A Tale of Two Carloses

By Shari "Shea Faithful" Forst
Posted Saturday, June 16, 2007

I know that I wrote a piece about Carlos Delgado a while back, but I have to admit that this week I have been inspired by a comment that our very own debmc left on the Shea Faithful site when she commented about how awful both Beltran and Delgado have been.

Deb is absolutely right, both of these guys have been dragging down an already depleted offense. With now two out of the three starting outfielders still out of the line up-and fan favorite Endy Chavez hurt, offense is hard to come by. However when you think about it, even with Alou and Green out of the lineup, one would think there is still a pretty good Murderer’s Row still there -- with Reyes, Beltran, Delgado, Wright and Lo Duca. Especially the two Carloses who are getting paid big bucks to produce with their bats.

Delgado, who seemed to come on strong after I wrote my piece about how bad he was a few short weeks ago, has been hot and cold, but mainly cold. It seems as if his last few home runs have been solo shots, not that it’s a bad thing, but he is not coming through with RISP -- he grounds out into that RIDICULOUS shift where the second baseman is like a fourth outfielder in right field. He is still batting under .250 as I am writing this.

Delgado gets paid to produce with his bat. His defense has been better than expected but he is not paid all of that cash for his glove. He is a professional hitter; a clean up hitter to boot. Leaving men on base on a constant basis is frustrating to watch.

Now Beltran’s average has dropped about 40 points in the last month -- it seemed not so long ago that he was hitting over .330-and now his average has sunk to the low .280s -- not that a .280 average is a bad thing, but based on what he did last season we naturally expect more of him. He continues to struggle at home in Shea Stadium, and now he’s not so hot on the road either.

The Mets did nothing in the Detroit series, and at the start of the Dodger series, both Carloses were still a detriment to the lineup. Delgado had given us glimpses of breaking out of his slump after I got on his case the last time, but this see-saw effect for such a professional hitter is mind boggling. Either he still never healed from his off-season surgery or age is catching up to him.

I heard Beltran has a cranky quad again, for a change of pace, and may be playing hurt, which we all remember no one seems to appreciate, myself included. I’d rather he took the extra time to get himself back to being 100%. This offense even with Alou missing should be able to score more than three runs in a game, and Beltran and Delgado need to step up their clutch hitting.

I don’t know what the problem is with the two of them, but whatever it is Rick Down needs to help them fix it. I guess if they were going to struggle I’d rather it be now before the All Star break than down the stretch.