Twenty Blown Saves

Yes, that's right. The Mets bullpen has blown 20 games for the Mets this year. 20.

Now I tried to find a stat that showed how many tie games the bullpen has blown after the 7th inning, but I couldn't find it. I also looked for games that the Mets were down by 1 run after the 7th and the bullpen let up subsequent runs, but I couldn't find that either so I'll estimate.

I'm guessing that there are at least 10 additional games that the bullpen has blown by either giving up runs when the game was tied that doesn't count as a blown save.

So let's say the Mets would have won just 4 of those 10 games. Add that to the 20, yes 20, blown saves this year and the Mets should have an extra 24 wins.

Never mind that. Let's say they only win half of those games. They should have an extra 12 wins. That would leave the Mets with 74 wins and the best record in baseball.

Did you read that correctly? 74 wins and potentially the best record in baseball. So what does this mean?

It means the bullpen is the #1 reason this team is struggling this year. I might even go as far to say that it's a bigger reason for the Mets problems than Willie Randolph was. Randolph was fired, but I see no one leaving Queens from the BLOWpen.

Bryan and I have written about maybe this team is mediocre at best and we should just learn to deal with that fact. But the reality is the BLOWpen is well past mediocre and is knee deep in heinous.

Until something is done to change things we can expect more of the same.

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.

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.

Meeting Kevin Burkhardt: Priceless

Two tickets: $110
4 beers: $32
2 hot dogs: $11
Meeting Kevin Burkhardt: Priceless

It was in the 7th inning and I had literally just got done telling my wife that I hate going to the game when they lose because you spend a ton of dough and you leave with nothing to show for it. Frankly, in this case, as parents of a 3 year old girl and 7 month old son, $200 was worth some “alone” time, even if that "alone" time was with 50,000 other Mets Lifers, we’ll take it. (The baby sitters were free, thank you Leslie, Harry & Gloria).

So, after venting to my wife about the money and losing, I went to the bathroom. Upon my return, I ran into Kevin Burkart, who was holding a child in one arm, grabbing napkins or putting ketchup on a hot dog (I think), and I said, awkwardly, “Kevin, hey, you do a great job…’ to which he replied, “Oh thank you.”

Now, I’m not a guy who gets all star struck. I’ve met athletes before, actors and politicians, and it's no big deal. But anyone from the Mets' organization is like meeting royalty for me. Burkhardt is like part of the monarchy. And those of you who read this site know what big fans Dave and I are of his. (see here & here). I truly believe he will be in this business a long time.

So I continued, “yeah, the Mets should lock you up to a long term deal” and he was genuinely appreciative. I told him I wrote about it on this site and he asked which one, so of course, I told him. Why did I tell him this? No clue. The guy was totally nice and sincere. I went to shake his hand and like I said he was holding a child in one arm and in his other hand was the channel 11 microphone, so turning a slightly awkward moment into relatively normal exchange, Kevin put his fist out and said “how ‘bout punds?” So we exchanged pounds and as we walked away I think he said he’ll check out the site (or maybe I told him to check it out).

Kevin, if you read this, it was great meeting you. Thanks for softening the blow to my wallet while the Mets got smacked around. It was priceless.

Who Do You Miss the Most?

Go ahead and look at a copy of the original roster for the New York Mets at the start of the season. Now look at the current roster. It's like watching a sequal where all the actors are different from the original.

Which made me ask the question who do you miss the most? Let' see:

Willie Randolph? Nope
Rick Peterson? Not at all. Just ask Oliver Perez.
Moises Alou? Old man Moses. Yup, we'll miss his RBI.
Angel Pagan? Wow, he played for the Mets this year.
Jorge Sosa? I'll miss him like a migraine.
Nelson Figueroa? I think I miss his dad in the luxury box more than him.
Luis Castillo? Wait, he's still on the roster?
Raul Cassanova? I think we need another catcher on the bench.
Matt Wise? Who?

And those are the guys I can name off the top of my head. I'm sure there's more, but the one guy who I miss the most is Ryan Church. This guy started off the season hot, I mean, habenero hot. To have him go down with a head injury may have been the biggest blow to this Mets team.

Church was on track for a 30 homer, 100 RBI season. He was making up the gap that Delgado and Beltran were leaving behind. Now with Delgado on track and Wright starting to get hot again, having that extra power bat in the lineup would make up a world of difference.

Now on the flip side if Church was playing this whole season we might not have seen Fernando Tatis become the ultimate Super Sub. Nick Evan and Dan Murphy might still be playing in the Double. And who knows Willie Randolph might still be manager.

But I can honestly say that if Ryan Church can come back in September and be productive this team will be in a much better than there are now. And we're only 2 games out.

The Most Hilarious Title of an Article This Year

So I went to Mets.com over vacation to catch a little of the Mets series against the Marlins on the MLB gameday audio when I came across an article that literally had me laughing out loud.

The title of the article was "Mets Bullpen Slowly Coming Together."

Seriously? Are you kidding me? Was the author's name Ima N. Denial? I would like to live in that fairy tale land.

The article might be the single biggest piece of propaganda that you've seen since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Sure the bullpen had a pretty good series against the Marlins. I'll even give credit to Aaron Heilman for pitching two innings without giving up a home run, but let's not get too excited here folks.

When's the last time you saw Carlo Muniz pitch and not give up a run? Hmmmm, how about never? Blowenweiss continues to live up to his name's sake, and Heilman is one home run away from crawling up into the fetal position. Pedro Feliciano seems to be doing fine as a lefty specialist and Joe Smith as a righty specialist, but please, please, please do not left them pitch to an opposite batter.

It seems like we've been talking about this very issue for months on end. You'd think the Mets would have done something about it by now. I do like that they brought up Eddie Kunz, but he's not the complete solution.

It's becoming more and more evident that the Mets starting rotation can't be relied on to go 7 innings. Pelfrey is struggling. Maine is questionable. Pedro can't throw more than 5 innings. Perez can throw 110 pitches, but outside of him and Santana pretty much every day we need the bullpen to give us some effort.

That's a scary realization with the arms that are currently throwing out there. No lead is safe until something happens.