New York Mets Drop 7 of 8 as the Early Season Struggles Continue

By Djack

Mets fans are certainly used to this Mets team by now, and if you're not, you should be because nothing is going to change. A team built completely on starting pitching and hitting homeruns, not exactly the go to championship formula, although it could work if the timing is right. The Mets have lost 7 of 8, the worst part being all those losses came within the division. The starting pitching is clearly not the problem, even though they haven't been great over this stretch either. That's no excuse, Mets pitchers not being great is letting up 3 runs in 6 innings, which most teams would take from their starting rotation every night. The real problem this team has is that they can't hit the broad side of a barn and the bullpen is hot garbage.

The lineup is a mess, injuries are already plaguing the roster per usual, and the older players are showing signs of age. Curtis Granderson and Jose Reyes have basically been counter productive for the Mets this season. Granderson hasn't been a true center fielder in 4 years, yet the Mets keep trying to run him out there. Reyes has made enough errors at third base for an entire season already, costing the Mets one if not two games with how bad he's been in the field. At the plate Reyes has been worse than in the field if that's even possible. He's batting around .100, the discouraging part being he's not making solid contact. Granderson is hitting like shit also, he's batting around .200, and his power numbers aren't quite where they normally are. Mets need these guys to produce in order for their offense to be successful. Cespedes is hurt with the hamstring once again, he'll be back soon, then he can continue to crush baseballs like we've all seen a million times before. Bruce is streaky, sometimes he'll carry the offense, sometimes he'll be irrelevant, can't rely on him to provide for the team every night. Cabrera, Walker, Duda if he's healthy, need to start doing more offensively for this team. Can't rely on Cespedes, Bruce, and a young Michael Conforto who can't even get consistent at-bats to carry this offense night in and night out. Everyone needs to produce every once in awhile for the team to be successful, the Yankees are the perfect example of that right now. 

Terry Collins needs to start playing Conforto everyday, whenever he plays he usually produces. With more at bats he'll get more comfortable and will produce at a higher clip. This is a guy that can bat above .300 and be a sparkplug at the top of your lineup, something the Mets don't have right now. I don't know what's wrong with Reyes, but you can't keep running him out their if he's hurting the team. Give him 50-100 more AB's, if he doesn't figure it out by then replace him with Flores, or a prospect, no one can do worse than he is right now. Hopefully that and some guys just playing better will fix the lineup problems, you can't expect them to be great, but they do have to get a lot better because the way they've performed recently is completely unacceptable.

The bullpen is the other problem. So far this season the Mets bullpen has thrown the most innings in baseball, not necessarily a good thing whatsoever, especially in April. At this rate all the guys in the bullpen arms will be dead by July. The starters need to go 7 innings more often. The offense also needs to score so the Mets can stop playing extra inning games that take their toll on the bullpen. Ultimately, Sandy Alderson needs to equip that bullpen with another arm or two because right now they don't look like a quality bullpen whatsoever. Seems like a lot but it's really not, the Mets still have a long promising season ahead, so don't give up on them now. Just working out a few kinks and they'll be right back to playing great baseball in no time.