Sorry to put an end to the good vibes after blowing out the Dodgers but BMF is nothing if I’m not keepin’ it real - and the real deal is we’ve got a fundamental problem with the likeability of this Met team.
There’s an old television term “Q Rating” which is basically a way to quantify a person, or a show’s, likeability. Just for kicks BMF applied it, in a very non-scientific way, to our 2008 NY Mets and sadly, I’m afraid the team’s overall Q Rating is frighteningly poor.
The most important criteria for happiness in sports is the fanbase liking it’s own players. To me this even takes precedence over winning, as I’d rather have a group of likeable, competitive guys as opposed to a bunch of creeps even if they do manage to win a WS.
Perhaps a lot of yankee fans would beg to differ, considering they’ve spent years rooting for the un-likeable likes of Gary Sheffield, Randy Johnson, Jason Giambi, A-Rod, and so on. But we’re Met fans and we come from a long history of loveable losers. While no one wants to be a loser unfortunately this current crop of Mets just aren’t very loveable.
The Shea Faithful’s patience has been shorter than ever before and while there are certainly players who remain fan favorites there are an inordinate amount of unpopular characters wearing the orange and blue so let’s take a look in no particular order:
Johan Santana - Q RATING: FAIR and RISING- Despite the silly booing incident I believe Mets fans are ready to love him but simply haven’t had time to fully bond just yet.
Ollie Perez – Q-RATING: FAIR DOWNGRADED from GOOD - We used to love OP but it’s hard to root for a guy conspiring with Scott Boras to leave the organization. Add to that 1 phat arbitration victory against 2 measly regular season wins and you’ve got a downgraded Q Rating. In addition I’ve heard rumors of Perez being more concerned with chatting on his cell phone while at an autograph signing than talking to and looking his fans in the eye.
USS Maine – Q RATING: VERY HIGH - Met fans love this guy. He’s unassuming, works hard and goes about his business without a hint of ego.
Pedro – Q RATING: remains VERY HIGH - We all love Peety but I doubt anyone expects him to contribute anymore. That said Pedro helped turn this organization around and for that this Met fan will always be grateful.
Schneider – Q RATING: HIGH - The Shea Faithful have definitely taken to him in his short stint as a Met. But he’s still a new guy so I expect his rating to improve.
Church – Q RATING: HIGH and RISING - Ditto the above until this past week when he officially began surging towards fan favorite status.
Delgado - Q RATING: VERY LOW - Next to impossible to root for at this point. After a great ‘06 his Q Rating tumbled due to poor production, lack of accountability, and diminishing defensive skills. I don’t care what your personal history is snubbing the fans on a curtain call is only gonna make things harder on yourself. Of course CD arrived with built in excuses for people to dislike him with his God Bless America baggage and the public claims that Omar and Tony Bernazard were playing the race card to sign him back in ‘05.
Luis Castillo – Q RATING: MEDIUM and DROPPING - BMF used to love Castillo… way back in 2000 when he was on my fantasy team! Nowadays he’s an aging vet with a 4-year contract and 2 cranky knees. I try to cut Castillo a little slack cuz I believe Omar had a backroom deal that inking Castillo would also net his best buddy Santana. Still, he’s not a guy who the Shea Faithful have been able to really get behind especially when a cheap and viable option like Ruben Gotay was sent packing.
Reyes - Q RATING: VERY HIGH - I love him and as a homegrown Met I’ll live and die with JOse, Jose, Jose no matter what. Reyes has enough credit in the fan bank to overcome the immature mistakes he may have made.
Wright – Q RATING: VERY HIGH – Ditto above. Only I can’t recall ANY immature mistakes this cat has made.
Beltran – Q RATING: MEDIUM and DROPPING - BMF is dying to root for LosB. I even bought his jersey when he first arrived but his tepid public persona and his incredibly frustrating lack of living up to potential has prevented him from ingratiating himself to the fanbase. I try and give him some extra rope because he’s a quite guy by nature but it’s not easy when he continues to show an inability to produce unless he’s 101% healthy. Of course the postseason is a different story but even then many fans are left with the lasting memory of strike 3 looking.
Alou - Q RATING: MEDIUM - This guy drives me absolutely crazy. Our franchise is being held hostage by a brittle old man in order to get his bat in the line-up for maybe 80 games. But I don’t even fault Alou. The guy is a freak of nature the way he ropes balls but it’s difficult to root for someone you expect to be hitting the DL tomorrow.
