Steve Phillips thinks the last-place Mets are underachievers, but it is not Bobby Valentine’s fault.
“I think Bobby is doing everything he can,” Phillips said. “I don’t think there is anything more Bobby can do.”
What can Phillips do? Not much, right now, the GM said. If he were to make a trade, he said the only guys on the market are underachieving, overpriced players.
The Mets have enough of those type of guys right now. Phillips’ message is for the players to step up.
“We are going to continue to look for ways to help improve our team, knowing that this is not a great time of year to make significant acquisitions,” Phillips said. “Even in the end, the solution has to come from the core, the nucleus of this team that is in the clubhouse right now.
“We’re not hitting, we’re not pitching. When we did hit, we didn’t pitch. When we did pitch, we didn’t hit and then on most days it’s been neither.”
How about injuries? Is that an excuse?
“I don’t think that any of the physical ailments that we have had thus far justify a 14-23 record,” Phillips said.
Before there is change, there must be hope. The Mets need change as they have lost six-straight, all on the road. It isn’t coming via a trade so maybe new scenery will be an aid.
They return to Shea tonight for the first time in more than a week.
“We hope it helps us,” Mike Piazza said. “We are all frustrated. We need to go out there and work hard and stay positive.”
The Mets took yesterday to try to erase what has transpired thus far. They wanted to let go of their 14-23 beginning.
They will try to avoid their first seven-game losing streak since the end of the ’99 season against ex-mate Fresno Bobby Jones and the Padres.
The Mets are 8½ games behind the first-place Phillies, but they do have 19 games left with Philadelphia. Although their play has done nothing to inspire faith, their circumstances aren’t totally dire in the mediocre NL East.
But the Mets must play with same urgency, Phillips and everyone saw to start the season when they took four-out-of six from the Braves in the first nine games.
“Somewhere the chain fell off the bike and we have to figure out how to get it back on,” Phillips said.
They need something spectacular. A big game from Piazza. Edgardo Alfonzo to bust out or maybe the rookie Alex Escobar to excite the masses in his Shea debut tonight. This would change the subject in the clubhouse as the players try to analyze what is wrong.
The offensive problem, however, is that with Jay Payton out and Todd Zeile not producing, the Mets have little help for Alfonzo and Piazza, who are in a 9-for-58 (.155) combined slump. After Robin Ventura, there are no run producers.
Their pitching without Al Leiter is not picking them up and they have the league’s second worst ERA.
The schedule dictates the Mets better get right here, because June is spent predominately on the road with six of nine home games against the Yankees and Braves.
The Mets are 8-7 at home and 6-16 on the road. They’ve looked better at home.
“If that is one of the characteristics of this team, so be it,” Piazza said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to go home and take some series and work our way back to .500. It is a little bit of hole we dug ourselves in. Now, we need to dig ourselves out of it.”
The shovels will be at Shea for 13 of the next 16 games. The only interlude will be a trip north against the Expos.
It is important for the Mets to start playing well, because they begin June with a two-week, 12-game road trip.
“Maybe everybody is trying to [play to hard] instead of playing their regular game and being part of the group effort,” Valentine said. “I don’t know. I know we are all stalling.”