Keidel: Yeah, It's Early, But Mets, Yankees Look Like They May Remain The Epitome Of Average
By Jason Keidel
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With the Rangers one loss from a long vacation, New York needs some juice from one of the baseball locals.
But our clubs are hardly draining our adrenal glands. While the Yankees and Mets won Sunday, they were hardly scalding entering Memorial Day. The Bombers were in a 1-9 free fall before beating the Royals, while the Amazins were just swept by the Pirates, and have split their last 10 games.
We heard Michael Pineda was about to soar into an ace, but then he got smoked. Matt Harvey, the only one whom we can really brand a star, had the worst outing of his career in Pittsburgh, amid whispers of a dead arm. It won't end his season, but when the guy you've hailed as the savior suffers any condition on a surgically repaired pitching arm, you worry.
No doubt it was nice to see the Yankees drop 14 runs on the high-flying Royals, and just as comforting to see 42-year-old Bartolo Colon defy time and gravity to stifle the Phillies.
But some facts remain. Both teams have surrendered the pole position in their respective divisions. Evan Roberts asserted that the Mets left their series with the Nationals forever out of first place. And though the Yanks are only a half-game out of the AL East lead, their 23-22 mark would leave them way out of first place in any other division.
Colon aside, the average age of the Mets' rotation is 26, and none of them have thrown 200 innings in their careers. And with Harvey and Zack Wheeler having been snagged by Tommy John, you wonder if the rest of their young studs are one pitch from the wrong twitch.
Similarly, the Yankees aren't going to score 14 runs very often. With Jacoby Ellsbury on the shelf, not one regular is batting .290. (Slade Heathcott, with 12 at-bats, doesn't count). The team is batting .246, and was ninth in the AL in runs scored entering Sunday's game, which helped them leapfrog to third entering Monday's game).
The Bombers (23-22) are enjoying the realities of a rotten division. So maybe by default they will dwell in some kind of contention. But the Mets, with a better record (25-21), must wonder if the Nationals are about to skyrocket to the NL East title. They can still compete for the playoffs and are just one game behind the Giants in the wild card race.
It's May, of course. A lot can occur over the next month or two. But with the Yankees' collective age and wage and penchant for injuries, we watch them with one eye open. Same with the Mets, who have all the pitching (3.36 team ERA) and a dearth of decent bats (.235 team batting average), especially if David Wright takes a long hiatus.
It could be one of those odd seasons when the Mets end the season with the better record yet miss the playoffs, while the Yanks simply outlast the throng of mediocrity around them and make the playoffs.
But there's nothing right now to give any fan any confidence. If mediocrity is the buzzword in Gotham, then there's not going to be much buzz in Gotham.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
