Mets Merized Online

The five game winning streak that rejuvenated a fan base is now just a forgotten memory as the Mets lose their second straight tonight at Citi Field. The Diamondbacks took the first game of the series 3-2 after scoring the winning run on a wild pitch by Sean Green.

Livan Hernandez started the game and delivered his third straight solid performance. Hernandez held the D-Backs to just two runs on four hits in six innings of work. The two runs came courtesy of two solo homers, one by Mark Reynolds (his 29th), and another by Miguel Montero (his 10th).

The Mets scored both of their runs on solo homers, one by Daniel Murphy who crushed his sixth homer of the season to rightfield. The other homer was by David Wright, his seventh of the season. Wright also had two walks in the game. That was all of the scoring as the Mets were held to just four hits in the game.

The Mets did have a chance to break the game open in the bottom of the sixth when they loaded the base of  D-backs starter Doug Davis. But Jerry Manuel decided to pinch hit Angel Berroa for Livan Hernandez, and Berroa grounded into a fielder’s choice on the first pitch for the third out.

The Mets were 0-4 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base tonight.

With the score tied 2-2 tie in the eighth, reliever Pedro Feliciano allowed a single and was replaced by an ineffective Sean Green who then loaded the bases with a walk and a hit batsman. Daniel Murphy than made a spectacular 3-2-3 double play and it looked like the Mets were going to get out of the inning without any damage. But Green uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Justin Upton to score from third base and put the D-Backs up 3-2.

That was about it, as the Mets went quietly in the eighth and ninth innings.

Frankie Rodriguez has still not pitched in a save situation since before the All Star break.

Angel Pagan and Luis Castillo are 1-for-15 in the last two games batting first and second, and Jeff Francoeur is hitless since Manuel put him into the cleanup spot, although as GKR mentioned, he has hit the ball as hard as you can.

The offense has reverted back to the one we grew accustomed to before the five game winning streak. During the pre game, Bobby Ojeda said that the Mets needed to trade for someone if only to reward the team for trying so hard this past week. Another bat, especially Victor Martinez, would have provided a nice boost and helped the Mets try to secure that wild card spot. However, it wasn’t meant to be.

Oliver Perez takes the hill tomorrow at 7:10 PM.

Here is something fascinating I wanted to share. The following are the current standings for the National League Wild Card race. The Mets are currently in eighth place and 6 1/2 games back. The top five teams all made deals to improve themselves leading up to todays trade deadline.

1. San Francisco 56-46 WC

2. Colorado 55-47 1 GB

3. St. Louis 56-49 1.5 GB

4. Florida 53-49 3.0 GB

5. Atlanta 52-50 4.0 GB

8. NY Mets 49-52 6.5 GB

San Francisco – Giants acquired first baseman Ryan Garko from the Indians, and second baseman Freddy Sanchez from the Pirates. They completely upgraded and revamped the right side of their infield.

Colorado – The Rockies added left-hander Joe Beimel from the Nationals today, after getting righthanded reliever Rafael Betancourt from the Indians a week ago,. Today’s move further bolsters their pen with one of the games best relievers over the last three years.

St. Louis – The Cardinals went all out and added Matt Holliday and Julio Lugo days ago, and those moves followed the acquisition of Mark DeRosa from the Indians earlier this month.

Florida – The Marlins acquired first baseman Nick Johnson for Double A lefty Aaron Thompson, and get this (Are reading this Omar?) the Nats are paying Johnson’s remaining salary. They were also very hot on the heels of acquiring closer Heath Bell.

Atlanta – The Braves acquired first baseman Adam LaRoche from the Red Sox for Casey Kotchman. LaRoche became expendable after the Red Sox got Victor Martinez. There was some speculation that the Mets were getting LaRoche on another Mets blog, but it was never corroborated by any of the mainstream journalists, so who knows.

Mets – Well the Mets did swap Church for Francoeur a few weeks ago. Wasn’t that enough?

Yesterday, Omar said he’d been working the phones non stop and admitted that he had turned down deals for big players. That is totally understandable because the last thing this team needs right now is big players.

Adding big players this far along into the season can ruin the teams chemistry sort of like when Manny Ramirez went to the Dodgers and Carlos Beltran went to the Astros. Good grief!

