"Being a Mets fan really sucks"

Those words did not come from my mouth, but came to me from my friend's fingers via a text message during the 9th inning of last night's game. For three consecutive innings, the Mets had a prime scoring opportunity only to come away with one run during those three innings. Keep in mind, it was a known fact the Phillies were opening the door for the Mets to close the gap during those chances and that this game was a golden opportunity to even up the loss column.

Of course, we are plagued Met fans damned to never to derive any sort of enjoyment from our favorite professional baseball team. Not us, we are doomed for a lifetime of let downs and not just any old let down. Let downs of enormous proportions. What will it take to reverse these misfortunes? If had those answers, I would certainly present them. However, there is nothing else we can do but grin and bear it.

Missed opportunities were abundant and now the Mets are in a Wild Card tie with the Brewers and in second place. They came into the game with a 72%+ chance of making the playoffs and had a 5-1 lead only to lose by three runs and end up with a 54%+ chance of making the playoffs.

Ticklish? Yeah, I think it would be safe to say things are ticklish and I think it is safe to say I watching the Mets last night was another poor allocation of my time. With Pedro up tonight and the Mets holding an open audition for Saturday's 2nd game, it is not exactly a a rosy outlook with a team that no one really wants to play coming to town this weekend and the team that knocked the Mets out of the playoffs last season.

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The Mets will stay on WFAN and I guess that is good. There are no other stations with any sort of Met fan broadcasters in prominent roles.

Why must the Met fans not be allowed to boo? I am not a big boo person and have only booed for Roger Cedeno, but seriously. Last night I can forgive anyone with a temptation to boo.

"As everyone knows, this is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately town and lately we haven't gotten the job done," David Wright said. "There's a lot of frustration. There's frustration with the fans, there's frustration in the stands, there's frustration in the dugout.

I am mostly frustrated because this is the second year in a row I might be giving the Mets a micro-loan for the payment of my playoff tickets that may never get used. If they refunded the money automatically, which they should do, it wouldn't be an issue, but they make it a process to get any money back. Typically that would not be an issue as I just put it towards my next season tickets, but we know that there will probably not be any partial season packages and frankly if they fail to make the playoffs again after a terrible collapse, I probably would not want to get them again.

Short rest for Johan? They don't need it. Some clutch hitting would have be fine and Johan cannot do that. This is on the offense to help this team make the playoffs and not Johan.

Evan Weiner is wrong. The Mets downsized and should have no problems filling their stadium and the Yankees will not have any issues whatsoever.

Ironic that the Twins might actually make the playoffs and the Mets might get left out, no?

Things Are Getting Kind of 'Ticklish'

So the Mets have 29 blown saves this season. That is a very troubling number as they move towards a potential playoff birth, but I need to take a step back for a moment and think a bit more positively about this situation. For one, Jerry Manuel is not Willie Randolph. He believes in the dynamic nature of human beings and that sometimes you have to stray from some notion that you may have had at a previous point in time. Amazing.

While it was clear some of the guys that were supposed to be depended on in 2007 out the bullpen were not getting it done, Willie thought nothing of it. According to him, the sky was not falling. In September of this season, the top four relievers in innings pitched are Brian Stokes, Joe Smith, Luis Ayala, and Nelson Figueroa. Shit, Manuel is not a afraid to get Bobby Parnell into the mix late in the game if it means Ws in his pocket.

The Mets will have to take eight relievers into the playoffs if they squeak in to compliment their four starting pitchers and there really is no choice. Stokes has been striking a lot of people out while not walking many, Schoeneweis has been death on lefties, Figueroa has been surprisingly effective out of the bullpen and has been looking great doing it, Bobby Parnell throws gas, Smitty has humiliated righties, Feliciano has made lefties look like Andruw Jones, Heilman has been rather effective against righties, and Ayala has been effective in a Joe Borowski circa 2007 kind of way. John Maine might even make it back in time to be thrown into the bullpen, which I am not counting on.

Too many guys who are effective against only one side of the plate? Yes. But figure on Jerry managing his games in the playoffs like this one. If it takes the entire bullpen throwing five pitches each to make it through the game, who cares? It may not be pretty, but they are competant enough.

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Yes....Duaner Sanchez was left off of the above list and I know he will probably make the playoff roster, but it should not be a foregone conclusion and I would love to see Parnell get a legit look. At least he is different...

The other day when Manuel had Bobby in for two innings, he said that he needed to get a good look at him on the mound at Shea. I take that to mean he is pretty open minded and with the Mets having enough injured players, they can get whoever they want on the playoff roster.

Four years to fix the bullpen? Am I the only one who looks around and thinks things are not as bad as they seem in the bullpen...at least beyond 2008? Stokes and Parnell look like good bets, Heilman is better than he has shown, Kunz (his GB% is tasty!) and Smith will be useful even if they won't be stellar against lefties, Nelly Figs might have found a home out there, and the Mets have cash.

I remain optimistic long term as additions get made and some guys come into their own, but I just hope they can sort things out sooner.

Reyes is good. He is having his best year yet and anyone that has ever had bad thoughts about Reyes (trade him for Johan!) should be ashamed.

Minaya gets four more years and that is a good thing. If you take a look at his worst three moves, are they really that terrible? Also, take note on how Brian Bannister and his 76 ERA+ are now off the list as one of his worst moves. I was never a believer in Bannister and things finally caught up to him.

I like Daniel Murphy, but Keith LOVES Daniel Murphy. Going so far as to call him the future #3 hitter with David Wright on the team seems a bit ambitious for me, but I'll take Keith's word for it since I believe whatever the man says.

Today's action...

-> Reyes vs Myers (Biiiig edge Phillies. Hitters are batting .353 against Reyes in the 2nd half)
-> Maholm vs Sabathia (Ummm...biiiiig edge Brewers.)
-> Zambrano vs Perez (5.51 post-all star ERA....slight edge Mets.)

It is go time. The Mets need to man-up.

Prove It

The Phillies close out the season with 6 games against the Braves and Nationals at home. They have a combined record of 22-8 in games against those teams this year. Atlanta has particularly sucked against them by winning only 2 of 15.

The Brewers close out the season at home with 6 games against the Cubs and Pirates. They have a combined record of 16-9 against them with a sparkling 11-1 record against the Pirates.

The Mets finish out with the Marlins and Cubs. They last faced the Cubs at Wrigley while scoring two runs in the games. The losses where lopsided but closely fought contest until the Mets pen let game get away from them (surprise!). The Marlins have proven to a consistent pain while playing above their heads.

From an impartial perspective, the Mets have the toughest time coming this week.

• The schedule favors the Phillies and Brewers this week.
  
• Facing Zambrano and Harden should be difficult. 
  
• Pelfrey (0-3, 7.91 ERA) against the Marlins should be difficult to overcome.
  

The Mets have to prove they belong on the field in October. They can too. The offense and starting pitching is good enough to carry this team into the playoffs despite the ‘pen.

They just have to do it. I mean, we need a Dane Cook Playoff commercial and I don’t need to hear about a damn collapse next year.

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Brad Lidge… Gary Anderson anyone?

Let us hope so.

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Say hello to your Buffalo Bisons.

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I think Maine should shut it down. I can’t see him making an impact and I would hate to see his ’09 spent rehabbing from something worse.

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Game 82? Does that take away from the ‘games left’ presentation we’ve seen 81 times?

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I still can’t believe the Phillies are pitching the way they are.

Their bullen has only 15 Blown Saves (Mets have 29).  They also have the majors third ranked bullpen ERA (3.23).

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Willie sliding into 2nd base last night made me sick. He was such a damn douche.