I imagine the conversation between the Mets and Jeff Francouer went something like this…

Francouer enters the office to find Jeff Wilpon, Omar Minaya and other members of Mets management looking glum.

Francouer: What’s up guys?

Mets: Wow, this is, um, this isn’t easy for us to do.

Francouer: What’s going on?

Mets: Well, when we first, you know, got together last year we really thought this could go somewhere.

Francouer: Me too.

Mets: But I think we both know that it’s just not working out.

Francouer: Is it my walk-up music?  I just wanted to try something a little different.

Mets: No, it’s not that.  Sure it’s terrible, but our issues go way beyond that.

Francouer: Yeah, I guess there have been problems for some time now.

Mets: Right.  That’s why we think it would be best if we were just friends.

Francouer takes a deep breath and sighs.

Francouer: I had a feeling this day was coming…Yeah, this is probably for the best.

Mets: Believe us, this isn’t easy.  And you were great, really.  The way you came in here and tried to liven up the clubhouse.

Francouer: That was fun, wasn’t it?

Mets: Sure was.  And your arm, it’s absolutely beautiful.

Francouer: Don’t make this harder than it has to be.

Mets: It’s not you, it’s us.  We need to focus on our team right now, and we just don’t see you as part of our future.

Francouer: We did have some good times though, didn’t we?

Mets: Great times.  The homeruns, the outfield assists, all the laughs and smiles.

Francouer: And some not-so-good times.

Mets: So many K’s.

Francouer: Don’t forget that unassisted triple play.

Mets: That was awful.

They share a laugh.

Francouer: So what now?

Mets: Well, we’ve traded you to the Texas Rangers.

Francouer: For what?

Mets: Does it really matter, Jeff?

Francouer: No, I suppose it doesn’t.

They stand and give each other an awkward, but friendly, hug.

Mets: Good luck out there.

Francouer: Thanks, to you too.

Mets: Maybe one day we’ll cross paths in the postseason.

Francouer: I’d like that.

Francouer smiles as he leaves the office.

Francouer’s spirit, optimism and character, not to mention his cannon of an arm, will likely be missed.  Then again, the free agency bound outfielder had no spot in the team’s future plans and his poor performance at the plate this season made him easily expendable.  When interviewers spoke with him after news of the trade broke, Frenchy maintained his class by telling reporters how much he appreciated his time with the Mets, as well as how much he appreciated being traded to a contender.

During his tenure, Francouer led the Mets in games played (despite a season-ending injury in 2009) and was second on the team in homeruns.   More than the numbers though, his efforts on and off the field were what endeared him to fans.

Generally I find that Mets fans either root against, or ignore, former Mets players.  In Frenchy’s case though, I’m going to bet that most fans will be pulling for him for the rest of his career..as long as he stays in the AL and off the Yankees.

Shai Kushner is the Mets Content Editor for BaseballDigest.com.  Email Shai at: BaseballDigestShai@gmail.com.

Ed Hearn, who saw action in 49 games for the Mets’ last World Championship team, is looking to invoke some of that magic as he battles the kidney disease Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS).  Hearn has had three kidney transplants as part of a continuing ordeal that started shortly after his retirement from baseball in 1991. For the past several years, he has served as an Ambassador for The NephCure Foundation, which funds research into FSGS and Nephrotic Syndrome. These are diseases for which there are no approved treatments and no cure.

Hearn, also known as one of the primary players dealt to the Mets in exchange for David Cone prior to the 1987 season, will be honored Friday, September 10, before the Mets- Phillies game as part of Ed Hearn/NephCure Foundation Night at Citi Field.

An author and motivational speaker, Hearn lives in Kansas City, Mo., with his wife, Tricia, and 16 year-old son, Cody.  His perseverance and life messages have inspired audiences all over the country as he travels to hospitals and dialysis centers to bring hope to patients who face similar challenges.

Ed Hearn

For NephCure, Hearn records public service announcements, makes speaking appearances and participates in fundraising activities in support of NephCure, which has committed over $6 million to research since 2008.  In January, Hearn was one of the NephCure’s team leaders for the Chase Community Giving program, helping NephCure secure a $25,000 grant by finishing in the top 100 from among some 500,000 smaller non-profit organizations.

Also in attendance at Citi Field on September 10 will be former Mets General Manager Jim Duquette, whose daughter, Lindsey, also suffers from FSGS.  A member of The NephCure Foundation Board of Directors, Duquette’s daughter, now eight years-old, was diagnosed with FSGS in 2005 after being rushed to the hospital emergency room directly from Shea Stadium, where she was attending a game with her parents.

For more information about the NephCure Foundation, or to purchase tickets to the game with a portion of the cost donated to NephCure and matched by research institutions, fans can visit www.savingkidneys.org.  Hearn will also sign autographs and greet fans at NephCure tables on the Citi Field concourses on the 10th.

Week 21 (8/23-8/29) record: 3-3

2010 Season record: 65-65

This week’s positives: Mike Pelfrey, David Wright, Angel Pagan, Jeff Francouer, Luis Castillo, RA Dickey, Josh Thole

This week’s negatives: Jose Reyes, Jon Niese, Pedro Feliciano

Breakdown:

Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige was quoted as saying, “You win a few, you lose a few.  Some get rained out.  But you got to dress for all of them.”  This was long before the Mets came into existence, yet these words are perfectly appropriate for their current situation.

This past week had a little bit of everything for the Mets.  An exciting come from behind win against the Marlins to start off the week (with Luis Castillo as the hero, no less), a near-comeback the next night and an ugly loss to wrap up a 1-2 series.  This was followed by a brilliant Mike Pelfrey pitching performance to take the first game from the Astros, followed by a weak loss, and then a well-pitched win to take the series.  And there it is, a .500 week from a .500 team.

For every clutch hit there was an equally un-clutch strikeout.  For every brilliantly tossed start there was an equally ugly pitching performance.  The bats came alive against the Marlins but the pitching began to struggle.  Then when the Astros arrived in Queens, the roles reversed, and pitching was pretty much all they had.  Just as the Mets seemed ready to play out the rest of the season as if it mattered, they suffered another injury to a key player.  This is what a .500 team does.  Ladies and Gentleman, your 2010 New York Mets.

It seems silly to break down a week like this in a season like this.  If they were a terrible team then the focus would be on the young players to whom they’re going to look  next year to make things better.  But that’s not this team.  They’re not so terrible, and they already have the young players they need to make things better, it’s the rest of the pieces that are sorely missing.  If they were just an underachieving team, the focus would be on how close they are to winning and what they need to do before it’s too late.  But, sadly, it is too late, and they were probably never that good this year, and “close” seems quite far away at this point.

So they won some good games, and they lost some bad games.  And no games were rained out (despite a valiant effort from Mother Nature earlier in the week).  And most of the team dressed for all of the games.  As they head into the final month, it seems as though the team’s only goal is to finish the season with more wins than losses.  I suppose this is better than no goal at all.

Takeaway:

While the Mets may not be mathematically eliminated from the postseason, they sure look emotionally eliminated.  As exciting as Tuesday night’s 9^th-inning win may have been, they looked incredibly listless by the third game of that series.  This trend continued through the weekend, as the offense slept through the first 2 games of the series against Houston.

The Mets have nothing to take away from this week, as there was nothing new that happened this week.  The fans however should take away this: this team is not going to make it to the postseason this year, but they’re also going to win some games between now and game #162.  For those fans who still want to watch this team, fans who aren’t ready to welcome the beginning of the season of another sport, watch each game on its own merit.  It may not have much meaning in the standings, but winning is better than losing, and the Mets probably have a few wins left in them in 2010.

Upcoming:

The Mets escape the US Open traffic and head down to Atlanta for 4 games before spending the weekend in the friendly confines of Wrigley Field.

3 things to watch:

1. Will David Wright move closer to home plate?

2. Will the Mets score some runs for Johan Santana?

3. Will the Mets and Cubs find some inspiration from their fan base despite their disappointing seasons?

Shai Kushner is the Mets Content Editor for BaseballDigest.com.  Email Shai at: BaseballDigestShai@gmail.com.

The National League division leaders include Atlanta, Cincinnati and San Diego – certainly not the troika most would have picked before the season began. Jose Bautista leads the majors in home runs, and by a wide margin.

Who would think that Dallas Braden would grab national headlines twice before the middle of May, once for standing up to Alex Rodriguez and then again by tossing a perfect game on Mother’s Day? And that one perfecto would be followed up by yet another just 20 days later, although the latter was performed by the far more suitable Roy Halladay.

Yes, the Year of the Pitcher, Part II has been full of surprises.

But one startling campaign that should not be overlooked is R.A. Dickey’s emergence as a dependable number-two starter to backup ace Johan Santana in the Mets rotation.

Even GM Omar Minaya, who can use all the equity he can get from the Dickey discovery, chalks it up to serendipity.

“I wish I could say we were that smart,” says Minaya. “We weren’t. We liked him, but we did get a little lucky on that one.”

That bit of good fortune may turn out to be the biggest positive for the Mets in what appears to be a lost season.

Dickey was not expected to be a member of the rotation at the season’s commencement. After impressing at Triple-A Buffalo to begin the season, R.A. got his first Mets start on May 19.

Despite a so-so start on Tuesday night against the Marlins, Dickey is 8-5 in 19 starts with an ERA of 2.64 – good for seventh in the Senior Circuit.

Prior to the 2010 season, Dickey’s career numbers were far from formidable: 22-28 in 144 games, 48 of them starts, with an ERA only Oliver Perez could envy – 5.43.

Although Dickey is 35 years old, hardly an ideal age for a breakout season, knuckleballers are notorious for lengthy careers. The three knucklers in the Hall of Fame – Hoyt Wilhelm, Phil Niekro and Jesse Haines – each pitched into his 40’s, with the former two lasting until nearly 50.

It’s conceivable for R.A. to be a stalwart in the Mets rotation for several years to come.

Playing in cavernous Citi Field, the Mets claim to be committed to pitching and defense.  This just made it harder to understand why, at the beginning of the season, Santana was the only proven commodity in the rotation. Dickey, however, has been as good a number-two starter as Jerry Manuel could want.

