24 Games Down, What Do We Know?

Last night was my first game of the season at Citi Field and represented 30 years of going to games with my Dad, that's a pretty solid streak if I say so myself.  A more modest one came to an end last night as the Mets 3 game winning streak was snapped in a come from behind extra inning loss to the Marlins.  Normally a game like this would distress me more but a win today is another series win for the Mets and considering the doom and gloom predictions by many of the New York media pundits this has been a pretty solid campaign so far.

The negatives are wide ranging of course.  Granderson has yet to do anything but play hard, he hit into some bad luck again last night, but I remain confident he will turn it around and be an offensive force (this is not Jason Bay, I swear!).  The bullpen scares the ever loving excrement out of me.  With a dearth of young yet unproven arms and three veterans who are trying to resurrect their respective careers this rendition of the Mets pen is rife for failure.  They have pitched well of late and haven't repeated the disaster of opening weekend since (although last nights go ahead homer allowed by Farnsworth may qualify).  The offense still struggles to produce.  All too often men are left in scoring position with less than two outs.  Those runs last night would have changed the game and the team could have absorbed the 5 run sixth inning and still won.  This team is in desperate need of another bat, Wright has been ok, Murph has hit but is by no means a clean-up hitter and as mentioned earlier Granderson has yet to get off the mat.  D'Arnaud is showing signs and his hustle and heads up play last night will endear him to the fans.  There is a lot of effort but they lack the pay off for that effort as of yet.

The positives include the starting pitchers which have been stellar for the better part of three weeks.  A dud every now and again is par for the course so I tend not to worry, if Gee goes 7 solid for a win today all is well in the world.  The defense has been adequate thus far.  While they aren't the 1999-2000 Mets, they have made the routine play more often than not and have yet to hurt themselves defensively.  Getting Lagares back into the fold will improve that greatly as he may be the best center fielder in baseball (yeah, I said that!).

It was great to be in the ball park last night and I feel like the team is one or two positive moves away from taking off.  One bat, a more reliable bullpen piece and who knows.  Forget ownership and the bullshit they bring to the table.  Leave the constant Matt Harvey drama on the back burner and get behind the team.  Too often we get caught in the mire of what goes on around the team and the focus is off the field and in recent years that was justified, however, this year may be and should be different.  Get on the band wagon bitches!!