On Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 the METS treated their diehard fans to yet another episode of what has come to be known as:  "Bullpen Unclutchiness".  The METS appeared to be headed to a respectable 4-1 victory by the dominant pitching of Johan Santana, timely hitting by Damien Easley, speedy base running by Jose Reyes and some fine, fine defensive play by the newly brought up Daniel Murphy.

The wheels fell off of the short bus that is the METS bullpen when they gave up 4 runs after the 7th inning and indirectly caused (in my opinion) our best catcher to get injured with an ankle sprain.

A reminded a young blogger not to get too happy after the METS took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the second due to our horrible bullpen.  Lo and behold, I was right, the bullpen stuck it to us once again.

I've easily compiled two stats in order to show how we fare against the worst team in Major League baseball, the Washington Nationals.  1. Complete games, 2. losses by the bullpen.   And away we go!

COMPLETE GAME(S):

METS: Johan Santana (1)

NATIONALS: T. Redding (1);  J. Bergmann (1)

BULLPEN LOSSES:

METS: 15     Wagner (1); Heilman (6); Feliciano (2); Schowenweis (2); Sanchez (1); Smith (3)

NATIONALS: 17     Hanrahan (3); Ayala (6); Rivera (4); Shell (0); Colome (2); Manning (2)

In my humble opinion what we can discern from this is that the vast majority of starters are not going deep into the game and as a result, wearing the living hell out of their respective bullpens.  Yes both teams have had to endure injuries to the starting rotation and the bullpen, yet, I refuse to give the bullpens and indirectly, the front office a pass for being just plain ol' awful. Don't the METS fans have a legitimate argument for being a bit upset at the front office for not making a move for some bullpen help?

In an ESPN online vote, the following question was asked: "Which team's inactivity at the trade deadline was most surprising?"  Overwhelmingly, 38% of the 35, 406 respondents chose the METS.  The next highest percentage was 25% for the RAYS.