In 16 of Dickey’s 19 starts, he’s gone at least six innings and given up three runs or fewer in all but three of those 16.

It’s his consistency and competitive nature that have endeared him to the Queens faithful.

In the game on July 25^th in LA, Dickey argued with Manuel to allow him to stay in the game after the hurler tweaked his left leg. Manuel ultimately won that disagreement, but Dickey came away smelling like roses in the nostrils of Mets fans.

Whether or not Dickey can maintain his performance into next year is certainly unknown. Then again, even those who would love to claim they saw it coming this year cannot do so.

Follow Shaya on Twitter: @Shaya10

Check out more about Shaya on Facebook.

For Shaya’s take on topics other than the Mets, see his Blog.

Week 20 (8/16-8/22) record: 4-3

2010 Season record: 62-62

This week’s positives: The entire Mets pitching staff, Jose Reyes, David Wright, Chris Carter

This week’s negatives: The rest of the Mets lineup

Breakdown:

This week took place at the wrong time in the season.  The Mets went on the road to face 2 of the National League’s lesser teams (no offense to Houston & Pittsburgh, just playing the numbers).  They came away with a two-game split with Houston and a series win on the road (!) in Pittsburgh.  Had the Mets played these series a couple of months ago they might have been able to stop their slide before it landed in the land of mediocrity.  Had the Mets played these series a couple of weeks ago, they might have been able to use these games as an opportunity to turn things around.  Instead, they went 4-3 against 2 of the league’s worst teams and ended up with another ho-hum week.

The pitching staff was fantastic this week.  The bullpen did not allow a single run.  The starting pitchers did everything that anyone could ask of a starting pitcher.  They went deep into games, barely allowed any runs, and outside of a couple mistake pitches they were virtually unhittable.  The Mets’ 4-3 record does a poor job of representing how effective these pitchers were.

On the flip side, the frustrations of the Mets offense hit such a low point that manager Jerry Manuel felt compelled to use the word “pathetic” to describe his team’s hitting.  While this is the same word that media and fans have been using for weeks now, Manuel is generally someone who backs his players up in public choosing instead to take them to task behind closed doors.  Generally.  So I’ve heard.  When Manuel declared his hitters as being pathetic, he exposed them, as well as hitting coach Howard Johnson.  In turn, HoJo held a hitters-only meeting at the indoor batting cages in Pittsburgh.  Was HoJo’s meeting the spark that the team’s offense will need to pick things up as they head into the home stretch?  Or was it just well-placed in that it came prior to the Mets series against the Pirates?  The Mets bats responded, for a couple games, with their highest run-output in weeks.  Unfortunately things returned to the new normal in the final game of the week when they could only muster a run on a sacrifice fly in “support” of Johan Santana.

These seven games came at the wrong time for the Mets.  These seven games found the Mets at a point in the season when only wins will suffice, when moral victories are worth as much as bad losses.  These seven games were played too late in the Mets weeks of struggle for them to make a difference.

The Mets played a little better this week, but it was slightly too little and much too late.

Takeaway:

Normally I reserve this section for an extra bit of meaning to take from the week’s occurrences.  This week however I’d like to make brief mentions of some things that were actually taken away.

1. Rod Barajas was taken away from the Mets by the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Early in the season Barajas was the only consistent hitter on the Mets team, but injuries and ineffective hitting led to the Mets giving Josh Thole a pronounced try at the Major League level and kept Barajas out of the loop.  Barajas was never capable of carrying the Mets team, nor was he ever supposed to, but he probably wouldn’t have been on the team next season so it was just as easy to let go of him now and get something in return.  Had the Mets kept him and offered him arbitration they probably would have been able to get an additional draft pick as Barajas would most likely have earned Type-B status.  However, I doubt that the Mets would have offered him arbitration in fear that he’d actually agree to it, so it’s probably better for everyone that his brief tenure ended with him being sold to Los Angeles.

2. Wins were taken away from Johan Santana and Pat Misch.  The Mets could have been 7-0 this week.  They certainly had the pitching to get them there.  They lost three well-pitched games by one run each.  In all three, late home runs by the opposition did the Mets in.  Had the Mets bats had enough in them to score some late runs, Misch and Santana could have walked away with no-decisions or even wins instead of hard-luck losses.

And now the Mets will go into next week beginning the fight for third place in the NL East.

Upcoming:

The Mets return to Citi Field to host the division-rival Florida Marlins for three games, before the Astros come to town for a weekend series.

3 things to watch:

1. Is David Wright at the beginning of one of his hot streaks?

2. Can the pitching keep this up?

3. Will Ike Davis be able to regain his early-season form?

Week 19 (8/9-8/15) record: 3-3

2010 Season record: 58-59

This week’s positives: The Mets starting pitchers, Bobby Parnell

This week’s negatives: Manny Acosta, All Mets batters, Francisco Rodriguez (off the field), Hisanori Takahashi

Breakdown:

It’s tough to decide what the main focus of my thoughts should be.  It would be irresponsible of me to discuss the week that was without bringing up the most important Mets news item that occurred.  Francisco Rodriguez’s arrest following Wednesday night’s game was terrible on many levels.  From a baseball standpoint, which is really the only standpoint that should matter on this website, the incident was an embarrassment to the Mets.  But what does that mean?

Declaring Rodriguez an embarrassment is like singling out a particular Grateful Dead jam as being long and spacey (RIP Jerry).  Almost the entire franchise is an embarrassment at this point.  Late night talk show hosts don’t even make fun of the Mets anymore as the situation has become more sad than funny.  So really, as awful as this K-Rod story was, it’s merely worth 2 paragraphs in this weekly recap (and probably a brief mention a little later).

Maybe I should focus on the positives.  Mike Pelfrey looked a lot more like early spring Mike Pelfrey and a lot less like early summer Mike Pelfrey.  Johan Santana pitched like the game meant something; perhaps it did to him.  His shutout on Thursday was so commanding it almost seems reasonable to think that the only reason the Rockies had any baserunners was to keep Santana from growing bored with pitching from a full windup.  Jon Niese has grown into such a good pitcher that a bad outing from him would be surprising.  I was not expecting to be able to say that about him, not at this point and perhaps not ever.  Pat Misch looked impressive in his first start this season and certainly deserved a better fate in his game.  And then there’s R.A. Dickey.  He has been mentioned more times on this website in the past 4 months than anyone could have ever imagined.  More incredible is how few of those mentions are as punchlines to silly jokes.  As famous daredevil Lance Murdock might say, Dickey’s consistent performance has been a ray of sunshine on the otherwise cloudy day that’s been the Mets season.

Wow, in reading that paragraph you might think that the Mets had a much more successful week than just a 3-3 record.  Sadly, this brings us to the now weekly segment of this article when I mention how worthless the Mets bats have become.  This wasn’t supposed to be a weekly segment.  Ideally it was supposed to happen a bit here and there when the team went through an especially dry spell.  It’s more than a dry spell now, it’s a desert.

In fact, this hitting has gotten so bad that it’s not worth breaking down at this point.  Actually, that’s not totally true, here’s your breakdown…this team can’t hit anymore!  Sure, there were moments: Carlos Beltran had a couple good games, Jose Reyes hit a nice game-tying home run on Sunday night, Johan Santana executed a beautiful hit and run.  These are nice things, but without the rest of the team hitting, they don’t add up to many runs, which means they don’t add up to many wins.

The team hit two home runs this week, one by Reyes, the other by Pagan.  They scored 9 runs this week, in 6 games, with 4 of those runs coming in one game.  This means that for the rest of the week, the Mets averaged a run per game.  David Wright’s up and down season has exemplified the idea of all or nothing, and right now it sure is nothing.  A team can’t expect to win when they score so rarely.  Judging from the looks on the players’ faces, they don’t.

Takeaway:

The Mets’ hitting issues have just about lost my interest.  Their hitting has become so non-existent that I almost expect it at this point.  Have you ever watched a TV series where a character develops a catch phrase?  The first time it’s funny on its own merit, the next couple times it’s funny because it’s a reminder of the first time, but after a while it’s predictable and silly.  Meet the Mets offense in all its predictability and silliness.  It’s sad to think that a Mets pitcher might be able to pitch a perfect game and the team would still lose.  I realize this is impossible, but I feel like they could find a way.

It’s really just a shame that a week that featured one of the worst off-the-field incidents in team history, while at the same time some of the best collective starting pitching in team history, could be overshadowed by the team’s continued inability to score runs.

Upcoming:

The Mets travel to Houston to play the Astros for 4 games, followed by a 3-game series against the Pirates in Pittsburgh.

3 things to watch:

1. How will the Mets look against 2 of the worst teams in the league?

2. Can the starting pitching keep it up?

3. Who will be the hitter that helps the Mets out of their current offensive funk?

Cory Vaughn grew up within major league clubhouses because of his fathers major league career. He would always be around the game that he soon grew to love. Watching professionals work at their craft every single day also helped shape the work ethic Vaughn shows in his own regimens.

“I’ve been around baseball my whole life and because of that I watched how the games greats prepared,” he said. “I saw that if I wanted to do this professionally, I would have to put forth a great deal of effort to make it a reality.”

In High School Vaughn played three major sports; football, basketball and baseball. His favorite sport to play was football, but he hated the waiting around between games and decided baseball’s marathon season was the one for him.

Vaughn was able to take his baseball talents to San Diego State University and play for Hall Of Fame manager, Tony Gwynn. Vaughn said the most important lesson that Gwynn told him was to “stay through the ball and drive it toward right center.”

At SDSU he also partook in Strasburg mania that consumed every start he made on campus. Scouts from all over the country would attend games to see Strasburg pitch which put extreme amounts of pressure on his teammates to perform at a high level. However, Vaughn saw the extra attention as a good thing.

“Obviously the scouts were all there to see Strasy, but it also gave us chances to open some of the scouts eyes to our play and that’s something we wouldn’t of had without Strasy,” he said.