I’ve noticed that many of my friends on Twitter are pacifying themselves and consoling themselves with phrases like these:

“At least Omar didn’t give up the farm. I’m glad we didn’t make a trade.”

“Great job Omar, you did the right thing and salvaged our future.”

“I’m just glad that Niese and Parnell are still Mets. We don’t need Halladay on this team.”

I need to find me some smarter friends…

Finally, a statement from Omar Minaya only moments ago.

“With what teams were asking for, we just couldn’t find a match. We had some last minute things we were working on, but ultimately we couldn’t get anything done.”

Let me see if I got this figured out…

1. All of our prospects are untouchable because Tony Bernazard did such an excellent job finding and cultivating these cant-miss, blue chippers that have scouts all over the world drooling.

2. Who needs help? We got all of our core players coming back. For example Carlos Beltran is willing to play through the injury, Jose Reyes may even start running next week, John Maine will be back but not until 2010, and Carlos Delgado recently hit some balls off of a tee.

3. We can’t afford to move any of our healthy guys like Angel Pagan, Brian Schneider and Daniel Murphy. Those guys are the cornerstones of our franchise.

Now I get it… 1+1+1=0

According to foxsports.com, the Florida Marlins have acquired 1B Nick Johnson from the Washington Nationals in exchange for AA prospect Aaron Thompson.

Johnson is hitting .295 with 6HR and 44RBI for the Nationals.

Johnson turns 31 this September, and will become a Free Agent after this season. The Nationals reportedly will pay $1.8 million remaining on Johnson’s contract.

I’m a big Murphy fan, but you have to wonder if Johnson could have been a good fit for the Mets this year.

INT AAA: Buffalo 3/9, Pawtucket 4/5

2b Argenis Reyes 0 for 4, .255
cf Jesus Feliciano 1 for 4, run, .312
lf Nick Evans 1 for 4, K, .157
rf Chip Ambres 2 for 4, run, 2b, K, .244
1b Mike Lamb 3 for 4, RBI, .245
c Rene Rivera 0 for 4, .247
dh Javier Castillo 1 for 3, .262
3b Andy Green 1 for 3, run, HR, RBI, .207
ss Wilson Valdez 0 for 3, .219
Tobi Stoner 7 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 3/2 BB/K, HR, 4.39 era, L (3-5), 97:63:34, 6:11:2
Eddie Kunz 0.2 IP, H, ER, BB, HR, 3.95 era, 15:8:7, 1:0:0
Atuaro Lopez 1.1 IP, BB, 5.59 era

EL AA: Binghamton 3/7/3, Akron 16/18/2

Jacob Ruckle was the first of 4 BMet pitchers, and all 4 gave up multiple runs, as the Mets got oblierated 16-3 tonight. Ruckle gave up 8 hits and 7 runs (6 earned) in 4.1 innings for his 3rd loss, but he wasn’t alone in the carnage tonight. In total, Met pitching walked 4, and allowed 18 hits.

The Mets went 3 for 9 with RISP, leaving 7 on base. Lucas Duda (2) had the only multi hit game, while Ruben Tejada (0 for 4, K, .280), Salvador Paniagua (0 for 4, K, .198) and Emmanuel Garcia (0 for 4, run, .259) took 0-fers.

2b Jose Coronado 1 for 5, RBI, 2 Ks, .261
c Josh Thole 1 for 3, run, 2b (25), RBI (39), .347
1b Ike Davis 1 for 4, 2b (9), RBI (28), K, .304
rf Caleb Stewart 1 for 3, BB, .198
lf Lucas Duda 2 for 4, 2b (24), K, .277
3b Jon Malo 1 for 4, run, K, .259
Jacob Ruckle 4.1 IP, 8 H, 7/6 R/ER, 2/4 BB/K, 2 HR, 8.26 era, L (1-3), 2:6:4
Emary Frederick 2 IP, 2 H, 2/1 R/ER, BB, 5.40 era, 2:4
Edgar Alfonzo 1.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1/2 BB/K, HR, 3.74 era, 1:2:2
Roy Merritt IP, 4 H, 4/2 R/ER, 4.11 era, 2:1

FSL A+: St. Lucie 3/4/3, Lakeland 5/5/4

The big story tonight was Billy Wagner pitching an inning of relief, he threw 10 pitches, 8 strikes, and struck out a pair in a perfect 7th. The bounceback is almost as important, so how Wagner feels tomorrow will be a key test.

