Looking Back with Confused Acceptance, Looking Forward with Careful Hope

Welcome back the the blog, everyone.  The All Star break has come and gone, and baseball will resume its season tonight.  The Mets travel to San Francisco tonight 4 games behind the Braves in the division and just a game out of the wild card race.  If you told the fan base that the Mets would be where they are today, very few of them would be upset.  That being said, the 2010 Mets may be the streakiest, roller coaster ride of a team in baseball history.  Either everything is clicking and they're winning nine out of ten or the wheels fall off and they score three runs in five games.  Like all other teams, consistency and health will be the keys moving forward.  But before we go full steam ahead, let's take a look back at the last four months is terms of the good, the bad, and the Snookie.  It's the only way to bring a little bit of simplicity into a wild first half.

THE GOOD: 

1.  Welcome back, Golden Boy
Referring, of course, to the starting National League 3rd baseman at the All Star Game, David Wright.  After 87 games, the blog is officially ready to endorse that the man is back.  Say it with pride, Mets fans: you again have a top-10 hitter in all of baseball and, with A-Rod's old man hip flaring up, the best third baseman in the league.  With a great-but-reasonable second half, we're talking 100 runs, 200 hits, 30 homers, 100 RBI, 30 steals, and a .300 average.  He's embraced Citi Field, he's leveled off his swing, and he's finally starting to cut down on those painful strikeouts.  Fans were worried about his power numbers being sapped.  Halfway through the year, he has done his part in silencing his skeptics.  Well done, Golden Boy.

2.  That Tricky, Tricky, Dickey
An ode to the tremendous, astounding, phenomenal R. A. Dickey.  Rising from the ashes of the John Maine/Oliver Perez debacle (more on this in a second) was the maniacal knuckleballer who's been in the minor leagues for the majority of his career.  His crazy pitch danced its way to a historical 6-0 start to his Mets career.  He's come down to Earth a little bit in his last few starts, but the Mets have turned their mindset from 'riding the hot streak' to 'having a reliable starter moving forward.'  We will see if this backfires horrifically...  A shout out here to Ken Takahashi as well, who had some solid starts when the Mets were desperate for innings.

3.  Another Game, Another Hero
There is a truly unique thing happening with this lineup in 2010.  The best hitter has been David Wright, without a speck of doubt.  But who is second best?  With Jason Bay underperforming (stay tuned) and Reyes not completely over the injury bug, this 'second best' hitter debate gets intriguing.  It is Angel Pagan?  Ike Davis?  Bay?  Jeff Francoeur?  Heck, Rod Barajas carried this lineup for weeks at a time.  Besides Wright, no one in the first half of the season really blew you away (after all, the Mets as a team are not in the MLB's top 15 in homers, runs batted in, hits, or batting average.  None.)  But at the same time, there is no real 'gimme out' in the lineup either.  This has created for chaotic victories where different role players step up every night to pull one out.  The multiple-hero has done wonders for team chemistry--one of the Mets' biggest advantages going into the second half.

THE BAD:

1.  Bay Not Earning the Pay
Mets fans gave him quite a honeymoon.  They stayed hopeful, and they stayed quiet.  But as July began, boo-bird season began at Citi Field for Jason Bay.  The Mets' big splash of 2010 free agency (4 years, $66 million) has been just plain dreadful thusfar.  He teased New York on one Sunday night against the Yankees, blasting two homers off C.C. Sabathia and making everyone believe he was about to go on a tear.  We're all still waiting.  How ugly has it been for Bay's power numbers?  Well, Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek has more home runs in 95 at-bats (7) than Bay has in over 300 at-bats (6).  Of course, there is always an optimistic viewpoint to this scenario.  Something along the lines of, "We're right in the thick of things and our big bopper has given us nothing.  Once he finally does his thing, we're gonna take off!"  The logic is flawless.  But I'm genuinely starting to question the reality of it happening in 2010 for Bay.

2.  The Middle of the Rotation Massacre
I know it's taken a while to get over them, so it pains me to bring up the names of John Maine and Oliver Perez.  The Mets were hoping against hope that their once-15 game winners could find their way and make big contributions in 2010.  They've made big contributions all right, only they've been in the form of a pile of elephant dung.  The disastrous duo combined for just one win and an ERA well over 6 before being removed from the rotation.  Maine may get one more shot, while the consensus is that Perez's days as a Met are over.  With heroic performances by Dickey, Takahashi, etc. the Mets have managed to get by so far.  But deep down, the front office knows a starting pitcher must be acquired for this team to make a serious run.

3.  It's a Walkoff...It's a Walkoff
Ten.  A remarkable ten.  It's a good thing the Mets have lost just 40 games to this point.  It's a freakishly devastating thing that ten of these losses have come in their opponent's final turn at-bat.  Pelfrey, Dickey, and most of all, Santana, have all had tremendous performances wasted away late in the game.  Of course, the main guy that would shoulder this blame is closer Francisco Rodriguez.  In what has become the norm for him, K-Rod puts up great numbers on paper but makes it as scary as humanly possible.  Though he usually comes through, Rodriguez has had some real guy-punch meltdowns (games at San Diego and just this past week in Washington come to mind.)  There's nothing that can really solve this quirky stat for the Mets.  K-Rod is going to do his thing and is here to stay.  It will probably even off in the end.  And by probably I mean hopefully.  Dear God, hopefully...

THE SNOOKIE: (Question marks/storylines heading into the second half)

1.  Aaaaaaaaaaaand 'Los
It started off as mid-June.  Then we got optimistic and thought late-May.  The we got terrified as we heard maybe never.  No matter how we got here, it's July 15th and Carlos Beltran is back in the Mets lineup.  He is an elite player and Mets fans are salivating over the fact that he may finally be completely, utterly, 100% healthy with his knees.  Sure, timing and rhythm will take a while as he, Pagan, and Francouer all juggle around the outfield.  The Mets hitters got into a real funk in the week before the All Star break.  At long last, the cavalry has arrived and the fearsome switch-hitting Beltran is back in the middle of the lineup.

2.  Reyes M.D.
It's always a fear in the pit of a Met fan's stomach.  Jose Reyes has had health concerns attached to him since he was a teenager.  Most recently, it's his right oblique giving him trouble.  He was pulled from a game last week due to the injury, and the All Star break wasn't long enough to heal the injury (he is scratched from tonight's lineup.)  The Mets are telling everyone the switch-hitting Reyes has only his lefty swing hampered and should be back tomorrow.  Mets fans are taking that news with understandable caution...they have been burned enough times by the Mets' and their injury diagnoses.

3.  All Eyes on Omar
Will he, or won't he? Have the Mets shown enough, or does he need to see more?  Everyone and their grandmother knows that the Mets need to import a reliable starting pitcher if they want to stay in the thick of the playoff race.  A rotation of Santana, Pelfrey, Reliable Starter X, Dickey, and Niese sounds a hell of a lot better than Santana, Pelfrey, Dickey, Niese, and ?, doesn't it?  Roy Oswalt will cost a fortune.  Ted Lilly will cost a little less.  More names are sure to emerge and teams become sellers near the deadline.  Do the 2010 Mets gained enough mojo to convince Minaya to deal future pieces for current help?  So far, the answer is 'absolutely.'  Starting tonight in San Fran, these crazy 2010 Mets will look to do a little more convincing.  One game at a time.

Thanks so much for reading, everybody.