Happy Saturday Mets fans and welcome to another installment of Hot or Not! This week turned out to be quite interesting for our Mets, as they saw Willie Randolph and two of their coaches get fired. Interim manager Jerry Manuel declared he was a gangsta and then guided our Mets to a .500 record for the first time in two weeks. We also climbed into sole possession of third place, gained in on Philly and Florida and widened the gap between 3rd and 4th place.

Hot as Fire
Carlos Beltran: Big C is back and he’s ready to roll (this time)! He’s batting a .390 in his last 10 games and has 11 RBI in the same time span. His average rose to a .315 on the month and a .277 on the season. He’s actually starting to look like a clean up hitter and I sincerely hope he keeps it up.

Jose Reyes: Jose is also back and ready to roll. Kudos to Jerry Manuel for taking him out on Tuesday; we could have lost one of our key players to the DL but we didn’t. He’s hitting a .325 on the month but the stolen base total is down. It may be because he wasn’t getting on base before. It may be because he’s getting smarter at reading the pitchers. Whatever it is, Jose is doing what every catalyst should do–get on base.

Most Improved
I’m going to stick two pitchers in this category. John Maine let the first two batters he faced score last night, but that was it. After 3 shaky starts, Maine was effective enough to keep his team in the game. He needs to work on his pitch count; I wouldn’t say Dan Wharten has his work cut out for him, but the Maine Man could certainly use a few tips. Aaron Heilman has also been effective as of late. After letting off 4 runs on May 30, Heilman has been lights out with one or two little slip-ups.

Not at All
David Wright: Okay, so D-Wright appears on this part of the column for the second week in a row. With numerous 1-for and 0-for games, I don’t think it’s anything David is or isn’t doing; I simply think fatigue is getting the best of him. Do the Wright thing Jerry: rest him!

Carlos Delgado: Okay, I am aware Delgado homered yesterday and he has put up some numbers as of late. Going 1-13 in the Anaheim series didn’t help his cause. He is hitting for average in the month of June (batting a .275 on the month) but in the last 10 games, he is hitting a .214 with 6 RBI. Delgado is certainly not worse than before, but his performance last week was better. Hopefully he continues to improve so I don’t have to put him on my not list (again).

Next week, the Mets face the MLB’s worst Seattle Mariners at Shea and then play 4 games in the final Subway Series at Shea. Keep the faith Mets fans! Things are getting better!