And the Turkeys of the Year are...

While CNN honors the year in heroes, Sports Illustrated churned out their list for Turkeys of the Year. See who made it from out beloved Mets by clicking here.

Blow Up this BLOWpen!

Stop the insanity! Enough is enough already! I cannot take this BLOW pen anymore. I have never, in all my years watching the Mets, seen such a collection of pitiful pitchers as I have seen this team roll out the last two seasons. And that’s the thing that is really flipping me out; that this current regime is now in its second tour of futility. When does it end?

Dave and I have written 780 posts on this site in little more than a year. I would venture to say that 35% of those posts were cries for help to change the pen. Did Omar Minaya not learn from last year’s colossal demise? That pen, not Jose Reyes, like some idiots in the media think, were the biggest culprits (and Tom Glavine) of that infamous choke job.

Since then, Omar did well by replacing the goat Glavine with Uber-Ace Johan Santana, but he has failed miserably in correcting this team’s most critical need. Rather than take the opportunity to overhaul these proven losers, Minaya did nothing. Zero. Zilcho! And not only did he do nothing to change it, he actually passed up trade opportunities for the two worst scrubs in there, Blowenweis and Heilman. Imagine that! Other teams actually wanted these guys and Omar chose to keep them. That alone should get Omar fired. I would have taken a case of Billy Wagner bobble heads for those two, let alone Marcus Thames, as was rumored. Arthur Rhodes? Taken. Chad Bradford? Too late. How did Minaya not pick up Bradford, who was lights out for us in 2006. I mean, what does he have to lose? Go get David Weathers already. If nothing else, at least I'll be looking at a different face on the mound, and Weathers definitely has a different face.

With 44 games left and 3 games out, there is still a chance to turn it around. But, only if we see different guys out there. Omar Minaya has to do something and he has just about 3 weeks to get it done. I don’t care what he does, who he brings in, but it is time – oh, man is it time – to blow up this BLOW pen. Dave’s post earlier is spot on. Get rid of them all! Whether it gets done via the trade, or from within the system, Omar has to tear it apart. The carnage is still fresh from last year. Mets Lifers everywhere are crying out for a change. If Minaya doesn’t deliver, we will be doomed yet again and there will be no one to blame but Minaya himself.

Back to Reality

Well, it was nice while it lasted. Everything was going nicely; a 10 game winning streak, 2 out of 3 against the Phillies and a 2 game lead in first. Now, just one week later, the Mets have lost four games to the Phillies in the standings and now find themselves 2 back.

All because of this absolutely dreadful bullpen, which includes all of the same suspects from last year’s humiliating debacle. The more you think about it, the more outrageous it is that the teams’ Achilles heal remained intact. That should have been Omar’s first task after last season: Dump the dead weight. Instead, having done nothing in the off season and at the trade deadline, we continue to be pummeled by this inept core of soft-tossers and a Benitez-esque closer. It’s gotten so predictable now that I find myself laughing when it unravels because it’s the same old story. It happens so frequently that I am almost immune to the pain and heartache it causes. It is what it is.

Accept it, and move on because this team, as it is now, is going nowhere with that abomination of a bullpen. Sure, we're only 2 games out, and there's plenty of ball to be played. Problem is, we've seen this movie before, with the same cast of characters, and it isn't pretty. It just cannot happen with those guys.

Trading Deadline Lessons Learned

After last night's game, I could only think of one thing: why didn't we get bullpen help at the trading deadline?

I think it's a valid question. Luis Castillo is a huge addition and I love what he's brought to the ballclub. But how many games are we going to win or lose because of Luis Castillo? I know he's had one game where he tied up the game with a hit in the ninth, and you can't measure some of the intangibles he brings to the team. But if Ruben Gotay were in his place would it have made that huge a difference? Would the Mets have lost some of the games they won because Ruben Gotay was in instead of Castillo?

I don't think so, but the Mets are losing plenty of games because of the bullpen. Mota is just. . .I don't know what Mota is. Feliciano has some kryptonite in his glove. Heilman is up one day down the next. Blowenweiss is as his name suggests. Sosa has been pretty good, but likes to give up some hits before he gets to work.

It's not like the bullpen has gotten worse since the trading deadline. They've just been doing the same thing all year. At this point I'm ready to bring up Joe Smith and give the kid another shot. He was lights out early and they sent him down because he struggled for a few games. It's not like his replacements are light years ahead of him.

I keep thinking of Cordero, Dotel and Gagne. If they were a Met I'm almost certain that there'd be at least 3 games we lost that we would have won. I know the price tag for these guys was probably too great, but something/anything needed to be done to improve this bullpen.

Is it too late? Might be. Willie is going to have to start letting his pitchers go deeper into games because the revolving door of Mota/Heilman/Blowenweiss/Feliciano is not working.

By the way, where are you Duaner Sanchez?

A Call to Arms

Trade season is upon us and early reports indicate that the Mets are focusing their attention on starting pitching, which is never really a bad thing. But unless it’s an Oswalt or a Zambrano (Carlos), I’d much rather see Omar go after some quality arms to rescue a very suspect bullpen.

More than anything else, they need to improve their middle relief. You have to assume the offense will get back to normal. And the starting pitching, while not great, is certainly serviceable, especially with Pedro on slate to comeback early August. But the area that concerns me the most are those guys coming out to pitch in the 6^th, 7^th and 8^th innings. With the exception of Joe Smith & Feliciano, I don’t feel confident in any one of the guys they’re throwing out there. And it’s been a big reason why they are in this skid.

Your bullpen is supposed to do two things: 1). keep you close in ballgames to allow you a come back, and 2). lock down a game you are leading. This is what made them so devastating last year. They’re bullpen was flat out dominant. Games are won and lost in the bullpen now more than ever before. Teams can overcome starting pitching flaws with a good offense, but you’ll be hard pressed to overcome a bad bullpen, especially in the post season. And right now, the Mets bullpen is awful. That is why it is imperative for Omar to go out and get at least two quality arms in that pen. If he doesn’t, the Mets are in trouble.