All M-E-T-S

In this blog, I will be posting as often as possible about just one thing: my New York Mets. As the season continues, I will try to post my thoughts, opinions, complaints, and hopes about the Mets 2007 baseball season.

The Mets are off to a respectable 7-4 start to the season, and (although this means nothing in April) are a half-game behind the Braves in the NL East standings. Jose Reyes, David Wright, Moises Alou, and Shawn Green are playing great, Carlos Beltran and Paul Lo Duca are decent, while Carlos Delgado and Jose Valentin are off to slow starts. The starting rotation, probably the biggest concern coming into this season, has been unbelievable at times (see first four starts), horrible at times (exhibit A being Oliver Perez a few days ago- seven walks in 2 1/3 innings), and other times exactly what we thought they would be- just plain mediocre. The bullpen is better than I expected they would be - with Aaron Heilman solid in all but one game, Pedro Feliciano about what I expected (as in good), Billy Wagner his usual, dependable self, and Joe Smith-the rookie from Wright State of all places- suprisingly consistent.

The lack of power is an interesting situation. The Yankees' Alex Rodriguez in fact has more home runs (7) than the entire Mets team (5) for this season. The combined home run total of the Mets power spot in the middle of the order (Beltran, Delgado, Wright, and Alou) is just two- both by Beltran on April 4th in St. Louis. It must be noted, though, that the Mets have a 7-4 record, with two of their home runs coming in losses, while the Yankees are 4-5 and have placed three of their five starters on the DL. While the Mets are where they need to be despite the absence four-baggers, A-Rod's bombs aren't doing the Yankees a whole lot to get their rotation back. I'm not concerned about the lack of power for two reasons:

1. Because the Mets don't really need it to win ballgames- they just need timely hitting. If Delgado hits a walk-off home run: great. If Delgado places a sacrifice bunt that puts the eventual winning run on third- that is just as valuable.

2. Because it won't last long. You can't keep Carlos Beltran, Carlos Beltran, David Wright, and Moises Alou (a combined 127 homers among them last year) on the ground forever. They will start hitting home runs eventually. Hopefully for the Mets, they will all blast a ton of round-trippers in June- a month that contains one of the toughest stretches of games in franchise history.

This blog is called what it is for one major reason: it describes my life as a Mets fan. Whether the Mets have been good (as in the last two years) or really bad (as in the four years before that), I have still followed them and cheered them on- although I admit that the Mets cap was mysteriously hard to find in 2002-2004 when the Mets were fifty games below .500. This will stay true for this year. No matter how well the Mets do, I will still follow, and still cheer- even if I don't post about it afterwards.