Nothing But Admiration

You have to admire Kaley's optimism. I just cannot look past their sub .500 record, and for them to finish the year at a .700 + clip, they would have to make some miraculous turnaround and play like a completely different team than they have been all season. Shit, they'd have to play like a completely different team than they have been in the past three years. I would be on Kaley's bandwagon if the Mets had Reyes, Matsui, Piazza, Orber, and Zambrano fine and dandy. Health is the key to a magical run, but that is something that is eluding the Mets right now, and that is an understatement. Even the people who are on the active roster are banged up. Cameron's pinky is going to need off season surgery, it hurts to watch Floyd simply run much less do anything like running into a wall chasing a fly, Leiter has a torn labrum, and Trachsel is experiencing shoulder soreness. If that was not enough, the manager is class A jerk off. I've never seen a manager so counterproductive to winning. He has single handedly lost a good number of games for the Mets.

Not to say he has had a lot to work with. He cannot make players not get injured, but he just exacerbates the problem. His use of the bullpen and how/when he subs in players is just a criminal. I'm sick of looking at that stupid wry smile he is always wearing on this dumb mug. When he is standing in the dugout, he just looks dumb and very clueless. When the Mets do well it is in spite of him and not because of him.

The Mets have 45 games left. They are sitting at five games under .500. The main goal for everyone should be 25-20, which is better than they have played all year. That is a .556 winning percentage and that would bring them to respectability. I wish I can hold out optimism like Kaley, but at this point I'm in 2005 mode. Just get back to .500 so you look like you made some very good progress. The Mets will assuredly get more wins in 2004 than they did in 2003, but anything less than .500 is a disgrace for this team, injuries or not. They won 66 in 2003 and 81 wins would be a 15 game swing which is very good. They can get there, but the fact remains, they have only been three games over .500 for one day this season. To think they would somehow figure a way to win 32 out of their next 45 games to get into the Wild Card hunt would be nothing short of amazing. I do realize they aren't called the Amazins' for no specific reason, but for me, Amazing would be .500. I'd take that in a second at this point.

The Mets have two quality starters in Kris Benson and Al Leiter taking the mound today against Shaw Estes and Jeff Fassero, who are both lefties. It is well documented the Mets complete lack of success this year against lefties and it is clear that the Rockies and Mets both have seriously depleted lineups. It would nice to see the Mets start bucking the trend of losing to lefties and losing all together and take two today. That would put the Mets at 3 games under .500 while they head into San Francisco to take on one of the hotter teams in the league. The Giants were riding a six game winning streak and have won 7 of their last eight and could very well sweep the Mets. After that the Mets head to San Diego to play the Padres who are 1.5 games off the Wild Card lead and then to Los Angeles to play the NL West Leader. It is imperative the the Mets take this series and take both games today. .500 never looked so difficult.