Some analysts like to size up the Mets every which way to Sunday. Batting with runners on base, in scoring position, in road uniforms, in hot weather… you get the picture.

Mention the words heart or worse yet clutch, and get ready for an avalanche of Harvard Law School jargon and Bill James inspired anagrams and formulas.

Lets talk about the Mets hitting or lack of it or…

What’s going on here, almost everyone in the lineup is batting over .300?

Carlos Beltran and Luis Castillo are the top two hitters in the National League?

How do the Mets have seven starters hitting over .300 and still struggle to score runs?

Don’t like batting average? How can the Mets have four of the top five guys in the lineup with an on-base percentage over .415 and still fail to score runs?

Is their a statistic out there that can solve this perplexing puzzle?

Or are the Mets a prime example of what baseball traditionalists would say is a lack of being clutch?

The Mets are third in the league in batting average and yet they are 11th in the league in runs scored.

They are second to last in the league in homeruns with nine, only the Giants are worse with seven.  

The Mets are last in the league in stolen base percentage… LAST!

You hear all this talk from the statistically inspired that stolen bases don’t win games and homeruns don’t add up to wins and maybe their right, but I gotta believe that there must be some room for a reasonable doubt?

Jerry Manuel sure sounded like he was accusing David Wright of not being clutch last night during his post-game. So whether or not you believe in such things as swagger or being clutch, the man calling the shots for the Mets certainly subscribes to those attributes.

I agree that you can’t measure things like being clutch or having swagger, but does everything have to be measurable to be believable?

Is their no more room in baseball for things like hope, faith, hunches, feelings and believing?

Has the national pastime been reduced to the same statistical computations and permutations that make up your average baseball video game?

I don’t think so…

The human heart and spirit is still alive and well and it’s because of those two elements that the games have to be played to determine the true champion.

The Mets find themselves in their present quandary not because they lack heart or spirit, but because until now their opponents have had more of it. It’s immeasurable, but it’s also undeniable.