E Is For Error

In sports, their are bad losses and their are excruciating losses. Last night's Met loss to the Dodgers was an excruciating one. Two problems that I think have flown a bit under the radar intensified last night.

1. This team can't play defense- I've always said that the Mets have the most overrated defensive left side of the infield in baseball. While I've backed off this a little bit in recent days, I now think that phrase has to be extended. The Mets might be the most overrated defensive team in the game. Five errors were made last night, including an awful throw to home to end the game by Jeremy Reed. Earlier in the inning, recent call up Angel Pagan calls off the best center fielder in the sport and then decides to let up at the last moment. Ramon Martinez was absolutely terrible at short, making Fernando Tatis have to do his best Stretch Armstrong impersonation on more than one play.

I know that the errors last night were made by players who don't typically see the field, but in a way this concerns me more. With the recent injury bug the Mets have caught, these players are going to see more and more time. How much confidence can you have if they can't make little league throws. SNY tried to defend Reed by saying it was a pressure situation at a foreign position. I don't buy it. New position or old, that was an easy play on an infield ground ball. If he can't make that throw, why is he in the game in a crucial situation?

Sabermatricians will argue that defense accounts for less then one half of baseball. Really? One could make a pretty good argument that the Mets lost the game because of bad defense. Did you watch the game last night or were you too busy looking up Carlos Delgado's VORP? Just another reason why sabermetrics is misguided.

2. The team can't run the basses- Yet another base running mistake last night, and this time it wasn't Jose Reyes. Ryan Church scored the go ahead run in the top of the 11th inning last night, but was called out on appeal because he missed the base. How does this happen?? I can't even offer an explanation on this because their is so many things wrong with it. Touching a base is not a hard maneuver. Between errors of aggression and errors of complacency, it sometimes boggles my mind how they can do anything right. One day they look like the '06 club, the next they look like my third grade little league team. Good teams don't make dumb mistakes. The Mets have been making a lot lately.

- Food for thought: How good does the Giants series look if the Mets loose 2 out of 3 (or worse) to the Dodgers? Suddenly, I'm beginning to remember how bad San Francisco is.

- On a positive note: Tim Redding looked real good last night. After a rough first inning, he settled down to throw 6 innings of 2 hit, 2 run ball. He certainly earned another start, if not two. With Ollie Perez making his inevitable return shortly, the Mets could have quite a situation on their hands. But hey, whoever said that too much pitching is a bad thing? This also may help out Oliver Perez in a weird way. If Redding continues to pitch like he did last night, Olie could be pitching for his job in his first few starts. The same goes for Livan Hernandez. Hey, I'm all for a little in season competition.

-Jordan Lauterbach