Lupica delenda est.

Beltran has been something of a disappointment offensively this season but not a massive one. Anyone who was expecting a repeat of 2006 was always going to be disappointed. Beltran will probably get hot soon and end the season with a an OPS between .825-.850 on the season.

I wonder if Omar gets fired if the Mets don't make the playoffs this season.

I wonder if Omar gets fired if the Mets don't make the playoffs this season.

He probably should. Cause if Willie wasn't the problem...

Melky, Cano, Posada, Alou and Jeter have all been more disappointing. Beltrans power is down but his OBP is up from last year and higher than his career average.

I wonder if Omar gets fired if the Mets don't make the playoffs this season.

That depends on the Wilpons. They might ask themselves why their team finished looking up at a team with $100+m less in payroll. On the other hand, Jeff seems to like to stick his hands in things, and he might question getting rid of a GM who will likely have less and less political power as things continue to go south.

I wish I could be as prescient as a member of the media (either radio or print) and see which numbers are "being hung" and which contribute to wins. A rod is being bashed again in the media for putting up empty numbers and not carrying the team, while having a pretty good year. Captain Clutch is not doing well and gets a pass.

Beltran is always going to be looked down upon as he does a lot of things well (plays good D, runs well, hit for good power, has a good OBP) but doesn't do a couple of things incredibly (home runs, average). They also compare a Gold Glove center fielder to a 1st baseman, in terms of offensive production.

I like Omar and have generally liked the moves he has made as GM but I don't get why he didn't do more to improve the bullpen. He basically didn't do anything at all to boster the pen after the 2007 season in which the bullpen couldn't get anyone out during the last few weeks of the season. I guess he was hoping that Sanchez's addition would be enough and that the rotation would be good enough to carry the load. The rotation has been solid (102 ERA+) although hardly spectacular.

Still, you have to think Omar is feeling relatively secure about his considering he didn't make a move to improve the team at the deadline.

It's been said here numerous times... Omar seems to get the spectacular stuff right, but can't solve the solvable problems when he has the chance. As to the bullpen, the time to do something about it had probably come and gone long before the trading deadline.

I think he tends to use hope as a plan waaay too much. Again, when it comes to the pen, the Mets probably shouldn't have planned to count as much on Sanchez as much as they did. It's actually mildly shocking he's done as well as he has (though he's clearly hitting some sort of wall now). And other than him, it's practically the exact same bullpen that was the main culprit in the biggest collapse in baseball history.

I have to wonder if all the negative press towards the Mets and the positive press for the Yankees has to do with last season.

Yankees - They were having a pretty bad season (by their own standards) in '07, and I believe they even were trailing the Red Sox by 10+ games at one point. I know that many proclaimed that the Yankees were done, that they would never see the postseason. They had a strong stretch drive, and managed to win the WC. In the offseason, they did not add any big name players, but they retained the services of Arod, Posada, and Rivera. By and large, it was the same team. So it would not be too surprising if they had a repeat performance. This season, players have been underperforming and injuries have taken their toll. To account for this, Cashman added some pieces. The Yankees are still very much in the playoff race, and the fans have every reason to think that the Yanks can have another solid end of a season to advance to the playoffs. This is, after all, exactly what they did last season.

Mets - After their disappointing end to last season, the Mets talked about how the past was in the past. As such, the fans, press, and team fully expected the 2008 Mets to make amends for the 2007 collapse. To prove this, they got the best starting pitcher available. The Mets are a better team than the previous year's, and they should play that way. Then the 2008 season started.

Yankee fans, in my opinion, are just now setting their expectations. It is August, Cashman addressed some needs of this team, they are within striking distance, let's see a repeat of 2007. The real scrutiny begins now. The Mets, however, set the bar for expectations before the season even began. Their miserable start caused a lot of ill will that won't go away until the Mets make the playoffs. Not being a Mets fan I can't say for sure, but I have to wonder if the WC would still be a disappointment.

