I'm Officially Nervous About The New York Mets
Currently, it feels like there are two factions of Mets fans. You have the KFC/Clem side of the coin that looks at the season from the big picture point of view and doesn't get too down after a loss. I've spent much of this season in that camp. I was never more confident than after the series against the Braves in early August. The Mets took 4 out of 5 and owned a 6.5 game lead when the series concluded on August 7th. They were playing so well, I had basically had the division wrapped up in my mind. Whoops.
The other group of Mets fans is led by Frank The Tank. They even talked about him on Saturday's game in Miami and called this collection of fans the "dark side".
The Tank Army has been mocked for most of the season. But they warned us about Atlanta and that the division could easily be lost. Sure enough, the Braves are become a juggernaut and have gone 65-27 since June 1st. That's a .707 winning percentage over 92 games. That's more than a hot streak. That's a trend. On the other hand, the Mets are in the middle of a 16 game stretch where they are playing teams with losing records, the Mets have gotten off to a 5-6 start.
The lead is now down to a half game after last night's loss to the lousy Cubs. That was also with Jacob deGrom on the mound. Over the past couple of weeks, the Mets lineup has been anemic. Instead of making a big splash at the trade deadline, GM Billy Eppler brought in smaller pieces like Tyler Naquin, Darin Ruf and Daniel Vogelbach. Naquin and Vogelbach have been serviceable but Ruf has been almost historically terrible. He's 7-for-51 (.137) since joining the Mets with no home runs. They traded four players for Ruf including J.D. Davis who has outhit Naquin, Ruf and Vogelbach since the deal.
Another thing Frank Nostradamus has constantly screamed about about has come true. The Mets catching situation is a nightmare as Tomas Nido is lousy and James McCann is somehow even worse. One thing he has been predicting is pretty dumb though. The Phillies aren't going to catch the Mets. They are nine back and don't play the Mets the rest of the season. Sometimes the negativity crosses the line to insanity.
They are still on pace for 100 wins. The Mets are also still in first place. But even the most positive Mets fans have lost the right to casually say "It's going to be fine" to every bump in the road the team encounters. The division lead is down to a half game. There are only 19 games left. Since August 22, the Mets have been averaging less than 4 runs a game. It's not fine. Losing the division and having to play an extra playoff round would make things very difficult. You'll end up having to play the Braves or Dodgers in the next round and not having your best pitchers available.
I'm a Mets fan. They haven't made the playoffs since Obama was president. So, even if they only end up as the Wild Card and having to play that extra round, I'll be excited and thrilled for playoff baseball. But now when Frank or another negative fan brings up the Phillies, I'd be lying if I said I didn't double check the standings.
The time for blind positivity is over.