2009

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The Mets got off to a horrible start, sometimes finding new ways to lose, sometimes just repeating the old ways. The Mets then won eleven of thirteen to burst into first, before doing their best impression of the 62 Mets to drop back out. A crushing set of injuries to most of their best players, and embarrassing play by those that remained, then sent them to their worst season since 2005.

[edit] First forty games

The Mets finished their first forty games at 21-19, one game out of first in a struggling division, on pace for an 85 win season.

The Mets' stars have been remarkable:

  • Johan Santana has been easily the best pitcher in the National League, with a 1.50 ERA in his eight starts.
  • Francisco Rodriguez converted all 11 save opportunities, and has a 1-0 record with a 0.96 ERA.
  • Carlos Beltran and David Wright each putting up monster numbers, hitting over .360s with OBPs a hundred points higher. They're both in the top four in the NL in both categories, and both have OPSs over 1.000. And Wright has probably been the NL's best player this month, leading the league with a 1.291 OPS, a .463 average, and a .560 OBP.

But the supporting cast ... First the injuries:

  • Carlos Delgado just had surgery and is essentially missing half the season.
  • Jose Reyes is out.
  • Alex Cora, Reyes' backup, got hurt at the same time.
  • Brian Schneider, their starting catcher, has been out all year. Nobody seems to care, as his replacements Omir Santos seem to be at the same level if not better.

Which has led to out of position players losing them games. New replacement players coming in and losing them games. And somehow Ryan Church, who started the season on a tear, blew one game by dropping a routine fly and another by missing third base.

George Vecsey of the New York Times wrote a great article Marvelous Marv, Lovable Mets and Embracing Inner Ineptitude. Met fans complained that Citi Field was too much of a tribute to Ebbets Field and had too little Met history, but with the current Mets seem to be channeling their inner 62 Mets. One difference is that the 62 Mets were innocent lovable bumblers in way over their head. The 2009 Mets have the talent to go all the way but somehow keep finding new ways to lose. 3 balks in a game. Missing third base while scoring the go ahead run in the eleventh. Lots of dropped routine fly balls. And that's just in the last 4 games! Before that there were bases-loaded walks including the game loser, baserunning blunders, and more drops of routines pop-ups and fly balls.

And the next fourth of the season promises to be worse, with Delgado and Reyes down, and Reyes' replacement now out too. The Mets are going to have to find a replacement level shortstop, and they don't seem to have any in the organization.

Livan Hernandez has been delivering, but he seems to have been getting lucky, and the smart money says his luck runs out. But Tim Redding seems ready to take the 5 spot, and Oliver Perez, who was horrific in the first forty, may come back from the DL to become the pitcher he was in 2007.

On the bright side, Daniel Murphy looked very good in his first game at first base, and may be able to hold down the fort until Delgado's return. The Mets clearly have the talent, even with the injuries. But as they say, the Mets have been in late season form. And that's not a good thing.

[edit] Then it got worse

Then it all fell apart. Injuries to nearly every key player, and then to most of their replacements. The ones that remained generally played poorly.

Before it was over, this is what 2009 looked like:

Starting Rotation:


Bullpen:


Released


See also:

Road Trip 2009: California and Fenway

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