The quest for mediocrity.
If you believed in hexes or curses, one could certainly understand the troubled case of the 2009 New York Mets.
A team where only 1 everyday starter has been healthy all season, who has lost his power swing to the point he's on pace for a career low in HRs, a career high in his number of strikeouts, and yet still has hit over .300 all season.
But the team has been without 3 of 8 everyday players for the majority of the season. Shortstop Jose Reyes, first baseman Carlos Delgado, and centerfielder Carlos Beltran.
The team was also without starting catcher Brian Schneider for half of April and almost all of May, who means a lot more to the team behind the plate than he does batting at it.
Ex-rightfielder Ryan Church also spent some time on the DL. As have Gary Sheffield, Angel Pagan, Alex Cora, Ramon Martinez and Fernando Martinez.
But we haven't even gotten to the pitching staff yet. Only two of the club's 5 pitchers in the starting rotation have remained healthy all year. Those two being Johan Santana and Livan Hernandez.
Oliver Perez spent some time rehabbing a sore knee, which at first was thought to be a phantom injury that the Mets came up with when he pitched so poorly to begin the 2009 season, but if one believes the Mets PR staff, and honestly, who knows these days... MRI results revealed that the injury was apparently real.
John Maine has had more shoulder problems this season, which is a thematic thing with him to the point the club can't possibly leave him in the 2010 rotation because his arm has never proven to stand up to the rigors of a full season. Despite his attempts at rehabbing the shoulder, things are not going well.
Tim Redding started the season on the DL, and the way he's pitched most of the time, one kinda wishes he had stayed there. There were even rumblings not too long ago that the club might release him outright, but additional injuries to the already-decimated pitching staff allowed him to stay on the club as a reliever.
Top setup reliever JJ Putz's elbow problems re-surfaced in 2009 to the point he needed surgery and may or may not return in September.
"Miracle" waiver pickup Fernando Nieve, who pitched very well in 3 of his 5 starts this season, with the 6th start being the one where he hurt his leg running out a grounder to first base, is also on the DL.
"But wait, there's more!" - Billy Mays
Today we added starting pitcher and one of the club's top prospects Jonathon Niese to the injury list, as he tore his right hamstring tendon off the bone while trying to make a fielding play at first base. Niese did an involuntary gymnastic-like split which his legs aren't quite made for, and suffered this season-ending injury as a result.
That makes it 9 players currently on the Mets' DL, and second baseman Luis Castillo just recently sprained his ankle while walking down the dugout steps, making him day-to-day.
When your starters go down, and your pitchers go down, and then your backups go down, and then your backups' backups go down... London Bridge can't be far behind.
It's early August, and the Mets are realistically, though not mathematically, eliminated from the postseason.
Not because of ownership. Not because of GM Omar Minaya. Not because of manager Jerry Manuel.
Because injuries are the great unequalizer in the world of sports, and they've turned a $149-million club into a team that can't produce.
If the Pittsburgh Penguins lost Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury, Petr Sykora, Kris Letang, Miro Satan, and Ruslan Fedotenko, would they have won the Stanley Cup this year? Would they even have made the playoffs? Certainly no Cup for a team without those players, and a very doubtful playoff position either.
This isn't making excuses. It's the unfortunate and stark reality of the situation that this ballclub is in.
So now what?
The Mets are now embarking on a 7-game West Coast swing against San Diego and Arizona. The good news is that San Diego is awful now. Except they were also awful last season, and the Padres swept the Mets in a 4-game set last June of 2008. Three of those wins by a score of 2-1, and that was with a lot more healthy Mets on the club.
As for Arizona, the good news is that the Mets have always done extremely well in games played in Phoenix. The bad news is that the Mets lost 3 of 4 just last week to the Diamondbacks at CitiField.
The postseason isn't the reality anymore. Now it's a quest for mediocrity.
Can this ballclub finish the 2009 season with a record over .500? With a record of 51-56 through 107 games, and 55 games remaining in the season, a realistic projection for this team puts them at 77-85. That most closely resembles the record of the 1991 Mets that finished 77-84.
Can they win 82 games, finishing a game over .500? The team will need to go 31-24 over the rest of the season to achieve that. Is that the greatest accomplishment this team can hope to achieve with less than 2 months to go? Sadly, the answer is yes.
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