I'm happy with the front office right now. The willingness to use Murphy/Evans in a pennant race tells me that they're not afraid of young unproven players. Now if they'd only find some way of getting Pascucci up here in the big club, I'd be content.

Bullpen-wise, there's not much that can be done. Sanchez has been less effective than expected and everyone else has been worse than projected. We didn't have enough to reel in Fuentes (still wouldn't deal Heilman/Schoenweis for him now, Russlan?) or Street. I think all we can hope for is that Kunz and Parnell ripen quickly and can stabilize the rest of the bullpen. It's just overused at this point, and Manuel hasn't been better than Willie at solving the overuse issue.

I wish I could be as prescient as a member of the media (either radio or print) and see which numbers are "being hung" and which contribute to wins. A rod is being bashed again in the media for putting up empty numbers and not carrying the team, while having a pretty good year. Captain Clutch is not doing well and gets a pass.

I hate agreeing with Mike Lupica...but while A-Rod is having another "best player in the game" season in the aggregate...he has struggled with runners in scoring position and situations of that ilk. Despite that, you would have to be pretty silly to choose Bobby Abreu as an offensive MVP over Alex.

Since this is the resident Yankee thread...kind of...from Pete Abraham:

Hughes went 3.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and one walk while striking out five. Pavano went three innnings, allowing five hits, one run and two walks with two strikeouts.

Hughes, according to a report that was e-mailed to me, was hitting 95.

“Tonight I was able settle in and spot my fastball, and throw my breaking balls and changeups,” Hughes said. “I was able to go 50-plus pitches tonight, and then go up to 65 or 70 pitches next outing.”

Hughes tossed 54 pitches. He is a start or two away from being MLB-ready, at least from a point-count standpoint.

it's practically the exact same bullpen that was the main culprit in the biggest collapse in baseball history.

Yes and no. Mota is gone, and he consistently threw gas on the fire last fall. Sanchez is back. Maybe Omar's hopes for him were too high, but his return should (and has) ciunted for something. And, for the most part, management seems to have figured out that Schoeneweis is a LOOGY.

Russlan is right - Beltran had a bad year his first year in New York, then a career year in his second. So the New York press thinks that the first year was a blip, and that the second year is "who he really is." In reality, if you put the two years together, Beltran was .270/.358/.498 in his first two years in New York, which really is what you should expect from him, give or take. But as he's always going to be compared to 2006, he will always be seen as a disappointment and so we get stupid articles like this.

Alou hasn't been a disappointment offensively, he's hitting like .350 or something. The problem is he can't get on the field, let alone stay there.

As for A-Rod, this is most probably the least "clutch" year of his career, which is why I'm amazed we haven't been deluged with articles (again) about what a choker he is. On the other hand, with runners on, he's hitting .397/.500, and when the teams are within 3 runs of each other, he's hitting .398/.543. As a Giants fan, I only wish our third basemen could choke like that - collectively they are hitting .259/.303/.400.

Little Alex's biggest faux pas this year is he he turned down the home run derby which gave ESPN's latest left-wing numbskull Rick Reilly a chance to get his extra Y chromosome whining about the lack of Latin players.

I'd take Lupica to task, but I don't want to net a suspension from BBTF.

Alex Rodriguez has his numbers, because he can always hang numbers on you in good times and bad, and he hit one out yesterday against the Angels. But he has not yet carried the Yankees yet the way he is paid to.

No one even cares that he won the MVP? Seriously?

Captain Clutch is not doing well and gets a pass.

Totally; I have not heard word one about this. (In fact, I've heard the MSM badmouth his defense more this season than his big offensive falloff.) Comical.

I have to wonder if all the negative press towards the Mets and the positive press for the Yankees has to do with last season.

To a large extent, yes. I think after 15 straight playoff years or whatever, the majority is willing to give the Yanks a mulligan, so long as they work in the young guys and improve their position for '09 and beyond. But the Mets were supposed to redeem last year, this year. This is why the philosophy of "forget it ever happened", and retaining Willie, were bad ideas.

