It is June 17, and we're almost at the halfway point of the season known as the All-Star break. The Mets have played 62 out of 162 games, and currently sit three games out of first place in back of the rival Phillies with a record of 33-29. Much like the life of Britney Spears, the Mets' season has been filled with peaks and valleys.
After the Mets gave Oliver Perez $36 million over three years, he promptly thanked the organization by stinking it up so bad in April that he had to be put on the DL. Whether he's actually injured or not, who knows. It's pointless to speculate without any concrete information, but it was evident from as far back as the WBC that there was something not right with Perez.
Since then, Carlos Delgado, who led the club with 38 dingers last year, has been out since mid-April and may not be back till late July at the earliest.
Jose Reyes has also been gone for an extended period and he won't be back anytime soon either.
The bullpen has performed very well overall, but there have been some flare-ups here and there where the Mets should have won certain games had the bullpen done its job.
The offense has also been very inconsistent, going through stretches where they explode for runs in one game, and then don't do a thing the following game.
Yet the Mets are three games in back of the Phillies and it's mid-June. I think if you told a Met fan in February that with all of these negatives the Mets are still in it, they would've signed up for that in a heartbeat.
The talk around town (I actually live in New York City) has been that the Mets need to or might trade for a bat.
Well whose out there for the taking? Brad Hawpe? He might be a product of Coors Field like his former teammate Matt Holliday, who is also avaliable. Holliday hasn't been doing too great in his freshmen year in Oakland. Maybe it's because he's not at Coors anymore or he's still getting acclimated to American League pitchers, but whatever the reason ,he's not having a stellar season so far.
I, on the other hand, have a different feeling; I think the Mets could use a bigtime starting pitcher.
I'm also assuming that when Delgado and Reyes come back, the offense will be much improved. But the reality is that Delgado is turning 37 on June 25 and Reyes is a streaky player, so I would like to think that the offense will be heavily improved once they return, but will the Met pitchers hold up for that long especially considering Santana's recent slump?
I think the offense will do okay until those two return. However, I'm also looking at this situation from the big picture standpoint. The Mets can benefit from trading for a pitcher in the present and for the long term a lot more than they could from acquiring a bat.
After all, Holliday is a free agent after this year anyhow so there is no guarantee that the Mets could sign him to an extension. Plus, if hes having trouble hitting in Oakland, imagine how hard it'll be for him at cavernous Citi Field.
Roy Halladay is 32. The age bothers me a little because you never ever know when a pitcher is going to break down. However, he is probably the best pitcher in the game. Some may argue with me on that, but what cannot be argued is that the man goes deep into games like no other pitcher in baseball. Look up how many complete games he has over the past five years and compare that with how many complete games every other pitcher has. I guarantee he alone has more complete games than many franchises altogether since 2004.
Now, what would it take to acquire a Halladay?
Certainly a package starting with Fernando Martinez and Bobby Parnell is a starting point. How else could the Mets sweeten this deal?
If Daniel Murphy had done anything to this point, he might be an attractive trade chip. However, he hasn't been able to hit his way out of paper bag.
The Mets don't have any significant prospects in AAA, as their best young players are currently in A-Ball (except for maybe Josh Thole, who's currently at AA). I doubt the Blue Jays would want Ryan Church and I doubt the Mets would want to give up Mike Pelfrey.
Despite all the troubles the Mets have had, they're in the thick of the NL East race.
They look like they're at least going to stick around, but if they want to make it to a World Series they're probably going to need at least one big piece and possibly two.
Omar Minaya has a penchant for making the big splash, so it'll be interesting to see what this team looks like after July 31.
Stay tuned.
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