Blown Again

I've had enough. You've had enough. We've all had enough of this compost pile known as the Mets bullpen.

Aaron Heilman. Take a hike.

Scott Blowenweiss. Go take a long walk off a short pier.

Joe Smith. Here's a one way ticket back to Wichita State.

Carlos Muniz. Get lost in Triple A.

Pedro Feliciano. If he's not left handed I don't want to see you.

Today's loss to the Pirates is possibly the most disgraceful of the year. It's just beyond pitiful. You're up 5-1 to one of the worst teams in baseball and you're bullpen can't shut them down for 3+ innings. You've got to be kidding me.

How many times does this have to happen? We are slowly giving the pennant away. These are games you HAVE to win. No excuses. The Pirates, the Padres, the Nationals are teams you must beat to be in contention.

I just can't comprehend how nothing has been done about this for so long. I mean nothing. At this point I'm ok with watching Eddie Kunz blow games for the rest of the season because at least he's a rookie trying to find his way in the big leagues. These are supposedly veteran arms who are doing nothing for this team.

Just blow up the whole unit. Let's start over.

This Blog is a Broken Record

I'm almost tired of saying it, but it needs to be said again, especially today.

The Mets need to get bullpen help. The Mets need to get bullpen help. The Mets need to get bullpen help.

The drama surrounding Manny Ramirez, the Yankees pickup of Pudge Rodriguez, and the thoughts of Matt Holliday need to be ignored. Focus Omar. This team needs bullpen help.

Mike Pelfrey got rocked last night by the Marlins. I haven't seen batters crush the ball off him like that in quite some time. But guess what? The Mets showed some fight and thanks to Damion "I Only Hit Late Game Crucial Home Runs" Easley, they were able to cut the lead to 5-4.

The only problem was Carlos Muniz and Joe Smith were untrusted with keeping the game close. Did I mention the Mets need bullpen help? Two runs later the Mets are down three heading into the ninth where they were able to scratch out another run, but the comeback fell short.

The Mets need bullpen help. If the Mets go get another starting pitcher I won't complain, but it would be idiotic of them at this point to leave the bullpen as is. August and September will be very, very long months if Carlos Muniz, Joe Smith, and Scott Blowenweiss are relied upon to get outs in the 6th and 7th innings of a pennant race.

Making Sense of the Mets

I just got done reading a post by Matthew Artus at Always Amazin' and it's calmed me down a bit.

Artus claims the most devastating part of yesterday's collapse (ouch, I hate that word) was Joe Smith giving up 2 runs in the 8th. Yes, I can see his point, but it's Joe Smith vs. Billy Wagner. You can expect that from Smith, you cannot accept that from Wagner.

However, as I continued reading he makes some valid arguments that firing Willie might have zero effect on this cast of characters, and he's got a realistic view of what he can expect from this team the rest of the way.

Artus has a realistic view of this team. I'm running on pure, unadulterated anger right now so it's always good to get a cool head's perspective.

I disagree that the Willie firing won't have an impact because at this point I think the player's expect it and are just holding their breath until it happens. Let's do it and move on.

I do however like his closing thoughts which I will leave you with:

"We Mets fans won't be teased the way we were at the end of May. Not again. Not by this roster. We don't want a hot streak. We want consistency and to stop reading the stories of hard luck losses. If they finish June strong, great. They'll need it when they visit Philly on July 4th.

But if they don't - then whatever will be, will be. The future's not ours to see. And every day we get closer to Shea's farewell, it becomes more apparent that we probably don't want to know how this story ends anyway."

Click here for the full article from Always Amazin'.

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 II

Forget Belliard, forget Dye. The biggest need for this team, as I posted last month, is the bullpen. In case you haven’t heard, a struggling Joe Smith was sent back down to AAA today and brought up Jon Adkins.

Message to Omar: Get two quality arms in this pen or else we will rue the day come October that we did not upgrade when we had the chance. I cannot stress this enough, we need better arms out there come this post season, if we are fortunate enough to be in it.

By the way, I really liked Joe Smith. I’m sure we’ll see him again this year.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

This bleary-eyed Mets fan has been on an emotional roller coaster. I have deemed last night's game against the Padres as the return of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." Here's why:

The Good: Thank you David Wright for being the first veteran player since May to come through in the clutch with a big hit. Wright's home run was huge for this struggling lineup. Not only were there runners in scoring position, but it came late in the game when it was now or never to comeback and fight for a win. Let's hope it's contagious.

The Bad: The first inning was just ugly. Carlos Delgado not only can't perform at the plate, but he can't play the field now? His botched play at first should have been a double play. Instead it forced John Maine into a 30 pitch first inning and let up 2 runs. Now Maine was far from perfect last night, but it makes a difference in how the game plays out when you can get through those first couple innings unscathed.

The Ugly: The bottom of the 8th. From the highest high to the lowest low in the matter of one at bat. Joe Smith has been solid for us this year, but gave up the game winning home run in the very next at bat after the game tying top of the 8th. The bullpen last year was lights out. This year I've lost all confidence, except for maybe Wagner.

It's on to Los Angeles so let the sleepless nights continue.

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.