What scouts saw was a major league build on a kid with a major league pedigree. During his final season at SDSU, Vaughn hit 9 home runs in only 180 at bats. The pop in his bat to go along with his 6-foot-3-inch, 230-pound frame gave the Mets all they needed to make him their fourth round draft choice this year.

He has displayed even more pop this season for the Brooklyn Cyclones. Through his first 184 at bats, he has connected for 12 home runs and 43 RBI’s, totals that leave him just shy of two Cyclones team records. He only needs one more home run and three more RBI’s to surpass Frank Corr’s 2001 campaign.

Vaughn has been the rare player that has made the seamless transition from hitting with a metal bat to a wood bat. Most players including star Cyclones player Darrell Ceciliani struggle their first season, but not Vaughn. He says there’s a simple explanation.

“In college we did not play everyday like we do now and that allows me to get my timing down to consistently be at my best,” he said.

His timing has been just right thus far on the season and the Mets’ organization believes that he will timing up major league pitchers very soon.

Printed in the August 13 edition of The Wave and printed here with permission

There they were, the Mets were cruising along, trying to ride out a pair of first inning runs and a strong performance by starter Jon Niese, when it all came crashing down like a scene in a horror movie when the main character realizes that everyone she knows has become a victim.

Just one night before, the Mets held on to a 1-0 lead to beat a talented Rockies team.  This night, they had doubled their scoring output and were trying to maintain a 2-1 lead over the same Rockies team.  Only on this night, the bullpen, and really the team’s manager, blew it.  And while this loss and the details that led to it were devastating on multiple levels, this wasn’t the worst thing to happen to the team on this night.

Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez, who didn’t appear in this terrible on-field fiasco, spent the rest of the night in a Citi Field holding cell following an altercation with the father of his common-law wife.  I’m not sure if that makes the man K-Rod’s father-in-law or not.  To be honest, I’m not even sure what a common-law wife is.  To me, it sounds like a term from a couple centuries ago, like her first name should be “Goody”.  Then again, I doubt these details are very important, as there was nothing goody about this incident.

It really says something that on a night when one of the Mets’ most highly-regarded players is arrested for some manner of altercation, the team’s on-field performance was so bad that it can’t be ignored.  One more quick aside here…have you noticed that only athletes and celebrities are involved in altercations?  Everyone else gets into fights.  I’m sure there’s a reason for this; I doubt it’s a logical one.  Anyway, before I can discuss the Rodriguez incident I feel compelled to dissect this dead horse that I’ve been beating for a couple paragraphs now.

The Mets 1-0 win on Tuesday night was highlighted by stellar pitching from starter Mike Pelfrey and closer K-Rod.  However, as important as their performances were, Pelfrey returning to form and Rodriguez continuing a good run, it was the 1-2-3 eighth inning delivered by Hisanori Takahashi that seemed to stand out.  Takahashi’s performance signaled his emergence as the Mets new eight inning set-up man.  To be fair, Takahashi is the seventh Mets pitcher to be awarded this title this season.  Being labeled the eighth inning specialist is eerily reminiscent of being declared the drummer for Spinal Tap; it rarely ends well.  Fast-forward to the eighth inning of Wednesday night’s game.  With the Mets holding on to a 2-1 lead, Takahashi retired the first two Rockies batters with relative ease.  However, after a single by Todd Helton and a well-played walk by Carlos Gonzalez, Takahashi faced his first real challenge as the Mets eighth inning guy.  At this point it would seem pretty obvious to most people that manager Jerry Manuel had 2 options: leave Takahashi in to face Troy Tulowitzki in hopes he’ll escape unscathed, or bring in the closer who is on this team for this exact situation.  He went with option 3.

Manny Acosta was not the right man to bring in to this situation.  This is no knock on Acosta.  He has pitched well for the Mets this year.  He’s really been a pleasant surprise and has been one of the lone bright spots during the recent Mets tailspin.  I’m willing to bet that he’s a nice guy too.  Heck, for all we know he spends his winters volunteering at hospitals and his wife might even make a mean paella.  All wonderful characteristics, none of which suggest he should be the guy on whom to call at that moment in an important game.  However Acosta did come into the game, and after a wild pitch, intentional walk and grand slam, the shell-shocked Mets fans were left to watch their shell-er-shocked team lose a game that they really should have won.

The Mets are not in a position to experiment.  At this point in the season, with how far back they’ve fallen, they need to go into every game with a carpe diem attitude, even if their manager isn’t John Keating.  Instead, their manager is Jerry Manuel, and if he can’t recognize the importance of this game and the need to have the right guy pitching in this situation, then the Mets issues run much deeper than their rotating set-up man.

Not all of the blame from this debacle should rest on the shoulders of the Mets manager and bullpen.  Since the All-Star break the only thing offensive about the Mets batters is their inability to drive in runs.  Coming into this game the Mets 2 previous wins were each by the same 1-0 score.  This hadn’t happened to the Mets since 1976, and they were very not good back then.  In 2010, the Mets are supposed to have a good lineup, better than the dismal numbers they’ve been putting up recently.  In Wednesday’s game, Jose Reyes led off the first inning with a bunt single, and Angel Pagan followed with a 2-run home run.  And then the Mets put their bats away.  Not only didn’t the Mets score again, they didn’t even threaten to score.  In fact the only noteworthy item produced by the Mets hitters in the rest of the game was a string of seven consecutive strikeouts spread out over the 6^th, 7^th and 8^th innings.  Pitiful.  David Wright had four at-bats, all strikeouts.  Carlos Beltran went hitless.  And, in turn, the Mets went lifeless.  As the old adage goes, “you can’t win if you don’t score runs.”  The Mets continue to prove this already obvious statement on a nightly basis.

And then the night got worse…

I have no idea what started the argument between Francisco Rodriguez and his common-law wife’s father.  Wait, is that really what I have to keep calling him?  Is there no term for this in English?  Is there one in another language?  Yiddish has a lot of neat words, is there something I can use there?  Maybe I’ll refer to him as K-Rod’s shverneste.  (Sounds Yiddish-like, no?)  Anyway, whether or not their brawl was about the game, the TV remote or something more pertinent, it’s not my place to opine about it.  The only angle on which I can write about this situation is how it affects the Mets.  And you want to hear the sad thing?  Aside from the fact that Manny Acosta may now be the closer, this doesn’t really affect them at all.

Carlos Beltran told reporters, “We’ve had a lot of distractions…One more doesn’t make a difference.”  Their teammate allegedly pummeled his sheverneste and it’s dismissed like an out-of-state parking ticket.  This franchise has really been through a lot recently, hasn’t it?

On a night when the Mets player who recorded the most hits was the one who didn’t get in the game (but should have), a night when the team’s biggest issues came together with debilitating results, a night on which many could reflect as the nadir in a series of low-points, the Mets simply shrugged it all off as just another collection of unfortunate incidents.  Is this a sign of resilience, indifference or both?  Time will tell how the Mets use Wednesday night’s events.  They can be added to the long list of excuses, they can be a springboard to the team coming together to overcome, or they can just chalk it up as another episode in this ever-interesting soap opera.  Lots of teams are mediocre, few do it with this much pizzazz.

Whether they use this past Wednesday’s events as a building block or not, the Mets still have the opportunity to prove to themselves and their fans that things will get better.  As we all know, when you hit bottom the only place to go is up.

Shai Kushner is the Mets Content Editor for BaseballDigest.com.  Email Shai at: BaseballDigestShai@gmail.com.

Mets owner Fred Wilpon was asked by the New York Post if Omar Minaya would remain general manager beyond this season. Wilpon’s response: “Is the sun going to come up tomorrow?”

On the verge of a fourth consecutive postseason absence, the statement angered the Mets fanbase. But what exactly was an owner – whose team still has a shot at the playoffs, albeit a diminutive one – expected to answer?

Anything less than a sizable endorsement by Mr. Wilpon would appear to be a condemnation, at least that’s how it would be perceived by New Yorkers. Even a generic “we’ll review it after the season” would open speculation as to Minaya’s future.

To make matters worse in the cornea of Mets fans, when asked about the performance of his son, Jeff, as Mets COO, Fred replied, “Excellent, everybody knows that.” No complaints about how the elder Wilpon views the junior Wilpon, but how well Jeff is carrying out his duties is certainly not an overwhelming consensus.

Not to play speechwriter for the owner of a major league team, but the only response that would have been deemed acceptable would be, “If I wasn’t happy with the job they were doing, they would have been replaced.” Not everyone would believe the declaration, but it wouldn’t rebuke the front-office while still signaling that performance matters.

By making Minaya’s return as obvious as the sun rising, Wilpon’s comments can be viewed as complacency. Not what fans who pay some of the highest prices to enter a stadium want to hear.

But let’s not take Fred’s statement at face-value. Let’s assume that whether Minaya should continue as GM if the club is not a playoff participant is a topic of discussion at the Wilpon’s dinner table. What will they see when reviewing Omar’s tenure?

Minaya’s reign in Queens began following a 71-win 2004 season and there was an immediate improvement as the Mets finished above .500 with 83 wins in 2005.

Prior to the ‘05 season, Minaya signed Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran, and then solidified the team going into the following season by acquiring Billy Wagner and Carlos Delgado.

In 2006, it all came together for the Mets, or at least that was the feeling as the regular season came to a conclusion. The club was tied for the best record in baseball, better than any National League team by a wide margin.

After sweeping the Dodgers in the Division Series, the Mets took on the Cardinals and eventually lost in seven games. Popular sentiment at the time was that the Mets would be perennial playoff participants.

Little did anyone know at the time that, to this point, the Mets last postseason at-bat ended with Beltran gazing at an Adam Wainwright curveball.

Through 145 games in the 2007 campaign the Mets seemed destined for another playoff appearance, but perhaps the worst late-September collapse of all-time snuffed out hopes of a return to October baseball. The Mets won only five of the final 17 contests, blew a seven game division lead, and an entire season went for naught.

Minaya and then manager Willie Randolph took the brunt of the blame for the implosion.

