Only the Mets

Only the Mets can get an inside the park home run, a triple play and a run in the top of the 9th and still lose the game.

Only the Mets can go from last place to first place to utter unimportance in the span of 10 days.

Only the Mets can invent new ways to lose games like walk-off wild pitches and walk-off throwing errors.

Only the Mets can have a player with solid stats who's on track for 30 homers and 100 RBI look so awful night in and night out.

Only the Mets can pay top dollar for a power hitter with one home run and starting pitcher who's banished to the bullpen.

Only the Mets can build one of baseball's best stadiums and cause me to have no desire to visit it.

Only the Mets can have closed door meetings and have the team play ten times worse the following game.

Only the Mets can ignore the reality of the starting rotation for months on end and live on hope and a prayer.

Only the Mets can make playing the Washington Nationals an unpleasant affair.

Only the Mets can follow up one of the most depressing seasons in recent memory with one even more depressing.

Only the Mets...

An Odd Feeling to the 2010 Season

This 2010 campaign just feels weird. There's already an anxiousness among the Mets fan base that's unprecedented for this time in the year. So you lose two out of three in your first series of the season. That doesn't mean your doomed to be in last place for the remainder of the year.

But that's what it feels like. Jerry Manuel is already talking about how his team needs offensive support (hello? did you see your team score 13 runs in the first two games?). The media is asking about where the team's power is going to come from. We're already crucifying the starting rotation and it's apparent lack of support after Johan Santana.

And it's only the first week of the season. This is going to be a painfully long year. The Mets are trying to prove that last year was a fluke, but we as fans won't believe them until we see that our team isn't floundering amongst the bottom feeders of the National League.

I was on pins and needles last night and the game before as the Mets were trying to come back from early deficits. It's April for crying out loud. I know that, you know that, but it doesn't matter. We need some hope.

Nothing is a harbinger of hope like a series against the Nationals.

Mike Pelfrey: Talent Rich, Mentally Poor

I'm not saying Mike Pelfrey is stupid, but when the going gets tough Mike Pelfrey becomes a mental midget.

If you look at Pelfrey and just watch him pitch in warm ups, he looks like a major league pitcher. I'm sure the Mets scouts saw it as well. Throws in the mid-90's. Has a good sinker. Produces ground balls.

But the problem with the Mets scouting system is that they fail to look at mental toughness as being an essential part of a New York ballplayer. In no other market is that trait more important than in New York where the media is ready to love you one minute and pound you the next.

Mike Pelfrey may have been the shining star of the Mets pitching prospects, but no one bothered to find out if the kid could handle pressure. It's too late now, but we know he can't.

In seemingly every outing, Pelfrey pitches well up to a certain point and then crumbles when he gets into trouble. It could be 2 outs and 2 strikes on the batter, but if that guy gets a base hit watch the world come crashing down on Big Mike Pelf.

We now have not just one, but two head cases in the starting rotation. The other one's name start with a "P" and ends with an "erez." I'm not sure Pelfrey's problems are fixable. His mechanics are solid. The velocity on his pitches are there. But Pelfrey needs a shrink more than anything else.

How much more time are you willing to give Pelfrey? Sure he's young, but the Mets have wasted many a season in the mid-90's waiting for young pitchers to develop into the stars they thought they would be.

As we mercifully limp into the off season, the Mets should consider mental fortitude just as valuable a commodity as a good fastball. This team has too many weak minds as it is.