Oliver Perez: "Fuck You Country Time!"

It's been a while since Mets fans have seen a stretch of baseball quite like we have the past week.  There was a walk-off HBP, an elderly gentleman in military fatigues crushing a game-winning HR, and 46 Billy Wagner blown saves.  What does it all mean?  Mediocrity my friends, dewy-sweet mediocrity.

It's not as if we haven't known.  As mentioned on countless other blogs and premium news outlets, the Metropolitans are a .500 team whose only (non)redeeming quality is the ability to play that .500 baseball not by intermittent stretches of 2 wins followed by 2 losses, but by stringing together 9-2 streaks where all once again becomes right with the world only to follow them with 3-7 B-horror movie-esque stretches of ineptitude.

2006 was it my friends.  It was all Freddie Coupons & Co. needed to get your asses into the seats for the arrival of CitiField.  The current team is just good enough that people will be duped into the eternal "You Gotta Believe" and just bad enough that even if you happen to be the Dalai Lama no amount of believing is going to make a difference.

The luxury boxes at Wilpon Stadium supposedly have a three-year wait to get in (admittedly hearsay, I believe Coop of MSF stated this on the FU Forums, but this isn't the NYT).  As long as Omar doesn't run the 2002-04 Mets out there for the next 5 or so years people will show up and hemorrhage their cash on $9 beers while violently participating in "Everybody Clap Your Hands."

Enjoy mediocre baseball from a sub-mediocre organization.  I'll be sitting right there next to you every step of the way.

With Bated Breath

I can feel it in my bones.  It's that time once more, friends.  At some time within the next two days a Wally Matthews column should drop and I can guarantee it will be a virtual cornucopia of vitriol.  

Cross your fingers that it somehow blames Ramon Castro's Jean-Paul Jean-Paul gaffe on the use of non-union pipefitters at CitiField while at the same time managing to suggest the Mets pursue David Eckstein while simultaneously dumping Jose Reyes' lifeless body into the East River.

A Whale's Vagina

Ron Burgundy: Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale's vagina.
Veronica Corningstone: No, there's no way that's correct.
Ron Burgundy: I'm sorry, I was trying to impress you. I don't know what it means. I'll be honest, I don't think anyone knows what it means anymore. Scholars maintain that the translation was lost hundreds of years ago.
Veronica Corningstone: Doesn't it mean Saint Diego?
Ron Burgundy: No. No.
Veronica Corningstone: No, that's - that's what it means. Really.
Ron Burgundy: Agree to disagree.

I've been more disheartened as a Mets fan...but, I can't remember when. First, there was HBP. Then, there was the Wolf Pack outpitching TBPiB. Yesterday, 2-1 again. Today, Petey coughing up leads and Country Time shitting the bed in a way not seen since a warn summer day in the Bronx with a 4-run lead.

Yes, the previously 24-37 Padres of a city whose name was lost in translation hundreds of years ago dropped the Mets back to two games under .500 and sapped any momentum they might have had as well.

Now, the problems are glaring. Ryan Church is seriously fucked up. Fernando Tatis and Endy Chavez are the starting corner outfielders. Pedro isn't Pedro. Oh, and did I mention Abraham Nunez?

As an astute commenter on Metsradamus noted, the Mets need to play .656 ball (61-40) for the rest of 2008 to reach 91 wins. Remember that this is a sub-.500 team since last June 1st and think about how realistic that thought is. Then when you're finished think about how the Phillies are 13 games over .500 and how the Braves can't possibly continue to be this terrible on the road for much longer. Playoffs?

But hey, look on the bright side. If you have tickets for the final game at Shea like I do it will be that much more special - because it truly will be the last game at Shea.

On 7-3...

You ever get that feeling that something's not quite right?  You know, like when Fernando Tatis is the hero for your ballclub...and it's not 1999 and it's not the Cardinals?  Like when you're starting left fielder has a .189 batting average and you're starting right fielder is one concussion shy of permanently having to wear those grandma-in-wal-mart-esque wrap-around sunglasses for the rest of his life?

