The All Star Break, baseball’s hallway point of a long 162 game season, is finally upon us and for the first time since 2010 the Mets remain in the hunt for October baseball as they go into a much needed four day rest.
A season that was destined with so much promise and hope has fallen into a whirlwind of unpredictable circumstances topped off by the injury bug, extreme hitting droughts, and a call for the manager’s head.
It’s been three months of highs and lows, grief and exhilaration, and with everything the Mets have been through one would expect them to be looking forward to next season and a top draft pick.
But thanks to our elite-level pitching and a fighting attitude the Mets find themselves just two games out of first place in the NL East and only a single game behind the Cubs for the second Wild Card spot.
After series victories vs. the Dodgers and Giants and a sweep of the Diamondbacks we truly saw what the Mets are capable of. The pitching is there, it’s been there since day one, but we got a glimpse of what these guys can do when a little confidence rolls their way.
The Mets are an amazing 34-5 when scoring four or more runs in a game. Just think about that… for starters it shows just how darn good the pitching has been, but it also tells us that the Mets are not even close to reaching their full potential on the offensive side of the ball. If the poise and big hits from the past three series comes into play in the second half who knows what thsee Mets can be capable of. They could be dangerous.
Michael Cuddyer and Lucas Duda are the leading candidates the Mets need to break out during the second half. Both have been swinging the bats well of late including a few home runs against the Diamondbacks, and both are much better than their .244 and .243 averages respectively say.
Wilmer Flores has re-emerged onto the scene of late after his bat had gone invisible for weeks. Flores had 3 plus hits in every game against the Dodgers and continued the hot hitting into the break to raise his average to .252.
With those three guys leading the charge the rest of the team should follow, led by the veteran presence of Daniel Murphy who is looking like the Murph of last year after a three-week stint on the disabled list.
At some point the Mets will get back Travis d’Arnaud, whose brief stint back with the team showed just how valuable his bat is to the lineup. Plus there is a slim hope that David Wright resumes baseball activities that he can get back into the lineup and be a driving force perhaps as soon as August.
With Jon Niese extending his quality start streak to seven, the longest of his career, I think it’s safe to say that unless Niese is dealt at the end of July he has solidified his spot in the Mets rotation even once Steven Matz returns.
With the innings limits on Matz, Harvey, Syndergaard and deGrom, being something to watch in the second half, it will be interesting to see how Terry Collins plays with his rotation if the Mets continue to fight for a playoff spot down the stretch.
Collins is assured to have a strong backend of the bullpen for the second half with Jenrry Mejia making his return in Sunday’s victory. The way Bobby Parnell and Jeurys Familia have been throwing the ball of late, if Mejia can find his way back to the form he showed last season, one of the best pitching staffs in the league will be able to confidently hand the ball over to one of the leagues best back ends of the bullpen.
The Mets will play 32 of their remaining 74 games against opponents with above .500 records. So although they have to go up against the Cardinals, Dodgers, Pirates, and multiple series with the Nationals they also will play their fair share of losing teams.
But as the old saying goes you have to beat the best to be the best. The World Series favorite Washington Nationals can’t afford to still have the Mets on their tail come September, so we must keep the pressure on them.
The Nats and the rest of the league know how invincible the Mets could be with just some average offense. That was quite evident over the last nine games against the league’s top two offenses and the reigning world series champs.
This Mets team has a huge amount of potential. Yes, this team has been notorious for their second half slumps and collapses, but watch out because these aren’t those same old Mets. These are a young, exciting, new group of guys who can fight until the very last out of the game. These guys are hungry and they each have each others backs.
Don’t be surprised if the Mets are in this thing for the long haul because it’s baseball and just about anything can and always does happen.