Prior to the 2008 season, Minaya acquired ace Johan Santana from the Twins to ensure a similar September stumble wouldn’t happen again. Yet, the Mets overcame Santana’s brilliance and still managed to blow a playoff opportunity.

With nine games to go, the Mets led the division by a half-game over the Phillies who maintained a two length advantage over a self-destructing Brewer squad. Losing six of the final nine and winning only once when Johan wasn’t on the rubber, the Mets handed the Brewers the wild card.

Earlier in 2008, Minaya made waves with his firing of Randolph. Many called for Willie to take the fall for the ’07 collapse, but Randolph retained his job heading into the ’08 season.

Prior to Game 70 on the schedule the Mets were one game below .500 at 34-35 and Minaya decided to change skippers. The problem was that Game 69 was the first game of a six-game West Coast road trip as well as a 9-6 Mets victory.

To let Randolph fly out to California and win a game before deciding to fire him was bad enough. To exacerbate the issue, Minaya fired Randolph at three a.m. eastern time.

But Omar would show a propensity to mishandle firings.

In 2009, stories broke about Tony Bernazard, the vice president of development, challenging some minor leaguers to a fight. During the press conference announcing the firing of Bernazard, Minaya questioned the motivation of Daily News reporter Adam Rubin, who initially broke the Bernazard story, claiming the journalist was looking for a position in the Mets organization.

That was just one of several disasters in the 2009 season. The injury bug devastated the team with just about every key starter spending some time on the DL. While this season is generally cast aside in the Minaya evaluation, the club had little fight in it – injuries notwithstanding.

Now, 2010 seems destined to be another 162 games and done season. A fourth consecutive playoff absence may not be that big a deal in other metropolitan areas, but the Mets play in the same city as the Yankees and maintain a payroll consistently among the top-five in the game.

The Mets charge their fans like it’s a team expecting to appear in October every year, yet the result on the field hasn’t lived up to these expectations.

Yes, the sun will come up tomorrow and, presumably, it’ll come up at the conclusion of the season as well. But, if the Mets are once again watching the postseason from home, it will be time to focus the spotlight on Omar.

And before long, it should be determined that the time has come for the sun to set on Minaya’s time as GM in Queens.

Follow Shaya on Twitter: @Shaya10

Check out more about Shaya on Facebook.

For Shaya’s take on topics other than the Mets, see his Blog.

Week 18 (8/2-8/8) record: 2-4

2010 Season record: 55-56

This week’s positives: Jeff Francouer, Luis Castillo’s ability to get on base, Chris Carter, Johan Santana, Manny Acosta, Francisco Rodriguez

This week’s negatives: Jose Reyes, David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Bobby Parnell and the rest of the pitchers

Breakdown:

Going into week 18, many felt that this road trip was a test.  How would the Mets do against the two teams ahead of them in the NL East?  How would they do in games where a win would automatically propel them higher in the standings?  How would they do now that it’s August and the end of the season is getting that much closer?  If this past week was indeed a test, then the Mets failed.  And they failed ugly.

Would you look at those names in the “This week’s negatives” category?  Reyes, Wright and Beltran are supposed to be the dependable ones in this lineup.  Reyes continued to have a tough time stealing bases and added shoddy fielding to his repertoire (for this past week at least).  Wright and Beltran combined to go 5-for-45 this week.  That’s the middle of the batting order.   If the rest of the team were hitting then the Mets could probably sustain a poor performance by these guys.  But at a time when the Mets are struggling to put any runs together, a time when they’re leaving a painful number of runners in scoring position, a time when the team looks like it comes to the game with the same hands-over-the-eyes approach as its fans, this is obviously not what the Mets need right now.

The Mets’ batting average since the All-Star break has been so bad that they could probably rename the team the New York Mendozas if they felt like being accurate.  For over a month now, the team’s poor hitting has been a source of frustration for anyone following them.  To watch them lose low-scoring games with the potential power in that lineup is aggravating to a ridiculous degree.  It’s like watching a TV series that jumped the proverbial shark seasons ago in hopes it returns to its original enjoyable form.  Not bloody likely.

Similarly, the bullpen has found ways to match the frustration provided by the offense.  Francisco Rodriguez has finally come around (he is in the midst of the best run he’s had since joining the Mets in 2009), but it’s all for naught.  Bobby Parnell, who had been pitching brilliantly since being called up, has had his two worst outings of the season at the two worst times.  Similarly, Pedro Feliciano’s propensity for wildness has caught up with him.  The Mets offense does not leave the pitching with much wiggle room and, in turn, the pitching doesn’t wiggle very well.  And that right there is a recipe for a record slightly below .500 in a season that’s slightly 2/3 of the way over.

Takeaway:

Is it just me or has every week felt like some sort of “test” for the 2010 Mets?  Earlier in the season, it was a test of how they’d do against the better teams in the league, or how they’d do on the road, or how they’d do without Reyes or Beltran in the lineup.  Lately it’s been a test of how they do when the offense is struggling or how they’ll do without Jason Bay (which isn’t all that different from how they did with him), or how they play in games that they really need to win in order to stay in the race.

At this point, the tests are over.  It’s not about testing; it’s about winning and losing.  And lately for the Mets, it’s mostly been about losing.

It’s not impossible for the Mets to turn this season around.  Seriously it’s not.  The Mets have found that out the hard way in the recent past.  But it hasn’t looked all that probable for this team, either.  If this Mets are going to make anything of this season they are going to have to start winning now, not to prove that they can, but simply because they have to.  It’s a week into August and this team looks just as lost as they have since early July.

It’s hard to believe it, but the Mets are just one good winning streak from being right back in this race.  Then again, it’s hard to believe that the Mets have one good winning streak in them.

Upcoming:

After a day off on Monday, the Mets come back to Citi Field to take on the Colorado Rockies for three games, followed by another weekend series against the Phillies.

3 things to watch:

1. Will Carlos Beltran return to form before it’s too late?

2. Will the notably streaky David Wright get hot again?

3. Which Mike Pelfrey will show up this week?

You know, when you take a step back, the Mets really have an impressive roster.  I know, I know, their recent results suggest otherwise, but in all seriousness, there are some great players wearing the blue and orange these days.  Okay, maybe “great” is an exaggeration, but there is certainly enough talent to suggest, even demand, that this team be better than their current .500 record.

There are seven players on the current roster who have been on an All-Star team.  In fact, each of these players has made multiple appearances at the Midsummer Classic.  Some of the most gifted athletes to ever wear a Mets jersey are on the team right now.  The most talented shortstop, third baseman and center fielder (probably) to ever play for the franchise are playing on this team right now.  One of the best starting pitchers and one of the best closers in Mets history are on the current squad.  But they’re still not winning.

Statistics will demonstrate that this team isn’t scoring.  It’s true.  They’re not.  The Mets are at, or near, the bottom of virtually every meaningful hitting category.  When you look at the lineup though, it’s hard to believe that this is the case.  Reyes, Wright, Beltran, Bay (current DL-stint aside), these are all capable hitters.  Most teams in the majors would be thrilled to have any one of these guys in their lineup, let alone all four.  But they’re not scoring.  Some nights it’s so bad that you might as well turn the game off as soon as the Mets are down by a run.  This puts pressure on the pitchers, the fielders and in turn, back on the hitters.  This cycle only gets the team further away from first place.

But that roster…they make a good deal of money.  The Mets have the fifth highest payroll in baseball, with the average team member “earning” a little more than $5 million this year.  Shouldn’t a team paid this well be performing better than average?  They have shown the ability to win with a couple of solid periods in the first half of the season.  So why does that seem so long ago?

For all the things that the 2010 Mets have, a collection of All-Stars, a record-setting closer, a power-hitting homegrown rookie, the one thing that can’t be found on this roster is a true leader.  Supposedly there are some on this team who choose to lead by example.  That’s fine.  Being a vocal leader is a skill, much like running the basepaths or fielding with soft hands.  Not everyone can do it.  I get it.  The problem with those who lead by example is that sometimes they slump.  Players, especially when struggling, may not run out every ground ball, may not hustle on every step, and may not always be able to lead by example.  This Mets team needs a vocal leader, someone who can step up and get the players into the game mentally.  They need someone who can get them to focus on the task at hand instead of coming up with excuses as to why they fall short.  The Mets need someone who will look the other players in the eye and tell them that they owe it to each other to give more than they’ve been giving.  Right now the Mets need to be playing with some fire in their collective belly, and they need a spark to light that fire.

This past Sunday, four former Mets were inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame.  All four them played key roles on the 1986 championship team.  Former GM Frank Cashen, manager Davey Johnson, pitcher Dwight Gooden and outfielder Darryl Strawberry all spoke at their induction ceremony.  Each one of them discussed how special that ’86 season was to them, and how it was the best time of their lives.  (Yes, we can pause for a moment to allow for all silly and likely unfunny Gooden and/or Strawberry jokes to pass through our systems…ok, good.)  Sitting behind these Mets icons during their respective speeches was another member of the Mets Hall of Fame, former first baseman and current Mets TV analyst (when he’s awake), Keith Hernandez.

There were many current Mets Hall of Fame members introduced to the crowd that day.  Some were recently inducted while others received the honor many years prior.  No Mets Hall of Famer received a louder ovation than Hernandez.  But why?  He wasn’t the only important player in that 1986 lineup.  Wally Backman had a higher batting average, Strawberry had more home runs, Gary Carter had more RBI’s.  Hernandez didn’t have a flawless postseason; his error in the second game of the World Series was not only comparable to hearing Pavarotti’s voice crack during an aria but was a key factor in an important loss.  Yet, twenty-four years later, he’s the one that fans appreciate most.  (In all fairness, his 2-RBI single against Bruce Hurst in Game 7 was a major turning point and while it doesn’t really support my claim it would be wrong to ignore it.)

It’s no stretch to say the Mets probably wouldn’t have won a World Series had they had a different first baseman.  Lots of players could have hit .310, 13 HR’s and 83 RBI’s, but how many could have kept this team full of untamable and often criminal personalities focused on a collective goal?  This is where Captain Keith came into play.

