Here on the east coast I don't read a lot about Seattle Mariners' OF Ichiro Suzuki but he may be funnier than our own Keith Hernandez!

His latest quote is from the other day:

Here are some more quotes from Ichiro, and here are some more.

It is apparent that the months of May and June have been quite different for the Mets. After last night's loss to the Dodgers where John Maine gave up back to back to back jacks (including one to the pitcher) on three straight pitches, I am a little concerned.  I am by no means throwing in the towel as there are a lot of games yet to be played, but their play of late is a bit alarming.

The Mets still have 17 games left in June but lets take a look at the statistical differences between May and June. Just for argument's sake, I also included what I project the Mets to finish with this month based on their performance thus far.

MAY
                                                       
Batting:

In 28 games, the Mets scored 127 runs on 253 hits. They had 28 HR, 119 RBI and walked 100 times. Mets in May struck out 176 times and stole 34 bases.  Their team batting average was .269, they had an on base percentage (OBP) of .341, a slugging percentage of .411 which means an OPS of .752.

Pitching:

Mets pitchers went 19-9 in May and had 9 saves over 251 innings. They allowed 202 hits, 104 earned runs and 112 runs overall.  They walked 90 batters and had a collective ERA of 3.73, striking out 182 batters. Opposing batters hit only .220 off of them and had an OBP of .298.

JUNE

Batting:

In 11 games, the Mets have scored 37 runs on 93 hits. They have 11 HR, 36 RBI and walked 26 times. So far this month, they have struck out 71 times and stolen 14 bases.  Their team batting average is .243, they have an OBP of .294, and a slugging percentage of .373 which means an OPS of .667.

Pitching:

Mets pitchers have gone 2-9 in June and have just one save over 98 innings. They allowed 108 hits, and 55 of their 56 runs allowed have been earned.  They walked 34 batters and have a collective ERA of 5.05, striking out 71. Opposing batters are hitting .278 off of them and have an OBP of .340.

JUNE PROJECTED

Batting:

These numbers are projected for the 28 total games in the month of June based on their recent performance (which I hope changes). The Mets will score 95 runs (-32) on 237 hits (-16). They will have 28 HR (same), 92 RBI (-27) and walk 66 times (-34). This month, they are on pace to strike out 181 times and steal 35 bases (both roughly the same). Their batting avg. and OBP should remain about the same as the first 11 games.

Pitching:

At this pace, Mets pitchers will go 5-23 (-14) in June and have 3 saves (-6) over 250 innings. They will allow 276 hits (+74), and 140 (+36) of their 142 runs allowed will be earned.  They will walk 87 batters, have a collective ERA of 5.05 (+1.32), and strike out 181.

Obviously, the percentage of earned runs to allowed runs will change, but let's assume that all else remains the same. Although I find it very hard to believe that will happen, this should be able to give some perspective on their main issues lately.  The are hitting less, scoring less, and walking less.  This results in a decreased batting average and OBP in comparison to May.

Mets pitchers are basically giving up more hits and giving up more runs.  The bullpen has been a big part of this.

The bottom line is, less hitting and worse pitching will obviously hurt your team which is what we have seen so far in June.  They haven't been getting runners home. When two players are hot the rest are cold and those players keep changing. I'm done comparing them to last year's team, but their difficult schedule this month won't make it any easier either unless they play like they did last month. Simple as that.