New York Mets

The New York Mets have been perhaps the most volatile team so far this season.

They have shown flashes of World Series quality baseball, by winning eight games in a row in April, and have struggled miserably at other times, losing nine of 11 games in mid-may.

As much as the Mets season has been a roller coaster ride, the hype surrounding Jerry Manuel has been just as crazy.

When the team has been playing badly, Manuel has received a lot of criticism and a lot of Mets fans have been calling for his firing.

Last week, Kieran Darcy of ESPN New York said the Mets plan to have Murphy play a variety of positions at Triple-A to make him more versatile. Daniel Murphy's rehabilitation assignment has ended in Port St. Lucie, and they optioned him to Triple-A Buffalo. Murphy was placed on the disable list during the final week of Spring Training, and spent almost two months rehabilitating the injury.

Can someone tell me why Jerry Manuel put Ryota Igarashi (fresh off the DL) in for the ninth inning?

K-Rod is one of best closer's in the game, so why would Manuel put someone else in?

"He's quite a competitor," Mets manager Jerry Manuel would say later, a statement that somehow managed to contain both truth and irony at the same time.

So far, this season hasn't exactly been smooth for the New York Mets third basemen David Wright.

As of today, Wright is second in the National League in strikeouts with 58. Wright is on pace to strikeout 222 times, just one shy of Mark Reynolds single-season record that he set in 2009.

In 2009, Wright struck out just 140 times. If you think we as fans are the only ones confused, imagine how he must be feeling.

Wright is hitting only .261, with eight home runs, and 32 RBIs. It is safe to say that he's having an extremely slow start.

(This article was originally posted on my personal blog, MetsJetsNetsBlog , and can be found here .)

July 30, 2004 is a day that lives in infamy for Mets fans of my generation.

The Mets were six games out of a playoff spot, not exactly contenders, but not exactly out of it. So, they decided to become buyers at the deadline.

When the New York Mets traded for Johan Santana, he was supposed to be the staff ace. He was for his first two years on the team.

Santana is still one of the better pitchers in the league, but he has had some struggles recently. Many are hesitant to continue to call him an ace.

Since Santana joined the team, Mike Pelfrey's pitching has significantly improved. Surely, some of it has to do with Santana's mentoring. More of it has to do with Pelfrey coming into his own.

It's difficult to get excited about the Mets these days, and I'm not going to take the bait of a single great night of baseball and build it into a fantasy about how good this team may be. But after tonight's win against the Yankees, it's cerainly seems possible to get really excited about what we saw from Mike Pelfrey, Mejia, and KRod.

Pelfrey

If you thought last night's pitching matchup was something, get a load of this one.

Tonight, in the rubber game of the Subway Series, it'll be a battle of left-handed aces. Two guys that have been paid over $150 million to lead their respective starting rotations.

For the Mets, that man is Johan Santana. Coming off of a game in which the Mets lost, to no fault of Santana, he'll be trying to pitch the Mets to a series win. That would be a feat in itself, considering the Mets lost against Javier Vazquez and had the hard task of beating the top two Yankees pitchers.

The Mets invited most of their 2000 team to a weekend reunion at Citi Field. Last night, the Mets honored several stars of that team prior to their game against the Yankees.

The manager of that team was nowhere to be found. Bobby Valentine wasn't on the guest list.

If that does not convince folks he will not be managing the Mets again, nothing will. It's clear Jeff Wilpon has no use for Valentine.

It was a breakout game in many ways for the "core" Mets players on offense.

Behind Mike Pelfrey's strong outing of six innings, one run, six hits, and five strikeouts, were Jason Bay getting four hits and David Wright getting two RBI singles.

Phil Hughes was on the mound for the Yankees, and for the second consecutive outing he struggled.