30
2010
Lets Shut Down All Our Players And Forfeit The Rest Of The Season
An article by 
Now that I have your attention, can somebody please tell me what the deal is with all these rants chastising the Mets for not shutting players down?
What the hell is going on around here and when did all this madness about shutting players down begin?
Let me see if I got this straight…
Carlos Beltran bats .365 in September, has his best game of the season homering from both sides of the plate and making a spectacular diving catch, comes out of game the next day with a sore knee, and somehow it’s the Mets fault because they should have shut him down?
Yeah, that makes whole a lot of sense… Gimme a freaking break… What are we talking about here, boys or men?
When was he supposed to be shutdown? September 1st? September 5th? September 10th? When? I guarantee you that if the Mets did that, they would have still been toasted on blogs, newspapers, SNY and WFAN just for the heck of it anyway.
Pedro Feliciano sets a new record for appearances in relief last night. Should the Mets shut him down before he ends up needing his left arm amputated in the offseason?
Maybe we should shut down Angel Pagan too because he’s now appeared in more games than in any other season in his glorious career…
And don’t forget Ruben Tejada… after-all he’s only 20-years old and the wear and tear on his young and frail body could spell doom for his 2011 season.
What the hell is the matter with these Mets, don’t they care about their players???
Now seriously, lets get a grip…
I have to strongly disagree with our friend Ed Ryan from Mets Fever who believes that the Mets should have shut down Jon Niese several starts ago. He writes,
These were meaningless games, why the heck would you risk injury and confidence issue with one of your young promising starters when he was obviously out of gas.
Ed, you play him for the experience and to make him a better pitcher for next season. I’m not so sure he was out of gas anyway because Niese has said as much after each game. Maybe Niese is getting pounded because the league has figured him out after getting a second and third look at him? Maybe Niese needs to re-adjust to the league just as they did to him, and you can only do that by pitching not by calling it a season.
I just don’t buy into all this shutting down talk permeating the fanbase… I want somebody to convince me why all of a sudden the 20-somethings are now considered to have less stamina and be more fragile than the 30-somethings? When did that start happening?
Here is another question for all the shutdown proponents…
How come all of these shutdown rants never pop up when a pitcher is in a groove or a hitter is raking at the plate?
Do we only shutdown players when they are slumping or begin to slump? I’m just trying to figure out what the method is to this madness…
Should we be concerned for rookie Ike Davis, because he’s only had 3 days off since he was promoted from Buffalo? Ike has already played in 151 games this season, should we risk getting him injured by continuing to play him in meaningless games?
Should we be worried about Bobby Parnell who has now appeared in 65 games this season?
OMG what about Jose Reyes and his calf and hamstring problems?
You can see how insane and out of control all of this can get…
Hey, I got an idea…
Why don’t we just let all the players actually play some baseball, and stop this paranoid fear that somehow if we don’t shut them down the sky will fall on our heads?
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
Went to my first Mets game, a Mayors Trophy game at Shea, in '73. We beat the Yankees 8-4 and I was hooked. I marched in two Banner Day parades, and before the Grand Slam single, there was the "Hendu Can Do" grand slam - I was there. I've collected Mets memorabilia all my life and started Mets Merized Online to feed my addiction.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 26 | 17 | .605 | - |
| Nationals | 25 | 17 | .595 | 0.5 |
| Marlins | 23 | 19 | .548 | 2.5 |
| Mets | 22 | 20 | .524 | 3.5 |
| Phillies | 21 | 22 | .488 | 5.0 |
Last updated: 05/22/2012
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Why would the Mets shut down Beltran at all? He was playing great finally and he started to look like his old self. Did they want to shut him down when rosters expanded and he still wasnt hitting and then wonder all offseason if he was washed up? At least now we know he can still be a force at the plate. I’m glad the news was good regarding his MRI, and I look forward to a big season from him next year.
Obviously you have NO CLUE! Players like Gee, Niese, Parnell, etc. SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN! Once the Mets were eliminated all players with recent injury history and pitchers under 25 should be shut down.
