As Jose Reyes goes, so go the Mets. Nonsense and it’s a dumb excuse for a bad offense. The number one problem with the Mets right now is not the pitching. It’s not even the bullpen. It’s the offense, plain and simple. The one thing I do not understand is this continued tendency to blame Jose Reyes for the Mets offensive woes. True, when Reyes gets on base, the Mets tend to score runs. When Reyes doesn’t the Mets offense can’t get going. The dysfunctional thinking behind this logic is that instead of blaming 7 other hitters for not getting the job done, let’s pick on the leadoff hitter. Apparently, Jose Reyes is the lone hitter responsible to get the Mets going. In tonight’s blow out win by the Braves, Reyes got on base his first 3 at bats. The Mets scored one run. I guess if he didn’t get on at all, the Mets would have been shut out.

I would look at it this way. Jose Reyes has struggled since the second half of last year. Perhaps the pressure being put on the young star is a bit much don’t you think? Everyone says it, the media, the manager, the players. When Jose Reyes hits, the Mets offense comes alive. The rest of the Mets lineup is getting a free pass every time Reyes does not hit. There is no accountability on this team. Suppose Reyes went down with a season ending injury. Do they pack in the schedule? Can we turn our tickets in for a refund? I don’t understand the message it sends. It puts way too much of the offensive burden on Reyes. It’s completely unfair.

The Mets have now lost the first 3 games of this 4 game series in Atlanta. The Mets are yet to win a game this year at Turner Field. The Mets record after 44 games is 22-22. While everyone says the Mets are a better than .500 team, the stats prove otherwise. But I would say the Mets are not a .500 team too. They are a 140 million dollar .500 team. That can’t be sitting well with the Wilpons. It’s not sitting well with the fans. The manager is embattled in turmoil of his own doing. Like the fictional Captain Queeg, Willie Randolph is becoming unraveled. The pressure to win is enormous. But what can they do? As a team the Mets are just not that good. Good enough to be .500 but not much more.

The entire organization is to blame for this mess. The players cannot work cohesively. The manager and coaches are ineffective. The general manager, while very good at spending Fred Wilpon’s money, has proven not to be the genius everyone has made him out to be. Have you looked at the Mets farm clubs lately? Not one of them is above .500. And the low level A clubs, which we were told was loaded with talent, are atrocious. As GM, Omar is responsible for the scouting department. Where is all the talent? Omar continues to bring in older players. He gave Luis Castillo, who seems to be falling apart, a four year deal while he lets 24 year old Ruben Gotay go through waivers who then ends up on the Braves. While Moises Alou is still a great hitter, he is totally unreliable and he left the game tonight with tightness in his calf. The Mets traded Mike Jacobs to the Marlins for Carlos Delgado back in 2005. That was a great deal because Delgado helped the Mets get to the post season in ’06. But an older player is a risk. While Delgado struggles continue now, Jacobs with the Marlins has way more home runs than Delgado and more importantly he is very young. Not that I’m trying to say Jacobs is the player that Delgado was, I’m simply trying to point out that there is a price to pay when bringing in such older players in the long term. You look at the youth that the Braves have brought up and you see the beginnings of another generation of winning Braves baseball. Right now, we don’t see that with the Mets.

My fear is perhaps a bit overblown but somewhat justified based on the number of years of following the Mets. We may be headed into another era of bad Mets baseball. Yes it’s early, but how long before these players believe they are not that good then just show up at the park and go through the motions. Prepare for the worst my fellow fans. This way you will not be disappointed.