Bullpen Meltdowns, Futile Hitting, and Sloppy Fielding Plague The Mets

Terry Collins
Terry Collins
Brad Penner USA TODAY Sports

Can’t anybody here play this game is the famous question posed by Casey Stengel in 1962 as the first edition of the New York Mets stumbled their way to 120 defeats.

Perhaps the biggest questions that Terry Collins might be asking are “can’t anyone not strikeout and can a relief pitcher throw properly located strike?”

Among the biggest reasons that the Mets are 0-3 after getting outscored 22-8 by the NL East favorites Washington Nationals is that they have not been able to do either task with any semblance of competence.

No longer is the key number 90 as in the 90 victories general manager Sandy Alderson thought his fourth edition of the Mets could win. Instead it’s 39 and 11.75 as in the amount of strikeouts and the earned run average of the bullpen.

The Mets are now 0-3 for the first time since 2005. The differences between now and then is Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez, Jose Reyes, Cliff Floyd, Mike Piazza, and Tom Glavine.

None of those players are coming through the doors and other than David Wright and perhaps Curtis Granderson, no one on the active roster compares to talent and accomplishments of those players.

Which is why it’s difficult to believe that the Mets will go 83-76 the rest of the way.

Especially when the deadly combination of a bullpen meltdown, futile hitting, and sloppy fielding appears at the same time.

Teams have gone 0-3 and recovered as recently as 2012 when three teams made the playoffs and the Giants won the World Series.

None of those teams seem to have the lethal combination of misfortune that often plagues the Mets. The Mets haven’t completed their first week and are already down a left fielder and a closer, for how long is anybody’s guess.

But the circumstances of those injuries seem to be so typical of all that ails the Mets in recent seasons.

Chris Young is scratched from the season opening lineup with a quad strain only to play one inning two nights later and land on the DL. Bobby Parnell is working his way back from neck surgery after showing himself to be a capable closer for four months last season. His first pitch of 2014 was 89 mph, a warning sign if there ever was one and sure enough less than 24 hours later he’s injured with a partial tear of his MCL, the same ligament that often leads to “Tommy John” surgery.

The misfortune is nothing new for the Mets, who can never seem to sustain a consistent level of success. They have a bunch of winning seasons in a row that are often followed by an inept decline.

The late 1980s brought the highest of highs but a mere seven years after winning the World Series, the Mets were 103-game losers. The late 1990s and early 2000s brought a World Series appearance but again the poor decision making and injuries sent the Mets spiraling back into 90-loss territory.

That spawned the Omar Minaya era, which produced four winning seasons but two epic collapses. From there came the gradual decline, the financial issues from the Madoff scandal leading to the state of this group and the ones before that.

Teams often turn it around, but if you played like the Mets did in their first three games, that’s hard to envision. Until it actually does happen and sustain itself, many will be saying “That’s So Mets” when things continue going wrong.

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Larry Fleisher
Larry Fleisher has covered sports in various capacities for nearly 15 years. He is a writer/editor for the Sports Xchange and has also worked for SportsTicker and Metro New York newspaper. Larry also has worked on many NBA broadcasts doing stats, on several TV shows as a background actor. He is a member of the Pro Basketball Writers Association and the Internet Baseball Writers Association.