Sanchez has been less effective than expected

Expecting anything from the guy was "hope as a plan." To be fair, 1) he hasn't been awful, 2) the Mets have nothing to trade, 3) trading for RP is always risky, and 4) apparently they asked about Putz but the price was ridiculous. So Omar's in a very tough situation, but still, I really don't think that the answers to the RP and OF situations are to be found in the very farm system that is so decimated as to kill our ability to make trades.

And other than him, it's practically the exact same bullpen that was the main culprit in the biggest collapse in baseball history.

We're using the '64 Phillies bullpen??? Okay, I understand the problem now...

As for Beltran, he is what he is. I do think it's a tad disingenuous to say that you expected from the beginning that he'd be around 850 OPS every year and would only have one season for the Mets like '06. Given the age at which he was signed, and the nature of his game which figured to age very well, he was expected to have more 900+ years, and was paid accordingly. He's still part of the solution and not part of the problem, of course. But if someone wants to say that we haven't quite gotten what we hoped-slash-paid for, I think that's just a truth. Kinda reminds me of the guy two letters off, Adrian Beltre -- looks to be very overpaid if you go by Triple Crown stats and ignore defense; more sophisticated analysis reveals that that is either only slightly true or not true at all; nonetheless, the first to be scapegoated for all the team's problems because he has the big contract.

Melky, Cano, Posada, Alou and Jeter have all been more disappointing.

Melky and Cano I can see. Posada and Alou are aging and on their decline curves, as is Jeter, so I don't see how they could be a disappointment unless you expected them to play as if in their primes this late in their careers.

I'm happy with the front office right now. The willingness to use Murphy/Evans in a pennant race tells me that they're not afraid of young unproven players.

The youth movement continues - Mets called up Kunz, according to Rubin in the DN.

Schoenweis

Someone needs to beat Manuel with a bat. In the last week Show has faced Pujols, Hanley, and Berkman.

Yes, I know he got them out, but there is no way he should ever be pitching to them.

Yep a 117 OPS+ from your centerfielder is so disappointing. Of course, I'm being sarcastic, I understand that more is expected from Beltran due to his career 116 OPS+.

main culprit in the biggest collapse in baseball history.

Sorry the Yankees were the involved in that. YOu need to add regular season to make that statement.

main culprit in the biggest collapse in baseball history.

From the THT Annual: WPA during Mets' last seventeen games last year:

Bullpen: -1.7
Starting Pitching: -2.69

I know some people hate WPA, but if anything WPA would overstate the negative collapse of the bullpen. The starters were the main culprits.

Little Alex's biggest faux pas this year is he he turned down the home run derby which gave ESPN's latest left-wing numbskull Rick Reilly a chance to get his extra Y chromosome whining about the lack of Latin players.

Trolling isn't what it used to be.

I know some people hate WPA, but if anything WPA would overstate the negative collapse of the bullpen. The starters were the main culprits.

Yeah, the starters were terrible. They were constantly not going deep into games, which meant the bullpen had to be used for too long, which wore them down, etc...

The Mets got 5 quality starts in the last 17 games of the season. Included in that were 2 in the first 2 games of the Philly series, so in the last 15 games the Mets got 3 quality starts.

In the last 17 games of the season the Mets scored 5.7 runs per game (933 over a full season) playing only in Shea, Florida, and Washington, and still only won 5 games.

Just going through those box scores is depressing.

Yep a 117 OPS+ from your centerfielder is so disappointing. Of course, I'm being sarcastic, I understand that more is expected from Beltran due to his career 116 OPS+.

Even though Lupica is being overly harsh, I don't think it's wrong to say Beltran has been somewhat disapointing as a Met. Notwithstanding his career OPS+, the Mets signed him entering his age 28 season. He was coming off years with OPS+ of 132, to along with 83 steals in 90 attempts.

Since then, he's had the unquestionable best year of his career but also his worst since he became a regular. Whether becaue of the team or himself he's stopped stealing huge numbers of bases, and after averaging 154 games a year during his four years as a regular, he's never topped or even matched that as a Met. (Though he's on pace to this year.)

