Phenom

This is what has kept the Mets from running away from their division, and the rest of the NL.

Look at these stats:

Team BA- .274 (1st in NL)
Team OPS- .768 (2nd in NL)
Team OBA-.344 (2nd in NL)
Team Hits- 568 (3rd in NL, and not by much)
Team Runs Scored- 285 (6th in NL)

Now- Look at these names we know.

David Wright- BA with runners on: .269. He actually gets worse when we need him most!
Carlos Beltran- BA with runners on: .278. He certainly is not as bad as we are making him out to be, but if this is all your getting from one of your "stars", you're going to have problems.
Carlos Delgado- BA with runners on: .226. He is starting to remind me way too much of one David Arthur Kingman, complete with tapemeasure HRs when you need them least, and swinging Ks in critical situations.
Paul LoDuca- BA with runners on: . 269. This shocks us, as we normally say "Thank God it's not Delgado up here!"

Jose Reyes- BA with runners on: .340 The only one who really has been a threat all season long. And he's the leadoff hitter.

In conclusion- fret all you want about the pitching, but the heart of the problem is in the numbers above. If these guys produced in the clutch even a little more often, we're not b****ing about seeing Scott Schoenweis for the third straight night, because even that sloth can't give up a five run homer...

LZATbassist1567

So do the Mets actually need some BIG BATS?

Phenom

No...the big bats need to wake the f*** up.

Voodoo

The question is, at what point does the front office become concerned enough to take action such as firing Rick Down? Or is he one of "Willie's Guys" that management wouldn't touch?

I know much of the problem is the players themselves, and who knows if firing Down would do much, but you figure they've gotta shake things up at some point somehow don't they?

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Anxiously awaiting Omar's brilliant offseason strategy

Big Denny

If our lack of clutch hitting is because of Rick Down, does that mean that our hitters have Down Syndrome ?

mets84

photo shoot has been awesome lately. too bad he's homered in four straight games and the mets have wasted three of them.

Green Must Go

Obviously Reyes has to be in the cleanup spot.

KingOlerud

There's just not enough protection in the lineup. Once the Mets fill the lineup with hitters who are good enough to protect each other, they are going to protect their way all the way to the Promised Land.

Green Must Go

But will Steamboat, like Moses, never actually enter the Promised Land?

15 Day DL Alou

A question, what do you think of Keith Hernandez baseball ability and acumen?

Mr. Met

Amen

NeilAllen

Just last week I was talking about this in a game thread. It's getting eerie.

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"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." --H.L. Mencken

KingOlerud

His baseball ability, especially his defense and on-field leadership, was fantasic. Most of the stuff he says, on the other hand, I could do without. I found out very quickly that there is a large discrepancy between how important/accurate he thinks what he says is and how important/accurate it actually is.

And anyway, appeals to authority never did much for me... but especially in the face of mounds of evidence and logic to the contrary. Except for when the authority is paulie. Then, I'm all ears.

mets84

what's eerie is how much the people who have faith that the carloses will be fine sound like the people who had no worries about hitting suppan and weaver last october.

it's as if beltran never sucked for an entire year, and delgado isn't at an age where sluggers can completely fall off the table.

Green Must Go

No need to worry. Kingman averaged 33 HRs a year during the last three seasons of his career.