2009 NY Mets Mid-Season Report: Wait Until Next Year

There are going to be a lot of Mets fans that are not going to be too happy with me after they finish this article.

In fact, I'd venture to say that there will be a few who will refuse to finish it because they will say I'm not a true fan, I am being too negative, and that I am giving up the remainder of the 2009 season.

All of the above may be so, but since this is definitely an opinion piece, if you don't mind, allow me to fire away.

The 2009 season started with so much promise it was very hard not to get caught up with the hype. For that alone, I plead guilty as charged.

Omar did a credible job in the off-season fixing the most glaring problem the team had in 2008. By adding Frankie Rodriguez, JJ Putz, and Sean Green, it certainly looked like, at least on paper, that the Mets wouldn't blow 29 games more or less.

If in fact they only blew half that number in 2009 and continue to smash the ball as they did in the previous year; it would not be unexpected to see the Mets be able to compete with the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies for the crown in 2009.

There was some criticism that Omar had a chance to improve the teams offense with the acquisition of Orlando Hudson and Manny Ramirez but he felt that his bench of Tatis, Cora, and Reed could get the job done and money was tight.

I expressed my displeasure at this as well as not resigning Pedro Martinez since I questioned a pitching staff whose 60 percent of the starting rotation was coming off surgery.

Even with all that I was right there and predicted in my article of predictions that the Mets would win the NL East and go on through the playoffs and meet and beat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

So I challenge anyone reading this to say that I was not on board with this team on opening day. I was also one of the first if not the first person in our Mets community to be delighted in the acquisition of Gary Sheffield.

After commenting on it through very negative articles I wrote an article, I believe in May, thanking the Mets for making Gary a Met.

Then came the injuries like flies to the flypaper. Out went 3/4 of the core. Delgado, Reyes and Beltran were all out of the line up by June. JJ Putz went down. So did Angel Pagan, Alex Cora, and a host of minor players.

Even before the slew of injuries, I started questioning the moves made by Jerry Manuel. Jerry had taken over for Willie Randolph last June while the Mets were struggling early which was unacceptable to management who needed a scapegoat for the collapse of 2007, and Willie was going to be that sacrificial lamb.

It was a terrible move at the time, because the Mets' faults were not Willie's and not only did he not need to be replaced, they did it in such a non-professional way, the Mets organization was an embarrassment to the entire baseball community.

The rest of 2008 is history. Jerry led the team to a 3 1/2 game lead with 17 to go and let the Phillies do their September thing and let another flag get away. To add insult to injury, they lost to the Marlins again on the last day and saw their Wild Card hopes go up in flames.

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