The Wright Stuff!
THE WRIGHT STUFF
As of the 28th of April the New York Mets have a record of 13-11. This might not be the kind of start that many Mets fans would have liked to see after the first month of season, especially after horrendous end to last year. This record puts the Mets 1 ½ games behind first place Florida, which shouldn’t worry anyone just yet. What they should worry about is that this team faces a bunch of problems. The Mets seem to have been hit by the injury bug early in the season, Pedro, Alou, and Castro just to name a few are currently on the DL. Slumping slugger Carlos Delgado has not been a fan favorite, Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran have been off to a slow start, which is why they are in the bottom third of the league in runs scored. But even with all the problems and question marks the Mets are still right there and have plenty of time to right the ship and try to get back to their ’06 form. For now let’s try to stay away from the traditional negative outlook Mets fans seem to always have and take a look at the positives of the first month.
The trade in the winter with the Washington Nationals that sent Lastings Milledge to the Nats in exchange for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider has turned out to be an excellent trade for the Mets.
Church has been the most consistent player on the team. He leads the team with 20 runs and has 16 RBI’s second only to David Wright 21 RBI’s. Many said Church couldn’t hit lefties, this year you wouldn’t think that. Against LHP Church is hitting .364 with a .432 OBP and .576 SLG, also both his home runs have come off a lefty.
Schneider has also been a pleasant surprise for the Mets. Before going down to injury Schneider was batting .309, well above his career average and had been calling a good game behind the plate.
The prize off-season acquisition Johan Santana has been terrific. Despite one bad start against the Brewers Santana has been money in the bank. He is pitching to a 3.12 ERA with a WHIP of 0.92 and 32 Ks. Santana looks like he is everything he the Mets wanted.
Wagner earned his sixth save in six opportunities Sunday, but his streak of hitless innings ended with an opposite-field single to right with one out in the ninth. The bullpen in general has been pretty good for the Mets so far aside from couple hick ups (Aaron Heilman) here and there. Sanchez is back and is pitching really well not allowing a run so far this season.So not all is bad in Flushing, the Amazins are still one of the better teams in the National League and should compete all year long.
A LOOK AHEAD
The Mets this week will finish off their current home stand against the Pittsburgh Pirates, before heading off to Arizona and Los Angeles. This will be the final trip to Shea for the Pirates who were the Mets first ever opponent in Queens 44 years ago. Pittsburgh beat the Amazins 4-3 on April 17, 1964 in the first ever game at Shea, the Mets came back two days later to shut the Pirates out, 6-0, for their first ever home win at Shea.
This entry was posted on 30. April 2008 at 22:57 and is filed under Mets, MLB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.
