New York Mets: Saying “New York is tough” is not a viable excuse

Playing in New York can be tough. Unfortunately, New York Mets manager Mickey Callaway learned the hard way that it’s best not to say this publicly.

Recently, New York Mets manager Mickey Callaway made the comment, “New York is tough on players.”

A clear excuse, Callaway needs to stop making them and push this team to its limits.

No one denies that New York is a tough place to play. Big market cities come with big market pressure to perform when it’s all said and done. The Mets are not excused from that pressure but it should also not be a reason for their poor performance as of late. Callaway’s comments were not only not necessary but a sad excuse that was basically salt poured onto an open wound.

The Mets began the season raging hot and now fans have watched them free fall from the top of the NL East to nearly the bottom. And you can thank the Marlins who are trying to come in last on purpose for the Mets not falling past them.

The point is fans do not want to hear about players feeling pressure. The fans want to see results and they are not being unrealistic. The organization is two years removed from the 2015 world series which means people still expect them to be a top team.

On paper coming into 2018 the Mets were arguably the second best team in the NL East, and when you add players like Todd Frazier and Jay Bruce, you are expected to be coming out on top.

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As of late, you have seen a lot of station to station type baseball from the Mets and no real grinding of at-bats. Brandon Nimmo and Asdrubal Cabrera are starting to cool off after raging hot streaks and no one is stepping up to help them out.

Every team has its ups and downs. Baseball is a game of streaks. But the Mets should be able to beat teams like the Baltimore Orioles. They should be able to beat pitchers like Alex Cobb who coming into Tuesday’s game had an ERA over 6 and lost 7 of his first 9 starts.

The pitching has been great as of late but the team continues to not have their backs.

Back-to-back good outings from Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz highlight what has been a tough stretch for the Mets. New York did end a 21 scoreless inning streak on Tuesday night.

But when Jason Vargas is giving up only 2 runs over 5 innings you need to back him up and score more.

There are no excuses and fans understand that teams go through cold stretches. But can we ask to see some hustle? Try some different things?

Being more aggressive on the base paths could help a lot. But what won’t be tolerated by fans is that New York is tough. When you hit fans with that excuse they are going to let you hear it and honestly it is a poor excuse by Mickey Callaway.

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We all know this team’s struggles are not going to end overnight. They need to find something or do something to get things going. Fans are tired of seeing the same story of a red-hot start to the year and then watch the team just drop like flies. New York pressure is tough? How are the guys doing across town in the Bronx, who arguably have more pressure then the Mets do?

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