Billy Wags – Q RATING: VERY HIGH – The Alpaca is the rare NY athlete who actually climbed out of the Faithful’s "dog house" to become a fan favorite. Some of his own clubhouse may not be crazy about him publicly chastising teammates but the truth is someone needs to kick this team in the ass if the manager isn’t doing it.
Heilman – Q RATING: VERY LOW - This one time fan favorite has really seen the worm turn on him. Remember when it was en vogue to say Heilman should start? These days you can’t find a Met fan who thinks he should step on the field at all.
Scott Schoeneweis – Q RATING: MEDIUM and RISING - The Scho has seen an up-tick in popularity among fans who are actually paying attention.
The Big Pelf – Q RATING: HIGH – Here’s a guy you can root for. A big homegrown kid with a world of potential fighting to prove he belongs in the bigs. I know he’s frustrating at times but so goes the learning curve for young pitchers. GO BIG PELF!
Nelson Figueroa – Q RATING: VERY HIGH - A local Brooklyn kid who grew up a rabid Met fan and makes it to Shea is classic feel good story. Sure he may not be the best pitcher on the team. He may not even be with us next month but every Met fan knows this guy cherishes every single breath he takes with the big club. And quite frankly that’s refreshing to see.
Duaner Sanchez – Q RATING: HIGH – Sanchez is a funny case because he was hugely popular even after the taxi cab incident but when he showed up fat and late to spring training last year his Q took a major hit. But a crappy early season Met bullpen has given him savior status thus allowing him to regain his high approval rating.
Randolph - Q RATING: VERY VERY LOW - Willie had 2 strikes against him when he arrived in Flushing: he was a career yankee and a Torre disciple. Since most Met fans never bought into Torre’s greatness Randolph was a hard sell from the get go. Honestly BMF rooted for Willie longer than most but when I watched him run out of players last year by making a bone headed pinch running substitution I finally reversed course. I can’t stand it when we hear excuses like, “he can’t execute for his players”. No it’s more like, “he can’t motivate his players”.
El Duque – Q RATING: VERY LOW - I don’t even consider Orlando part of the team anymore but regardless I’ll assign him a well-earned poor Q Rating. Even if he does somehow stagger back onto the field everyone knows he’ll pull up lame when he’s needed most.
Omar – Q RATING: MEDIUM – Omar has been knocked off his pedestal in the average fan’s eye by an under performing team and a number of poor decisions. But BMF still considers him one of the better GM’s in the game and he’s got a lot more rope than Willie does in my book.
The Wilpons – Q RATING HIGH - The father son ownership duo have done a great job of improving their likability over the past few years. Gone are the days of “Freddy Coupon” nicknames and the cries of, “Compete with he Yankees or sell the team!”. From where I sit the Wilpons are the best owners in NY and do a great of letting their employees run player operations. But I suspect their Q Rating will begin to wane if the team continues to flounder without anyone being held responsible.
***
While no one needs to read BMF to understand this is all largely a case of “collapse hangover” the truth there’s a great lesson to be learned here:
When your team sleep walks through the majority of the season only to implode at the end CHANGES MUST BE MADE!!!
The cold hard fact is the manager should have been sacrificed after last season’s debacle. And if Willie wasn’t sent packing SOMEONE damn sure should’ve been sacrificed just to show the fans what happened is unacceptable.
Instead the Mets chose to remain loyal to the current hierarchy. While it’s a noble decision to stand by your employees disregarding your fan base has proven to be the wrong move.
I guess it was hoped Santana would be enough of a distraction to fool the fans into thinking this was a different team but we Met fans are sharper than that. Firing Randolph would have cost a few million bucks but it would’ve been money well spent not to have the players subjected to all the vitriol out at Shea since opening day.
The fans wanted to see someone held accountable for that catastrophe and since the fans pay everyone’s salary they took it as an insult that no one was made to pay, and a slap in the face when ticket prices went up.
Demanding someone’s head for a team collapse may sound barbaric to some but BMF is all about real talk here and if you don’t believe me just take a trip out to Shea where the natives have become restless unlike ever before because they don’t have a lot of “Q” love for the majority of their players.