While waiting at the drive through at Taco Bell for my lunch I tuned into WFAN and caught a little bit of Beningo and Roberts yacking about the abysmal state of the New York Mets and what, after the standard good start and then prompt collapse, must be done to salvage the season.
Beningo, the seeming voice of reason, appeared resigned to the Mets ultimate fate of yet again missing the playoffs despite the loud overtures earlier in the season that this was "the year."
Roberts, refusing to accept fate, launched into a tirade demanding the Mets "Do SOMETHING," to get back on track. He argued for the firing of manager Jerry Manuel, even though this recent collapse is not entirely his fault, to the firing of hitting coach Howard Johnson, a tactic the Phillies tried late last week before promptly scoring a quartet of consecutive wins.
He even suggested the Mets go after some of the big names that could potentially be on the move before the looming Trade Deadline.
The simple truth though is Mets fans really should just accept that this is a lost season. They aren't catching the Braves for the division and shouldn't come within a stone's throw of the Wild Card and here's why:
1) Yes teams who have fired their managers mid-season often get a spark and win games. But the teams that actually carry that the whole season are the teams that are extremely talented to begin with and only tailed off because of some sort of locker room issues with the manager. And honestly who are you going to get to come in and light a fire? Bob Melvin, sorry, that doesn't frighten me, Bobby Valentine? He's probably the only guy out there with the personality to reinvigorate the Mets but I find it funny that Mets fans want a guy back who they practically ran out of town the last time around.
2) The Mets can't and won't get any big name players in a trade. Sure they could try and they probably should just to save face. But who is going to wave a no-trade clause to come to the Mets? Certainly not a guy like Roy Oswalt who is likely to entertain serious offers from real contenders like the Phillies, the Cardinals, Dodgers and, yes, the Yankees. Beyond that, who are the Mets going to put up as trade bait? Their only players worth anything they desperately need and the rest of the guys are average at best and miserable at worst (see Oliver Perez).
3) THEY JUST AREN'T THAT GOOD! And nothing they do will fix that for this season. No one will question that a guy like Jason Bay has been a huge disappointment and is certainly having one of the worst seasons of his career. Jose Reyes has been playing well as has David Wright, Ike Davis and Angel Pagan. But the rest of the team with its Carlos Beltran's, though in his defense he is coming off an injury, and Louis Castillo's there really isn't much to get excited about. The starting pitching, Johan Santana aside has been surprisingly good but even that is starting to taper off and the bullpen is, well, laughable at the best of times.
No, what the Mets need to do, really do, is play out the season, fire Omar Minaya and the rest of his staff, get some new blood in and take a chance in the free-agent market while trying to dump some dead-weight salary. If that doesn't happen then the Mets will just continue to be what they've been the past few years, only the third best team in the division.
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