Seeya Next Year Brewers

The season is now two thirds over. I’m not going to bother doing projections, as that doesn’t matter anymore. The home stretch has arrived, and the Mets are in first. All that matters from now until October first is how well they play. Now how well, or badly, they played. I still strongly believe the Mets are better than the Phillies or Braves, and we now have 54 games left and the Braves and Phillies are playing with a four loss handicap.

The Mets again haven’t been playing like last year, and I really think it’s time for people to forget about last year. Not to quite 2005 or anything, but next year is now. This isn’t the same team as last year, but that’s not a bad thing; the Mets didn’t win last year. They had a rough middle, and have only gradually recovered from that. They’re only as far in first place as they were on June first before they went into their tailspin. They’re winning though. They find ways to win when it matters, even when they aren’t playing at their best. People predicted they’d have a tough stretch against the Dodgers and Padres, and they won four of seven. Sure that’s not terrific, but it’d win the NLCS against either of those teams. This Milwaukee and Chicago trip is supposed to tough too, but they beat the Brewers two of three and four of six despite Oliver Perez pitching weakly and Brian Lawerence starting today. The only game they squandered was Glavine’s attempted 300^th win and it took the Brewers 13 innings to get their only win of the series.

The Cubs are the hottest team in baseball right now, so we’ll see how the Mets handle them. Maybe facing a tough hot team will spark them to be hot themselves. The Mets have actually been getting better with runners in scoring position, with runners on third, and with two outs. They have some injuries, but no one’s going to be out all season. Beltran, Pedro, Lo Duca will all probably be back and very healthy by the playoffs. Really healthy. Beltran will probably be able to rest all his sore muscles while on the DL, Pedro will return nice and healthy and stronger than ever. Lo Duca will return, and hopefully these days off will also help him be productive. Plus I think Willie finally realizes what a commodity Ramon Castro is, and hopefully will use him more appropriately.

I was getting a little down earlier last month with the way the Mets seemed to be playing, but I feel good now. I see a lot of good in the Mets future, and I can’t wait to get my playoff tickets. As for the Braves and Phillies? Well maybe the Falcons or Eagles will still be in it this October.