Taking the Measure of the Mets at (almost) mid-May

Quotation of the day:

"This is the National League. You have to be on your toes."

--Mets third string catcher Johnny Monell (photo) quoted in today's New York Times.

Monell was called up last week to back up backup catcher Kevin Plawecki, who became the starter when Travis d'Arnaud went on the DL. In yesterday's game at Philadelphia, the rubber game of a tied series, Terry Collins rested Plawecki--he decided to rest some starters in this third game of a sadistically scheduled twenty straight games without a break--and started Anthony Recker. In the eighth, with the Mets holding a 5-4 lead, Monell was the only lefty batter on the bench, so Collins sent him to the plate and he produced a two run double that gave the Mets their 7-4 margin of victory.

The Mets' record is now 20-11. It's no longer the best in MLB; it's only the third best in the NL. The Cards are 22-9 and the Dodgers 20-10. In the comparison that's most important to me and to most New Yorkers, the Mets are one half game ahead of the 20-12 Yankees. Still, they are below the fold in the Times sports section.

Should the Mets play .500 ball for the rest of the season, they would end with 86 wins, which could give them a shot at the wild card. It could even give them the NL East title, provided the Nats, now 3 1/2 games behind and playing .531 ball, don't do much better than .500 for the rest of the season, and neither the Braves nor the Marlins catch fire. The prospect of the Mets continuing to play at their present sizzling .645 rate, which includes a twelve game winning streak, seems unlikely. The chances of their playing better than .500, though, seem reasonably good, provided that third baseman David Wright and lefty reliever Jerry Blevins come off the DL in good shape and stay that way, starting RHP Noah Syndergaard lives up to the hype, and they're spared a further plethora of injuries (always a chancy assumption with the Mets). Closer Jenrry Mejia is serving an eighty game suspension for failing a banned substance test, but Jeurys Familia, with thirteen saves so far, has proved a most capable replacement.

Monell's quip sums up why I prefer the NL game to the dumbed down version played in That Other League.