Tough one to lose last night! I couldn't stay up to watch it all. I went to bed in the top of the 12th. I agree guys we can't afford to lose games like this period.
I know we have made some really good moves at the trade deadline guys! However, realistically we should be looking at more of a run for the wild card than the division right now.
I'm not saying we can't win the division but the Mets are starting to hit their stride again. There are about 4 teams right now that are close in the wild card standings & we're right there as one of those teams.
I think getting Tex as well as Dotel & Mahay will certainly help for the penant race the rest of this season
but we really need to be more realistic about our chances for the division. We are 4 1/2 games back right now which isn't impossible to gain but the Mets are back playing the way they should be right now. We had our chance to catch up when they were struggling but so did we.
The Phillies are the team that I'm more worried about now. They are playing really well & are ahead of us now in the division. While I don't think they have the lineup that we possess now they still have a solid bunch of hitters(even with Utley out a while). They don't have a true closer but Myers is good enough to get the job done. He would be starting right now if they had a strong guy to close games out. He still may end up being a SP again before the years out.
Our biggest problem appears to be not enough starting pitching. Once you get past James then we have nobody to really count on game after game. James can even be shaky but he has been pitching pretty well lately though. Carlyle is capable but just doesn't have dominate stuff. Reyes(now sent back down) is not ready for the bigs just yet. We now have Lance Cormier back but he isn't the answer either. He was pitching so well in spring training but had an injury to detain that. He's not been the same since.
For these reasons we needed a SP bad before the trade deadline. There was that rumor about getting Arroyo from the Reds. That would have been great. Instead, we send Startup to the Padres for a dang Royce Ring. I am just upset about that one. We made all these good deals & then bust one to get rid of a promising prospect in Startup. Yeah, we also got rid of some other prospects but what we got in return fit our needs. Not with the Startup deal though.
We should really be wishing for a run at the wild card because we're right there in that category but the division is something that we may be asking too much for right now. Now, if we were tied or maybe a game out right now then we should expect a division title.
Again. I'm not counting us out but we can't be looking for this the way things are going at the moment. Thanks guys!