You ever get that feeling that maybe 2006 was it?  That maybe Yadier's big fly and Cliff's big K will be looked upon as the only chance the Mets had for greatness in the 2000's?

You ever think that maybe the core that was assembled by a guy that recalled Abraham Nunez from AAA just isn't good enough to compete with the Chutley/Howard/J-Roll trifecta?  That if the Phillies ever find another decent - and consistent (sorry, Brett Myers) - pitcher to go back-to-back with Cole Hamels that the NL East is in trouble for a while?

Nah, me either.  I trust my guys.

Congratulations

According to Joe Benigno-Gazingo, there have been four grand slams given up by major league relief pitchers in 2008.

Three have them have come off of the Mets bullpen.

Two-Face

As this young season has progressed it has been hard to get an accurate reading on exactly how good or bad this Mets team is. We know Ryan Church will come back to earth and we know Angel Pagan will come back to earth - but other than that, what do we really know?

In a perfect world you could argue that Carlos Delgado will bounce back and produce numbers similar to what he did last season. But can you say that with any conviction? His numbers have been steadily declining for two seasons - this may be the year where he hits rock bottom. Would you bet against him putting up a .230/15/50 this season? It doesn't sound too far fetched.

On the flip side one would say that David Wright will come back to earth a little as well. He can't possibly sustain a .344/.453/.721 line for the rest of the season...can he? Aside from the SLG coming down a bit, who is to say he can't? Wright has gotten better each of the last three seasons, who's to say he won't hit over .340 this season pushing 40 HR and a .450 OBP?

And as for Reyes, well, you just can't predict what he's going to give you aside from replay-worthy celebrations when he's on his game. Was last September a fluke or was last April-June a fluke? I'd cast my vote for the former, but who can be sure?

Maine and Perez are solid starters, but you never can be sure when they're going to have that giant meltdown. Pelfrey looks better, but it's much too early to tell. Big Fig has been superb - but can he sustain it for another month until Pedro returns? The one bright spot - as everyone expected - has been Santana. Booing aside, he has been everything he's been billed to be. You knew he was HR-prone, but the brilliance he flashed on Friday night is exactly why Carlos Gomez is patrolling centerfield in Minneapolis right now.

The bottom line is that 4/6 from the Phillies is exactly what we should have hoped for - and it's exactly what we got. Granted, Jimmy Rollins was absent for 4 games and Victorino absent for 3, but the Mets still played better baseball than the Phils for the first two series of the year.

Call me a pessimist, call me a downer, but doesn't something still feel wrong? You just don't know what Mets team is going to show up. The lifeless, uninspired bunch that showed up to play the Brewers last weekend or the energetic, fundamental-executing (aside from Luis Castillo not getting the bunt down in the 9th tonight) group that showed up at Citizens Bank Park this weekend?

And before you shoot back that it just seems that way because the Mets lost 2/3 against Milwaukee and won 2/3 from the Phils, I'd feel the same way if the Mets had lost 2/3 this weekend as well. If you watched both series you could just see the difference in the team. And as someone who is faithful to stats and objective analysis, that is something I realize sounds, well, stupid, but I don't think a fan of this team can deny it.

To throw in a cliche for the sake of cliches, I know it's too early to tell - I just hope that the team we saw from Friday night to about an hour ago shows up with regularity in 2008.

Check It Out

I encourage each of this blog's 4 readers to check out Rany Jazayerli's new blog about everyone's favorite team, the Kansas City Royals. Rany is a great writer (Baseball Prospectus, ESPN.com, etc.) and his insights on the Royals should be a good read for anyone interested in baseball as a whole.

As for the Mets...Filthy Sanchez is working out the hardest he has since he was 19 and Spring Training is officially underway. Since there's no catchy slogan this year, (i.e. Your Season Has Come!) let me be the first to make a suggestion -The 2008 New York Mets: Willie's Ass is On the Line!