Unfortunately, there is an "E" in "Mets"

[satchel]

Newsday reports (http://www.nynewsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-mets283257442apr28,0,7636770.story?coll=nyc-sports-short-navigation) on the Mets' awful weekend performance against the Diamondbacks, in which they made more errors than they had extra-base hits and RBIs combined; they had errors from 8 different positions on the field.

I believe the old adage that a club is never as good as it looks when it's winning, and never as bad as it looks when it's losing. I also believe that team chemistry is an overrated concept. But when a club looks this bad in the field, you have to wonder how hard it's trying, and whether such sloppy play feeds on itself to create a cycle of lackadaiscal play.

I'd like to see Art Howe's team turn it around, or at least get some of the fundamentals down.

[KCBOOMER]

You can't play the game if you can't catch and throw the ball.

[Wolf Hopper]

Much of this starts with Mo Vaughn - he has no business being on the field. I recently saw Jeff Kent hit a routine ground ball two feet to Mo's left - his glove hand! - and Mo feebly tried to move, and he could not, and the ball went into the RF corner for a "ground ball triple." In another game, on a simple comebacker to Glavine, in a big spot, Glavine threw the ball to Mo, slightly below Mo's waist, but, no where near being a wild throw, and Vaughn boxed it for the E and the runner reached.

The man cannot move or bend, whatsoever, because he is too large, heavy/dense.

In another thread, we talked about winning teams having good fielding 1B. Well, maybe they don't have to be Gold Glovers - - but, they have to be better than Venus de Milo meets the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

The Mets defense will help themselves a lot, by getting someone who can actually play 1B, IMHO.

Howe was already moved Cedeno to RF - and Shinjo/Timo SHOULD be able to cover CF - - at least to a decent level. So, Mo should be next.

[sweaver]

A lot of this has to do with the Mets being an old team. Old guys cover less ground. Cedeno is a poor defensive player, Burnitz has little range left, Floyd is OK but hurting....

Perez and Shinjo won't help the offense, but they can catch the ball at least.

[JamesI]

the only player on this team that could be an above average fielder is Alomar, and he's going through the motions. Mo s horrid, the outfied starters are not good defensivly

[sweaver]

Jay Jaffe of "The Futility Infielder" raises an interesting point----these Mets were a terrific team, 5 years ago! If you take everyone's 1998 stats, using Jay Bell as the 3B, this team would be a shoo-in for the division, and probably the pennant.

Phillips just assembled the team too late, that's all. Or maybe he's living in the past.