30
2010
Take Me To Your Leader (If You Can Find Him)
An article by 
The Mets have had a number of fiery players over the years. With their performances on the field and behind the scenes in the clubhouse, these players have carried the Mets beyond the team’s expectations.
From Tug McGraw’s “Ya Gotta Believe” that gave hope and fired up the 1973 Mets on their way to the National League pennant to Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter’s veteran presence that helped the Mets win the 1986 World Series, there have always been players who were ready to carry the team on their backs when they needed that push.
Players like Tom Seaver, Dwight Gooden, Darryl Strawberry and Mike Piazza have all carried the team for long stretches and helped the Mets win pennants and championships. The 2006 team that fell one game short of a World Series appearance had numerous players (Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Carlos Delgado) carry the team for extended stretches.
However, if you wanted to know who the leader of the 2010 Mets is, who would that be? Not only is there no clear cut leader on the current Mets, there aren’t many candidates who even appear to want the job.
David Wright is too busy trying to say the right things to be a true leader. Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran haven’t learned how to lead from the trainer’s room.
Johan Santana is the closest thing the Mets have to a true leader. On the next-to-last day of the 2008 season, he took the mound on three days rest with a later-to-be-revealed torn meniscus and pitched a complete game shutout against the Florida Marlins to keep the Mets alive in their attempt to make the playoffs. This was done after throwing a career-high 125 pitches in a victory against the Chicago Cubs. He took the struggling Mets and carried them into that final game. Without those two gritty performances, the final game wouldn’t have been relevant as far as postseason hopes went.
Even in the forgettable 2009 season, Johan displayed his leadership skills over the first two months. Carlos Delgado went down in early May, followed by Jose Reyes. Carlos Beltran was playing with an injury. Somehow, the Mets were in first place on May 27. How was that possible with such a depleted squad? Two words: Johan Santana.
Over the first two months of the 2009 season, Johan Santana made ten starts for the Mets. In those starts, he was 7-2 with a barely-there 1.77 ERA. He was on a Gooden-esque strikeout pace (86 Ks in 66 innings) and was practically unhittable. Opposing batters were hitting a measly .208 against ‘Han the Man and slugging .316 against the Smooth One. That slugging percentage would have been a poor on-base percentage, which, since we’re on the topic, Santana held opponents to a .270 on-base percentage.
As a result, the Mets held a half-game lead over the Phillies after Santana defeated the Washington Nationals on May 27. However, since the rest of the rotation was shaky, not even Johan could keep the sinking ship afloat.
For as much as Johan Santana tried to lead the Mets, he could only lead them on the field once every five days. That left 125-130 games where he could only lead in the clubhouse. Unfortunately, pennants are won on the field and not in the clubhouse. (Only poker games are won there. Right, Mr. Bonilla and Mr. Henderson?)
In Dana Brand’s book, “The Last Days of Shea”, there is a chapter about Dr. Brand meeting Hall-of-Famer Reggie Jackson. The self-proclaimed “straw that stirs the drink” approached Dr. Brand and struck up a conversation on the 2007 Mets. According to Dr. Brand’s book, Mr. October went on to say:
“What was it, they only needed to win one more game? You know, people used to call me egotistical, but I tell you, if I had been playing for (the Mets), I would have won that one game, even if I had to do it all by myself.”
The Mets don’t really have an everyday player who has the fire of a Reggie Jackson. They have players who can fill up a stat sheet, but can any of them truly carry the team? Can any of them be counted on to drive in the winning run when the team needs to win one game? Is there a pitcher on an opposing team who fears any hitter on the Mets?
The 1986 Mets had swagger. When they were down, you always expected someone, whether it was Keith Hernandez, Gary Carter or Darryl Strawberry to come through with a clutch hit. Even in 2006, David Wright seemed to come through with many a walk-off hit. (The Mets had 11 walk-off wins in 2006, but only had four such wins in 2009.) The closest thing the current Mets have to a leader is Johan Santana. But he can only lead on the field 34 or 35 times a season.
The Mets have never had an MVP winner. If they’re ever going to get one, that player will need to be the team’s leader. He can’t pad his stats by hitting home runs when the team is already up by six runs in the eighth inning. He must come through in the clutch. He must be fundamentally sound. He must be able to pick up his teammates when they fail between the white lines.
