Opinion

This just in: The New York Mets are unwatchable on days that Matt Harvey isn't pitching.

Terry Collins is working with a lineup that, on any given night, has six or seven automatic outs sprinkled in among a couple of major league hitters. David Wright and Co.—though this is no fault of the captain's—are 28th in the league in hitting and last in on-base percentage, a part of the game that Collins and Sandy Alderson have attempted to make of paramount importance.

Before the beginning of each regular season, supposed experts and gurus from around the sport make predictions, guessing on who they think will make the postseason in the coming year. Many of these predictions are made based on expectations of teams, primarily looking at the talent that resides on the roster.

Of course, baseball is mostly an unpredictable sport, so any predictions can be considered "bold". And every year there is at least one team that surpasses expectations, making these experts look uninformed sometimes.

It's been four weeks since I looked at the numbers put up by the New York Mets in the early part of the 2013 season. A month is a long time in baseball, and player performance can fluctuate over time.

Coming into the 2013 Major League Baseball season, it was obvious which divisions would be the best.

The NL East had the Braves and the Nationals, while the AL West had the Angels, Rangers and Athletics.

However, through the first quarter of the season, those thoughts can be thrown out the window, as only one of those five teams has met expectations.

But what about the divisions? Has each division met or exceeded its expectations for the season?

Are there any surprises?

Stanford ace Mark Appel is projected to be one of the top picks in the 2013 MLB Draft next month. His teammate Austin Wilson will also likely be a first-round pick.

With optimism higher for many Mariners fans after a series win against the AL East leading New York Yankees, fans are starting to think about bigger things for the 2013 Seattle Mariners.

There's a certain type of hitter that you just don't see all that much in Major League Baseball anymore. 

Remember pure contact hitters? You know, guys like Rod Carew, Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn?

After enduring a truly brutal week of umpiring, Major League Baseball intends to expand the use of instant replay in time for the 2014 season, according to the Associated Press (h/t ESPN.com). 

The Houston Astros have their Ryan.

Maybe not the Ryan they were hoping for, mind you, but the Ryan the Astros have hired certainly comes to them with baseball cred, and his hiring could potentially lead to a fascinating shake-up of the baseball landscape in Texas.

For an athlete, being labeled a bust might be worse than being labeled as bad or underwhelming because busts fall so far short of expectations that many wonder if they will ever turn back into themselves.

Occasionally, a player turns into a bust just because of time. Athletes age much faster than anyone else, and when the decline hits, it isn't pretty to watch. 

Other times, when a player turns into a bust, it is because we put unfair and/or unrealistic expectations on him due to an unexpectedly successful season.