Good Times, Bad Times

[What up, iTunes? "In the days of my youth, I was told what it was, to be a man. Now I've reached the age, I try to do all those things the best I can. ..."]

Well, that was better. As I mentioned yesterday, we really couldn't have lost last night's game -- our ace against the Marlins in close to a must-win situation and have had any confidence at all heading forward?

Now? Well, we saw the yin and the yang from the Mets Tuesday night, the reasons why they should be so good and the reasons why, so often, they aren't. The pitching was pretty impeccable, but it should be when you're throwing out the Santana-Sanchez-Wagner triptych. If those three guys give up any more than three runs, that's a problem. Santana, again, wasn't quite dominant, but he did more than enough to polish the game off when he needed to, including when his fielders persisted on making things interesting (more on that below). The 'pen looked like it does on paper -- air-tight.

Everything else was a little more complex. We saw the good and the bad from the bench. Fernando Tatis was obviously excellent, knocking in a pair of two-out runs, and even once off a right-hander. Ramon Castro was just as impressive, sending home two runs of his own. But then, there was poor Nick Evans (the new "Doubles Machine") in the No. 8 slot, going 0-fer and leaving seven guys on base and looking as if he wandered in from the local muni league, completely overmatched. He took a couple swings at pitches from Ian Kennedy down in Baltimore. This is what happens when you fill out your roster with AAA players -- you have to always be worried about what's around the corner.

The Mets' stars? Yin yang. They'd look dynamic one minute -- Reyes leading off the game with a double, say -- and then utterly frustrating the next (Beltran, say, lazily popping up with the bases loaded and nobody out later in the inning). Top of the second, say, when the Fish salted the sacks on three straight singles, and Reyes turned a Cody Ross grounder in the hole into a 6-5 fielder's choice, getting the lead runner? That was bananas. Then in the seventh, he and Johan helped give the Marlins back a run, two wild pitches moving Jeremy Hermida around from first to third and Reyes just aimlessly booting a run-scoring grounder from Jorge Cantu. Two-run game to one-run, and for what?

This is nothing new. The Mets have been frustrating since Day Uno, and are probably going to keep it up all year long. [Am now humming "Good Times, Bad Times" loudly enough that my roommate just poked his head in my room to see if everything was cool. Guess I sounded like I was bound and gagged.] There's nothing else you can expect, short of a change in the dugout or the front office or a trade out of far left field. This is the team we've got; as A.F.O.M.G. and others have pointed out, it's a sub-.500 team over its last 162. That's what we got.

I see three things that could, however, turn the Mediocre Times into Better Times. Realistically speaking, that is. (I.e., we're not trading for Roy Oswalt, Carlos Delgado is not going to hit like it's 2003 again. Mike Piazza is not walking through that door.)

Good Times Eventuality No. 1 -- Pedro Pulls a Pedro

'Nuff said. Next week. Keep every finger you have crossed. Cross your neighbors' fingers. Acquaintances. Pets.

Good Times Eventuality No. 2 -- The Bums Get Benched, the Kids Get a Run

Do we really need to see Delgado stride to the plate against a lefty ever again? We do not. Do we need to see him stride to the plate ever again? Very doubtful. Tatis has been solid in AAA for a while, and may deserve a couple of series to show what he can do, but he also might be needed in right field, where Ryan Church's concussion symptoms could be a long-term issue. You just never know with concussions. Marlon Anderson's hammy is torn, not strained; he'll be gone for a while too.

What to do at first base? (Hint: not Damion Easley) Welcome to the future.

Fuck it, let's see Mike Carp. The guy's hitting .333/.395/.516 down at Binghamton, and he's 22 years old, same as Nick Evans. The scouting reports say he's more talented than Evans. So, anyone with a reason why Carp shouldn't be starting at first base this weekend, raise your hand.

Good Times Eventuality No. 3 -- Mets sign Barry Bonds

"You can't sign Bonds! That'll cause a media circus!" Too late, jackasses. That ship, as they say, has flown. The Mets turn out to be lacking home-run pop and don't get on base enough, and have been playing ... how do you say ... NICK EVANS in left field. When Endy Chavez isn't available, that is. Which is fine, if you're the Pirates and don't have a $122 million payroll and don't have vultures circling around base camp 24/7.

The Mets don't owe Moises Alou nothing but the dollar figure on his contract. The Mets don't owe Angel Pagan nothing but the same, and the money ain't a thing. The Mets owe their fans the chance to see a winning team, and right now, a guy who could conceivably be one of the top five players in the league is just dangling out there at a problem position for the Mets.

It won't happen, but it won't happen because Omar and his owners are gutless, not because there's a structural (Mets don't have prospects to trade, really) or space-time (Delgado's reflexes cannot be retrieved from 1999) issue as with other potential remedies. The Mets have the money to sign Bonds. They COULD sign Bonds tomorrow.

That would be Good Times indeed. 24-26, I still seem to care.