I don’t know if this current Mets roster, with all the talent it contains, has someone like Hernandez, someone who can step up and be a true vocal leader.  If there is a player like that on this team, then it’s about time for him to step up.  If not, then I think we’ve just identified a top priority in the off-season.  On the other hand, if this team continues to move forward hoping that players will keep themselves on track, then we’re likely to see recent history repeat itself, while 1986 slides further and further away.

Shai Kushner is the Mets Content Editor for BaseballDigest.com.  Email Shai at: BaseballDigestShai@gmail.com.

After a solid 2009 that saw Pagan hit .306 in roughly half a season, the Met outfielder has broken out in ‘10. With an average hovering around .310 to .320 all year, Angel has been the catalyst for New York in the wake of an uneven season offensively. While Pagan may not always mesmerize with his morning boxscores, he has become one of the league’s best table setters and one of the Mets’ best players.

With his .373 on-base percentage, the right fielder has been able to add another dimension of speed on the base paths and in the field for New York. Having racked up 24 stolen bases and 37 extra-base hits in just under 100 games, Pagan has become a multi-dimensional player with both his speed and improving gap power. Doing his best work in the two-hole, Angel has been able to balance his talents to fit the needs of the team over the course of a game and the season.

Defense has been another area of excellence for Pagan throughout the 2010 season. Filling in at center field for the injured Carlos Beltran during the first half of the season, Angel established himself as a premier defender among Major League outfielders. In fact, in center, he rated as saving the most runs among NL outfielders when looking at his ability to get to balls and Total Zone numbers. Although he has been moved to right since Beltran’s return, Pagan remains a whiz in the field and continues to dazzle Citi Field with his expansive range.
Angel’s level of play has brought him to an All-Star caliber among this year. Using wins-above replacement, which calculates how many wins a player brings to his team as opposed to a replacement, Pagan ranks first among position players, along with Aubrey Huff, in the NL giving the Mets 4.7 wins by being in the lineup; behind Pagan in this category are MVP candidates Adrian Gonzalez and Joey Votto.

Pagan’s biggest impact this year, though, has come when the Mets have needed it most. With David Wright as their only consistent run producer in the later innings’ of the ballgame, Angel has stepped up and carved out his own niche in that department. Using late and close inning situations, which are deemed plate appearances in the 7th or later with the batting team tied, ahead by one, or the tying run at least on deck, and RISP with 2 outs, Angel rates as the best clutch hitter on the Mets and one of the best in baseball.

In 57 ABs during Late and Close situations, Pagan has hit .333/.397/.579, including three homeruns and 7 RBIs. To put those numbers into perspective, Albert Pujols has a .545 SLG% and only 4 more RBIs in two less at-bats in those exact instances. In combination with those stats, from the 7th inning on (or High Leverage spots), the Met right fielder has a .347 average with 5 homers and 16 RBIs. Overall, Angel is hitting .382 with runners in scoring position with 36 runs batted in and has delivered countless times with men on base during opportune moments throughout the year.

Although there were many statistics said in Angel‘s favor, the book on Pagan doesn’t end when the math stops. Quickly rising as a fan favorite, Angel brings a hard-nosed mentality to the diamond that the Mets have sorely lacked in recent years. With his hustle and clutch hitting, the Met organization and its fans alike rely on Pagan night in and night out to come through in pressure spots. In only his first season as a regular in the Big Apple, he has done an admirable job in his first full season under the bright lights of New York.

With teams pitching carefully around Pagan in the later innings, or even intentionally walking him as Arizona did on Saturday, he has developed a reputation for his clutch timely hitting that has pervaded baseball circles. Although it is unclear whether he can keep up a torrid pace, especially with runners in scoring position, Pagan has given Met fans hope for this season and beyond. Using Angel as a model, New York needs to find that same brand of grit and clutchness that he possesses in its ballplayers going forward.

Georgia native Jeff Francoeur smacked a Billy Wagner 0-1 pitch for an opposite-field home run in the top of the ninth to put the Mets ahead of the Braves, 3-2, for good.

Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey continued a break-out season at the ripe age of 35 with six innings of two-run ball. Although Dickey struggled at times, allowing four walks, he battled to give the anemic Mets’ bats an opportunity to win the game.

Twice down a run, the Mets responded in the top half inning following Atlanta’s tally. Tied at two in the ninth, Francoeur hit just his second homer since June 28, his tenth of the campaign.

June 28, just over a month ago, also happens to be the day the Mets bus first started to skid.

On Sunday, June 27, Jonathan Niese and three relievers shutout the Twins, 6-0, in the final game of interleague play. The Mets were 43-32, just a half game behind the National League East-leading Braves and two games up in the wild card. All seemed right in Queens.

But as interleague play disappeared, the Mets playoff hopes faded as well.

Following the win against the Twins, the Mets headed to San Juan for a three-game set against the rival Marlins. The Mets postseason aspirations seem to have been left on the beaches of Puerto Rico.

In the 75 games prior to the Marlins series, the Mets averaged 4.6 runs per game and maintained a team batting average of .260 and an on-base percentage of .327. Mets hurlers pitched to a 3.68 ERA.

But since losing their way in Puerto Rico, the Mets are 11-21, leaving the club just one game over .500, six and half games back in the division and eight games behind wild-card leading San Francisco.

While Francoeur has struggled lately, batting a measly .134 with an on-base percentage of .184 since the 28th of June not including Tuesday night’s one for three with a walk performance, he’s certainly not the only one that bears the blame.

In the starting rotation, Johan Santana has pitched to an ace-like 2.49 ERA. during that time. But the Mets lack of run support meant several of Johan’s efforts were for naught. The club’s record in his seven starts: 4-3.

Ace-like would be the correct description of Mike Pelfrey in the early part of the season. In 15 starts and one relief appearance – nearly 100 innings – prior to that day in June, Pelf enjoyed 10-2 tally and 2.71 ERA.

Pelf has made six starts beginning June 30^th, the big righthander owns a 9.59 ERA to go with a 0-3 record since the trip to the West Indian Island – the  Mets actually managed to salvage one of his starts in that time.

The lineup as a whole has been in a funk since arriving in San Juan. In the 31 games, not including Tuesday’s victory, the Mets are pushing across one full run less per game, 3.4, to go with a team average of .230 and team OBP under .300.

Although pitching hasn’t been the main culprit in the team’s demise, the 4.13 team ERA is above the NL team average for the season.

Individually, Carlos Beltran hasn’t supplied the boost the Mets had hoped his post-All-Star break return would provide. Batting just .230 with a single dinger, Beltran has added little to a struggling lineup.

Jason Bay provided little in his first four months in New York and is now on the disabled list with a concussion.

The post-June 28 malaise has hit rookies and veterans alike. Fan-favorite Ike Davis is batting just .209 in that period, although he has clubbed six round trippers – and when Ike hits them, they tend to need a return ticket.

Veteran second baseman Luis Castillo – who is 34 years old, going on 65 – has been injured and batting a mere .241 prior to going on the DL. Since returning on July 19, Luis has set a new low even for his sunken standards, batting .214 without an RBI.

Whether Tuesday’s dramatic, come-from-behind victory turns around Jerry Manuel’s club remains to be seen. Or, possibly, it was a single, steady step by a staggering club.

One thing is certain, Francoeur and a whole host of Mets need to rectify their season if the team is to play meaningful games come September 1.

Follow Shaya on Twitter: @Shaya10

Check out more about Shaya on Facebook.

For Shaya’s take on topics other than the Mets, see his Blog.

Having fought through three straight losses where he gave up only seven runs, compared to the Mets scoring a grand total of four, the knuckleballer has reeled off back-to-back gems to end the July. In one of his finest performances to date, Dickey orchestrated a four hit shutout against the NL Central-leading Cardinals in a must-win game. With the Mets playoff chances looking bleak, they will continue to lean heavily on Dickey to remain a rock in the rotation.

Though the statistics in his previous two starts are impressive enough, the highlight of those games, and his season, has been the knuckleballer’s demeanor. Blessed with a strong desire to win, Dickey has shown brightly in pressure situations and an uncommon competitive streak on the mound; an example being his July 25ht start where he was pulled in the middle of a dominant performance. After a suspected injury in the 6^th inning of a 0-0 game against the Dodgers, R.A vigorously fought to come off the mound during what was a two-hit shutout at the time, knowing the implications of replacement.

With the team  in the midst of a tough losing stretch, Dickey wanted to be able to pull the Mets out of their downward spiral with his inspired play and he would be given the chance four days later at Citi Field. The Met hurler was given a chance at redemption in the final game against St. Louis  following a heartbreaking, extra inning loss.

Delivering a four-hitter, in which he went into the 9th inning, Dickey gave up four hits and struck out two before handing the ball over to Frankie Rodriguez to finish the game. The win gave the Mets their first series win of July and gave them some momentum heading into August.

“This is a special game,” Dickey said. “This may be a game that we’re able to point back to later in the season as a turning point.”

After becoming the first Met starter to win his first six outings, Dickey has continued to prove he is not just a flash in the pan. In the age of comparisons, the knuckleballer reminds many Met fans of another hard-nosed journeyman: Rick Reed.

Having accumulated 59 wins in 4 1/2 years with New York, Rick Reed was one of the pillars that the late 90s/early 2000s Mets teams leaned on. Along with bringing the Metropolitans to the World Series in 2000, Reed was a two-time All Star who controlled the strike zone and relied on grit and determination to win games.

Often dubbed a “Poor Man’s Greg Maddux,” Reed became a staple in both the Mets’ rotation and in the hearts of Mets’ fans because of his blue-collar attitude and timely pitching. Just like R.A Dickey, number 35 burst onto the scene after a embattled career prior to his stint in New York. After toiling away in anonymity before striking gold a la Dickey, Reed struggled to find a team willing to give an aging control pitcher a chance during his early 30s.

Once both of these men were given an opportunity to garner extended time on a Major League club, Reed in 1997 and Dickey this season,  they both took their chance and ran with it. Blessed without outstanding physical skills or flair to their game, both Dickey and Reed never took nights off and had a workmanlike attitude toward pitching. With pride in their craft, these two Mets were and are the heart and soul of their respective teams.

