The woes of the bench

With another extra innings loss yesterday afternoon, the Mets fell to 2-4 on their road trip. I suppose it could have been worse - we could have been swept in Philadelphia. Or in Cincinnati. Anyway, I noticed yesterday that different Mets blogs were FULL of people complaining about the line up Jerry was starting. Now, while I do agree that he falls back on a "day game after a night game on get away day" B-lineup (which is frustrating, because it just feels like giving up on the last game of a series), I don't think the issue is really that he's giving the starters a day off. I think the problem is who is replacing them.

Our bench right now contains the following people: Henry Blanco, Alex Cora, Gary Matthews, Jr., Fernando Tatis, and Frank Catalanatto. I don't take issue with Blanco and Cora. Although Omar misjudged the market slightly when resigning Cora, I applauded him at the time and I still support it. Cora is not an everyday player and, through no fault of his own, was completely overused last year. Now, don't get me wrong, he's not a super utility guy like Mark DeRosa, but he does a fine job as a back up. While Blanco hasn't been playing much or really producing a lot, I'm beginning to appreciate the way he works with pitchers (particularly Mike Pelfrey). And Tatis is here for better or worse, so there's no point in even discussing how he shouldn't have been resigned this season.

As far as the other two... I'm trying to have patience. I recognize that GMJ needs to stay on the roster as a back-up center fielder. With Carlos Beltran out, the Mets simply don't have other options at this point. However, he is currently an automatic out in a line up that isn't exactly striking fear into the opposing pitchers in the first place. GMJ has just been awful. I think I understand now why the Angels are paying $20 million to not have him on the team. I feel the same about Catalanatto. He isn't producing during his limited playing time (and yes, I do understand that it is difficult to be a pinch hitter). So why keep him around??

Chris Carter (part of the Billy Wagner exodus/debacle) is tearing up AAA at the moment. In 102 plate appearances, he's batting .344 with a .402 on base percentage. In a much smaller sample (23 at bats), Catalanatto is currently batting .174 with a .208 on base percentage. He's not even batting his weight right now. We saw Ike Davis give this team a shot in the arm a few weeks ago - who's to say that Carter wouldn't be capable of the same? There is some speculation that Chris Carter is a AAAA player - someone who tears up the minors, but is not good enough for the majors. This could absolutely be true, but I think the Mets need to ask themselves this: could he really be THAT much worse than the bench players we're currently carrying? Shouldn't we at least see what he can do at the major league level? Without any depth on the bench, we're going to be in for a long season. Anyone else miss Joe McEwing and Matt Franco? I know I do.