Friday, September 15, 2006

Southpaw blues

The Mets are now 5-12 in their last 17 games when the opponent starts a lefty.

6 comments:

Fredo said...

Make that 5-13

SheaHeyKid said...

You beat me to this post. David Wright tried to downplay it the other day, but lo duca couldn't avoid it: "I don't think we're pressing," Paul Lo Duca said. "I think we ran into a couple good left-handers...."

The mets starting pitchers are not going to match up with almost anyone we face in playoffs. If our bats don't show up, elimination in first round is not a stretch.

SheaHeyKid said...

It continues to get worse: "New York lost to a left-handed starter for the third consecutive game, and for the 13th time in its past 18 such matchups."

Mets are WAY too reliant on long ball, they seem completely incapable of manufacturing runs when they don't go yard. I think there is a real concern of them losing in first round if they draw a team with good starters.

Fredo said...

Well, take your pick. Rather face:

Jake Peavy
Woody Williams
David Wells

or:

Brad Penny
Greg Maddux
Derek Lowe

That's looking like the two possiblities of who it will be. Luckily, only one lefty in the 6.

SheaHeyKid said...

All other likely NL playoff teams have at least one red-hot starter now, whether it's peavy, penny, or carpenter. Our most dominant starter of late: el duque.

I can only hope that once the playoffs start, glavine and pedro find a way to buckle down, and not give up 3-4 runs in the first 5 innings as they've done lately. Otherwise we could be looking at the short end of a 5-game series.

Even with our offense, one has to wonder how far we can go with mediocre starting pitching..

Fredo said...

Agreed. When this team was conceived, it was built for the long term with young stars at its core: Reyes, Wright, and Beltran. The older talent was brought in to make us competive in the here and now: LoDuca, Delgado, El Duque.

Of course Pedro was the first domino that fell, creating the chance to get the other free agents. But if Pedro is not dominant, this team does not have the pitching to be a champion. Everyone, the Mets included, knew that when they got Pedro, and everyone knew they were extending his contract too long (4 years) given where he'd been injury-wise. But the Mets were taking a gamble: if Pedro gives us 2-3 great years, we'll be competitive now, and even if he falls apart, we can start building a team for down the line.

Right now Pedro doesn't look ready to pitch the Mets to a World Series, but he still has 2 regular season starts and another 4-6 playoff starts before we get to the Series, and we don't know where he'll be by then. Regardless, even if the Mets don't have the arms to win now, they have a bevy of young starters who could bring them to the top in a few years. If the Mets are a playoff team, but not a championship team, for the next 3 years, and then are in the position to start winning titles, I can't complain. They've come so far, so quickly, it's tough to argue with the manager or the G.M.

Of course I'll be crying in my beer if we lose in the 1st round, but no matter what, the Mets are a resurrected franchise with a good future in front of it.