My 2012 Mets Post Mortem Rant with Bugs and Cranks

I'm a big fan of what Brad Bortone does over at Bugs & Cranks in blogging about the Mets. He's not the everyday game recap type of blogger, but picks and chooses his spots to write what I think is some of the wittiest and insightful writing on our beloved Mess, I mean, Mets.

Brad hit me up a few weeks ago to partner up on a post mortem of the 2012 Mets campaign and I jumped at the chance to chime in.

Head over to Bugs and Cranks to check out the rundown of responses for what was yet another disappointing season in Flushing.

Mets Deja Vu All Over Again

I'm waiting for Chevy Chase to yell "Look kids, Big Ben! Parliament!" because I feel like life as a Mets fan is just one continuous circle. 

Welcome to the postseason. For some that means playoff baseball. For Mets fans, it's a literal interpretation of the term meaning the season after the season has begun. And for the Mets, it's the most meaningful part of this baseball team since late June.

There are some highlights from the 2012 Mets campaign. R.A. Dickey's Cy Young season. Ike Davis overcoming an abysmal start to finish with 32 home runs and 90 RBI. The emergence of Matt Harvey as a future star.

But of course the negative outweighs the positive in 2012. We shouldn't be surprised. We've been here before. It's another season that started well only to crumble late. I use "late" loosely as things imploded around July 12, but the point is still the same. 

The Mets are on a sick cycle carousel that nauseatingly continues to turn.

The following statements are true for 2012 but could easily be made in reference to any of the last 4 seasons:

• Jason Bay was hurt most of the year.
• When Jason Bay wasn't hurt he was pretty awful.
• The bullpen stinks.
• It appears like the team fell apart after the All Star Break.
• We need a major improvement at catcher.
• INSERT PROSPECT NAME HERE played great to start but after 100+ at bats got exposed for the mid-level talent that he is.

On top of that the Mets are faced yet again with another dilemma in whether or not they should sign a big name star to an extended contract. While Ruben Tejada turned out to be a fully capable replacement for Reyes, the same cannot be said of David Wright.

So what was old is new again. Actually it probably never got old. It's just coming back around for another turn.

I said it last October and I'll say it again this October. There is much work to be done for the Mets in order to not just make this team competitive, but make it watchable.

I love baseball. I love the Mets. I don't like having the season end like it dead, but boy am I glad the torture is over...for now.

#FAIL: Entire Mets Coaching Staff to Return in 2013

Terry Collins announced today that his entire coaching staff will return to the Mets next year. Sure. That makes sense.

Let's not make any changes to a coaching staff that lost control of this team in the second half. Let's keep an entire staff that has a proven record of being better than average in the first half of the season only to nose dive in the second half.

Let's keep all the people who are molding the arms of the BLOWpen. In fact, let's keep things status quo since they've been going so well for us.

Perhaps this is just a PR move to stop questions from being asked. I hope so. But anyone with half a brain and at least one good eye can see that status quo is not the direction the Mets should be headed in.