your defense can't catch the ball or turn double plays.

Steven Matz is more than ready to come up, but why should he? He'd just lose 2-0 on two unearned runs.

This doesn't even get to the offense. Nobody on this team can hit consistently. No one. There's a manager who's also prone to brain farts, who plays his favorites, overworks what little bullpen he has and generally just needs to go. There's a front office who lies when you can even figure out what they're saying. I'm guessing d'Arnaud will be out for more than a few days and David Wright won't be back by the All-Star break, just to name two things.

I could go on. I think Wilmer Flores needs to be traded to a team that will put him at second base and let him play, for instance. And they need to get some real professional hitters and defenders, not the Cuddyers and Grandersons of the world. That'll require a commitment on the part of ownership that you and I both know is completely lacking.

So they need to be embarrassed. They've got a 4-game head start. Let's see 8 more ion a row.

Yeah, I'm just venting, but I'm tired of half-assed baseball.

Rant over, please put your seat backs and tray tables in their upright and locked position in preparation for landing.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, that's perverse.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Good rant, and rants are good sometimes. Rooting against the Mets
in a game (for whatever the reason, let alone the next eight games) does
not compute. Especially thinking it may prompt things to change or be dif-
ferent as a result.

[Edgy MD]

I certainly support rooting for your organization to improve the team. But I don't think imploding is the way forward. They may be restrained, but they aren't dummies that will suddenly realize something twelve losses down the road. More likely, they'd deal themselves out after such a slide.


HEY A HIT!!!!

[dgwphotography]

I was perversely wishing for them to be no hit again.

[Lefty Specialist]

Well, I've found that my rooting for them one way or the other has no effect on their actual performance. But their actual performance has an effect on my blood pressure. As they have one frickin hit through seven innings.

[TransMonk]

I don't need a 12 game losing streak to show me that this team has more questions than answers.

[Centerfield]

It seems inevitable to me that Terry Collins will eventually be fired. It's a shame. This is not his fault.

Ownership slashed the budget. The front office has had incredible missteps. In his five years, Sandy has landed us one productive offensive player (d'Arnaud) and he had to trade a Cy Young winner to do it. (Two if you count the half year of Marlon Byrd).

Last year, on the brink of contention, and badly needing power for the lineup, they added a 36 year old outfielder coming off a major injury. And did nothing else. For an offense that needed an impact, middle of the order bat, he went the easy way and took middling talent. They are paying the price for that now.

Someone should write a book from Omar's perspective how he set up the Mets for contention (Harvey, deGrom, Familia) but Sandy Alderson could not supplement the team with the talent to bring it home.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Terry's contract ends at the end of this season. He won't be invited back, so unless you really think a new manager can get the guys here to play a lot better it seems like a longshot he'll be whacked.

And I know you're being facetious on the Omar shit.

[Fman99]

As an authority on this topic, your perverse wish is A JOKE.

[Edgy MD]

Mike Puma declaring that team officials are declaring that Terry's job is safesafesafe.

[TransMonk]

I don't think Terry will be fired, but I don't think he'll be back next season. If he is, it means management is not going to make any effort that involves spending money to make the team more competitive in '16 either.

IMO, fair or not, Terry has always been and continues to be a placeholder until management is ready to commit to winning at all (or at least more) costs.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Lefty Specialist wrote: My perverse wish? A 12-game losing streak. It's got to be one game longer than the winning streak, for emphasis.

You're more than half-way there!

[Centerfield]

This is really inexcusable. Five years of rebuilding and this is the lineup they put out there? Seriously. Fire everyone.

[Centerfield]

That includes the owners.

[Gwreck]

Right, but I am coming around to your argument that Alderson has done only a fair-to-poor job and needs to take a lot of the blame here.

Yes, we all can agree that a Dodgers-like transformation isn't possible with the Wilpons as owners and with Selig/Manfred burying their head in the sand.
But Alderson still hasn't done anything useful to upgrade the offense, even with whatever resources he does have.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

It's clear the beat guys all love Terry and deeply resent Alderson.

Just for fun, given the same $$ and market and farm system who should be playing RF and LF for the Mets?

[Lefty Specialist]

Sandy went too deep on pitching and too short on offense. So now we're in a situation where a prized prospect is spinning his wheels in Vegas because there's no spot for him at the major league level, and yet we're sticking the Eric Campbells and Johnny Monells of the world into the lineup so we can score a run or two per game.

