Rough Start To Baseball Season In New York

There's no real major reason to hit the panic button yet folks, but both New York Baseball teams, the Mets and Yankees, have gotten off to rocky starts. The Mets have dropped both games to the Washington Nationals, 9-7 in 10 innings on opening day, and 5-1 yesterday. In both losses to the Nationals, Mets hitters have struck out 31 times in the two games, the most strikeouts over a two game stretch since 1914. And the Mets shattered the franchise record of 23 strikeouts set in 1998 and 2003, according to Newsday.

Things have been tough for the Mets, with a couple of guys getting hurt and Curtis Granderson getting off to the rocky start. With Granderson, he has been getting booed after the first two games of the season. Why is he getting booed? Well he has gone 0 for 9 with five strikeouts over the first two games. Mets fans are getting impatient, since Granderson was signed for four years and $60 Million.

But lets slow our roll here folks with Granderson. There's a couple of reasons I say this. First of all, you kind of knew going into the season that Granderson had a tendency to strike out a lot. He can make up for it when he gets hitting so it sort of balances itself out. One theory for why Granderson is off to this start is that he is coming over from the American League to the National League, he is facing pitchers that he hasn't faced before so its going to take time to get adjusted. You have to give Granderson time to get adjusted. He will come through and start to show why he was given the contract he was given. It takes a little time, but Granderson's hitting ability will come through, you just have to be patient.

That's just part of what is going on with the Mets two games into the season. The Mets are now getting hit with the injury bug. We knew John Niese had problems at the end of spring training with his pitching elbow, but he should be healthy and good to go for his first start of the year, which is scheduled for Sunday April 6th against the Cincinnati Reds at home. But there has been two new names to be added to the walking wounded for the Mets. Bobby Parnell has been placed on the 15-day DL with a torn MCL in his pitching elbow. Parnell blew the save in the 9th on opening day. The injury was revealed after the opener, which might explain why he had trouble making his pitches in the 9th on that day. Surgery won't be required for Parnell, but he's going to need time off to let it heal before he can start throwing again. With him hurt, that means that Jose Valverde is set to be the closer for the time being. Valverde hasn't saved a game in the Majors since he saved 9 games for the Detroit Tigers last year.

Parnell isn't the only Mets player to go down, as yesterday the team announced that Chris Young is going on the 15-day DL with a strained quad. Young has played one inning this year, never getting a chance to bat in the game ysesterday before coming out of the game with the injury. The Mets payed him $7.25 million for this season, and he showed some potential during spring training before getting hurt. The injury is sort of showing a little lack of depth on this Mets ball club. At the same time though, the current outfield is consisting of Juan Lagares Eric Young Jr and Granderson. It has looked average the first two games, but the injuries and the slow start are getting on the nerves of Mets fans.

Here's the thing it's two games into the season, lets not hit the panic button folks.

Same thing can be said about the New York Yankees too. After spending as much money as the team did to improve itself, the fact that the team has gotten off to an 0-2 start has surprised a lot of people. Even more surprising is that the two losses have come against the Houston Astros, who are projected to be one of, if not, the worst team in the American League. Houston has taken the first two games from the Yankees by scores of 6-2 and 3-1. The Yankees offense hasn't really clicked yet during the first two games of the year, as they have gone 2 for 18 with runners in scoring position in two losses. But the Yankees players aren't too worried.

Both Carlos Beltran and Alfonso Soriano said in an interview with Newsday that they are going to be fine.

“We’re going to be fine,” Beltran said. “We haven’t been able to put anything together, but this team has what it takes to play better and win ballgames. We don’t need to worry about it.”

“It’s only two games. It’s nothing,” Soriano said. “One-hundred-sixty games left, so we’ve got to keep working hard to get better.”

The Yankees are still in a better position to be a success than the Mets are at the moment. There really is no reason to hit the panic button for either team. The Yankees have the type of lineup where, once it gets its mojo working, can really put up runs. It's going to take a little time sure, there are 160 games still remaining on the schedule. Once the Yankees find their stroke, they will be off and running.

I know its two games into the season but there's no real reason to hit the panic button for New York baseball. The teams will find a way to bust out of the slumps and get right back on track!