Statistically, Dickey and Reed have striking similarities when compared against each other. Using this year for R.A and Rick Reed’s first season for the Mets in 1997, we can get a better view of how these pitchers match up on the mound and on the stat sheet.

In that surprising ’97 season, Reed put together a masterful final tally as he sported a 2.89 ERA and a miniscule 1.04 WHIP to go along with 13 wins. When the numbers are looked at further, they show that Reed relied heavily on his defense, while not relying on the strikeout with great regularity, as he only struck out five batter per 9 innings. With excellent command, he had a 1.3 BB/9, and a propensity to stay away from the home run, Reed was afforded the ability to pitch to contact and let his defense do the work.

Much like Reed in his first year, Dickey became a spark plug for the Mets. The similarities don’t end there as they share comparable numbers across the board. This year R.A is on pace for a double digit win total, and he now holds a 2.32 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP.

Much like Rick Reed pitched to contact and worked the strike zone, Dickey has been able to keep his knuckleball unpredictable as he works both sides of the plate with the pitch. Although he does induce some swing and misses, the knuckleballer doesn’t rely on the strikeout, as evidenced by his 6.0 K/9, nor does he get tagged for home runs easily.

With their ability to throw strikes and keep the ball in the yard, both Reed and Dickey carried the Mets through stretched in their respective seasons. While Reed’s success coincided with the team’s success, including their third World Series appearance, the impact of R.A Dickey on the overall standing of the team remains to be seen.

With the battle for a playoff spot in full gear, R.A Dickey will need to continue his run of excellence to help the Mets keep pace in both the NL East and the Wild Card. Just as Rick Reed did in the stretch runs of ’99 and ’00, the Mets are banking on R.A Dickey’s blue collar persona and consistent excellence to help push them to the playoffs and beyond.

Week 16 (7/26-8/1) record: 3-3

2010 Season record: 53-52

This week’s positives: Jose Reyes, R.A. Dickey, Hisanori Takahashi, Manny Acosta, David Wright, Angel Pagan, Francisco Rodriguez

This week’s negatives: Everybody else

Breakdown:

Do you remember June?  I realize this seems like a silly question.  For most people, it’s only been a few weeks since June.  For the Mets, however, June seems like forever ago.

On June 30^th, the Mets beat the Marlins, 6-5, to close out an 18-8 month.  They were 10 wins above .500, in second place in the NL East (1.5 games behind the Braves), and all alone in the lead for the Wild Card (which means virtually nothing in June but sounds good for this conversation).

On July 31^st, the Mets beat the Diamondbacks, 5-4, to close out a 9-17 July, leaving the Mets fighting for third place (and not fighting all that hard).

When the Mets returned home to host the Cardinals, they came with an opportunity to put the first few weeks of July behind them.  They returned home where they’ve played well all season.  They returned to a stadium that could hide their hitting woes by eating up the batted balls of their opponents.  They returned to a place that could return them to their winning ways.

At first this looked like the direction in which they were headed.  An encouraging 8-2 win in the series opener was reminiscent of the way the Mets played in the previous month.  Jon Niese bested Cardinals’ ace Adam Wainwright, the Mets bats came to life, and Mets fans could breathe a sigh of relief.  The second game featured an uncharacteristically terrible start for Johan Santana, followed by an equally uncharacteristic, but certainly not terrible, display by Mets hitters.  The Mets came back from a 5-run deficit to tie the game at 7 and Citi Field was awake and alive and ready for some magic.  However, as the game went into extra innings, Mets bats fell back to sleep.  Perhaps the 13 innings suggests it was past their bedtime.  The Cardinals 8-7 victory that night was deflating.  Moral victories mean less and less with each passing day in the second half of the season.  R.A. Dickey was able to salvage the series with a brilliant performance on Thursday, and the Mets seemed to be headed on the right track with the last-place Diamondbacks coming to town.

Ok, sure, they were also the last-place Diamondbacks when the Mets were swept out of Arizona.  But the 2010 Mets don’t play well on the road.  Now that they were back at Citi Field, they were confident that they could turn the tide on the snakes from the southwest.

They were wrong.  The Diamondbacks’ problem this year has been with their pitching.  Their hitting hasn’t been as much of an issue.  After taking 2 of 3 from the Mets this past weekend, it’s hard to believe they have any issues at all.  Friday night’s game featured early back-and-forth scoring that stopped momentarily when the Mets took a 5-4 lead in the 3^rd inning.  A Jose Reyes error and a pair of poorly-placed pitches by Raul Valdes gave the lead back to the Diamondbacks a few innings later.  This time, there was no “forth” as Mets bats went down without much of a whimper for the remainder of the game.  Instead of getting into the details of those final few innings, let’s just say that Aaron Heilman recorded the save for Arizona.  That’s probably sufficient.  Saturday night’s game featured some more poor relief pitching by the Mets, followed by some clutch hitting to tie it and some heroics to win it.  While the team’s celebration was deserved, it was all they could do to hide the fact that this was their first victory in five tries against the worst team in the NL not from Pittsburgh.  On Sunday, a 4^th-inning Adam LaRoche 3-run homerun brought the Mets back down to earth.  The Diamondbacks’ 13-run output over the following 5 innings probably brought the Mets even lower.  The Diamondbacks have now won 5 games since the All-Star break, all against the Mets.  The Mets have won only five games since the All-Star break as well.

On June 8^th the Mets beat the Padres in extra innings.  That was their fifth win that month.

What a difference a month has made.

Takeaway:

Throughout much of the first four months of the season, the Mets were as a good at home as they were bad on the road.  Lately, the Mets haven’t looked so great at home either.  It’s no longer about where they’re playing, or even who they’re opposing.  In the past few weeks it’s been about what the Mets have been doing to themselves.  Lazy bats, poor fielding and inconsistent pitching has made this team hard to watch.  Earlier this season, even when they were losing, they seemed to play spirited ball.  It was enough to make someone think that this team had something to it, that this team could get together to play above their heads and win some games that they were expected to lose.  I don’t know where these guys went during the All-Star break but I think they’re playing like they haven’t yet returned.

Before this season started, most prognosticators declared the Mets a middle-of-the-pack team who would likely finish somewhere around fourth place.  With two months remaining in the season, that’s exactly where they find themselves.  What’s worse, with the way they’ve played recently, they’re fortunate to be in this spot.

For the record, it was wise of Omar Minaya and Mets management not to act out of panic at the MLB trade deadline.  If reports are accurate, the asking price in any deal was a lot, while the offer was much less.

The Mets survived the deadline without making their team or their franchise any worse.  Obviously this is good.  At the same time, they did not make themselves any better.  Barring anything big happening before the August 31^st waiver deadline, the Mets have pretty much declared that this is their team moving forward.  Therefore, if they are going to go anywhere in 2010, they’re going to have to do it with the current roster.  For that to happen, they’re going to need to step up their play immediately.

Upcoming:

The Mets travel to Atlanta to take on the division-leading Braves for three games.  After a day off, they move back up the coast for a weekend series in Philly.

3 things to watch:

1.  Will Johan Sanata bounce back from his poor start last week?

2.  Will Carlos Beltran begin to return to form?

3.  Will the Mets be able to use these 2 important series to propel a turnaround?

Photos courtesy of Michael G. Baron.  Find more great Mets images, and insight, here: http://metsphotos.com/

Shai Kushner is the Mets Content Editor for BaseballDigest.com.  Email Shai at: BaseballDigestShai@gmail.com.

I’m going to go out on a limb and presume that at some point in life you’ve passed by a store window with a sign that read something like: Huge Sale!  It’s probably also a safe bet that if this store didn’t carry anything you wanted you walked on by without giving it much thought.  Now let’s say that sign read: Huge Sale – Final Days!  Many people would stop at this sign and give some thought to the potential of the deals going on inside the store before choosing whether to enter or walk on.  As the 2010 baseball season nears the trade deadline, there is a similar feeling brewing among many teams in the majors.  However, as the Mets have learned in the past, this is most certainly a time of buyer beware.

At the moment, the Mets are in a tough position.  They’re not so far down in the standings that they need to get rid of their top talent in return for young potential.  On the flip side, they are not at the top of the division looking for that one missing piece that will ensure them the division lead and beyond.  Given the team’s recent play, or more importantly, given their inconsistent play throughout the year, the Mets are likely a few pieces away from making the postseason a reality.

Pitching is an area that’s been easily identified as a need for the Mets.  In fact, pitching is an area that’s been easily identified as a need for just about every team.  So, now that the bigger ticket items like Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt have found their new homes for the remainder of the season, names like Ted Lilly, Jake Westbrook and Brett Myers (?!?!) are being thrown around like they’re difference-makers.  In fact, not only are these names being held in inappropriately high regard, but their current teams are demanding highly-rated prospects in return.  The same holds true for the relievers that are currently on sale.  From oft-injured and rarely dependable Kerry Wood to Diamondbacks reliever Chad Qualls who’s currently sporting an ERA over 8 (in 42 games).  A deal for any of these players would most likely require the Mets to give up a top youngster like Jenrry Mejia, Wilmer Flores or maybe even Jon Niese.

Are these players any kind of an improvement over what the Mets currently have?  For the most part, the answer is pretty obviously no.  I doubt that anybody is looking at the Mets bullpen and thinking that all that’s separating them from the next level is a pitcher with an 8.51 ERA.

That’s not to suggest that there’s nobody out there.  Even the aforementioned Lilly, while not a staff ace, would probably help this team.  But at what cost?  Does two months of Ted Lilly validate giving up on Mejia?  Granted when Lilly likely leaves for free agency after the season he’ll be considered a Type A free agent, earning his team 2 compensatory draft picks.  Would the Mets draft someone better than Mejia with either of those picks?  Moreover, if they are indeed willing to trade Mejia, would they get more for him by obtaining Lilly than by waiting until the offseason?

