Surprising, yet not really

Well, I hate to say this collapse was foreseeable and inevitable, but over the past year we've all pointed out the obvious. First, I remind you that we blogged about the exact same September meltdown by the Mets last year. Two years in a row has to be on the manager's head.

Next, we all knew the starting pitching and relief pitching crew assembled by Omar were suspect at best, called out by analysts all season as well as our blogs. We had at least 20 or 30 blogs on this, too numerous to recount, but I highlight the calls about Bannister and bullpen.

Finally, it was obvious that this team was not going to have as good an offense as last year.

I think the entire team, from Minaya to Randolph to the players are to blame. Omar assembled a team that was old, injury-prone, and full of question marks we all identified. Willie had questionable bullpen and lineup strategies, and little to no discipline of the players. And finally the players themselves, who showed poor discipline at the plate all year, sloppy defense down the stretch, no heart or professionalism over the last month, and completely hideous, indescribable pitching.

The bottom line is that I think this meltdown will demoralize and inhibit this set of players for years, and will prevent them from winning down the stretch in a tight race. The inevitable solution is that an infusion of a lot of fresh players and removal of existing players will be key to avoid this. Not sure who you put on this list yet, but definite goners have to be Mota, Scho, and Sele. On the fence have to be Wags, Heilman, Glav (at the money he's going to want, can't afford to keep someone who only pitches as well as the ump is willing to call a sloppy strike zone), Duque (can we afford to pay someone that injury prone that much?), Green, PLD, and Delgado. I think the only definite keepers are Wright, Maine, Pedro, Perez, Milledge, and Reyes (although I think there needs to be a serious sit-down with him in the offseason, to discuss his constant late season meltdowns and tendency towards free-swinging poor plate discipline being flat unacceptable). I'm not sure who you consider trade bait, but the Mets have a LOT of holes to fill, and Omar is going to have his hands full. I don't think Mets will be able to retain Milledge, Gomez, Pelfrey, Humber, and F-Mart, and still make the trades they desperately need to make.

This is a disgrace for the #1 payroll in NL. Absolutely disgusting. I certainly had hoped that all my complaints before and during the season were just excessive caution and pessimism, and Mets would prevail despite these weaknesses. Unfortunately the holes indeed turned out to be real, and too great to overcome. At least with the Mets season over I can now turn my focus to the atrocious Jets, who just lost a stinker to the Bills.