Wagner relieved Tim Stronach, who since his near perfect game/no hitter has turned in 2 less then stellar starts, tonight giving up 5 hits and 4 runs (2 earned) in 6 innings for his 3rd loss. Josh Stinson finished up with 2 innings of hitless relief, around an UER.

The Mets had just 4 hits and 3 walks in the game, while going 0 for 9 with RISP, leaving 7 on base. Kirk Nieuwenhuis (1 for 4, run, K, .251), Zach Lutz (2 for 4, .283) and Francisco Pena (1 for 4, run, .219) had the hits for the Mets.

Hector Pellot 0 for 4, RBI, .259
>>ph Greg Veloz 0 for 1, .233
ss Reese Havens 0 for 3, BB, K, .229
1b Stefan Welch 0 for 4, RBI, .337
rf Carlos Guzman 0 for 2, run, 2 BBs, .258
lf Seth Williams 0 for 3, K, .291
dh Brahiam Maldonado 0 for 3, RBI, K, .248
Tim Stronach 6 IP, 5 H, 4/2 R/ER, 3/3 BB/K, HR, 3.97 era, L (1-3), 8:7:3
BILLY WAGNER IP, 2 Ks, 0.00 era, 1:0:2
Josh Stinson 2 IP, R, 2 Ks, 2.50 era, 3:1:2

SAL A: Savannah 2/7/3, Bowling Green 11/11/1

Lance Hoge got oblierated for 5 runs (4 earned) on 5 hits in 4 innings for the loss tonight, his 2nd, as Savannah gave up 11 runs on 11 hits, 4 walks and 3 errors.

The Gnats had 7 hits and 5 walks, while going just 2 for 11 with RISP. Jefry Marte, in addition to going an 0-fer, also committed his 38th and 39th official errors of the season. Josh Satin (0 for 3, run, 2 BBs, K, .302), and Jordan Abruzzo (0 for 4, 2 Ks, .212) also took 0-fers, while Wilmer had the only multi hit game.

rf Raul Reyes 1 for 3, 2b, 2 BBs, K, .250
ss Wilmer Flores 2 for 4, run, 2 2b (17), RBI (29), K, .281
cf Sean Ratliff 1 for 4, RBI (62), K, .281
1b Eric Campbell 1 for 4, 2b, K, .259
c Jean Luc Blaquiere 1 for 4, 2b, K, .207
lf Joey August 1 for 3, BB, K, .220
Lance Hoge 4 IP, 5 H, 5/4 R/ER, 3 Ks, HR, 6.75 era, L (0-2), 5:4:3
Phillips Orta 2 IP, 2 H, 3/2 R/ER, 2/2 BB/K, 4.66 era, 1:3:2
Tim Smith 2 IP, 3 H, 3/1 R/ER, BB, K, 5.87 era, 3:2:1
Rhiner Cruz IP, H, BB, K, 1.86 era, 0:2:1

Kingsport 10/18/0, Greeneville 2/3/5

This is what happens when the pitching for the Mets shows up, when combined with their powerful offense. Blowout. The Mets, along with their 18 hits, drew 4 walks while going 9 for 19 (.474) with RISP, leaving 9 on base. Alonzo Harris (0 for 5, .305) took the only 0-fer. He, John Semel (1) and Gerad Mochizuki (1) were the only Mets to fail registering a multi hit game.

