When Terry Collins was asked to comment about Daniel Murphy’s outrageous decision to steal third base last night, he called it an “error of enthusiasm”.

As a matter of fact, this team suffers from a “lack of enthusiasm”. They take the field like a team that expects to lose. The worst that can possibly happen – the worst possible outcome – finds the Mets time and time again. Wherever they go, a black cloud follows them.

They play tight. They are unsure of themselves. They often choke. They squirm under pressure. There are no simple plays for them in the field… Every grounder, popup and flyball causes us to hold our breath and hope it’s not another misplay.

These Mets are way off. Something in their DNA is just out of whack. It’s unexplainable and maddeningly inexplicable. It’s just wrong – all wrong.

Every post game interview, is eerily similar to what we heard in 2009 and 2010. You can hear what David Wright is going to say even before reporters get their questions out. It’s the same old song but with each new season Wright has more lines on his forehead.

The Spring Training mantras of “We’ll play harder” and “We’ll be better”? We’ve heard it all before. The Mets are not playing harder and they are not playing better.

We overturned half of the roster… That’s a lot of new faces… But clearly, this team is worse than anything we’ve seen before in the last half decade.

The Mets have the worst record in the National League. Worse than the Pittsburgh Pirates… And worse than the Houston Astros – who cant wait to play this Mets team after the Braves series concludes later today – the ‘Stros are licking their chops.

Not much is going right for this team… Unless you want to count Jose Reyes who is in the top five in the majors in about a half a dozen offensive categories and leads the Mets in batting, OPS, hits, runs, doubles, triples, stolen bases, etc. The trouble is that Jose Reyes may not even be back next season. With every ESPN Web Gem, his value keeps sky-rocketing and I have no doubt that Charlie Manuel dreams of him as his leadoff hitter on Opening Day in 2012. Could you imagine that?

Some of the new faces that were supposed to come in and improve this team are either already gone, on the disabled list, or just wasting a precious roster spot.

Even if you wanted to shift gears and call this a rebuilding year, most of the better prospects aren’t here getting any MLB experience, even though some of them would be an improvement over the current cast of dead wood.

So instead we tarry on with a listless and lifeless team, with no direction and no idea of who or what they are. The situation is murky at best,

If you’re looking for a bright spot, I don’t have one for you. If I somehow missed one, please feel free to point it out, because from where I’m standing it’s all looking very bleak.