Its tough these days to be a NY Mets fan.   The team is no good and it looks like another season of meaningless baseball after this weeks All Star Game.   After losing to the Kansas City Royals in the 2015 World Series, and then losing to the San Francisco Giants in the one-game wild card play-off in 2016, it has been a steady decline to where they are now.    The starting pitching has never lived up to the hype.  deGrom, Syndergaard, Matz and Wheeler should be dominating, but instead they have been mediocre at best.   Other teams should be intimidated when looking at the Mets staff, feeling that they would be lucky if they could scratch out a win, but instead they are not worried at all, treating the Mets starters as just another average bunch of pitchers.  This to me is the biggest issue.  In order to be considered a great pitcher, you need the other team to fear you and believe they have no shot at beating you  For too long now, the Mets starters have been looked at as average pitchers that teams know they can beat.

The Mets should go the these pitchers and tell them to forget about pitch counts and all other meaningless stats, that they trust them, and then just let them pitch.  Let them go 8 or 9 innings and throw 125 – 150 pitches.   The great pitchers of the past threw lots of innings, and got hurt a lot less.   Maybe they need to look back and readjust their thinking.  I don’t understand why teams sign players to long term deals, and then baby them through the contract as to not ‘ruin their investment’ at the expense of losing year after year.  I would push my players while I have them and try and win now, and not worry about the fact the may develop arm issues in 4 or 5 years.

The Mets are a flawed team, and have always over estimated there players true talent. This is a team that stated they had no interest in Giancarlo Stanton because they had a better player already in Brandon Nimmo.   They are also bad at bringing in players that simply do not fit (The brought in Jay Bruce twice even though they didn’t need him either time).  But its the pitching that needs to carry them and until the front office and the overwhelmed Manager forget about the advanced statistics, the long term outlook, and their feelings and just let them pitch, the Mets will waist another generations of pitchers that could have been.