The Mets have much, much bigger problems than Carlos Beltran, even if he "only" plays like 2008 Beltran. But there's at least some truth in the idea that he hasn't been the player the Mets thought they were getting.

Just going through those box scores is depressing.

Heh, sorry my comment made you do that.

I hate agreeing with Mike Lupica...but while A-Rod is having another "best player in the game" season in the aggregate...he has struggled with runners in scoring position and situations of that ilk. Despite that, you would have to be pretty silly to choose Bobby Abreu as an offensive MVP over Alex.

Have to agree with this. I'm as big an A-Rod fan as there is, but this year, he's always seeming to come up short in big situations. His inability to get runners home from 3rd with less than 2 outs is downright mindboggling. He's still a great player and he's still having a fine year, and I'd still rather have him at 3B than anybody else, but for whatever reason, he's not having a great year with the clutchiness. Of course, since he was the very picture of clutchiosity in '07, I'm just going to write it off as one of those things and assume at some random point in the future things will turn around.

Have to agree with this. I'm as big an A-Rod fan as there is, but this year, he's always seeming to come up short in big situations.

A-Rod has 3 SF in 33 PA with a man on 3, less than two outs. He's also got 2 GDP in those situations, so yeah, not so good. Of course, as a whole the Yankees have 23 SF in 245 PA with 13 GDP in that situation, so A-Rod is obviously just joining the club.

Arod should have had one more SF yesterday. Abreu being dense and Jeter not running all out cost him.

Arod should have had one more SF yesterday. Abreu being dense and Jeter not running all out cost him.

Yeah, but shouldn't he also have had an extra DP, if Sox chatterer's descriptions of the game were correct (and really, who could doubt their description).

Jeter not running all out cost him.

Look, like the rest of humanity...I want Jeter's penis to fall off, but it certainly looked like he was going all out.

A-Rod has 3 SF in 33 PA with a man on 3, less than two outs. He's also got 2 GDP in those situations, so yeah, not so good. Of course, as a whole the Yankees have 23 SF in 245 PA with 13 GDP in that situation, so A-Rod is obviously just joining the club.

In all fairness, there's some perception bias at work with me too... whenever I'm watching, A-Rod invariably strikes out with men on base. If I miss the game, he goes 2-4 with a HR. Clearly a guy with a 1.000 OPS is doing some hitting... it just never seems to happen when I'm paying attention.

Jeter not running all out cost him.

Look, like the rest of humanity...I want Jeter's penis to fall off, but it certainly looked like he was going all out.

My sentence was poorly phrased (and your copy/paste was selective), but I would definitely blame Abreu more than Jeter. Jeter was running plenty, though I don't think it was an all out sprint. To be fair, there is no reason he needs to all out sprint there. If Abreu stays put, Jeter scores standing with ease.

Why do Mets fans have unrealistically high expectations of Carlos Beltran? He's the best player on the team, and that includes David Wright and Jose Reyes. If he hit much better, the Cardinals would want him instead of Albert Pujols.

Why do Mets fans have unrealistically high expectations of Carlos Beltran? He's the best player on the team, and that includes David Wright and Jose Reyes.

see I don't know if that was supposed to be serious or not (and represent the unreasonable expectations Mets fans hold, for him)

If he hit much better, the Cardinals would want him instead of Albert Pujols.

on second thought...

Arod should have had one more SF yesterday. Abreu being dense and Jeter not running all out cost him.

that flyball was off the bat of the X-man. Arod struck out against Lackey earlier that inning.

and that blunder was all on abreu, he had the play in front of him and he didn't wait to see if the ball was going home. in addition, there wasn't a really good reason to get to third in that situation anyway with 2 outs, bobby would have been able to score from 2nd on any subsequent hit.

in any case, Lemmiwinks redeemed himself with his hitting for the rest of the game.

Whether becaue of the team or himself he's stopped stealing huge numbers of bases

He's had some leg problems.