Opportunity Lost

Well, that was boring. I wonder how many Mets fans actually watched last night’s Mets-Yanks game. The Mets matched up nowhere, not in the starting pitching, not in the batting order certainly, and not even in relief. Pitiful is the only word for it. But ya know what? It only counts once.

You have to have a sense of humor, Mets fans, this year more than ever. The only thing we can say for sure after the last two days is this: the Mets can’t hit CC Sabathia and they can’t hit AJ Burnett either. But you can also say we’re still just 1 ½ games behind the Phillies in the NL East. And still one game over .500

WooHoo! Can you stand this much success? Have you just about had it with inter-league play? Subway Series, my butt. I admit it, right now, the Yanks are better. Of course, tomorrow though, it’ll be crafty old Livan Hernandez against Chien Mien Wang, who’s just beginning to look like a pitcher again, so the Mets could salvage that last game.

One of the players that talk-radio has been espousing is gone, so add to insult and injury a little bit of opportunity loss. I speak, of course, of the trade that sent Cleveland’s Mark DeRosa to the crafty Cards for a very mediocre relief pitcher named Chris Perez. Geez, maybe they would’ve taken our Parnell if anybody offered him up. DeRosa would have immediately become the second best hitter on the Mets team. Oh well, we’ve still got Parnell. Heh-heh.

Did I mention that DeRosa also plays a bunch of different positions? Geez, that would’ve been nice for Jerry Manuel, being able to plug in a very good hitter at three or four different positions. Oh well, we’ve still got Brian Stokes.

The thinking must be that, if the Mets are going to stay in it at all, they will do it with pitching, a theory to which I don’t even disagree. But every opportunity has to be studied for its overall effect on the team, and, well, I just think the Mets missed the boat on DeRosa.

Things don’t get that much easier either. After hopefully smacking Wang around tomorrow, there’s Milwaukee and their Murderers Row of a lineup with Fielder and Braun, Hart and Hardy ad infinitum. Strangely enough though, there is hope in that they’re all fastball hitters who may have trouble versus the Mets junk throwers. Of course, Santana and Pelfrey can’t really be considered junk guys. Oh well, we’ll get by somehow, some way.

After the Brewers, there’s the Pirates for a game, then those division-leading Phillies and then the Dodgers but why worry about them now? Let’s just beat Wang tomorrow and then maybe it’ll be Nieve’s turn again soon after that. He does seem to have become our second best starter. That says a lot for the quality of the pickups, but unfortunately, it also says a lot about the quality of the regulars.

The latest on Jose Reyes is that he’s not quite ready, which is to say almost nothing. If he can’t really run, he won’t be the Jose we had all come to know and love, at least when he wasn’t being a bonehead. Being realistic, of the three big hurts, Reyes and Delgado and Beltran, Reyes’s absence has been the easiest to overcome. Cora has performed pretty admirably. Things only got hairy when Cora was hurt too.

Delgado is supposed to be coming around too but I won’t be holding my breath. Carlos Beltran may turn out to be the most seriously injured of the three with that bone bruise that may not be just a bone bruise. So things are not looking rosy, Mets fans, and now we can’t even fantasize about DeRosa anymore. Oh well, we’ve still got Feliciano.

Anyway you look at it, letting DeRosa escape to the Cards was a big mistake, a very huge missed opportunity, especially for a team that should have been exploring all of its options. And, if I’m recalling this correctly, it was the Cardinals that beat the Mets on their last and best chance to get to the World Series. I can still wince just thinking about that Wainwright curve ball totally locking up Beltran for a called strike three.

Oh well, we’ve still got Sean Green.