The Beatings Continue Until Morale (and Helath) Improves

By Jack Flynn
Posted Friday, June 5, 2009

Thanks a lot, guys.

This week’s column was going to be a scathing look at the reign of futility that has dogged Pittsburgh’s National League franchise for the better part of two decades. Pittsburgh, perhaps more than any other franchise in baseball, exemplifies the loser’s mentality that some small-market teams have exhibited since the 1994 work stoppage.

The team is cheap, the front office is clueless and the scouting department could find a lump of coal in a room full of diamonds. The destruction of this once-proud franchise is a sad and shameful indictment of baseball under Bud Selig’s regime, where ownership incompetence is encouraged as long as you have a taxpayer-funded stadium and stick to the slot recommendations.

The Mets were supposed to storm through a half-empty PNC Park this week, take at least three out of four games from the Pirates and depart for the nation’s capital as a first-place team.

Then the Pirates went out and slapped them silly.

JJ Putz’s latest meltdown on Monday was followed by yet another power outage by the Mets’ offense on Tuesday. A day of rain allowed the Mets to skip Tim Redding’s spot in the rotation, but yesterday’s 11-6 drubbing nevertheless completed the unlikeliest of sweeps for the Pirates.

No need to start printing those playoff tickets just yet.

Championship teams don’t often get swept by bottom feeders that go so far as to trade their best position player before the first day of summer. On Wednesday, the Pirates traded Nate McLouth, the team’s lone All-Star last year, to the Atlanta Braves for three prospects. They did this less than four months after signing McLouth to a three-year extension with a club option that bought out his first year of free agency.

How does a team with a payroll less than $50 million dump the salary of a player making only $2 million this season? When winning is not a priority and pride is only a theoretical concept to a team’s owners, anything can happen.

Bucco bashing aside, this truly is an ill omen for the Mets. After effortlessly steamrolling through the dregs of the National League East last week, it seemed reasonable to expect more of the same in Pittsburgh this week. The three losses to the Pirates will hardly inspire Mets fans with the confidence that the team can survive the plague of injuries that has been visited upon them.

And yes, the Mets have been ravaged by injury. The foreboding news that Putz felt a sharp pain in his elbow during yesterday’s game has put his future with the team in doubt. The Mets had already decided that Bobby Parnell was taking over Putz’s role as the primary eighth-inning guy, but losing Putz for any amount of time will surely bring calls for Omar Minaya to add a reliever to his shopping list.

(By the way, the notion that any one person should be anointed the “eighth-inning reliever” is ludicrous in its own right. The Mets are blessed to have three middle relievers of varying skill sets in Parnell, Pedro Feliciano and Brian Stokes who are pitching effectively this year. Why is there a need to shoehorn one reliever into this artificially-conceived role, especially when match-ups may dictate better options?)

Jose Reyes’ injury is still keeping him off the field – it’s amazing how Reyes has been out since mid-May and seems nowhere returning from an injury that the Mets’ crack medical staff initially deemed a day-to-day issue. Alex Cora will start in his absence – he came off the disabled list just in time to replace third-string backup shortstop Ramon Martinez.

Ryan Church and Carlos Delgado are still out, Gary Sheffield is hobbling and poor Angel Pagan can’t stay healthy for more than two weeks at a time. At least Carlos Beltran and John Maine seem sufficiently recovered from their bout of maybe-but-probably-wasn’t-but-be-careful-anyway swine flu. (What other professional sports franchise would ever make headlines by potentially being struck with the latest designer super-flu strain? Only the Mets.)

This is all a long-winded way of reminding Mets fans that the general manager can’t possibly make a trade to fill every hole that has opened up by an injury this year. The knee-jerk natural reaction is invariably to go out and find a veteran star to replace every wounded soldier.

No Carlos Delgado? Get Nick Johnson! No Jose Reyes? Get Rafael Furcal! No Ryan Church? Get Matt Holliday!

It’s not going to happen. There’s not enough money in the budget and not enough minor-leaguers that other teams want from the Mets’ farm system. They’re going to have to play the hand they’ve been dealt, even if it means more flameouts like this week in Pittsburgh.

Remember, the great equalizer in major league baseball is injuries. Whenever a big-market team like the Mets have enough injuries, then small-market teams like the Pirates have a chance to win.

And as frustrating as it can be a Mets fan sometimes, it has to be nothing compared to a life rooting for the Pirates, right?