Sound Off

Written by Ed Ryan of Mets Fever (Network Member):

Finally a little fire, my biggest problem with the teams slump is that there hasn't been any fire. It seems like the minute they get behind they start saying we'll get them next time and next time has turned into half a month. The Mets started June five games in front of the Braves, in first place and they could end the month five games behind in third place. The first time I saw even the slightest bit of frustration was last night when Jose Reyes slammed his helmet to the ground. I am one that believes in out bursts Charlie Manuel has used them effectively to fire up the Phillies, Joe Girardi used fire and brimstone to get the Marlins to play way over their head and Ned Colletti had a talk with the Dodgers before we crawled into town. I think Willie's stoic personality sometimes leads itself to mediocre play ( we'll get them next time, its a long season) I felt the same way in Sept. last year. Well if Willie isn't willing to sound off at least someone is, pointing fingers doesn't help but a little urgency sure does.

"We're playing good teams," Lo Duca said. "Detroit's a good team. This team's a good team. It doesn't get easier. We play the Yankees, then we play the A's, the Twins –they're a good team. It's not going to get easier. We need to play better. That's the bottom line. It's not going to walk through what we did last year and play the way we did. It's not going to happen that way. It's going to go down to the end of the season. We need to play better.

"You're going to have bumps in the road. But it's a good measuring stick. The whole health issue, no, guys stepped up and played last year when we weren't healthy, when Pedro [Martinez] went down and some other guys went down and got hurt.

"[Carlos] Beltran was out for a little while last year. [Carlos] Delgado was injured a little bit last year, and we picked it up. So that's not an excuse. I'm sick and tired of hearing we're banged up. That's not an excuse. We need to play better than we have, bottom line." source Steve Popper- Bergen Record