To [Have] be[en] meeee… at Miller Park. There I was one among a couple of hundred Mets fans (I guess) screaming my lungs out like an idiot, jumping up and down trying to say hi to Keith and Gary (who I am sure saw me as the resident nut w/ the vintage Hernandez jersey), and all the while the Mets–from top to bottom–looked a lot like a minor league team. I mean that.
Before I get started, let me say to my Mets fans brothers and sisters that if you haven’t been to Miller Park, it’s really worth it. Great crowds of fairly passionate and mainly tipsy Wisconsinites (clearly not as into baseball as football), who tailgate for hours with beers an brats. They will tease a little, but they are not nasty, and they really want to know if you like their stadium–yes. The Brew Crew is a team that’s hard to hate, likable players who are high-octane for the most part.
Anyway, when Argenis Non-Reyes leads off you can be pretty sure you’re not starting out well. Question: since we all know that Slappy McSlapster is a way better lifetime hitter at the front end of the lineup rather than the backend, Why in the Name of God, does Manuel bat him eighth???
As I wrote yesterday, the Mets overall defense is now as great a liability as any aspect of their uniformly bad game (yes, for the most part we still hit). You don’t see errors necessarily, but simply badly played MLB. One friend asked me if the Mets infielders were stuck in cement, given how late and badly they react to sharply hit balls. It’s true. For example, Cora is fundamentally sound, but the reflexes aren’t quite there. Murph again does not know how to hold a runner and get to his right quickly when the ball is hit in his vicinity. One can only imagine the uncharitable things Keith mutters under his breath as he observes. It’s sad my friends, very sad. The OF not quick to the BB, and simply not calculating speed and proportions properly. Martinez ain’t no Beltran.
We are all witnessing the sorry erosion of the bullpen. Look at the ERAs–worse and worse by the day. As far as I can tell, Parnell needs some remedial AAA work right now. Stokes is what he is–mediocre to the core. Yes, he’s been reliable most of the season, but he will not be reliable late, just like last year.
You know how bad the starting pitching is when–if like me–you are inning hopes on the return of OP–yikes!
Since we all like a bright spot, I was happy when Sheff hit that laser beam. Milwaukeeans had been tormenting him the whole game with chants of “Garyyyyyy, Garrrrrryyyyyyy…you suck! He showed those creeps!
Other than that I walked away from the ballpark, drained from screaming, watching 32 base hits ping all over the place, and coming to the most miserable of realizations that our Mets are set to wallow in suckdom for the long haul barring something really miraculous. Didn’t feel so good leaving that place.
My last plea: for the time being we should leave Manuel out of this. As I said before, he blunders plenty, and I don’t think he’ll be a Mets manager for that much longer, but how on earth is this guy supposed to lead them to victory given this roster. There’s talent people, and then there’s talent.
