Problem In Queens

If you're a fan of the New York Mets, now might be a good time to start showing some level of concern. Following last nights 4-0 shutout loss to the Dodgers in Los Angeles, the Mets have been shut out for the 2nd day in a row and currently sit at a 7-10 record in this early season. But that’s where we are starting to see some signs and reason for showing concern with this ball club.

This Mets team is one of flux and frustration. It was a team last year who had one of the biggest collapse in not only baseball history, but sports history. By late July last year, they were 18 games above .500 and well secure in a playoff spot. By the last weekend in September, they had fallen out of the playoffs, finishing just four games above .500. Reason for the fault and falling from grace a season ago was bad pitching the second half of the year. Due to this, there were a lot of offseason moves that were made to try and improve the pitching staff, and retool the batting order.

Well, at least at the start of the season, the pitching staff has looked decent. Now we aren’t saying that this pitching staff has set the world on fire at the beginning of this season. At the same time, they do look like they have, at least at the time of this writing, that they have settled in and could be a solid staff as the year goes along. Sure, David Peterson is getting lit up in his first four starts, having an ERA at 6.41. Kodai Senga is also struggling to start the year, with an ERA over 7. The other starters, mostly Freddy Peralta and Clay Holmes, have pitched very well. The pitching staff has shown some signs of not doing very well, but for the most part, the staff has been solid. What really worries me is the offense with this team. Through the first 17 games, the team is hitting .230, which is 17th in baseball, they’ve scored 62 runs which is 25th in baseball, and their 13 home runs is tied for 22nd. Of their everyday regulars, not including Juan Soto who’s out hurt as of this writing, two guys are hitting about .275. That being Francisco Alvarez and Luis Robert Jr who are both hitting over .300. Nobody else is hitting above .250, which is getting frustrating.

Yes, we know its still early in the season. We are only three weeks, almost, into the year, so there’s still a lot of baseball left. But there is a problem that’s starting to grow more and more. Currently, they’re riding a six game losing streak, one in which they’ve been outscored 29-9. It’s like they might have left their bats in San Francisco. Nothing seems to be going right. A lot of the issues fall right now on the offense going AWOL. And the team needs to get it figured out quickly. Again, sure there’s still a lot of baseball left to be played. But if the team doesn’t start finding its game and fast, they could bury themselves too deep into a hole to dig out for a playoff run late in the year. No, you can’t clinch a playoff spot in April. At the same time you could also play yourself right out of contention early on as well.

There is still reason to hold out optimism for this baseball team as we near the heart of April. But the way things have gone the last week in New York, things aren’t looking all that good and its starting to cause quite a bit of worry.