New York Mets

The New York Mets finish their season tomorrow, which is a relief for the fans who have suffered with this team the whole season, one injury and non-baseball headline after another has ravaged this team.

While there is plenty of blame to go around, most of it falls on the players who did not execute or consistently play hard or smart fundamental baseball.  Many changes are expected to be made to the roster and very few people are guaranteed jobs entering next season.

In most respects, 2010 has not been a great year to be a Mets fan.  The team will finish under .500 for the second straight year, and it now appears that the height of the Wright-Beltran-Reyes era may have come and gone with a disappointing loss in the 2006 NLCS.  Philadelphia won the division again, the Atlanta Braves have re-emerged as a threat now and for the future, and yesterday's headlines exploded with rumors that the manager and GM were on thin ice.

Mets catcher of the future Josh Thole drilled a 3-1 pitch off Tyler Clippard for a walk-off homer to give the team a 2-1 victory in 10 innings tonight. The home run was Thole's third of the season.

It was great to see Tyler Clippard get burned by the Mets. Most Met fans remember that Subway Series game a while ago now, when Clippard threw six innings of one run ball in his Major League debut. Well, we finally got you back, Tyler.

In their 49 years of existence, the Mets have had trouble filling some positions: They never really boasted an outstanding shortstop before Jose Reyes, and David Wright became the best third baseman in team history the moment he eclipsed Howard Johnson-- which, truthfully, wasn't that hard.

According to reports, manager Jerry Manuel and GM Omar Minaya will not be returning to those roles next season. Jon Heyman of SI.com released the news.

This should not be a surprise of anyone around baseball as the two men have been under fire last past two seasons. With yesterday’s loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, the Mets are assured a second straight losing season.

Catching the baseball.

Many consider this the basic feature of America's pastime. However, knowing our beloved Mets, they usually seem to screw it up.

Tonight in the Mets 9-2 loss to the Brew Crew, Jose Reyes dropped a pop up with two outs in the fifth inning. Dillon Gee had only given up two runs up to that point, with the Mets trailing 2-1.

Desperate for an option over the final few days of the season? It’s certainly worth looking under the radar, especially for those in deeper formats.

I don’t think you can get much further under the radar than Mets outfielder Lucas Duda, who has silently emerged as a viable option.

The Mets are currently 76-79. Including tonight's game (in progress), they have seven games remaining: four against the Brewers and three against the Nationals.

If the Mets were in a heated pennant race, they would have lucked out considering their competition over this next week. But since they were eliminated from playoff contention a while ago, I would now like to see if the team can at least manage to finish .500.

So that begs the question: can a .500 finish be considered a success for this team?

A total of 45,302 Phanatics packed into Citizens Bank Park on Sunday afternoon fully expecting to see the Philadelphia Phillies end the day by celebrating their fourth straight division championship.  As long as the Braves lost, of course.

Dillon Gee completed the fourth start of his career tonight. He pitched seven innings and surrendered only five hits and two runs to earn his second victory.

Through these four starts, Gee has thrown four quality starts, giving up only six runs in 27 innings of work (a 2.00 ERA). Though his first two starts were against the lowly Nationals and Pirates, the last two were against the potent Braves and Phillies.