The LTJ Editorial: “Support is all you need”

“The LTJ Editorial”
Author: Luis Tirado Jr.
Date: 6-14-13
Twitter: @LTJ81

“Support is all you need”

Take a quick snapshot around the entire New York Mets organization and you’re left with a sour taste in your mouth with a hint of sweetness. Some of the only glimpses of good are mainly from our pitching. For the most part, all our starting pitchers have done a pretty good job so far this season. They usually get relief with a run or two lead and hope the team can support them to victory. About 95% of the time, that relief doesn’t come without a price. Sadly, we have some glaring issues with the rest of this team outside of those starting five.

Our relief pitchers are truly one of the worst group of pitchers I’ve ever seen. It seems nobody can get these tight games over to be able to setup a closing situation. They are all giving up easy pitches, other teams are scoring runs, and they’ve given up way too many homeruns. Those tight games we are losing because the WHIP of Hawkins, Lyon, Rice, Burke, and Edgin is almost above a 3 combined. Right there we are statistically bound to lose plenty of close games because our relief pitchers aren’t relieving anything, in fact, they’re giving games away when we’re setup to win them.

It’s taken me some time to realize the following, but it’s definitely a hard pill to swallow. So as I look across the league, I see all these incredible highlights of singles, doubles, triples, homeruns, grand slams, you name it. I can’t think of the last time I saw an ESPN highlight featuring a crazy hit by a Met. In fact, where did all our hitting go? These guys all look anemic, they’re not hitting or better yet, they’re hitting balls without a clue. How many times do we have someone on base and the first pitch from the opposing team is popped up for an easy out? Or how about in that same situation, we easily give the opposition a double play off that very first pitch? What happened to being patient at the plate? We are ranked 25th in Runs, 30th in batting average (.224!!!), and 29th in OBP. That ranks as some of the worst rankings in all of professional baseball. Once again, where is the support? Where is that fire and passion that rallies teamwork and cohesiveness? Frankly, I don’t really see it.

Defense is another category we are severely lacking in. Too many times do I see balls go across players legs, silly mistakes being made, lately they can’t even get a groundball to first base without it being seconds close or completely off making it a double. Lacking the simple basics is causing everyone to get sloppy. I’m not trying to beat a dead horse as I’m sure the negativity from the media in New York is more than enough, but it’s very frustrating to see this version of the Mets. We can’t offer relief, we can’t hit, can’t play defense, and worst of all, we can’t win games. We keep losing series to teams and seem to be all over the place when it comes to finding solutions to the problems. I’m glad demotions happened and players got sent to AAA Vegas because it’s a sign that things are going in the right direction to a degree. With that being said, please keep what I’m about to say in mind for the future.

What makes us so special as Mets fans is never giving up. I still watch as many games as I can, listen to them on the radio, or even go in person to Citi Field and while this is all very frustrating, I’ll keep supporting this team no matter what. It’s not easy these days but I still keep on looking for positives in a very negative situation. We have Wheeler coming up to the pros in a few days and maybe with a day off for the team before their series with the Chicago Cubs tonight, we can stop being embarrassing and start just playing professionally. Everything bad goes away when you’re winning. Lately we haven’t, but with the support from the diehard fans like me, I’m confident things will get better sooner than we think…….