Tom Brennan - BOY, THE METS OFFENSE FELT GOOD FOR A WHILE THIS SEASON - BUT NOT FOR LONG

SMILES ARE NICE, BUT FAILURE BREEDS FAILURE?

This Mets season is on the verge of submerging due to their abysmal offense.  

The deck chairs are sliding on the listing Titanic.

It is actually, as I see it, worse than it first appears, for a few reasons:

First, the Mets scuffled mightily at the plate over thirst several weeks, what with a cancelled series, terrible weather, pressing new stars, and injuries.

Second, in a 14 game stretch, games 78 thru 91, it seemed the offense finally broke out, as I had long expected, with Lindor hot….they scored 82 runs in those 14 games, or nearly 7 per game.  Boy, did that ever feel great.  

But the offensive coma then returned, with just 60 runs over the last 20 games, or 3 per game. 7-13 in that 20 game stretch, where two key pieces - Jake and Lindor - were occupying the Injured List.

The 1968 Mets’ Seaver and Koosman were a combined 35-23 but the Mets still ended up with a 73-89 season. Why? They scored just 3 runs per game.  

Scoring 3 runs per game, or close to it, is a formula for failure.

Third?  Are the Mets  as clutch as they come?  Au Contraire, Monsieur.

The closest thing to "clutch" in Queens is a fan’s malfunctioning clutch in his 1964 VW Beetle's stick shift mechanism.  (In one of my last handy achievements, about 50 years ago, I actually changed my clutch in that car in our garage in Bellerose).

Back to the Mets:  

As I pointed out Monday, the Mutts are last in the majors in terms of the percentage of a team's base runners scoring.  And, as an aside, probably cumulatively last in that respect over the past 6 seasons, at least.  30th three times, 20th twice, 18th once.

And like rain in the desert, a lot of the runs came in concentrated bursts.

During a 46 game stretch starting ironically on season game # 46, though, the Mets had 5 games of 10 or more runs in which they totaled 65 runs. 

The season’s other 106 games through Sunday, though, they’ve scored just 351 runs, or a terrible drought-like 3.3 runs per game.

Absent a drastic turn around offensively over the last 50 games, I would recommend a big shake up at year end.

Why? It is an absolute necessity for a team intending to win to be able to score more.  

A whole lot more.

If it means going with minor league kids next year and hoping for the best in 2022, while targeting 2023 for a return to an extremely rare Mets phenomenon, division dominance, I am OK with that.

This sickly offense? I am not OK with.

Apparently, in an interview with Zach Scott by SNY last night (you can see it on John from Albany's morning post on this site), Scott is not at all OK with 2021's offense either, diplomatically blaming hitting approach and avoidable time missed by hitters due to training not in accordance with the club's individual plans.  He shouldn't be so diplomatic.