In 1989, following a 7-game losing streak, the Mets found themselves in fourth place in the NL East, 7 games out of first place.  With the Cardinals (3^rd), Cubs (2^nd) and Expos (1^st) in front of them, they knew they had to make a splash if they were going to get back in the race.  Just 6 weeks prior they had traded Lenny Dykstra and Roger McDowell to the Phillies for Juan Samuel.  That deal hadn’t done much good, so they were going to have to go bigger.  Just before midnight on August 1^st, the Mets sent five pitchers to the Minnesota Twins in exchange for their ace Frank Viola.  Most notably leaving the Mets in that deal were Rick Aguilera and Kevin Tapani.  The Mets would never get closer to first place than 1.5 games in 1989.  And while Viola did go on to win 20 games for the Mets in 1990, Tapani and Aguilera would play important roles in the Twins’ 1991 World Championship.

That’s not to say that only bad deals are made at the deadline.  In 1983 the Mets obtained Keith Hernandez in a deadline (the MLB trade deadline was in June at that time) deal that helped turn the franchise around.  On a less grand scale, the Mets were able to fill in some important pieces in 1999 by adding Shawon Dunston and Kenny Rogers (NLCS Game 6 aside) to their roster.

For many though, this is the time of year that we are reminded of Jose “The Beast” Bautista and Ty Wigginton (and Matt Peterson) for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger, or Melvin Mora for Mike Bordick, or everyone’s favorite: Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano.

So, as the 2010 non-waiver trade deadline approaches, it’s important for the Mets to accurately evaluate their current team, their needs, the available players and the asking price.  While this seems obvious, those names above suggest that sometimes the obvious has gone overlooked.

In other words, just because a sign says it’s the final week of a big sale doesn’t make the items any more valuable.

Besides, often times the best deals are found in the trades made during the waiver period prior to the August 31^st deadline, also known as, the closeout sale.

After a day off on Monday to lick their collective wounds, the Mets returned home on Tuesday night to play the Cardinals and determine if the season is salvageable.

After defeating the Cards, 8-2, in the first matchup of a six-game homestand, the outlook is already better than it was after the 11-game road trip that began the second half of the season in abysmal fashion.

The all-consuming topic of discussion and print around Queens is whether or not Manuel should hold onto the reins of the staggering club until season’s end. The subject has become quite familiar in these parts during the 2010 campaign.

This is the third time during the 2010 schedule that Manuel’s head has been squarely on the chopping block. Both times the ballclub responded, bestowing Jerry with a stay of execution.

After losing all four series to begin the season 4-8, 2010 appeared to be a continuation of the pitiful 2009 season. Calls for Manuel’s job were underway.

The Mets then went 9-1 on a homestand moving from last to first in the early season National League East standings, quelling the demands for a new skipper.

Shortly thereafter the Mets stumbled again. This time losing five in-a-row, including a four-game sweep at the hands of the Marlins in Miami. After splitting two games each with Atlanta and Washington, Manuel’s employment was once again a point of contention.

With the next six contests scheduled against the defending champions of each league, the Yankees and Phillies respectively, the outlook was bleak. But, once again, the Mets countered, taking two of three against the Yanks and sweeping the Phills behind three shutouts giving Manuel a second brief reprieve.

Now, after a 2-9 West Coast road trip, Jerry is once again being run out of town by his many detractors.

Manuel’s in-game managing leaves him open to many second guesses; staunch managing by “the book” has left Jerry answering many difficult questions in the post-game press conferences.

However, the club has been inordinately streaky this season. Just as soon as the team seems to be staggering, it regains equilibrium.

Although Manuel was not in the dugout for the victory against St. Louis due to a suspension, Jerry should be on the bench so long as there’s a playoff opportunity.

With all that has gone wrong this season – two-fifths of the rotation are no longer starting, Jason Bay has contributed little, the bullpen has no depth – the Mets are still two games over .500 and in striking distance of a playoff spot.

While Jerry gets some of the culpability for things that have gone awry, he deserves and equal amount of credit for all that has turned out right – journeyman R.A. Dickey has been a major contributor in the rotation, rookie Ike Davis has been a legitimate bat in the middle of the order, a bullpen without an established eighth-inning man has not destroyed the team.

Going into the season, widespread feeling was if the Mets did not make it to October baseball, general manager Omar Minaya and Manuel would join the unemployment line. That philosophy should still be the one lived by ownership.

Last week Minaya claimed, “There is no discussion at all, Jerry Manuel is our manager, will be our manager.” But there is no timeline in that statement. It doesn’t mean that a discussion can’t begin.

Jerry deserves more than that for the job he’s done this season. Manuel has earned the right to finish this season, or, at least, until all hope is lost.

Manuel has been behind two turnarounds this season and is entitled to see if he can pull off a third.

Follow Shaya on Twitter: @Shaya10

Week 16 (7/19-7/25) record: 1-6

2010 Season record: 50-49

This week’s positives: Johan Santana, R.A. Dickey, Hisanori Takahashi, Raul Valdes, Bobby Parnell, Angel Pagan

This week’s negatives: Everybody else

Breakdown:

The Mets scored 15 runs this week.  They played a full week, all seven days.  A couple of the games went extra innings.  Real extra innings.  A 14-inning game against the Diamondbacks and a 13-inning game in Los Angeles.  That means the Mets came up to the plate in 72 different innings this week.  They scored 15 runs.  That’s only 15 more than either you are I scored this week, unless you’re a professional baseball player (in which case, congratulations, and thanks for reading).  The Diamondbacks scored 13 runs in Monday’s game alone.  The Mets scored 2 runs in that game.  That was tied for their third highest output this week.

I’m sure you get the idea.  You probably got it when you read the opening sentence.  If you watched a game this week, you probably got the idea within minutes of watching this team play. There’s not much of a need to break down this week further than that.  They looked lifeless out there this week.  No spark, no hunger, no bats.  They didn’t look like a team that was fighting to stay alive in their divisional race.  They looked like a team who was just going through the motions at the end of an injury-plagued season.  Problem is, this isn’t September 2009, it’s late-July 2010 and it’s the wrong time to look lost.

Sure, there were moments that could be considered highlights, mostly coming from the same game (their lone win, obviously).  Jason Bay crashing into the Dodgers Stadium wall to catch a fly ball, and then remaining in the game to eventually provide some offense.  David Wright staying focused on an 0-2 count to drive in a run with a sacrifice fly.  Johan Santana doing what Johan Santana does after the All-Star break.  A couple other guys got hits too, that was neat.

But game after game the Mets offense wasted strong starts by…wait, I feel like I’ve written this sentence before.  Actually, I feel like that sentence has made multiple appearances this season.  That to me suggests a pattern.  Yes, that’s it, a pattern of, oh I don’t know, let’s call it poor hitting.

Takeaway:

Perhaps I’m being too harsh.  All baseball players go through slumps.  Some people have been speculating as to the potency of this offense when everyone is hot.  Now we know how it looks when everyone is cold.  Certainly a good week, or even a good string of weeks, will help fans look back on this past week and laugh, cautiously.

The issue here is that this team has not given any indication that such a strong week is possible.  Try to imagine a week when all Mets starters, 1-8 in the lineup were all hitting well.  It shouldn’t be that hard to do.

Something’s got to give.  I’m not necessarily calling for the firing of a coach, manager, scout, ballboy or anyone else.  It would be pretty silly of me to call for someone else’s unemployment.  At the same time, at the moment this team just isn’t right.

Some people think Howard Johnson should be removed from his hitting coach role.  Perhaps.  For one thing, some action certainly seems necessary.  However, these hitters didn’t make it to the major leagues without knowing how to it.  A hitting coach, especially one who doesn’t have an especially unique approach or strategy for hitting, only does so much and can therefore only be held so accountable.  They look out for some bad habits, they make suggestions, offer up ideas, but they don’t teach these players how to hit.  David Wright has already struck out 111 times (with only 110 hits) this season.  I’m pretty sure most of those were his own fault.

So, if the Mets do choose to fire HoJo, or any other coach, it should not strictly be as punishment.  Rather they should then bring in someone who actually has a plan, an approach, a method for trying to help this team hit better.   Otherwise, there’s really no point.

Or they could stay with their current staff and their current roster and just move forward with the hopes that the entire team catches fire.  Hopefully this happen before the whole season goes up in smoke (see what I did there?).

Whatever they choose to do, 15 runs in a week won’t get them very far.  It certainly wasn’t enough to get them past the NL West.

Upcoming:

After a day off on Monday, the Mets return to Citi Field to face the St. Louis Cardinals for 3 games before trying to return the sweeping favor to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

3 things to watch:

1.  Will the Mets make any moves (trades, coaching changes, etc.) before Saturday’s trade deadline?

2.  Will the offense wake up?

3.  Will Citi Field resume the role of safe haven for this team?

Let’s get one thing straight, Omar Minaya has not made many mistakes as the Mets’ General Manager.  Hold on Mets fans, I’m not saying that he’s been perfect, far from it in fact, but in reality his mistakes have been few.  His bad gambles, however, have been plenty, and plenty bad.

Before we go on, let me explain the difference between a mistake and a gamble.  A mistake is when someone believes that he/she is doing something right when it’s actually quite wrong.  A gamble is when someone makes a move that he/she knows might not work out but figures it’s worth a shot anyway.

I doubt that when Minaya signed Luis Castillo or Oliver Perez to their ridiculous deals he felt confident that he made the right move.  I have to think that he recognized the risk (calculated as he may have thought it was) that he was taking.  Castillo’s best days were obviously behind him, and who knows where Perez’s best days can be found.  We all knew this.  And if we knew it, surely Minaya knew it.

Still, as bad as these deals have turned out, they were not mistakes.  But now that we’ve established that, let’s take a look at how these deals have hurt the Mets.  For “fun” I’m going to add the Jason Bay signing into the mix.  It’s really too early to make a declaration on the Bay contract.  Obviously he hasn’t lived up to management, fan or financial expectations, but we’re barely halfway through the first season of a multi-year deal and that must be taken into consideration.  At the same time, it’s likely that Minaya thought that signing Bay was the right move and not a gamble, therefore making it look an awful lot like a mistake, at the moment at least.