Do the Mets have someone who’s willing to step it up over the entire 162-game schedule? They’re going to need one if they’re going to reverse the trend that began when Carlos Beltran looked at Adam Wainwright’s curveball. Otherwise, the fans will be doing the leading, but it’ll be towards the exit gates at Citi Field.
About the Author: Ed Leyro
Ed Leyro was hatched in the Bronx, but spent most of his youth in Queens at Shea Stadium. Apparently, all that time spent at Mets games paid off as Ed met his wife (The Coop) for the first time at Citi Field during its inaugural season. Guess the 2009 season was good for something after all. In addition to his work at Mets Merized Online, Ed also owns, operates and is head janitor at Studious Metsimus, where he shares blogging duties with Joey Beartran. For those not in the know, Joey is a teddy bear dressed in a Mets hoodie. Clearly, Studious Metsimus is not your typical Mets blog.
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Johan santana
David wright
Jose reyes
Carlos beltran
Jeff francour
Jason bay
The rest…..
You just named the best players on the team. Doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re leaders.
And we can assume you have spent extensive time around these players to determine who is or isn’t a “leader?” ::facepalm::
We fans may not know who it is, but the shadow does.
I think we put too much into who the team leader is. I don’t see it as being just one person. Franceur seems to be the guy who jookes around and puts everyone in a good mood, Wright is the go to media person, Santana seems like he is the “elder statesman” of this team, etc. So I don’t think he have 1 guy that is our leader, which is why no one wears the “C”. And I think it should be the way it is now, with a few guys doing their own part.
Getting your team off the field quickly by making a great play or keeping the other team on it by extending your team’s at bat is leadership. That takes talent but it also takes commitment. When your biggest veteran presence on the team shows both of these attributes (Keith) that sets the tone and the expectation and everyone on the team gets it. When on the other hand that player merely waves at ground balls any other first basemen routinely gobbles up that too sets the tone and expectation and while I know this topic is a big source of amusement for some people because it is usually used to support a bad roster move, is outrageously overrated, impossible to quantify and is just generally a staple of no nothing/report nothing journalism for a team who fell 2 games short over a 2 year period nothing is insignificant.
Why does Carlos Beltran recieve such flak over taking that curveball from Wainright. I would ahve taken that pitch, 99% of hitters would have taken that pitch. I still believe it wasn’t a strike, close, but not a strike.
Why is Beltran taking the heat, when Heilman gave up the 2-run bomb in the top of the ninth.
It’s just B.S.
If you can’t imagine why Beltran took crap for ending the NLCS with his bat on his shoulder, you probably weren’t around for the 1986 WS.
If Beltran had been on that team, the Red Sox would have won in 6 games.
But seriously, you have to protect the plate in that situation. The fact that it was or wasn’t a borderline strike is totally irrelevant. The umpire called it a strike, therefore it was close enough to swing at, and even moreso when it’s the pitch that ended the Mets’ season.
Finally, Beltran himself admitted it was a mistake, and he should have been protecting the plate there.
Personally, I think it was an embarrassing brain-fart for Beltran, but he’s been a good player for us, water under the bridge, and hopefully he’ll have a chance to help us win a title someday.
It’s ok to like Beltran while conceding that that play was pretty f-ing weak.
I think the talk about that pitch has taken on a life of its own over the years. It wasn’t the best curve ever in the history of baseball as some have made it out to be. It was a bad AB for Carlos, I’d agree. But it was still ONE AB.
He had one of the best seasons in Mets history, was great in the playoffs, he just happened to make the last out of the NLCS. More often than not hitters make outs..its a fact of the sport. The best of hitters only get hits 3/10 times and reach base 4/10 times. And it wouldn’t have been any easier to lose that series if he flied out or popped up or grounded out or struck out swinging. A loss is a loss. And really it never should have gotten to that point where the Mets needed to be in a Game 7 and where they were down by 2 with 2 out in the 9th to a team they were 14 games better than. The biggest failure within that series was the Mets letting a late lead in Game 2 get away.