Dont you think youre getting a little carried away? You cant be serious?
Obviously you have no clue.
Why do we have to keep treating the players like babies? They are grown men and It’s their job to play baseball, so let them play.
I don’t think that limting pitchers innings actually prevents injuries from happening. It seems to me that more pitchers are getting hurt than before. Look at all the babying they did with Strasbrug and he still got hurt. It seems like every young pitcher that come up now gets TJ surgery. It’s starting to get like a tradition.
Maybe my memory is worng but back in the day when pitchers went deeper into games and pitched more innings there was less injuries.
So while every other team in Major League Baseball that is out of Playoff contention uses this time to SEE their Under-25s play in the Majors, we should save that for when we actually need someone to step in and play in a meaningful game? Great idea. Let’s NOT give our youth experience so when the time comes and we have meaningful games to play again (next year or beyond) we have no one with experience who can step up other than the 40+ year-olds that we sign in the offseason who are fading. You’d make a spectacular GM or coach…
These meaningful games will take place about 5 years after the youngest branch of the Wilpon tree is no longer around. Another alternative is 5 years after the Wilpons sell(PLEEZZEE).
This is all a surprsie to me. I thought the Mets shut down after the all star break. They didn’t? Who knew?
They shut down Beltran because of the disaster-like idea to play him while he was injured in 2009. The Mets were 100% responsible for creating and furthering Beltran’s knee injury. Beltran trusted the Mets who pretty much LIED to Carlos in order to keep him on the field. If you want to know why Beltran decided to go with his own doctor and take surgery without consulting the Mets, just look @ what Beltran went through last year. Beltran has every right to piss on any doctor’s report coming from the team. And if he feels something isn’t right, they should sit him down. Not sitting him down was criminal last season.
Unfortunately, too many stupid media members (Gary Cohen) and too many idiotic fans don’t realize Beltran sacrificed himself because the Mets weren’t being honest about his injury last year.
I totally agree, and shame on SNY who did their best to paint Beltran as the villain.
The Mets acted like Beltran woke up one morning called his agent and said I feel like having surgery. Then they tried to twist it like Beltran had the surgery to make sure he was healthy for his walk year.Remember the press briefing and Ricco the GM in waiting looking for a fight?
The Mets misdiagnosed and then caused his injury to get worse. To be totally fair it started out as a bone bruise on the knee. We’ve all had a bone bruise and never thought anything of it. But at some point Ray Ramirez (Head Trainer) should have said “we better get this looked at by a specialist.” That didn’t happen. The surgery he had involves making lots of tiny breaks in the knee cap (micro fracture surgery) in the hope that blood will rush in and heal the newly created AND old injury and is not something anyone, let alone someone who makes a living as an athlete would want to try as a first resort. When it became obvious Carlos would have to have the surgery he did. The Wilpon’s got angry because it affected their ticket plan renewels and sales and sought to embarrass Carlos. Through it all Beltran never said a word, even when he was taking grief for not sliding at the plate because his own teammate (David Wright) who was on deck didn’t remove the bat. I support Beltran 100% on this and feel he owed the Mets nothing. He was hurt, he had surgery and hopefully he can play and enjoy his life after baseball too.
Lou, that was toooooooooo funny !!!
Yeah Bill, this would not surprise my wife at all who tells me I am slow all the time. She knew who she married when I forgot our anniversary and I said “who knew?” The doctor who patched me up said it might leave some permanent scars and I told him, “being slow won’t bother me doc-I’m a Mets fan, their just my speed!”
Man you are an angry guy this AM! haha
I think shutting down veterans is silly. They get paid to play. Feliciano is a free agent isn’t he? Why shut him down?
I do think there is merit to shutting down young pitchers like Niese, Gee etc though. You can see young pitchers labor in the late parts of the year because they aren’t built for that kind of season yet, pushing them further is a big risk for injury.
But position players and veteran pitchers, I don’t think there is any merit to shutting them down unless they are dealing with an injury