Delgado Surge Has Put Other Contributions in Shadows

When I was a teenager, my high school class was dominated by Yankees partisans. The Mets fans were small and harried, small mammals scurrying between the dinosaurs’ toes. Then came a day, about this time in 1986, that the roles were suddenly reversed. With the Mets rampaging through the NL East, the hitherto shamed Mets fans were suddenly standing tall, joined by a huge number of supposedly devoted Yankees fans, newly outfitted in Darryl Strawberry jerseys and Dwight Gooden T-shirts. The bandwagon doors had been thrown open and the front-runners jumped on in droves.The Carlos Delgado for MVP chants that have lately rocked Shea Stadium is the latest bandwagon for the short-memory crowd. After a weak 2007 and a .204 AVG/.299 OBA/.333 SLG April, Delgado didn’t have a friend in New York. If the Mets had released him any time prior to the end of June (June 27, to be precise, when he drove in nine runs against the Yankees), no one would have argued that the Mets had just canned a likely MVP candidate. Delgado was hitting .229/.306/.396, miserable numbers for any player, suicidal numbers for a first baseman. Richie Sexson, who with the Mariners was hitting .218/.303/.373 at the same moment, finally got the boot 10 days later. Sixty-seven games on, 41% of a season, even toddlers are buying Delgado drinks and he’s being boosted for a major award. It’s as if everything that came before never happened.Perhaps forgetfulness is the correct approach, and Delgado’s excellent .304/.395/.648 rates since June 25, which have coincided with the Mets’ dramatic turnaround, are good enough that they outweigh the big man’s first 75 games, not to mention outstanding seasons by other players around the league, including Albert Pujols. Let’s put that issue aside for the moment; even if it’s true, it’s a highly debatable point. It also does a disservice to the players who have been more consistent high-level contributors to the Mets this season.Jose Reyes is having the best season of his career. While he’s on a pace to have his lowest full-season stolen base total since he became a regular, his overall production is superior to that of any season of his career. Though somewhat cold in April (.240/.300/.410) and slumping to start this month (.182/.270/.273 in eight games), for the four months in between he was one of the team’s most consistent players, hitting .319/.378/.505 in 110 games.David Wright, has had, like Delgado, an extraordinary second half. Since that same June 27 game that signaled the beginning of Delgado’s turnaround, he has hit .318/.397/.564. Unlike Delgado, he hadn’t played poorly before that point. In the game before Delgado had his RBI explosion, Wright hit two home runs, capping the start of his season at a respectable .276/.373/.488 with 14 home runs. Like Reyes, Wright has also been contributing with his glove and baserunning. An unheralded 30-30 player last season, Wright has stolen 14 bases in 19 attempts and played his usual Gold Glove defense at third base. Without these two players, the Mets never would have been in the position for Delgado to have worked his magic.Yet, as good as Wright and Reyes have been, special circumstances dictate that they must take a back seat to center fielder Carlos Beltran in the season-saving performance department. Though Beltran’s tendency to hot and cold streaks has the effect of alienating fans, on the whole he’s been far more good than bad this season, especially over the last six weeks, during which he’s batted .329/.391/.593. But more importantly, Beltran has played at this high level while simply being there. He’s been playing every day as the Mets outfield has disintegrated around him. There have been days this season when the Mets started an outfield of Brady Clark, Beltran, and Angel Pagan; Marlon Anderson, Beltran, and Endy Chavez; Damion Easley, Beltran, and Chavez; Anderson, Beltran, and Trot Nixon. We could go on — Beltran’s wingmen prior to the emergence of Fernando Tatis, Nick Murphy, and Daniel Murphy and the return of Ryan Church also included Andy Phillips and Chris Aguila, not to mention 14 games of 41-year-old Moises Alou, whose diminished range required Beltran to cover a position and a half. Indeed, Beltran has logged the equivalent of airline miles in the outfield, covering for inexperienced or ineffective cornermen.The Mets have had other surprising offensive contributors drive them down the stretch, including the aforementioned Murphy-Evans platoon and the uncharacteristically potent Brian Schneider (.288/.361/.521 in August-September), and Tatis has continued to play well. So much about the Mets has been a patchwork affair. The stitches holding that quilt together have been Reyes, Wright, Beltran — and, lately, Delgado. So go ahead, jump on that bandwagon. Just remember who you’re ignoring when you do.Mr. Goldman writes the Pinstriped Bible for yesnetwork.com and is the author of “Forging Genius,” a biography of Casey Stengel.

Delgado Surge Has Put Other Contributions in Shadows

Delgado Surge Has Put Other Contributions in Shadows

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