At the risk of taking this tortured analogy any further, it was a rough first inning in Houston. I ably handled an introduction glitch before\u00a0Richard Justice<\/a>of KGOW 1560 The Game (and the Houston Chronicle) surprised me with a first-pitch curve.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with the Mets?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n If\u00a0you listen in<\/a>\u00a0I mumbled something about an inconsistent offense and pitching issues that staffs typically encounter in April, but I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s it at all, necessarily. I mean, not all of it. The fact is this has been a remarkably average team over the last year (68-68 since last May 30,\u00a0says this guy<\/a>) and I\u2019d argue that stretch of averageness actually proceeds it, goes back to September of 2006 and foretold the lethargic offense that more than anything else cost the Mets a chance to play in another World Series that year. And that resembles 2005, results-wise at least, when the Mets rested at .500 at more points than in any other year in team history but somehow looked better doing so.<\/p>\n When Justice got to the part about whether Randolph should be fired I pleaded pateience. Until Memorial Day, at least.<\/p>\n Anyway, in the interest of being better prepared next time, I put it to you readers: Tell me how you’d answer: What\u2019s wrong with the Mets? Use the comments below.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Thanks to David Moore and\u00a0Crooked Number<\/a>\u00a0for still more help with the web page, which continues to be a masterpiece in the making. You might notice that names on the player pages now read in in proper order.\u00a0Mookie Wilson<\/a>\u00a0> Wilson, Mookie, don’t you think?<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Moises Alou<\/a>\u00a0is rumored to rejoin the team in time for tonight\u2019s opener in Phoenix but until I see18\u00a0<\/a>in left field I\u2019m not holding my breath. Not clear at this point whether\u00a0Brian Schneider<\/a>\u00a0gets DL\u2019ed or whatever. Not that I’m interested in starting a reputation for the guy or anything but Schneider’s had three separate injuries already and his next extra-base hit will be his first. Fitting right in.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Cool new book review published by\u00a0Baseball America<\/a>\u00a0(pictured above) and featured, quiz-style, in the latest issue of\u00a0Mets Inside Pitch<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So I did guest spot on a radio show the other day. As part as the publicity around the MBTNbook, I\u2019ve done a few of these in recent months, and while I still blurt out way too many \u201cumms\u201d and \u201cyaknows\u201d it feels like I\u2019ve actually gotten better as I\u2019ve gone along. My gameplan for … Continue reading “Houston, Hello”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[704],"class_list":["post-914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-the-book"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":915,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914\/revisions\/915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/mbtn.net\/images\/BaseballAmerica.jpg\")
So maybe that\u2019s it. Being an OK team in a pretty good era is pretty much what they are under Willie and Omar. And while they\u2019re capable of more the record shows early 2006 was the exception and not the rule. Their particular problems haven\u2019t been quite the same every year, much less every night, beyond injuries and age.<\/p>\n