Mike Lupica severely lashed out at Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado in today’s Daily News.
Here is just a little bit of what he had to say…
Jose Reyes tried to be a star for his team, all the way to the top of the ninth, when he went up there righthanded against Mo Rivera and got the bases-loaded single that brought the Mets to within 11-8. But that was all the Mets had. Because next up was Beltran, who would have been no better yesterday than the pitcher’s spot in a National League game.
Beltran popped up the first pitch he saw from Rivera and Jorge Posada caught it and that meant Carlos Beltran was 0-for-6 against the Yankees as the Mets lost again.
He is to the Mets right now as another Scott Boras client, J.D. Drew, is to the Red Sox. Beltran hit second in the order yesterday, Wright hit third, Delgado batted cleanup. But Delgado is still a cleanup man in name only these days the way the Mets are a first-place team in name only. He managed two hits yesterday, the last a roller to left to start the ninth. He had no RBI. Wright had one. The three of them, then, were 3-for-16 against the Yankees, one RBI among them, one run scored. Pathetic.
These are the ones who are supposed to carry the Mets along with Reyes, the kid at the top of the lineup who even when he doesn’t have his best day walks twice and scores twice (once by causing a balk) and has two RBI and tries to keep his team alive with two outs in the ninth.
Sometimes, the truth can be brutal. I can’t disagree with Lupica. How can the Mets move forward when 25% of their payroll is tied up in two players that continue to hurt the teams chances to win?
Delgado is hitting .220 on the season and it’s already June. Beltran is hitting .174 in his last 30 games and has only one RBI in June. The Mets lead in first place is now dangling by a thread at 1 1/2 games. Over sixty players in baseball have more RBI’s then Delgado and Beltran, but only 3 of them get paid more. Xavier Nady (remember him?), has more RBI’s with 40, to go with his 11 home runs and .281 batting average.
If the Mets fall out of first place in the next few days, they have only Beltran and Delgado to blame. They are the ones that make the big bucks on this team. If they want to get paid like superstars, then they should play like superstars.