The beneficiary of the offensive explosion tonight was Eduardo Aldama, who picked up his 3rd win with 5 innings of 3 hit, 2 run ball. Angel Cuan pitched 3 hitless innings in relief, with 6 Ks.

lf John Semel 1 for 5, run, BB, .224
3b Richard Lucas 2 for 2, 3 runs, HR (2), RBI (9), 3 BBs, .417
1b Jeff Flagg 2 for 5, run, RBI, 2 Ks, .331
dh RJ Harris 4 for 5, run, HR (3), 3 RBI (17), .274
rf Cesar Puello 2 for 5, run, RBI (13), .289
c John Freeman 3 for 5, run, 2b, RBI, K, .165
cf Pedro Zapata 3 for 5, run, 2b (3), 2 RBI (7), K, .343
ss Gerad Mochizuki 1 for 5, run, 2b, RBI, 2 Ks, .209
Eduardo Aldama 5 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1/7 BB/K, HR, 5.17 era, W (3-0), 6:2:7
Angel Cuan 3 IP, 1/6 BB/K, 3.64 era, 1:2:6
Zach Von Tersch IP, K, 6.75 era, 0:2:1

We’re less than two hours aways from the end of the trade deadline and not a peep from Omar and the Mets, worse yet not even a tweet.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today has tweeted:

The Red Sox are about to acquire Victor Martinez from Indians

This has been confirmed by MLB Network.

I’m surprised that Victor Martinez isn’t a Met. He seems to fit the mold of everything the Mets could use right now.

• He can catch and play first base.
• He’s a switch hitter who makes great contact and has a high OBP.
• Has a great line drive swing with good power that would play well at CitiField.
• He’s a team leader with a bulldog mentality.
• He comes with a 2010 option for a mere $7 million dollars.

Too bad…

After the Mets started the second half of the season by losing 3 of 4 to Atlanta, and then 2 of 3 to Washington, I felt that the season was pretty much over. If the fat lady wasn’t singing, she sure was humming pretty loud. Then the Mets went down to Houston, to play the Astros. An Astros team that had been playing pretty good baseball. A team that was at the .500 mark when the Mets came to town. Then much to my surprise the Mets took 2 of 3 from the Astros. Including an unusual comeback from behind win on Sunday.

Heading into the Rockie series, and this home stand, I felt that for the Mets, the playoffs had begun. While its way to early to write off the division title, its more than likely the Mets will have to settle for the wild card if they want to make the playoffs. To win the wild card, the Mets still have some heavy lifting to do. They have a bunch of teams to climb over, and of course they need to continue to play the way they played these last six games. For now, for the Mets its all about winning series. Splitting the four games with the wild card leader Rockies would not have been acceptable. The Mets need to gain ground, not tread water.

Looking at the upcoming schedule, the Arizona Diamondbacks are in for four games this weekend and Monday. The Mets need to take three of these games. The Cardinals are in for two midweek, before the Mets head out west to see San Diego and Arizona. Again we’ll take what we can against the Redbirds, but the Mets need to dominate the Padres and D’Backs next week.

We’ve seen just how good this team can play in recent days. Whether it was the embarrassment in Washington, or whether its the fresh energy Jeff Francoeur has injected into the clubhouse, the Mets are once again playing good baseball. But lets not fool ourselves. Last week at this time the Mets looked to be in bad shape. If the Mets have another bad week, it may too late to recover.

One final upbeat note. By the time the Mets return from the west coast trip, we should have a real idea of when Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Delgado are expected to be back. Wouldn’t it be great to have those three guys back when the Mets return to play their NL East rivals?

The Mets look good. They look re-energized. LETS GO METS!!

Tonight is my last Game Preview/Write-Up for probably close to two weeks. I’ll be heading out to California for my honeymoon early tomorrow morning. We’ll get to see at least 2 Mets games out in San Diego on Friday & Saturday (7^th and 8^th). Enough about me, let’s talk about tonight’s game! 

You know, my biggest fear for tonight’s game is that maybe the Mets have been playing so well because they were trying to send a message to management that with a little bit of help, they could get to the playoffs. If that is the case, they could be a little disappointed now that Santa Minaya left them coal in their trade deadline stocking. This team has always seemed to react poorly to bad injury news, take the Nieve injury as a great example. Today, Jose Reyes had a setback (again), according to Jerry Manuel during his pre-game media report. Apparently Reyes was unable to run the bases hard, even though he was expected to be able to do so by now.

The way I see it, by August 14^th when the Mets play San Francisco they HAVE to have gone at least 9-4 in the next 13 games in order to have a realistic shot at the playoffs. 

So they begin their 13 game journey with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks were blessed with a much needed day off yesterday, while the Mets had to fight through a tough double-header.

