You Couldn't Ask for a Better First Week at Shea

I know it's early and I know we've beat up on a couple of shitty teams, but finally it is here... next year is now.

The New Mets are one out away from being 5-0. This despite the fact that Pedro had a bad start and Beltran '06 is still Beltran '05. Other than that, everyone on this team has looked, well, great.

1. The young stars are now just stars.

It took 2 years but the time has finally come. The Mets are David Wright's team. This guy has gotten better with every game. He's hitting about 9000, looks sharp at third and no matter how deferential he is in his interviews, he knows that the team is his.



More impressive though is Jose Reyes. Even last year he was a freak athlete who when he swung the bat, you were worried that he may tear a muscle. This year he looks like a real hitter. He's going deep into counts when he needs to and smoking the ball otherwise.

There is no reason why the two of these guys shouldn't be all stars in 2006 if they can continue to perform as they have this first week.

2. Tom Glavine.

Tom pitched three years at Shea and got off to three bad starts. 2004 wasn't his fault, and actually he had a nice run there in the first half that season. A lack of run support killed his record and confidence, however, and later a cabbie took care of his two front teeth.



But for the first time as a Met Tommy has come out of the chute hot. He's 1-0, 2.25 ERA and more importantly, the Mets are 2-0 in his starts. He looks like the Glavine we saw with the Braves, hitting his spots, dominating the zone. If this guy can be a legit #2, watch out.

3. The bench.

They haven't done anything magical, but this Met bench is extremely solid. Between Castro, Valentin, Franco, Woodward, and Diaz, there isn't an easy out in the bunch. I don't think the Mets have had a bench like this in our lifetimes.

4. The pen.



Sanchez-Heilman-Wagner. It is a luxury to say that the one of that group is the guy in the back of the pen. For all you pro-Heilman-in-the-rotation guys, this is why it made sense to have him in the pen. If Darren Oliver can become reliable against lefties, a big if, then this bullpen will be the first great one since 99-00, the last time we made the playoffs.

5. The D.

Save Jose Reyes in the 9th yesterday and the Mets have looked pretty flawless in the field. Anderson Hernandez is the first guy since Rey Rey to be worth the price of a ticket just to see his glove. More importantly though, Paul Lo Duca is actually a catcher. Man did I love the Monster, but it is a pleasure to watch a guy behind the plate who has a better arm than Young Sip. And the amazing thing is, Lo Duca isn't even considered to be that good defensively.

6. The Kazless Factor

Call it good karma, call it a coincidence. Call it whatever you want.

But has occurred to anyone else that the Mets are winning while Kaz isn't playing? If it weren't for the fact that I really miss his intro music, I would cut the guy tommorow.

7. Optimism at Shea.

There's an energy at Shea unlike anything that I've seen in years. Apparently the energy has finally been caught, three years late.

I think one of the big keys to this season will be Beltran and I think it's great that the crowd has rallied behind him after he was booed mercilessly to start the season. Show the guy some support. Give him the Piazza treatment even if he deserves none of it. We need to get this guy going. Just imagine how scary Beltran-Delgado-Wright could be.

8. Cool Keith calling the games.



Old Mex is just a pleasure. From the constant jokes about his playing days filled with sex, drugs, and alcohol to his outlandish statements about just about everything, it is great to see Cool Keith calling the games on a nightly basis. If only Al didn't jump ship, breaking my heart and so many others.

9. The Yankees stink.

The pitching just isn't there for these guys. 3-5 their rotation just isn't good. Chien Ming Wang isn't Mark Prior despite the handjobs he constantly receives from the media. Shawn Chacon never was all that good and Jaret Wright is the JD Drew of pitchers.

This team will score a ton of runs, but they will have the same problem this October as they have had in the last 5. They are one bad Randy Johnson start away from being swept.

Look at the games the Yankees have played. They've won twice, by scores of 15-2 and 10-1. They've also lost 4 times: 3-2 on Saturday, 4-1 Friday, 9-4 Wednesday, 4-3 Tuesday.

It's been feast or famine for the offense, and through the first week, the theme has been that the Yankees need to obliterize the opposition in order to win. Their pitching just hasn't been good enough to win the close ones, and that could loom large down the stretch or in the playoffs.

10. The Braves beatable.

Yes this is really early, but the Braves appear to be breaking down. All their kids from last year, Jesus Francouer included, are still a few years away. Their bullpen is a disaster and all of their starters are a year older.

(Meanwhile, their pitching has been awful on the whole, registering at 7.58 through the first week. Of course they won't be that bad all season, but is this the Leo Mazzone factor coming in to play at all? Gotta wonder.)

Again, this is very premature, but the Braves don't look like the class of the East. With Chipper going down and no Furcal atop that lineup, the Braves are Andruw Jones and the Jimmy kids.

Can their mystique alone net them lucky number 15? There are still 155 games for that to be seen. But this year looks a lot different than last year.

So those are ten big things from week 1. I haven't been this optimistic about the Mets in some time.

But before we start slobbering at the mouth, there a few things to remember. They played 2 bad teams and they played them both at home.

This week will be huge. We were horrible away from Shea last seeason -- let's see if we can be an above .500 team on the road before we start printing our playoff tickets.

Let's seen one Victor Zambrano start before anyone gets too excited.

And let's see if the kid Bannister really belongs..

A ton of questions, but so far so good.

VCD,

SM