Mets Flushed With Success

Dave Paisley

There's something about the Atlanta Braves that's like watching paint dry. No team has been as relentlessly good, but as unanimously unliked in this decade. Their only saving grace is their achilles heel -- the bullpen, which has kept the rest of amused to no end the last few years. All that effort, and the best they have to show for it is Mark Wohlers, poor guy.

As relentless as the Braves have been, there has always been one key rival each year from their own division. In 1990, they were the worst team in the NL West, finishing ten games back of the almost equally hapless Astros. However, 1991 saw them vault to first, beating out the Dodgers by a game. Then they beat the Reds in 92, followed by the Giants in 93. With the divisional realignment in 94, they were well behind the Expos in the NL East before the season succumbed to the strike, breaking their string of consecutive division titles. Since then, they've been challenged mostly by the Mets and Marlins in the NL East, as the Expos and Phillies have mostly gone into hiding.

This year it appears that the Mets are the NL East challengers, with the Phillies barely clinging on to the .500 mark, and the Expos and Marlins way out of it already, and with no apparent interest in competing in the near future.

So far, as of May 6th, the Mets are just two and a half games back of the NL leading Braves, and have been closer most of the way so far. In fact, they are tied for second in wins with Houston and San Francisco.

So what let's take a look at how they got here, and what the prognosis is for the rest of the season.

In recent years, the Mets have been an excellent pitching team with an offense that varied from weak to pathetic. This year, the pitching remains near the league lead, but the offense is substantially beefed up from the wimpiness of recent years. First, there's Mike Piazza, obtained in mid-season last year. Oddly enough, he hasn't been a big contributor so far, having spent some time on the DL, and hasn't exactly been effective at the plate. Never mind, as John Olerud is off to a killer start (1.113 OPS), aided and abetted by a solid performancre from backup catcher Todd Pratt (.915 OPS)

Throw in useful numbers from Robin Ventura, Edgardo Alfonzo, and Rickey Henderson (.437 OBP, 16 hits, 21 walks), and the offense ends up being about average. Which for the Mets, is better than average. If Piazza can get off his lazy butt and start hitting, the run production should pick up a bit more.en seem to be wising up on the Rey Ordonez front. Let's face it, even the Mets front office has to recognize that a .575 OPS isn't going to cut it on an everyday basis. Other predictable disappointments so far include Brian McRae (.637 OPS) and Bobby Bonilla (welcome to Rey Ordonez territory, BB)

On the pitching front, the Mets are doing very well. The starters have pitched well, but have been unable to get decisions. Jones, Watson and Reed have been excellent, while Hershiser and Leiter have been adequate. It appears that the Japanese ERA has been devalued again, as Masato Yoshii has been pretty bad, continuing the slipping reputation of Japanese imports.

So far this season, the title of "Bullpen Win King" must go to Demmis Cook, who has gone a cool 5-0 in a mew 11.0 innings of relief. An out here, two outs there, at just the right time, and he gets a win. John Franco and Turk Wendell have been equally impressive. None of this trio has blown a save opportunity, although Armonado Benitez has done it twice. An impressive bullpen, although a little long in the tooth.

And what of those darling Braves, the biggest speed bump in the Mets way?

After Greg Maddux' little contretemps with the Cardinals the other day, we know that "chicks dig the longball", but Greg doesn't. Especially when it's a McGwire salami. Of course, I'd be a little ticked, too, if my ERA went from 2.73 to 4.34 with a couple of swings of the bat. heck, his ERA nearly caught up with current whipping boy, Cy Young winner Tom Glavine. Of course, Greg's 4-1 record looks a lot nicer than Glavine's 1-3. Meanwhile thrid alternate runner-up in the Cy Young stakes, John Smoltz, may be cruising his way to another CY himself. Rounding out the rotation there's Kevin "TBS overrated" Millwood and Odalis Perez, neither of whom seems to be learning the art of control from Maddux.

What of the vaunted Atlanta pen? After Ligtenberg went down and Wohlers was finally shipped out, it's back to duct tape and baling wire, with Rocker, Seanez, McGlinchy, Remlinger, Speier, all of whome seem to be doing OK. For now. But this is the Braves, so expect some serious blowouts along the way.

Finally, there's the Braves offense, also wracked by injury and illness. And the occasional divorce. Whatever. The offensive anchor so far has been Brian Jordan -- a cool pickup with a nice balance of power and the ability to get on base. Then there's that powerhouse Greg Maddux again, currently sporting an OPS over 1.000. In addition to Jordan, the bulk of the heavy lifting has come from Javy Lopez, Bret Boone and the Jones boys (Chipper .895 OPS, Andruw .943.) All this goodness translates into the top run producing offense in the league, and when allied to the best pitching, tends to result in the best record, dang it....

On the downside (for the Braves, at least) is Otis Nixon (who I believe turns 79 in June) is doing his famous Rey Ordonez batting impersonation, with 14 hits, only one of them for extra bases, and actually for only one extra base. That's 74 AB wasted right there. That other proven veteran, Ozzie Guillen, is even more invisible, serving only to make Walt Weiss look respectable at the plate.

about the author

Dave Paisley managed to spend three days in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, but didn't get to the game where the Pirates beat the Braves. To cheer him up, send him video of Brian Giles hitting his game winning home run off Odalis Perez at drdjp@strikethree.com

Custom Search