NL East

Sure, the Mets are out of it. Everyone has been injured. The manager is still a disaster, and there is still no obvious plan in place going forward. So what should we watch when we’re drawn in to watching baseball? What should we be rooting for?

David Wright is starting his sixth year as a Met this week and has made it known that he would prefer to stay with the Mets for the rest of his career.

In this day and age of players only wanting to go where the money is and putting in no trade clauses in their contract, Wright is choosing loyalty to the team that he grew up loving and works hard for them 24/7/365.  The Mets have Wright under contract through 2012 and he has an option for the 2013 season.

The Mets are six-and-a-half games behind the Phillies (and of course also trail the Marlins and Braves) and are also six-and-a-half back in the wild-card race (and have seven teams ahead of them), so it may take a miracle or at least wishful thinking for them to make the playoffs.

But here are 10 reasons why the Mets should at least have some hope going into the second half of the season.

Finally.

Finally, the Atlanta Braves fans can hear the words, "Now batting, Jeff Francoeur" and not feel obligated to scream and holler and clap and cheer for their hometown hero.

Finally, the young ladies in the stands can tear off their Francoeur t-shirts and replace them with the screen-printed bleached hair of Nate McLouth.

When Francoeur returns to Turner Field this weekend as a New York Met, I can't promise you that he'll strike out three times or hit into four double plays. But I can promise you one thing: There will be boos.

Gotta love the picture

At this time during the baseball season things are beginning to wind down before the All-Star break. The selections have largely been announced, and every team gets a much needed break, while a majority of the players get some time to ease off the tension and relax.

We obviously have seen just the beginning of the wheeling and dealing to commence before the trade deadline. 

One day after dealing Yuniesky Betancourt for a pair of minor leaguers the Mariners have struck again nabbing 3B Jack Hannahan from the Oakland Athletics for Double-A pitcher Justin Souza. 

We still have 20 full days until the trade deadline, and still have all of our trade chips intact like Jarrod Washburn, and Miguel Batista, both will be subject to plenty of Hot Stove rumors. 

Jeff Francoeur is a Met. I’m not sure I like the sound of that, but I guess I’ll have to get used to it.

The Mets traded Ryan Church to the Braves for Jeff Francoeur. Hopefully this isn’t what the Braves needed to take the division, but I’m more concerned about Jeff. He’s hitting .250, which is more than he hit last year, and has five home runs.

In a somewhat surprising move today, the Toronto Blue Jays have cut ties with former All-Star relief pitcher B.J. Ryan.

The Blue Jays signed Ryan to a mammoth five-year deal, which was the largest ever for a reliever at the time, following the 2005 season.

Ryan, who was the Blue Jays' closer as recently as this year, has struggled mightily this entire season. In 20.2 innings pitched, Ryan posted an ERA hovering near seven, which is more than double his career ERA (3.37).

Now is not a good time to be a Mets fan. Injuries to three key everyday players have left the Mets with what looks like a AAA lineup that can’t score any runs. The possible return of Oliver Perez this week sounds like nails scratching on a chalkboard. Oh yeah, and the team with the best record in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers, come to town for a three-game set starting Tuesday.