| Brandon Contes. 2nd October, 2007 - 3:50 pm
 A tired bullpen, aging veterans, immaturity, poor preparedness, lack of focus - the excuses are endless as to why the National League favorite to go to the World Series ended there season on September 30th.
A seven-game lead with 17 games to go, the largest division lead in baseball at the time, the Mets were a lock for the playoffs. Three games against the Phillies, followed by 13 games against two of the worst teams in the League, the Mets were a lock for the playoffs. Pedro was back, Glavine was great and set to return in 2008, and the only debating that went on about the Mets was over the starting rotation for the 2007 postseason. David Wright was all set to win his first MVP award as they won 10 of 12 games and set it on cruise control, and that’s when their season began to crumble.
“We’ve got so much talent, I think sometimes we get bored,” said first baseman Carlos Delgado.
“Sometimes when you're a team as talented as we are - I don't know if I'd use the word 'bored,' but I guess you can get complacent at times,” said veteran pitcher Tom Glavine.
The Mets felt as if they could turn it on and off at any time. The Mets were a team without any focus. Their bullpen was absolutely terrible; their starters struggled to go five innings. Jose Reyes was batting .255 since the All-Star break and .187 over the final 32 games of the season. Their lead withered away and the urgency for this team still was not there. Reyes forgot to run when he hit the ball, Milledge decided to walk to line drives in the gap, and Delgado would walk from second to third rather than run home. Glavine had one of the worst starting pitcher performances in the history of Major League Baseball, and before they knew it the New York Mets’ off-season began in September.
This is a monumental collapse that will never be forgotten, you can blame it on the bullpen, you can blame it on the manager, you can blame it on the general manager, in the end it doesn’t matter. The Mets need to have a much different attitude towards the 2008 season then they did for 2007. No lead can be taken for granted. If they have a 15 game lead in July next year, they need to play the next day as if they have a 1 game lead. It doesn’t matter how good they think they are because the bottom line is they are not better then the Phillies, the Cubs, the D-Backs, the Padres, or the Rockies—they all lived to play another day while the Mets are cleaning their clubhouse. They are no better than the Atlanta Braves or even the San Francisco Giants because they won nothing more than they did this year.
Willie Randolph overachieved his first two seasons as manager of the Mets, and for that he deserves one more chance. However, what needs to be done is not have Minaya shorten the leash, but he needs to take off the leash. Randolph needs to pick his own coaches, have his own rules, and decide who is pitching the next game on his own. During the off-season this is Minaya’s team, but once the season starts Randolph needs full control.
In the end, the Mets need to change their roster, they need to change their attitude, and they need to get this franchise back in the direction it was headed just a year ago. |
