New York Mets

There is no question that the 2010 New York Mets team is a force that no opposing team should take lightly.

While it is only mid-season, there is good reason to believe that the Mets will play meaningful baseball in October, something they have not done since 2006.

In June of 2006, David Wright won the NL Player of the month. He participated in his first All Star Game festivities, including the HR Derby, where he placed a close second to Ryan Howard of the Phillies.

This article was written by Double G Sports contributing writer Marc A. Spallino.

With the Mets trailing the Atlanta Braves by only three games in the National League East , the Mets faithful are feeling cautiously excited.

During his pre-game interview on Tuesday, Dusty Baker made the statement that the Reds and Mets are very similar ball clubs.

He elaborated by saying both clubs have the ability to score a lot of runs in a hurry.

They also play "all 27 outs." This took me a second to realize he was actually speaking about an entire series, which I felt was a nice compliment.

I can't believe I am actually going to write this, but Dusty actually made me stop and think for a second.

NEW YORK-- It has been pretty evident that the Mets have not given Johan Santana any run support this season. Knowing that, Santana promptly parked a home run off the right field foul pole in the third inning, his first career home run, giving the Mets a 1-0 lead off Reds starter Matt Maloney.

Aaron Harang, who was scratched from his Monday night start due to back problems, was placed on the disabled list before tonight's game. With the lefty Maloney starting, shortstop Jose Reyes was inserted back in the lineup, as he can only bat from the right side with his sore oblique.

Hopefully, after tonight, Johan Santana likes the National League a little bit more. While he has not found nearly as much success in the NL as he had in the AL with the Minnesota Twins, Johan tonight realized that the easiest way to win is to do it all yourself.

Santana provided the hitting and the pitching, en route to a Mets 3-0 win over the Reds.

Player production is quick to change in the New York Mets minor league system. Here is a brief look at some of the current producers and stifling prospects down on the farm in the organization. 

Up: Lucas Duda, outfielder, AAA Buffalo Bisons

The left-handed hitting Duda looked sharp in 45 games at AA Binghamton. His .286 average and six home runs earned him a recent promotion to AAA where he is on the fast track to gaining some serious recognition.

NEW YORK—With five games left before the All-Star break, the Mets are trying to not let what was a surprisingly good first half turn into a disappointing finish.

After going on an amazing 21-7 stretch from May 22 through June 23, the Mets have played sub-.500 baseball over their last 11 games, going 5-6.

Mets fans who didn’t know it tonight found out that this year, umpires are jokes.

Plain and simple.

I have not seen a bigger joke my entire life, and hopefully won’t the rest of my life. After tonight, I have to ask, what constitutes a situation where umpires can confer and possibly overturn a call?

Can someone, preferably MLB, explain that to me? Why was there no conference of umpires in Armando Galarraga ’s near perfect game yet there was one in tonight’s Mets game?

Jerry Meals is probably being given a free meal by the Reds. Is that an overreaction statement?

Yes. Does he deserve it? Yes.

Mike Pelfrey did not have his greatest game tonight, but the wheels came off in the 5th inning. I wonder if it’s a reaction to the terrible decision by Jerry Meals. 

This particular type of talk in the Mets fan base has seemed to die down a bit, but there was a period of time within the last few weeks that the gradual deterioration of Johan Santana's stuff was fairly noticeable. It seemed Mets fans were pouncing on him from every direction just to put him down.

The point is, even now that he's gotten things back together a bit, what you see is what you get with an aging pitcher coming off of surgery. It is concerning that Mets fans have been getting on his case so much.