Lefty Doug Davis will take the mound for Arizona. For a guy with a 5-10 record, Doug Davis is having a pretty decent year. His last start was a strong 6 inning performance in which he struck out 8 batters, walked 3, and gave up no runs on 5 hits to the Altoona Curve (I mean, Pittsburgh Pirates.) A nice little positive is the team that just left Citi Field in a hurry, absolutely rocked Davis on July 20^th for 8 earned runs in just 2.1 innings pitched. However, the Mets don’t exactly have the best history against Davis. Between Wright, Francoeur, Castillo and Pagan, they are a combined 5 for 35 lifetime against Davis. 

Livan Hernandez will hope to pick the Mets back up against after a tough 4-2 loss to the Rockies last night. Hernandez is coming off two straight wins, with his last performance in Houston being credited by some as the spark this club needed. Hernandez has to stop donating runs to the opposition in the first inning. It’s eerily familiar to the way Pedro Martinez used to pitch towards the tail-end of his Mets days. To Hernandez’s credit, after surrendering 3 runs to Houston, he only allowed 4 hits in the remaining 6 innings while striking out 8 batters and walking none.

The Diamondbacks haven’t seen Hernandez quite as much as the Mets have seen Davis, most likely because Hernandez obviously was a Diamondback for some of 2006, and all of 2007. However, between Upton, Drew, and Reynolds, they are a combined 3 for 9 against Hernandez. Only 2 less hits in 26 less at bats than the Mets have against Davis.    

In the last 8 games against one another, the series has been split 4-4, with each team winning the game, following a loss. One stat that Mets fans will love is that Arizona is just 5-18 in the last 23 road games Davis has started. One stat that Mets fans won’t love is that the Mets are just 2-6 in Livan’s last 8 starts.

OVER/UNDER RUNS: I was off last night with the over. Tonight’s line is 9 runs. I’m going to go against the odds and take the OVER. (Season Record 1-1)

METS POTG: I’m not a huge Livan Hernandez supporter lately, however, he does seem to fair pretty well against young lineups that love to just hack away. Arizona is 3^rd in team strikeouts. 

KEEP AN EYE ON: Mark Reynolds can really hurt you if you make a mistake. Reynolds has 28 HR, 68 RBI, and is 7^th in slugging in the National League. The stat Mets fans want to hear? He’s 1^st in all of baseball in strikeouts. Still, if Hernandez has his 1^st inning melt-down, Reynolds will likely be smack dab in the middle of it. Last night I was dead on with Barmes, tonight let’s hope I’m wrong!

I’LL BE DRINKING A: Water? My flight is crazy early in the morning, as if an 8 hour flight weren’t bad enough, imagine it with a hangover! Maybe if I’m lucky there’s apple juice in the house? Who doesn’t love the combination of apple juice and Mets games? 

Enjoy the Game(s), I’ll be back in two weeks or so. Let’s Go Mets!

Was Jarrod Washburn on your wish list of cheap players the Mets could or should have gotten today? If so, cross him off.

According to ESPN.com, he has been traded to the Detroit Tigers for 23 year old left handed starter Luke French, and pitching prospect Mauricio Robles.

At 34 years old, Washburn is having a career year for the Mariners posting an 8-6 record with a 2.64 ERA paired nicely with a 1.07 WHIP.

Today is one of the biggest days of the regular baseball season for baseball junkies like me; the trade deadline. I always enjoyed this time of the season because it had that hot stove feel to it. But now, with the advent of social networking sites like Twitter, I have a non-stop stream of information and unfortunately misinformation too depending on your take of it.

I used to enjoy sifting through all these little nuggets of rumors and speculation that usually run rampant in the days leading up to the 4:00 PM deadline, but it’s gotten quite overwhelming in the last two years. I really don’t mind the rumors that have some tinge of truth attached to them, but sometimes things can get very silly.

We had a catcher get the day off this week after a night game, and suddenly the prevailing wisdom means that they are on the verge of being traded. A minor league player gets pulled out of the lineup because he has stomach cramps, and the internet is abuzz with more trade rumors. A team demotes a player without announcing a corresponding move and all of a sudden it means that they opened up a spot for a big trade acquisition. Believe it or not, the examples I cited are real and all were centered around our New York Mets.

