In watching the Mets so far this you have to be happy with what you see so far. Their starters are putting up solid performances and their line-up is a good mix between speed and power. Their bullpen has been decent too, giving up three runs in the four games. One of those was be Francisco Rodriguez and lead to a blown save, but the Mets went on to win that game anyway.
Does this start excite me? Sure. But my opinion of this being the third best team in the division change? Not yet.
Now I'm not saying to not be happy with the start, it's just not to go overboard. As Mets' fans we all know by now that it's not how you start, but how you finish.
Last night's win was very nice to see, but there were still some things that I saw the reminded me of last year's team. In the first inning they had runners on second and third with no one out and your three, four and five hitters up. David Wright struck out, Carlos Beltran pop-up to second, and Scott Hairston struck out to end the inning and the Mets walked away with nothing. This is something that happen way too often last year, to a point where it was impressive. You don't need to get a hit to get that run in from third. Hell, you don't even have to hit the ball out of the infield, but the Mets failed to get the runner in from third again. Now, will this happen to a good team? Sure, once in a while, which makes it easy to brush off at the start of the season. But still it digs at me that this might be the same old Mets from last year, who can't get a hit with runners in scoring position to save their lives.
The other thing was the disappearing of the offense after the six run third inning. They did get another run across in the next inning, which was a good sign, but when you face a team like the Phillies at their home park where no lead is safe, the offense can't shut down like that. This was a problem with last year's team as well. Have a big inning, then sit back the rest of the game and do nothing. In the fifth inning Ryan Howard could have changed the whole game around with just one swing in that park. Lucky for us, he grounded out weakly to second to end the inning.
The one difference I'd like to point out is that there is a different feel to this team. With Jerry Manuel it was more of a laid back style of managing and having fun, which could work for some teams, just not the Mets. Now with Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson I feel like the Mets are a fun team, but when they are on the field it's all business. This could be the change that makes the Mets into a team that has a shot at the playoffs.
