So as it stands now, our New York Metropolitans are 9-13, last place in NL East. There have been some nice things on this little four-game win streak we've got going. Let's keep in mind, though, those two teams were the Astros and the D'backs. And they lost the series to the Astros.
The Mets have a new manager/GM combination this season in Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson. I like what Alderson has done with the team so far, especially given the fact he hasn't had much room to work with. From what I've seen of Collins, I've questioned his decision-making early on in the season, and for a guy that has been characterized as "fiery", I haven't seen a lot of that yet, except for his ejection on Thursday. Hopefully, that's just a case of Collins not knowing the team too well yet.
As we Met fans know well, this could be a big year for roster changes. Reyes and Beltran are both looking like they're going to get traded at the end of the year, which really is eating at me because I love them both. I was praying that the Mets would somehow, someway be competitive this year so they could keep them both, but they haven't gotten off to a good start with that. In spite of his antics and his occasional bouts with immaturity, Reyes has been my favorite Met ever since he was called up in '03. I think we Met fans tend to give Beltran a lot of crap for his lack of production over the length of this seven-year contract, and rightly so for the most part, but as we've seen early on in this season, he can still be one of the more productive hitters in the game when healthy. I guess I just have to be resigned to the fact that these trades are inevitable, but hopefully the Mets can get a good haul in return for them. The Mets need some young aces for their rotation and hopefully trading Reyes and Beltran for a fwe pitching prospects can solve that problem. It's the only way they've ever won over the course of their history, with dominant starting pitching.
All in all, I feel that the Met offense has exceeded expectations for the most part. Pagan and Thole have been weak links so far and so was Emaus while he was still around. Putting Murphy in the two-hole, though, seems to have helped, as has Bay's return. Reyes has gone back to being the dominant table-setter that he was from 2006-08 although he has sucked with RISP. Wright had that huge 0-for-20, but with the weekend he just had, that seems like it happened so long ago. As I said before, Beltran has proven he can still swing the stick. And Davis has quietly been super-productive.
The pitching from top to bottom, though, has been terrible, especially considering this was an above-average staff last year that seemed to only get better this year. Pelf just looked gutless up there until this weekend. Great signs from the "ace", or so we call him. I have not been confident in Niese like I was the first half of last year. Young has been great when he's pitched and Capuano has been serviceable as the fifth starter. Dickey, though, seems to have regressed. He was one of the few guys last year who showed any signs of knwoing how to throw strikes. The bullpen has been better as everybody's roles have been figured out, but before that...ouch. I'm liking the Beato-Isringhausen-K-Rod combo for the 7th, 8th, and 9th, but everybody else is a question mark. One positive from the bullpen is that Carrasco has been sent down. He reminds me too much of Perez, especially with the way he randomly decides to change arm angles. Gee will hopefully be the staff-saver for a while, but I'd like him to be a starter somewhere, even if it has to be the minors. Byrdak, I suppose has been serviceable as a LOOGY. And I have never trusted Igarashi, and I'm feeling the same way about Buchholz.
The bench has also been a huge weakness aside from maybe Harris. Hairston seems like he won't ever be able to play defense at Citi Field. Hu can't hit. I need to see more from Turner. Nickeas has shown signs of life with the bat and seems to know what he's doing behind the plate. Not that it matters since it seems like everybody has their heart set on Paulino eventually replacing him. I personally am hoping that the Mets will roll with three catchers once Paulino is ready. They don't need Hairston, they can get rid of him.
At 9-13, the Amazin's have gotten off to a rough start, but let's be positive: the '69 Mets started with the same record through 22 games as well. Go Mets!
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