Who'da Thunk It?

So go back to April 1st. If you had told me then that the following would be true on the morning of May 4:

Reyes and Beltran would each be hitting .240;
Wright would be barely cracking .270;
Billy Wagner would have blown 3 saves; and
Cliff Floyd would be hitting 69 points below his 260 lb frame (.191);

What would I have said?

Well the first thing out of Young Sip's mouth would have been a typical but sarcastic, "NEW METS"!!! Followed by another typical Mets shrug and a "Same old Mets."



Three of our top five hitters with averages well below their career norms.

Our budding superstar/savior/messiah not living up to his mega hype.

Our lights out, unhittable closer with as many blown saves in a month than he had all of last year.

As Kenny From Camp told me today, this is a 10-17 team. Maybe if it were the Yankees or the Cardinals this would be a 13-win team, but the Mets... The fucking Muts are a 10-win team.

So what the hell is going on here? Is this really possible?



The same moron that would tell me that these Mets would be good would tell me that the best record in the NL would belong to the David Weathers-led Cincinatti Reds.

But, amazingly it is true.

The Mets are dominating baseball. Truly dominating baseball.

There are two keys to this season. Pitching and swagger.

First off, you can't say enough about the pitching. Pedro and Glavine are pitching perfect. You couldn't ask for more out of them.

Bannister-Trachsel-Victor the Loser are over.500 in their starts.

The middle relief has been the team's MVP. Heilman and Sanchez (the former of whom was dominant last night) are both All-Stars right now, probably our 3rd and 4th right now after Pedro and Glavine, possibly 5th to Delgado. But these guys are lights out... So far.

And then there is Wagner. Wagner has 2.5 blown saves. The game in SF can be chalked up to D Wright's throwing error to set up Bonds.

So the pitching has been great.

But there is something more.

The Mets look like winners. Every time they walk on the field, they are going to win. This team has swagger.

Everytime the opposing pitcher looks at our lineup card, they are shook. Even when the lineup isn't hitting it's still imposing. Pitchers get through the big guns and get to players like Endy Chavez. They sleep, and get burned. Nady has been burning them all year. It's pretty cool.

Then there is Wagner. As average as he has been, when teams see him at the end of the game they feel like they have lost. You don't go into the 9th against Wagner and think you have a shot. You certainly do against Braden Looper.



So now the Mets have the swagger. They have the mojo. They have the Quan.

We walk onto the field and we are the better team. It took us a month to earn this, but this team looks like it is here to stay. Teams like this win games like last night's. Games where you blow a lead that you shouldn't only to come back in extras.

Good teams win these sort of games.

Maybe these Mets are a good team.

New METS!!!

VCD,

SM