I don’t mind grasping my teeth into a trade rumor from Jon Heyman or Ken Rosenthal or Joel Sherman, but these days everyone seems to be an expert. <sigh>

I credit Andrew Vazzano of The ‘Ropolitans for this pre-blog rant He had an interesting post this morning that really goes to the heart of the matter and further explains why more and more baseball fans are getting turned off by the rampant speculation. But then, my friend tells me last night, how he loves all of it and doesn’t mind knowing that half of what he reads is BS. So I’m like whatever dude. I guess it comes down to the old adage, to each his own.

* * * * * * * * * * *

As for my Mets, here we are at this critical point in time, and we have yet to fully understand what our role is today. That of sellers or buyers. Omar Minaya has maintained all along that the Mets were buyers, but so far all we’ve see is a couple of “alleged” rejections for Roy Halladay and Victor Martinez. Some may say it’s bogus, but Omar himself said yesterday that he has already turned down trades for big players, so who really knows.

All I can really tell you is what I believe the Mets should do.

To begin, we can’t give up on this season. We must forge ahead even if the odds are dramatically against us. I refuse to waive a white flag and surrender.

To those of you who want to stand pat, and I know it’s most of my commenters, please don’t tell me that one player or one trade can’t help the Mets or make a difference. I’ve already seen the difference one player can make when we got Francoeur, and he was just supposed to be a project at best.

My biggest concern is this incredible infatuation everyone has with our Class-A and Class-AA prospects. They are prospects and not even great ones at that. We have nobody leading their respective leagues in homers or RBI’s or ERA or Wins. That’s not to say that leading the league is a barometer for success, just an observation. Our top prospects are still suspect and considered projects at this point. I keep hearing that Omar refuses to mortgage the future. What future? Getting Roy Halladay improves our future, not deadens it.

What exactly are we protecting? Our farm system hasn’t produced a Mets 20 game winner since Frank Viola last did it in 1990, and he was traded for. You have to go all the way back to Dwight Gooden for a homegrown 20 game winner. We haven’t produced an outfielder who could give us a 30 homerun season in two decades.

The Mets seriously need to add a solid top of the rotation starter to pair with Santana for the rest of this season and for 2010. Giving up a few prospects so that we can achieve that is a small price to pay. The Blue Jays say that they’ve decided to keep Halladay, but I don’t believe that for one second.

The Mets could also use a big bat who can play leftfield and first base. I don’t want to hear about all of this Dan Murphy mumbo jumbo. Murphy is destined to be a designated hitter and has little power. Injuries to others is the only reason Murphy continues to keep a spot on a major league roster. Last time I checked, he ranked 29 among all 30 starting first basemen.

I have written extensively about him before, and I still believe that Mark Teahen of the Royals, would be a fine addition for this team. It looks like the Cubs are closing in on him, but it’s not too late for the Mets to intervene.

Most of the prospects Minaya wants to hang on to, are years away from contributing to the Mets, if they even make it at all. So few of them actually ever do.

My trade deadline wish list, is short and oh so sweet. Get Mark Teahen and Roy Halladay on this team, and we’ll have another World Series title we can all treasure.

Lets not waste the opportunity we have before us. We have a chance to be the miracle Mets once again. Waiting for the walking wounded to return is not a plan that helps this team right now. We have just 61 games left to play. The season is winding down fast, and the Mets need to intervene now and give Jerry Manuel the weapons to continue this fight and see it through to the end.

The Mets lost the second game of the day-night doubleheader last night by the final score of 4-2, preventing them from completing a four-game sweep over the Colorado Rockies. Despite the loss, they still took three out of four games in the series, which was crucial as the Rockies are one of the teams the Mets are pursuing for the National League Wild Card berth.  Even though they recently won five straight, some people remain skeptical about the Mets’ chances to win the Wild Card.  It wasn’t too long ago that another team was sloshing their way through the season, an afterthought when the Wild Card standings were posted.  Remember the 2007 Rockies?  The Mets sure do.

While the Mets were focusing on the Phillies in the National League East race in 2007, the Rockies kept passing everyone in the Wild Card race.  The Wild Card was never an option for the Mets until the Phillies knocked them out of first place.  By then, the Rockies and Padres had both compiled a better record than the Mets and they ended up in third place in the Wild Card standings.

