Mets First Half Report Card = "I"

It's the time of year when every blog under the sun grades their baseball team's first half performance. Mets Lifer is no different although this is the only post on the Mets first half report card that was originally written in Aramaic and translated to English for the common man's understanding.

My grade for the Mets first half is an "I."

It's an appropriate grade because it's very far from an A, not even close to a B, and obviously lower than a C, but not an F.

Remember April? Hopes were high, the disappointment of '08 (and '07) still lingering, and you liked having Daniel Murphy in left field? Me neither.

The grade of "I" stands for 3 things: injuries, ineptness, and inconsitent.

Injuries is obvious. Everyone not named Santana and Wright has appeared on the DL at some point. Where this team would be with Reyes, Delgado & Beltran in the lineup everyday will be a mystery and there's no use reflecting on it any more because there's absolutely nothing that can be done about it.

Ineptness is inexcusable. The amount of stupid and just plain odd plays that this team has seen in the first half is remarkable. Off the top of my head I can recount the ineptness of Luis Castillo's dropped pop-up against the Yanks, Daniel Murphy's missed fly ball against the Marlins, Delgado's dropped pop-up in the 9th inning, Church missing 3rd base, all 143 double plays by Fernando Tatis, FMart falling flat on his face, KRod walking Rivera and the list goes on and on.

It's remarkable the Nationals are worse than we are. The ineptness of this team has to come to a screeching halt for any shot at a respectable second half. The errors, the balks, the idiotic walks and all of that stupidity has got stop completely.

Finally the incosistency that has plagued this team should have the Mets 10 games below .500 or worse. Pelfrey is either magical or Jose Lima reincarnated. David Wright is either Ted Williams or Bobby Bonilla. Daniel Murphy looks like Pete Rose one game and then Ross Gellar the next.

Every facet of this team is just riddled with inconsistency from defense to offense to starting pitching. I wouldn't mind if the Mets were mediocre all the time because at least I'd know what I'm getting from this team, but the ups and downs have got to even out to a more solid level of play.

I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to a break from the Mets for a few days. It's exhausting being a Mets fan, but I like that they finished out the first half on a high note.

Omar, Jerry Manuel and Mets players alike have talked about "making it to the All Star break" with their heads above water and then have the ability to turn things around or make a move. That watershed moment is here.

Let's see if they can put their money where their mouth is and make a second half turnaround that warrants another "I" grade: improbable.

Photo from Flickr user Leo Reynolds