The Mets took 2 of 3 from the Braves over the weekend, snapping what seemed to be a endless streak of futility to Atlanta. Delgado and Castillo both had big days on Sunday, each collecting 3 hits, including 2 Hrs by Carlos Delgado.
Maybe this is propels him to bigger and better things this year, or maybe he'll this is just him teasing us by showing flashes of what he used to be. Not sure which it'll be, hopefully the former for the sake of all Mets fans.
Could it be that Delgado heard former Mets GM Steve Phillips on Baseball Tonight talking about how he needs to start his toe-tap sooner? It clearly looked like Delgado was on his game today. Phillips mentioned that what Delgado has been doing is starting his toe-tap late, causing him to speed his swing up and rush it, causing Delgado to hit a lot of ground-balls.
Personally, I believe the day off on Friday really recharged Delgado, and I look for him to continue to improve on a week-to-week basis.
The bottom-line here is that the Mets need Delgado to be a solid guy in the 6 spot. If he continues to be the weak, hole in the middle of the lineup, the Mets will continue to struggle. No matter how good the starting pitching is, which has been outstanding for the most part, they are going to continue to lose ballgames.
The Mets face the Pirates at Shea beginning on Monday for a 3 game series. Then they head out to the desert to face the Diamondbacks this weekend for 3 games and on to L.A. for 3 with the Dodgers the following week, before coming back home to host Cincinnati and the Nationals. Also, the first of the Subway Series starts immediately following, beginning in the May 16th at the big ballpark in the Bronx.
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2 months ago
Hats off to the Mets; their pitching was better and their sticks came to play. I am glad this series played out as it did. This really shows Cox where the Braves need improvement. First of all, we cannot just rely on Chipper- so Texiera, McCann and Francouer will need to step up...and that's not just HRs; we need to get baserunners by any means necessary and then have these guys to spray the ball. Take a lesson from the Cubs, it's easier to score when you have base runners. Second, our starters are not nearly as reliable as we thought, except for Jurjens. Glavine and Smoltz are showing their age (which we knew would happen eventually), Hudson needs to get some consistency (even if he can only do it for 5 innings). Lastly, we need to be able to manufacture some runs.
It's always easier to pitch relaxed when one has a lead. We need to get some early leads and hold them.
Escobar, Diaz, Blanco, and Johnson are all good youngsters with (hopefully) better days ahead, but they cannot carry this team right now.
Bobby will have to make some adjustments and the team will have to execute- or this is going to be one LONG summer and we may find us closer to the bottom of the NL East then what we may think.
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