Heartbroken Mets Fans Can Only Hope For Next year

By: Kevin Kelly

Posted: 9/13/07

(OCT. 4) - When the New York Mets had a seven game lead with 17 games left to play in the season, every fan believed that the postseason was only a few weeks away. But now Mets fans are pondering what went wrong and who is to blame for the worst collapse in Major League Baseball history as the Mets missed out on the 2007 postseason.
As a Met fan, I can only wonder what went wrong and why the team lost nine out their last ten home games and how they blew the NL East.
Last Saturday, the Mets got a brilliant outing by John Maine and scored 13 runs. At the time, the Phillies had a one game lead and had control of their own destiny. But after they saw the Mets blow out the Marlins, they went and lost to the Nationals, allowing the Mets to tie them. It seemed the momentum switched back to the Amazins.
Every fan seemed confident that on the last day of the season, the Mets would win and at least force a one game playoff against the Phillies on Monday night. But Tom "I'm still a Brave" Glavine went out and had the second worst start of his career, giving up seven runs in a third of an inning.
One out. One measley out.
A team that had so much promise at the beginning of the season and a huge lead heading into the final games of the season just let it get it away. So what can a Mets fan hope for in 2008? Personally, I see a lot of change for the team in Queens. Number one, get Glavine out. He never was a Met and hurt them when they needed him most, and no Mets fan can ever believe in Glavine.
Shawn Green is a west coast guy and never produced anyways, so he can pack his bags too. Lastings Milledge is a classless ballplayer who is looking more like an Alex Ochoa or Alex Escobar, so trade him while he still has some value. There were a lot of rumblings that Luis Castillo had a bad effect on Jose Reyes and that is why Reyes struggled so much, so don't re-sign him, let Ruben Gotay and Damion Easley platoon second. Pitching- With Pedro obviously back and healthy, the Mets need another number one starter. Oliver Perez and John Maine fill out the rest of the rotation and Mike Pelfrey still needs some seasoning before he seems to be ready to be a number five starter.
The Mets need to look into trading for a Roy Oswalt or Johan Santana type starter and if it takes trading away a high level prospect, then so be it. The Mets haven't had a number one starter that they can throw out there every fifth day and know he's going to give them six or seven innings on a regular basis. As for the bullpen, get Guillermo Mota out and hopefully Duaner Sanchez will be back and be as good as he was in 2006 before his car accident in Miami.
Paul LoDuca is a free agent to be and Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez and Jorge Posada are free agents as well, but I think LoDuca is a leader and they should re-sign him because he's what New York is all about. Mois Alou, when healthy, showed us fans that he is dominant and they should bring him back, but make sure he gets days off to rest his legs.
Omar Minaya and Willie Randolph need to be on the same page for the 2008 Mets to be successful. They need one more big bat, especially a right fielder in order to be back at the top of the National League. As long as the Mets can establish a strong bull-pen like the one they had in 2006, and the starters can give them at least six innings consistently, then they should turn the page on a 2007 season that Mets fans want to forget forever.
Hopefully 2008 can bring one more World Series title to Flushing for the last year of Shea Stadium.