Sandy knew last winter that he had two pitchers that would be up sooner rather than later in Syndegaard and Matz. He had another potential arm in Montero. The obstacles to them were two out of the three of Colon, Gee, and Niese. But he did nothing. And since, their value has plummeted. He couldn't even give Gee away.

He jumped on Cuddyer because, well, who knows? Once he got that QO we were all breathing a sigh of relief that we'd dodged that over-the-hill bullet. But no!

Do I know who should be our left and right fielders? Well, something better than what we got. That's why GM's get hired and fired.

[Edgy MD]

John Belushi time.

[Lefty Specialist]

If only we could get a horse into Fred Wilpon's office......

[TransMonk]

I think that ownership and management got together this spring and thought that the team was ready to compete in 2015 as is (was) as long as:

- Injuries were few and minor
- Flores, d'Arnaud and Lagares continued to mature and get better as hitters
- Wright, Murphy and Duda maintained their production
- Cuddyer and Granderson could somehow hold off the aging process for another year

...and I agree with them. If all (or even most) of those things happened, I think things would be different as far as wins and losses go. But very few of those things are turning out to go the Mets way so far.

I also think that ownership/management decided early on internally that if these factors did not go the Mets way, they would not be looking to add payroll or trade prospects for fixes in 2015. If that was the plan, maybe they are sticking to it. Honestly, maybe that 11 game winning streak in April was the worst thing that could have happened to their plan as it raised fan and media expectations higher than it really should have been.

At this point, I would be much more willing to SELL on Colon or Granderson than I would be to BUY for Aramis Ramirez or some other window dressing of a solution.

Maybe I just think this so that I can sleep better at night (especially the past few), but there are not many teams that can win without their C, 2B, 3B, 3rd starter and half their bullpen for large chunks of the season...nor would I really expect them to. But the Mets are still not just one player away on offense. Unlike in past years, this is mostly due to injury rather than talent, but the premise remains the same.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: It's clear the beat guys all love Terry and deeply resent Alderson. Just for fun, given the same $$ and market and farm system who should be playing RF and LF for the Mets?

Gerardo Parra or some such piece (obtained via trade for, like, Montero y cambio) in right, Granderson in left.

[Edgy MD]

Too bad, pervs. The dream of a 12-game losing streak is lost. LOST!

[Lefty Specialist]

Oh well, I have the feeling they'll try again.

I'm glad it didn't happen right then because the wrath of the entire board would have come down on me.

[TransMonk]

Not sure this goes here, but I strongly agree with Mark Simon on this article:

Hey, Sandy Alderson: There's no use in Mets making big deal at deadline

Mark Simon wrote: So yes, the Mets should feel really good about their 4-2 West Coast trip, the way that deGrom is looking like a Cy Young candidate and Matz and Syndergaard seem to be getting better with each turn. But this is about looking at the big picture. And the big picture puts the Mets' playoff odds at 20 percent. They could still make the postseason as currently composed, particularly if Wright and d'Arnaud return and make an impact. But the small gains that could come from making a big trade today will be dealt with as ramifications when you look at the Mets� future the day after the season ends.

[Edgy MD]

Wow, Simon says (seewhatIdidthere?) there's no point in investing in a team with 20% odds this morning of making the playoffs.

Thanks, Quitkowski.

I hate trades but I disagree. If it's the right deal, it's the right deal. And the Mets, I imagine, are perfectly capable of calculating the playoff odds increased in 2015 against the playoff odds possibly lost long-term.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: Wow, Simon says (seewhatIdidthere?) there's no point in investing in a team with 20% odds this morning of making the playoffs. Thanks, Quitkowski. I hate trades but I disagree. If it's the right deal, it's the right deal. And the Mets, I imagine, are perfectly capable of calculating the playoff odds increased in 2015 against the playoff odds possibly lost long-term.

Too many assumptions there for my liking. 1. that the Nationals current record in any way represents a 'on pace' projection. Most teams probably don't at this point, but they've been so up and down it's hard to say those crests and valleys will be mimicked the second half. Never mind that the Mets play them 12 or so times.

The Mets absolutely don't need ALL of those things to win. they need some of them. The bullpen's probably fine. They need more offense, but all of that is a glut. One hitter plus healthier Cuddyer or d'Arnaud or Wright back and hitting goes a long long way.

[Edgy MD]

I'm not sure whose assumptions you're talking about, as you directly reference my post.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: I'm not sure whose assumptions you're talking about, as you directly reference my post.

I think it's pretty clear in context that I'm talking about the post.

[Edgy MD]

I asked for clarification, so no, it wasn't (and still isn't) clear enough for me. What does "the post" mean?