Met Bats Asleep At The Plate, 5-0 Loss to A's Another Nail in the Coffin of Humiliation

Chalk it up to yet another somnabulistic performance at the plate. Only this time, the Mets couldn't find a way to hit against rookie Joe Blanton, who had been carrying a 9.25 ERA over his last 8 starts. Just the sort of starter you hammer to bust loose out of a prolonged hitting slump.

But not these Mets, not now. Instead, this was being kicked in the ribs after getting knocked to the ground with a forearm shiver. This is humiliation, watching your first 14 batters go down in order against a starter like Joe Blanton, watching a starter like Joe Blanton carry a perfect game into the 5th inning against you, watching that same Joe Blanton toss a 7 inning shutout against you and watching a rookie closer in Huston Street shut you down with one out and the bases loaded by inducing Victor Diaz into a rally-killing double play.

The Mets have now scored a mere 17 runs over their last 7 games, 5 of which, to no one's surprise, the Mets have lost. Although the starting pitching has been more than sufficient, Mets hitters seem to have lost their way.

The dangling question which grows daily is whether the time has come to start to wonder whose bat might be added to add some punch into the batting order.

Omar almost got it right this winter. His pursuit of Carlos Delgado was undertaken with the same desperation as that of Pedro and Carlos Beltran before him. But Delgado turned us down and Delgado, for those of you who like crying over spillt milk or thinking about the What Ifs in life, is hitting .329 with 13 homers and 46 RBIs, 20 doubles and a .424 OSP right now. Just think what that bat might look like in the Mets lineup.

I can't say I'd have done any differently in signing Doug Mientkiewicz as a back-up plan but good gawd, who would have expected this guy would be hitting .208 on the season and .132 with men in scoring position? These are Mark Belanger numbers for crissakes! No matter how good this guy as a fielding first baseman (and he ranks only 6th in the NL as a fielding first baseman), it can't possbily make up for his hitting.

Of the guys that rank higher than in fielding is Sean Casey of Cincy who is hitting .325 with 3 homers and 30 RBIs, Todd Helton, (rumoured to be available out of Colorado for the remainder of his $100 million plus contract) hitting .255 with 5 homers and 25 RBIs, Phil Nevin in San Diego hitting .266 with 9 homers and 45 RBIs, Nick Johnson of the Nats hitting .330 with 8 homers and 38 RBIs and finally, Derek Lee hitting .377 with 17 homers and 53 RBIs.

More ironic is that Delgado is ranked 10th among NL first basemen in fielding having made 4 more errors than Mientkiewicz in 15 more chances, so he isn't even really the worst fielding first baseman money can buy.

But the point of this isn't to bash Mientkiewicz - perhaps it isn't really isn't his fault he can't hit this season. After all, he seems genuinely upset at his rotten plate performance. And certainly he isn't the only Met to be batting well below expectation.

The point is his is the most glaring of all the holes in the Mets batting order and first base is the position traditionally where you might get the most power and hitting out of. Thus, it is his roster spot where you might begin looking for replacements.

Rather than panic and seek out ill-thought-out trades, the solution might be right under our twitching little noses:

another left handed hitting former Red Sox first baseman: Brian Daubach.

Daubach is hitting .363 for our AAA Norfolk Tides with 11 homers and 42 RBIs in 54 games, not to mention only 2 errors committed all season.

He would be precisely the sort of hitting injection the enemic Mets batting order could use right now, a temporary cavalry to attempt to overcome a team-wide hitting slump that injuries have exacerbated.

Yes, historically, a pretty weak hitter. Last season platooning with Mientiewicz for the Sox, he hit .227. The year before with the White Sox, he hit .230.

But again, we aren't talking about the guy who is going to resurrect the season, just a guy to help get us through a patch of pathetic hitting.

*****

If you didn't mind waking up just before dawn to listen to the Mets stumble their way through their most recent humiliation, you might like even better the opportunity to listen to the ever-frustrating work in progress, Victor Zambrano, bumble his way through another start facing Danny Haren, RHP (4-7, 4.28).

*****

The Nats rather strange victory puts the Mets now solidly in last place, 5 1/2 games behind. At 32-32, there are 9 teams in the National League with better records than the Mets and four of them are in the NL East unfortunately.

Meanwhile the second place Phillies have lost their lone left handed starter Randy Wolf, who had won his last five starts. He may require the dreaded Tommy John surgery.