Who Reads This, Anyway?

With one month of the season just about in the books, I thought it time to take a look at the statistics of this blog, just to make sure everything was in order as we move further along in the season. Feedburner is the place to do things like this, and one of the more interesting features it has is that you can look up just how, exactly, people landed here.

Now, El Guapo has made a big deal about The Ballclub being the first thing to pop up when you Google "The Ballclub." This is still the case. But, it seems that nobody is searching for "The Ballclub." So, while this is a nice honor, it really means very little.

So, you may ask, what are most people searching for when they happen upon The Ballclub? Well, it might give you some insight as to the clientèle we get here.

Most people seem to land here when searching for "David Wright Girlfriend." I suppose this is my fault, based on the dopey post I wrote 3 weeks ago. But what's interesting is that this isn't even in the top 10 results when that's searched for.

If this is true, then we're probably not getting too many repeat hits from the irritated 16-year old girls trying to find out the dating status of our own Captain America.

Some other interesting searches that land people here.
"David Wright Mets Jewish"
"David Wright Sarah Hughes"
"Fuck Face Baseball Card"
"Leitch Cutting Down The Mango Tree"
"Darren Dreifort Divorce"
"Is The Eephus Taken Out Of MLB2K7"
"Major Baseball Player Wore Fake Mustache Dark Glasses Hat After Being Ejected"
"Vintage Hot Dog"
"Iron Chef America Copper Still"
"Why Did SNY Fire Chris Cotter"
"David Wright Makes Fun of Shawn Green"
"What Type Of Necklace Does Jose Reyes Wear"
"Mo Vaughn Home Run Budweiser"
"Citi Field Iced Coffee"
"Is Casey Kotchman Jewish"
"Jose Valentin General El Guapo"

I know we've covered a wide range of topics, but some of these searches just floor me. Never mind that someone landed here by searching for "Jose Valentin General El Guapo," but that someone was out there searching for this, and was prompted to look here. What makes this all the more frightening is that we are the first site to come up if that's what you happen to be searching for.

And to make matters worse, by writing this post, I'm just ensuring that more people off on the trail of some odd web searches are going just going to land back here. And that the number of young women searching for "David Wright Girlfriend" are going to keep coming back, and being frustrated because neither El Guapo or myself particularly care whether or not Wright even has a Girlfriend. We just want him to get a hit with runners on base, Dammit!

All that said, that should sum up the State of The Ballclub through the first month of the season.

I suppose more could be devoted to the games in Washington over the weekend, but really, is there that much to say? Perez gutted it out on Friday night, and really only made 2 or 3 bad pitches, and one of them ended up costing him the game. He kept the ball down for the most part, and his control was great, and Willie left him in and got him to stretch out a bit, which is good, because we could use some starting pitchers that can pitch into the latter part of games. Saturday, Glavine was Glavine, and Endy came up with another clutch play (sliding home around the tag with the tying run) that will go overlooked. The Bullpen was solid, and the Mets finally broke out in the 12th. Sunday's story was simply John Maine, John Maine, John Maine.

The larger problem is the offense. The starters have been great so far, but the offense hasn't been giving them much wiggle room. Some players are hot, and some players are cold, and that's pretty much par for the course with any team. And the hot bats (Reyes, Beltran, Alou, Green, Valentin) have done enough to win games and lessen the effect of some pretty big names that are off to slow starts (most notably Wright and Delgado, also LoDuca). But the major problem so far has been a wholesale failure to come up with the "clutch" hit; the hit that's going to get that runner home from 3rd with less than 2 outs, or that single with runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs, or any other situational piece of hitting. It's been pretty maddening seeing Reyes lead off with a single or a walk, steal second, get moved to third by LoDuca, and then Beltran pops out to the shortstop and Delgado strikes out. I know guys are pressing, or slumping, and that happens over the course of the season, but if the problem doesn't right itself before too long, it will begin to cost the team some victories. It's beginning to become a major concern.

This week, 3 against Florida, and then the always popular West Coast trip. Maybe an extended road trip will help wake things up a bit.