One AB does not make a career but it can make a series. In the 2006 NLCS that AB was Spezio’s in game 2. If Shawn Green, or Endy who should have been out there, makes that catch Mets win the series period. True there were other chances but to leave it all on Beltran is just ridiculous.
Or how about jose “f*king ” valentine, bases loaded, 1 out, suppan all over the place, the stadium is racking, loud as hell, and this motherf**er swung a 2 pitches on the dirt to finnally strike out!!!!!!!!!
Mota giving up that bombed to spiezio, willie bringing wagner to a tie game on game 2 and bringing heilman to a tie game on game 7 make up ur mind stupid, or willie leaving mota game 2 after heilman was ready to come in the game.. or david wright hitting like .143 in the series
Bottom line is, the mets lost!!!!! Move on!!!
Excellent piece,
I think Bay is eventually going to be that guy but it really all boils down to the 2-5 pitching spots. If they don’t deliver than it won’t matter. And that’s management’s fault, not the players they had all winter to bolster the staff and the didn’t, now it’s starting to show.
I think Fernando Martinez should be playing over (and would outproduce) Francoeur over the course of a season, but Francoeur’s contributions to the clubhouse outweigh that. But Frenchy is a complementary player at best on this team.
Let’s face it…the Mets clubhouse has been a mess the past few years. Willie couldn’t handle it, and Manuel (Willie 2.0) can’t handle it. When the manager isn’t the leader, then somebody in the clubhouse needs to be, and the Mets just don’t have that guy. Pedro and Johan tried, but a starting pitcher cannot be the leader.
Wright put too much pressure on himself, and I don’t think he ever really had the respect of some of the veterans on the club. Reyes is perceived as being immature, so he can’t lead.
That leaves Bay. He’s a veteran, has been on a winning team recently, and has earned respect in the clubhouse for his play on the field, and is respected by the media for his accessibility and candor. I think he’s the guy.
So ur already appointing a guy who only was a winner for a year and a half in boston the leader of this team?? Have u forgotten he was playing for the pirates and never even smelled a winning season?? Look, I love bay but I don’t think he should even be consider the leader of this team, not even top 3.. johan beltran or wright should be the leaders, agree bay being older provides maturity in the clubhouse, and he’s a nice guy to have but let him have a few at bats to even see what he will be for us, remember this is new york, and once we sign a free agent to a good contract he better produce here, coz unlike boston in NY we boo our own let alone outsiders, I love bay and he’ll do good here, for our sake coz we need him to produce, and coz we need to win, but plz ease up on the leader of this team talk.. at least until september
Mike, I agree with what you say, but I don’t think you name a leader by default (such as Bay).
I think if there is no clear leader, then you end up with a team without a leader, which is the case with the Mets.
For whatever reason, most of the Mets’ best players don’t have that leadership quality. I’d say Johan has it, but he only pitches once every 5 days, so that doesn’t really help.
I would disagree about Wright not being respected. He’s always seemed to be a guy from very early on in his career who has the respect of other players. He does need to stop putting so much pressure on himself and thinking so much though…that seems to be his biggest undoing.
Hopefully all that has been said about the “new” clubhouse being great is true. I’ve always been a big fan of Delgado, but maybe what has been whispered about over the years is true, and that the clubhouse and the team will be better without him.
Leadership is overrated. Its about execution. Besides, Jeter is as “say the right (boring)thing” as you can get and people consider him to be a leader…mainly b/c he’s good and has played on good teams that have won.
And regarding Reggie’s comments about the 2007 Mets, Beltran, Wright and Alou played about as well as any players could have down the stretch of that season….it wasn’t enough. For the Mets its about the TEAM. They’ve always had a core of great players and for the most part those players have done their job and been great over the years, but 3 or 4 players no matter how great they are, are not going to be able to compensate if the rest of the team is swiss cheese. They’ve had too many holes over the years. They couldn’t depend on really any of the pitchers save for Johan (who joined in 2008) or any of the offense other than Wright, Reyes, Beltran, or Delgado (and Delgado was not dependable in 2007). Much was made of Reyes’ Sept 2007 swoon, but despite his slump the Mets were fourth in the majors in runs scored in Sept 2007…they were averaged almost 6 runs a game, but it wasn’t enough b/c the pitching would blow every lead the team got.