I have officially given up on the All-Star Game. Corey Hart gets more votes than David Wright!? What?! Carlos Beltran is having a better year than Corey Hart and he didn’t even get a Final Vote nod. Now, Ryan, before you continue your “Rick Ankiel is a better Center Fielder than Beltran” load of BS, let’s first compare “All-Star” Corey Hart. Beltran- 65 R..14 HR…63 RBI…14 SB.. .265 AVG. Hart- 47 R…15 HR.. 57 RBI…13 SB.. .292 AVG. Kosuke- forget him his stats hardly compare to either of these guys. And to prove my point to Ryan….Rick Ankiel (yeah former pitcher…story to be a movie someday) 50 R.. 19 HR..  46 RBI..  2 SB.. .262 AVG. Jose Reyes not better than Miguel Tejada and Christian Guzman? Please. David Wright, you are victim of a serious misfortune. But I am not naive as to how this came to pass. The Mets, up to now, have not come together as a team and played good baseball. We fans have been disappointed and now have to own up to the fact that we did not support our All-Star calliber players. But hey, now our players have a few days off and hopefully we can keep some of this momentum and make our push for the division.
With that being said, we need a corner outfielder!!! Alou going down with a hamstring hurts, but Church out again with post-concussion syndrome. This is scary. Not only because Church has been, when healthy, our most consistent hitter and the team needs him now, but because of what this means for his career. I hope this clears up for him.
We need someone to play outfield now! I love Tatis and Endy, but we need a guy who can do what they are doing on a daily basis. Nick Evans just does not look natural out there…yet. Let him develop more and he could become a good player. Where the heck did Argenis Reyes come from? I like him, but again, he’s young. We need a veteran presence and I believe Omar is going to be working hard over the next few days.
However, despite those misfortunes. The Mets swept the Giants…in a big way! They’re  starting to play like we’ve known that they could. I love it and I want to see them keep it up now that the defending NL champs are coming to Shea. 

“YA GOTTA BELIEVE!”
I know I have been very critical of the mets so far this season. Who hasn’t been? That’s because this team has talent! Fernando Tatis gets player of the week for me. I love seeing these sorts of players coming through. This was pre-blog, but his hit in extra innings against the marlins had me in tears of joy. Last night…2 rbi HR in the twelfth!!! Tonight he played very well. This guy played in AAA New Orleans last year. He didn’t make the team out of spring training (thanks to Pagan), but has been given a chance this year. His average is creeping up and he’s getting some playing time (thanks to mr. alou). I love seeing this. He has been given a chance to play in the freaking major leagues. How many people get that chance in the first place? That chance is huge. I’m sick of players getting second chances and blowing it. Tatis has hit a few dry spells, but I am very pleased with what I have been seeing.
Which brings me to Mr. Damion Easley. He is making me miss Luis Castillo less and less every day. I like Luis Castillo. But he is not play ing his best. He knows it. We fans have been keen to point it out. And thankfully Jerry Manuel is aware of it. Kudos to him about doing something about it. And Easley is contributing to some Mets wins. I like the way he plays.
I was going to talk about Mets catchers today…but I’m going to call it a night. I’ll get to that!
PS- John Maine…You’re my favorite Met pitcher and you stopped signing balls like 5 feet away from me in St. Louis. I was very sad.

I am very glad that I was treated to the 2008 Mets brand of baseball tonight against St. Louis. Uninspired and sloppy. This is getting absolutely ridiculous. Unacceptable errors against a great team. That makes me sick. And I put my foot in my mouth and cursed John Maine. These guys need to prove to us that they are at least making an effort out there. It’s like if they’re not in the mood to play, then they roll over and die. Not even a notion of a comeback.  

I have decided since many of my groans over the Mets’ up and down season has been going unheard that I am going to start a Mets Blog. Today is a good day to begin because the Mets and Cardinals begin a 4 game series in St. Louis. This series is always big for me because I am constantly surrounded by Cardinals fans, and I hate the Cardinals with a fiery, intense passion. I drive home listening to Mike Shannon’s play-by-play hoping that the Cardinals lose almost every day. I don’t exactly know why I hate the cardinals so much, but I do. Yeah… the 2006 NLCS broke my heart in a big way, but I hated them before that. I don’t mind the Cubbies so much. I might as well say that I am far too big of a fan to give any unbiased information so my likings and dislikings in baseball are far from rational most of the time. At any rate, the Cardinals are a hell of a lot better team than the Mets currently this year so we’ll see how pissed off I am by the end of this week.
The Mets are coming off a big win yesterday thanks to Ollie Perez thus constituting a season series win over the Yankees. Could this possibly start the momentum that we Mets fans have been hoping for since last year? We’ll see. Winning is therapeutic…we’ve been hearing this all season. So let’s get some wins before we go into Philladelphia. Winning against the hot Cardinals could be just what we need to finally get the Mets rolling! It would lift my spirits and raise my hopes to turn around and salvage whats left of this season…which is a lot! 3 games back with half a season left! Things could be looking up for Manuel’s Mets. We won yesterday. Ryan Church is back and says he’s actually feeling god this time. We need this guy healthy. We’ve gotten very little production from our outfield and it has killed us. Carlos Delgado is starting to hit for some power. Our bullpen has finally received the set roles that they have been asking for over a year.
And I really am starting to like our starting pitching. Johan needs some runs. I am sick of him keeping the Mets in the game and receiving no run support. Who couldn’t like what we saw from Ollie yesterday, but his inconsistency drives us all nuts. But man is he entertaining! My wife will drop what she’s doing just to watch his at bats. They’re hysterical. I really think Warthen’s tweak in the rotation is going to pay off. Separating Johan and Perezs’ starts is an obviously smart move. Pelfrey is working himself into my heart. I have loved seeing him finally succeed. This guy could have a solid career…but I think he’s going to have to develope a better second pitch. However, his fastball has been working lately so I’d like him to stick close to that startegy of getting batters out this season. Pedro. I don’t know what to say after these last couple of starts. I think he will come around though. As the season progresses, so will Pedro. And John Maine. I believe in John Maine. His starts really excite me. He has the ability to really keep us in the game and our offense needs to take advantage of this fact. Tonight he goes up against Kyle Lohse. I want him to get a win. Lohse picked up a no-decision in his last start against the Tigers, so they say he’s due for a win. I would really like to see Maine subdue the Cardinal offense and keep us in the game. For me…Let’s go Mets!