What to do, What to do

Since Sunday, everyone has been passing me condolences on the Mets season. To be honest it has gradually started to hit me, but not fully. The last couple of weeks were very difficult to sit through. The last game was brutal as well, but there was a part of me that was more angry than sad so I did not feel the finality of the season. Then Gary Cohen ended the coverage on channel 11 by saying "Our next broadcast will be from Port St. Lucie in March". All of the sudden I felt something. On the way to work I could not escape the front AND back pages of the local newspapers. The front page of ESPN, CNNSI, Deadspin, etc, etc. Then I get home and for the first time in six months I did not have a baseball game to look forward to. It's over. The only way I know how to treat this is to ask, what now?


Before that I want to address one thing about the weekend. I really could care less about the Mets actions on Saturday afternoon and the fact that the Mets did not "let sleeping dogs lie". This is professional sports. I do not care if the teams don't like each other. The entire National league hated the 1986 Mets and that did not stop them. If the Mets were deserving then would have won anyway. I would love for my team to win with class, but I understand the world we live in. That usually does not happen. So the Mets pissed the Marlins off. Who cares? The Mets were doing the same dancing and celebrating nonsense last year, but no one made a big deal because they were able to win anyway.


So now the Mets have decisions to make. First and foremost the Mets need to figure out this leadership situation. For the past two years there has been a weird atmosphere around this team. It's not like this just appeared in September. I mean, last season a mystery teammate taped a note to the locker of Lastings Milledge telling to basically stop acting like a clown and grow up. You had Lodcua calling out his Latin teammates early in this season about how he and a couple other guys are the only ones who seem to stand up to the media after tough losses. Now we have these rumors of front office personnel constantly hanging around the locker room and in a way undermining Willie. Unnamed sources are questioning Willie. Bottom line is this has to stop. They all need to understand that they are on the same side and there should be no backstabbing. Omar needs to step up and respect the manager and bring some order to this house. He created this, now he needs to stop this. Plus it looks like a couple of the more vocal veterans may be gone after the season (Loduca, Glavine). It will be interesting to see how the leadership roles are defined on this team once some of the veteran guys are gone (which I hope they are). Here are a couple things I want to happen.



1. Get rid of Ricky Henderson, Tom Glavine, Paul Loduca.

2. Retool the bullpen by getting rid of Mota and Sosa at least. The only guy that has to come back is Wagner because of his contract situation. Schoenwiess prolly has to as well, and Heilman unless he is dealt for a bigger name player. After that though, I do not all bets should be off.

3. Make a strong play for a front line pitcher (Dan Haren, Johan Santana, etc). The Mets have a few pieces to make a deal. If you can have a top four of the rotation of Pedro, Maine, Perez, and another front line guy then all of the sudden you are in really good shape.

4. Get younger in the line-up. Catcher, 2B, 1B, and the corner outfield spots can all be younger. I am not saying attack all those positions, but a couple. Maybe try to start Milledge next year in right and bring back Alou in left (have Gomez ready for when Alou gets hurt). Delgado may have to come back, but you can try to see if Gotay can play 2B full-time, or being someone else in. Find a younger catcher. I do not want Pudge in here.

5. Last and most important find out what is bugging Reyes and fix it. he is the key to the entire team and in order for the Mets to be good he has to be good.



In the end this might be good for this team. They were way to confident and ahead of themselves considering they had only won a division title. They acted as if they were the Queens Yankees. The fans did not feel comfortable with that, but enjoyed finally having a team that felt they were the best and a team that assumed they would win. I think the fans will be more comfortable rooting for next years squad which is sure to be hungrier and more focused. This has always been a blue collar franchise with blue collar fans. Plus guys like Reyes and Wright finally tasted what it is like to be booed and really ripped on in New York. They are both still under 26 and have many years ahead of them to regain any confidence or affection they once had. We will see what moves are made, but there is no reason in my mind why this team will not come back hungrier and on a mission to blow the NL out of the water. The NL East has a lot of talent, so it will be interesting, but one thing is for sure. The Mets will not look down on the other teams and expect them to roll over like they did this year. They will be focused to do it right. And if that is not the case then Willie will have to go and the problem will be much deeper in this organization.



Yanks

At the beginning of the season I said that the Yankees would make the playoffs once again, but that their problems would continue on October. Am I going to back off of those now? No way. Although they much have been listening to me because they have addressed the concerns I voiced. Number one is defense. They seem committed to putting their best defensive team they can on the field these days, with Melky in center, Meintkeich at first, and sometimes even Damon in Left. Seconly, I said their older bats slowed down at the end of the season when facing young hard throwers. Well, Melky and Cano are young enough that they should not be worn down and many of the veterans have been platooned so they should be fresher than in recent years.

In addition, the Yankees now have he 8th inning guy they have been craving. Joba is the perfect 8th inning bridge to Mariano in the 9th. The funny thing is though, when you look at this run since 2001 in which the Yankees have not been able to win a title, has the bullpen really been the culprit? I mean think about it. How many of these games that the Yankees lost did they have a lead late in a game and the pen blew it before getting it to Mo. Feel free to share, but I can't think of one off the top of my head. I am not saying that won't happen this year, but that is an interesting point considering all the talk over the past few years about the Yankees pen and Joe's over usage of it, etc.

I guess my point is that this series will come down to the starting pitching. The Indians have to be pretty confident with their top two. The Yankees say they are, but I have my doubts. Wang's ERA was 4.90 on the road this year. As for Pettitte, all Yankee fans want to talk about is how much of a big game pitcher he is. Well, go to the record books. He buried you in game 6 of the 2001 World Series and he couldn't make it through four innings in game 5 of the 2000 NLDS. I think he will pitch well, but I get the feeling that Yankee fans put him in the category with a Smoltz or a Schilling as far as postseason greatness goes and that is just wrong. Does Clemens pitch, does Mussina pitch, does Hughes pitch? I don't know. If the Yankee starting pitching can keep a lead up until the 7th though it will be very tough to come back on them.

One last thing is the Joe Torre issue. Even with all he has done this year, there is a very good chance that he will be gone if they do not make it out of the division series this year. I am not saying it is right, but it is a fact. He needs to show the patience he lacked last year (batting AROD 8th, benching Sheff, etc). If the Yanks lose game one with Giambi on the bench or DHing I do not want to see him at first in game two. Defense is so key in the postseason. Stuff like that will be important to watch if they Yankees fall behind in this first series.

How did I not mention AROD in all of this? Well, what else is there to say about him? It's put up or shut up time. He knows this is where the media and fans will forever judge him. We are just going to have to wait and see on this one. If there was ever a time for him to break out though you would think that it would be after this unbelievable season.

Indians in 4

STKAFI