Mr. Met Is a Gooner: The Mets Finally Have Great Pitching...But They Can't Hit

It's always something with the Mets. It's been 8 years and counting since the Mets made the playoffs and to say that fans have been patient is an understatement. That's what makes this current season so frustrating.

The days of Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez, Aaron Heilman, Armando Benitez, etc. are long gone. In their place are Jacob DeGrom, Zach Wheeler, Dillon Gee, Jeurys Familia and an assortment of reliable arms out of the bullpen. This current Mets pitching staff has been solid. In fact Mets pitchers are among the best in Major League Baseball. Mets starters are pitching to a 3.68 ERA which ranks them 11th out of 30 teams. The relievers are even better; with a 3.27 staff ERA and a 9th place ranking out of all 30 MLB clubs.

DeGrom has been great, but the offense has let him down

With this pitching staff, the Mets should be challenging for the playoffs. Unfortunately, this pitching staff is being let down on a daily basis by a Mets team that has the second worst batting average in baseball. Yes, the Mets are ranked 29th out of 30 clubs with a measly .235 batting average. Only the woeful Padres are worse with a .226 team average.

Sandy Alderson has been "building" this team for a number of years now and unfortunately he is failing. The Mets could have had a lineup that included Carlos Gomez, Angel Pagan and Jose Reyes but instead have been fielding sub par players such as Chris Young, Ruben Tejada and sadly Curtis Granderson.

The only players that get a pass are Daniel Murphy (a solid and consistent hitter with a .297 average), David Wright (having an off season at .270 but is surrounded by weak hitters) and Juan Lagares who is hitting .272 and playing an amazing center field.

As for the rest, the stats don't lie:

Lucas Duda .255 average and 97 strikeouts. Duda does have 22 home runs, but with 66 RBI's it's obvious that he's hitting these long balls when no one is on base and not driving in runs as a true power hitter should.
Ruben Tejada .229 average. It's time to face the facts, he's not good enough and the Mets need a shortstop that can spark the offense.
Travis d'Arnaud .227 average. d'Arnaud came with big expectations which he has yet to live up to.
Curtis Granderson .221 average with 113 strikeouts. He has 15 long balls, but like Duda, his RBI total is a very low 47. Funny how he had no problem hitting when he was with the Yankees.
Eric Young, Jr. .227 average. Nice guy, not a good hitter.
Chris Young .205. The Mets' "big" off season acquisition who has since been released. Only the Mets could make a big deal out of signing a career .235 hitter & then see the player hit 30 points below his lifetime average.

It's come to the point that if the Mets pitching staff gives up more than 1 run, it's likely going to result in a loss. So many wonderful pitching performances have been wasted this year by this sad lineup.