Tag: Mets

I’m watching the Mets game — which can be a dangerous thing, as we all know — and things have been going well. As an example, take the seventh-inning play by first-baseman Daniel Murphy. The youngster, who the Mets view as a potentially important offensive cog, has proven himself to be a man without a position (anyone remember Gregg Jeffries?). He failed miserably as a left fielder and has looked like a deer in the headlights at first.

But tonight, he turned in one of those rare plays, one destined for the late-night highlight reel.

Mark Loretta of the Dodgers pokes the ball down the first-base line, hitting the bag and popping the ball up and toward the infield. Murphy comes racing in, grabs the ball barehanded and flicks it behind his back to pitcher Bobby Parnell who was covering. Parnell turned in a nice stretch to collect the throw and Loretta was out (the instant replay was inconclusive — it was close, but the Mets deserve a break).

Ron Darling, I think, compared him to Jason Kidd and the Mets dugout bowed in his direction.

All I can say is “sweet” (to quote my nephews).

The Mets have moved from being a scrappy, injury-depleted team to being perhaps the worst baseball team around — a team that lacks fire and does not seem to understand the basics of the baseball.

Players constantly flub pops because they’re making one-handed catches, regularly throw to the wrong base of past cut-off men, find themselves out of position and lose focus. This is not the way a team many expected to contend in the East (let alone possibly win it all) is supposed to play.

The question is, then, whose fault is it? Certainly the players bear responsibility, but the problems the team has been experiencing are ones that must be addressed by the manager. And that brings us to the point of this post: Should Jerry Manuel be fired? I’m not willing to say yes, at the moment, but we are fast approaching the time when the front office will have to answer that question.

Manuel seems well-suited to New York, has that easy-going manner and can handle the pressures of the media. But he has run this team for just over a year, presided over a season-ending collapse and is now toiling at three games below .500. The team is badly schooled and — this may be key — has suffered from some odd managerial decisions this year. Why pinch-hit for Daniel Murphy with Fernando Tatis? Why the attraction to Tatis at this point, given that he has become an automatic double-play?

I know you have to play the cards you’ve been dealt — Alex Cora has been in the league a long time but is not an everyday shortstop — but you still don’t bet the house when you have two of a kind.

Omar Minaya will make the decision — and also sits on the hot seat. There are some who view his tenure as a failure, his good moves marked only by the Mets having more money than most, but I disagree. He’s made some interesting pickups that have panned out and others that have not, but he needs to go out and get someone that can help address the team’s woeful lack of offense. It would be foolish to wait for players to return from the DL — that didn’t work last year with Pedro — because there are no guarantees.

Minaya, however, should not be the issue — at least not until the end of the season. The issue is Manuel and whether he can get this team to start using its head. If he can’t, they need to bring in someone else who can.

A quiz: How many of the Mets’ opening day starters have spent time on the disabled list? Well, as of tonight, it’s five — add Carlos Beltran to the list. Only Luis Castillo, Daniel Murphy and David Wright have stayed healthy — and Murphy lost his leftfield job because he proved to be an awful outfielder.

Three important pitchers — starters Oliver Perez and John Maine and setup man JJ Putz — also are out of commission.

In addition to starting shortstop Jose Reyes, second-stringer Alex Cora and third-string shortstop Ramon Martinez have been on the shelf.

They’re still above .500, but if they don’t get healthy they won’t be for long.

Raul Ibanez hits a three-run homer off of a pitcher who probably shouldn’t be with the big club. Great. I really hate the Phillies.

Phillies came back — of course — and now it’s up to the rookie Fernando Martinez to keep this game from going to extra innings. Two outs, no one on — nothing put in play.

Now let’s see what all the hype was about.