The Mets now stand at 49-52.  Seven teams stand between the Mets and the top of the Wild Card leader board.  However, the Mets are within 2½ games of three of those teams.  The 2007 Rockies were 51-50 at the same point of the season.  In fact, as late as August 23, Colorado still had five teams ahead of them in the standings and on September 1, they were six games out of the Wild Card lead.  No one expected them to make any noise in September, but they did just that.  After September 1, they went 21-7 to take the National League Wild Card spot and continued their hot streak all the way to the World Series.

The Rockies were always a good hitting team, but their pitching and defense were a different story.  Then they went on a roll in September because their pitching came together to put together a lengthy stretch of quality performances and their defense became as close to perfect as possible.  The Rockies committed only seven errors in the 28 games after September 1.  In fact, the Rockies set a major league record in 2007 with their .98925 fielding percentage, just barely erasing the 2006 Boston Red Sox from the record books (.98910 fielding percentage).  Who held the old National League fielding percentage record?  The team with the best infield defense ever; the 1999 New York Mets (.98875 fielding percentage).  If I remember correctly, that team also won the National League Wild Card berth.  Are we beginning to see a connection?

The 2009 Mets have been criticized by many for their lack of big bats and inconsistent pitching.  They also played subpar defense in the first half of the season.  Now the Mets have won five of their last six games and are making some noise in the Wild Card standings.  Over the past 17 games, the Mets have given up three runs or less 10 times.  Over the same stretch, they have made only seven errors.

Daniel Murphy has settled in nicely at first base after looking foolish in left field.  Luis Castillo has recovered since juggling a win away at Yankee Stadium.  Other guys filling in for injured players (Alex Cora, Angel Pagan, Cory Sullivan) have been consistenly good in the field.  No one is embarrassing the team defensively.  Here’s one way to know that a team is playing solid defense.  When was the last time we saw Jerry Manuel bring in a defensive replacement in the late innings to help preserve a victory?  He doesn’t need to because the players have settled in well at their positions.

Sometimes, the schedule maker also plays a role in a team’s Wild Card chances.  Starting with tonight’s game, 11 of the next 13 games are against the Diamondbacks and Padres.  Those two teams are a combined 35 games under .500 (85-120).  That’ll be the first opportunity to pass a few teams ahead of them.  They also won’t have to do as much scoreboard watching as you would expect, as the teams ahead of the Mets in the standings are coming to them.  After their two-week Diamondback/Padre diet ends, the Mets will play 34 of their final 47 games against teams that are currently ahead of them in the Wild Card standings.  This includes a stretch from late August to early September where they play 15 consecutive games against said teams.  The pessimist will say this is where the Mets will come back to earth.  The optimist (that would be me) will say that the Mets’ recent resurgence has been against the Astros and Rockies, two teams that the Mets are currently chasing.  They’re building confidence by beating these supposedly better teams that they can use in their favor when they play the other teams ahead of them in the Wild Card chase.

It’s time to break out the Magic 8-Ball again.  I took it out earlier this season to see if Omar Minaya would make some trades.  Now let’s ask it if the Mets have a chance to win the Wild Card.  Magic 8-Ball, based on the arguments I’ve presented today, what do you say about the possibilities of a Wild Card in the Mets’ future?

Now you know why I like to bring out the Magic 8-ball occasionally.  It always seems to give me answers I can smile about.

Are the Mets getting consistently good pitching?  Check.  Are they playing good defense?  Check.  Are they winning?  Check.  If teams won championships with their hitting being the main weapon, the Texas Rangers would have had a dynasty by now and the Yankees would have won more championships since 2000 than the zero they currently have since that year.  Sure, hitting helps, but it doesn’t win championships on its own.  When a team has hitting in conjunction with good pitching and stellar defense, that team can boast having something truly special.  The Mets might have something truly special when Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado return to the lineup to help the guys who have already begun to hit, second game of the doubleheader notwithstanding.  They’re already getting better pitching and defense.  If they can keep that going when the core hitters come back, the Mets might be passing quite a few teams on the Wild Card Expressway.  Honk, honk!  We’re coming through!