Luis Castillo

Why did they sign him? The Mets acquired Castillo shortly after the All-Star break in 2007.  He was one of the few players who played well during that season’s collapse, finishing with a .296 batting average, even stealing 10 bases, and pretty much giving the Mets what they had expected.  Furthermore, there was some talk that his close friendship with former (and future) teammate Johan Santana, would play a role in facilitating a trade and subsequent long-term signing of the ace.  So they signed him Castillo to a deal.  Furthermore, the only other option for second base they seemed to be considering at the time was David Eckstein.  Eckstein is best known as the 2006 World Series MVP and as the punch line to many of the jokes from famed website FireJoeMorgan.com.  The punchlines seem more appropriate than the 2006 honor.

How did it go? The Mets got Santana, so that was cool.  Castillo had an awful and oft-injured 2008 campaign, but rebounded in 2009 as the most consistent player in the Mets lineup, even though he’ll be mostly remembered for dropping a game-losing pop-up against the Yankees.  He has been injured for much of this season as well, and hasn’t been incredibly effective when he has played.

So why was it such a bad gamble? It was obvious when the Mets signed Castillo that he was not the player he once was.  His range at second base, where he was once a gold glover (for whatever that’s worth), had decreased substantially.  His ability to run the bases had been compromised by multiple injuries.  But what really made this deal hard to swallow was the fact that it was a 4-year contract, and a hefty one at that.  By committing that much time and money to Castillo the Mets had pretty much taken themselves out of the running for picking up a second baseman during the next few offseasons (usually named Orlando Hudson).  By the time 2008 was done, they were looking for a way out.  They still haven’t found one.

Oliver Perez

Why did they sign him? When the Mets originally acquired Perez on July 31, 2006, he was a throw-in on a deal they felt compelled to make.  A freak accident in a taxi cab removed reliever Duaner Sanchez from the Mets bullpen for the remainder of the ’06 season.  The Mets traded Xavier Nady to the Pirates in exchange for reliever Roberto Hernandez and were forced to take Perez in the deal.  Perez came up clutch in the 2006 postseason and the acquisition looked like a steal.  A solid 2007 season (15-10 3.56) seemed to establish Perez as a quality starter and not nearly as inconsistent as advertised.  While his 2008 results were adequate, he did lead the league in walks and had a few outings that were short and painful, causing people to once again question his ability to stay on track.  Still, in need of pitching following the 2008 season, the Mets chose to invest in the potential of Perez instead of overpaying for Derek Lowe.

How did it go? In short, not well.  Perez made two appearances on the DL in 2009, the second one shutting him down for the season.  Sadly, these were the two best appearances he made all year.  Coming into the 2010 season, there was much talk of the steps that Perez had been taking to improve.  These steps did not take him far however.  He did not fare well at the beginning of this season.  After rejecting multiple requests to send him to the minor leagues, Perez was forced to accept an assignment to the Mets bullpen in a “Use Only in Case of an Emergency” role.  Perez made his 2010 DL debut in early June and has recently returned to his earlier bullpen banishment.

So why was it such a bad gamble? Around the time the Mets signed Perez, the Braves overpaid for Derek Lowe.  The Mets had been trying to obtain Lowe, but weren’t willing to give him both the money and the years he demanded.  Having lost out on Lowe they were more or less stuck with going for Perez or having a seemingly hard-to-fill spot in the rotation.  Perez’s agent, Scott Boras, exploited the situation and worked a 3-year $36 million deal for his client.  Very few expected Perez to live up to this deal, but if he could just repeat what he did in 2007 it would have been deemed a good move.  Sadly for the Mets, he hasn’t come close.  It’s not without trying.  He’s changed his motion, arm angle, eating habits, sleeping habits, he may have even tried a few different religions for all we know.  But, if baseball success was predicated on best intentions, I would probably be an All-Star.  At this point, his refusal to go to the minor leagues has seriously hurt this team.  It seems that he’s trying to force the Mets to just release him, which they refuse to do.  This game of chicken hurts the team, the fans, and in a round about way, the game of baseball altogether.

Jason Bay

Why did they sign him? This past offseason featured three well-publicized free agents: pitcher John Lackey and outfielders Matt Holiday and Jason Bay.  While the Mets tried initially to pursue Lackey, they weren’t interested in meeting his demands and he wasn’t interested in playing for the Mets.  So really it came down to Holliday vs. Bay.  The Mets signed Bay to a 4-year (with a vesting option for a 5^th) $66-million deal.  The Cardinals then signed Holliday to a 7-year $120 million deal.  The Mets would contend that they thought Bay’s game was more appropriate for Citi Field than Holliday’s.  This was the first time I had heard this reasoning for signing a player.  I doubt they signed Bobby Bonilla in 1992 because they thought his game really fit Shea Stadium.  So why this reason now?  I suppose it sounded better than saying that they were afraid of Holliday’s price tag.

How did it go? With the season just about four months old, the best thing that can be said about Jason Bay’s Mets experience is that he’s been a better fielder than expected.  That’s not why they signed him though.  Bay is on pace for an extremely disappointing season, threatening to put up numbers reminiscent of George Foster’s first season on the Mets (1982).

So why was it such a bad gamble? Once again, the issue with this signing is not just about the underperformance of the player but rather how this contract handcuffs the team.  By investing so much in Bay the Mets made the statement that Jason Bay will be the left fielder for the next few years.  When the Mets signed Bay, many questioned whether he had proven that he could provide the middle-of-the-lineup power that this time would need.  Now, as the Mets are experiencing some obvious offensive struggles, they are in desperate need of that production.  But where would they put it?  They have four outfielders but really only one who has been any good this season.  And, as pleasantly surprising as Angel Pagan’s season has been, he is also the only member of this quartet who will never bat in the middle of the lineup.  Worse yet, should Bay never get going, he would be impossible to unload without covering most of his salary (the way the Angels did with Gary Matthews, Jr.).  The Mets should have learned this from the Castillo and Perez experiences.  Basically, Omar Minaya should have known better than to take this chance.

Mets fans should appreciate Omar Minaya’s penchant for gambling.  Seriously.  He came into his GM role with a desire to take chances and make a difference rather than just trying to plug-in holes and convince himself that the team would right itself.  And to some extent he succeeded.  In the early 2000’s, the Mets looked like a directionless franchise.  Minaya came in with something resembling a plan (loose as it may have been) and the Mets have been contenders almost ever year since.  What Mets fans should question and what ultimately may be Minaya’s downfall, is his inability to think ahead.  As the team struggles on their current west coast trip, an observer’s first move is to think about outside options for the Mets to obtain in order to improve.  However, Minaya’s short-sightedness has hampered this idea to what may be a devastating level for this team.

In the first six games since the All-Star break, the offense has produced a total of 12 runs and is in serious need of a boost. But the assistance is unlikely to come from outside the organization, in fact, it’s doubtful it’ll come from anywhere but the current roster.

In setting the current lineup, manager Jerry Manuel all but declared that Angel Pagan has taken the right field spot from Jeff Francoeur. “Frenchy is like a relief pitcher right now,” says Manuel, “trying to get back into the starting rotation.”

But that creates a dilemma for Manuel: Both Castillo and Pagan maximize their ability near the top of the lineup, but, with leadoff hitter Jose Reyes’ return from a strained oblique, the only spot available is the two-hole.

At this point in his career, Castillo’s offensive prowess lies in his handling of the bat – moving runners over with a bunt or well-placed ground ball. There’s little value for this skill anywhere other than behind a speedy leadoff hitter and in front of the big bats in middle of the order.

The 34-year-old is no longer the .300 hitter and 40-plus stolen base man he was in his younger years in Florida, his knees won’t allow it.

Pagan, on the other hand, has been one of the Mets pleasant surprises of the season batting .306 to go along with 20 stolen bases.  But, like Castillo, Pagan doesn’t have a natural place in a batting order other than setting the table.

Here’s where the mad scientist of St. Louis’ constant tinkering with the game of baseball may have formed a strategy for Manuel to adopt. Love him or hate him, and most baseball fans feel strongly one way or the other, Tony La Russa will experiment.

Over the past few years, the third winningest manager in baseball history has often filled out his lineup card with the pitcher batting eighth and a position player ninth.

“The goal (of batting a position player ninth) is to have another table setter coming back around the second time through the lineup,” says Bill Ivie, executive editor and founder of i70Baseball.com, a site devoted to covering the Cardinals and Royals.

Pagan’s quality bat is just the kind of hitter needed to bat ninth. Placing two leadoff men in front of David Wright will increase the third baseman’s RBI opportunities and may just be the remedy to knock the Mets out of this latest funk.

The chances of Wright’s at-bats coming with two runners in scoring position increase dramatically. How often will we see Pagan and Reyes get on base then be moved into scoring position by Castillo ready to get picked up by Wright or cleanup hitter Beltran.

Another run-scoring scenario will be created if six-hitter Jason Bay or the catcher batting seventh reach base. The pitcher batting eighth is then in an obvious bunting situation and, if successful, Pagan will come up with a runner in scoring position. Pagan’s batting average with RISP: .391.

La Russa hasn’t always kept to the strategy. “If there is no hitter in the lineup providing the on-base percentage/catalyst style, most often the pitcher will hit ninth,” explains Ivie. “In addition, you will see the pitcher hit ninth when the offense is all chipping in.”

But Pagan is a catalyst with nowhere for Manuel to bat him and the offense has not performed at all.

Manuel has shown a propensity to manage conservatively – bunting when “the book” says to bunt, going to the closer in a save situation despite the fact that leaving the starter in the game may be a better option, etc. – so he is unlikely to adopt a maneuver hatched in the Cardinals laboratory just a few years ago.

However, desperate times call for desperate measures. The Mets season is slipping away, and with it, possibly Manuel’s employment.  If Jerry doesn’t shake this lineup out of its funk, the season will spin out of control.

All the goodwill toward the ballclub will be eliminated with another late season collapse.

Manuel needs to explore options he otherwise would not consider, batting Pagan ninth would be a fine place to start.

Follow Shaya on Twitter: @Shaya10