Mothers Of Destruction

So I think that we can all agree … optimists and pessimists alike … that this Met team for all its flaws already has a brighter outlook than last season’s team.  David Wright is hitting home runs when he’s not striking out fifty straight times, Ike Davis is here, Jeff Francoeur is smiling, Jon Niese is throwing curveballs with purpose, Mike Pelfrey is on the upswing … things are looking good for the Metropolitans of New York.

The problem is that the Mets aren’t so good that their fatal flaws aren’t going to kill them.

The first flaw is the manager.

I’ll reiterate that Snoop Manuel is not the reason the Mets lost on Mother’s Day, nor was he the reason the Mets lost against Cincinnati last Wednesday.  But just four days after using his entire bench by the tenth inning, he somehow uses his entire bench by the eighth inning.  And even though it didn’t kill them, it very well would have if Davis, or Frenchy had driven in Jason Bay with the tying run and the Mets had to go to the tenth … probably with Niese in left field and Bay at third base.  One day, this sudden overmanaging will lead to demise.

Blame Wright all you want for losing his cool and throwing seven f-bombs at home plate ump Paul Schrieber.  But I’ve always said that somebody needs to lose it on this team and this is the best it’s going to get, probably, so I’ll take it.  Emotion is a good thing, boys and girls … remember the big picture, always.  Besides, Wright getting tossed wouldn’t have made a difference in a fictional/hypothetical tenth inning if Manuel hadn’t made all of these moves by then, like batting Fernando Tatis, the emergency catcher, for Alex Cora (the same Alex Cora who is 30 points better lifetime against lefties than righties), then wasting Henry Blanco by announcing him into the game and then yanking him so Brian Wilson can strike out Frank Catalanotto.  (What was that about wasting your catchers, Snoop?)  At least if you let Cora bat against the lefty Dan Runzler, then Tatis would have been available as the decoy for Brian Wilson in the eighth, and heck you still could have let Tatis hit against Wilson.  But one unnecessary move forced other necessary moves, and all of a sudden you have the possibility of Jon Niese playing left field in a tie game.  Who does this?

Now to be fair I’ll present the other side of the coin, and that’s this:  These ridiculous moves probably would not have been necessary had it not been for the horror show that is Oliver Perez.  In the words of Carlo Gervasi: “He’s gotta gooooooooooooo!”  I really could care less how much money Jeffy has to eat or whether he thinks he can afford it or not, but this team cannot afford another wasted start by a guy who seems to be more meticulous with his beard than he is with the strike zone. (I shudder to think what his face would look like if he had control problems with his razor.)

The question is this: would R.A. Dickey, Hisanori Takahashi, or Dillon Gee provide you more than Oliver Perez is giving you … not what Oliver Perez can give you, but what he is giving you?  I’m willing to find out.  But I’m not sure anyone who counts is willing.  Oh sure, they’ll “discuss his situation“, but come on.  The Mets just want to keep the fans from storming the gates with weapons.

This cannot go on much longer, simply for the sake of my health and blood pressure.  But most importantly, this can’t go on because if the Mets are going to be in the hunt come September, they’re going to regret throwing every fifth game away waiting for this guy to find either himself, a groove, or a comfort level.  If this organization is willing to continually coddle this guy, signing players for the sole reason to make Oliver comfortable, and make excuses for a pitcher who had the only two consistent months of his career when he was in a contract drive, then to be quite frank, the organization deserves whatever consequences befall them.