It seems like I just watched this same Broadway musical 1 year ago. 

Remember last season when the Mets started Mike Jacobs at first base, and batting cleanup? Remember how everyone was fuming that Ike Davis didn't make the opening day roster and start at first base, which we all knew he deserved? 

I feel like it's all happening again in 2011. Instead of giving the 2B job to Justin "Red Rocket" Turner, who clearly was the top performer in Spring Training, we went to a decision to merely protect a player we acquired specifically to compete at that spot. It's just a story that keeps repeating itself each year, and I expect the same thing to happen next year. While a lot of us hoped Nick Evans would make the roster, he was bumped for Willie Harris, who we signed in the off season. Rather than give the ball to Dillon Gee as our #5 pitcher, a roster spot he clearly earned in Spring Training, we gave it to two pitchers with injury-riddled careers — and now one of them, Chris Young, is done for the year. 

Sometimes I really question our organization's ability to put the right players on the field. They played around too much with Fernando Martinez, and are doing it again by wasting the 22-year old's talent on our bench, and they continuously burn out the first month of the season trying to preserve the untalented players they acquired in the off season. Maybe they are trying to prove that they were right to acquire these players, but it seems to always result in making a big roster change. That change has happened, and for the better. Dillon Gee has been very good for us, coming out of Triple-A Buffalo and making 8 appearances, 5 starts. During his time here he has a 3-0 record with a 3.44 ERA and a 1.265 WHIP. While he is allowing roughly the same amount of walks and hits per inning pitched as last year, his strikeout ratio has gone up already. Last year he struck out 4.6 batters per 9 innings, this year he has 6.6 per 9 innings. 

Justin Turner is finally getting the starting time he deserves, and I have to admit I think he should remain in the lineup on a daily-basis, at second base, when Ike Davis returns to the lineup. He has just been too good to throw back on the bench or play in a platoon situation. Turner simply has this confidence that can't be taken away, and if he continues to hit even half as well as he has the last 10 days then I want him in my lineup every day. The kid's got 55 at bats, 1 home run, .364 AVG, 14 RBIs & 7 doubles already. 

I just hope the Mets stop making the same mistakes in April. They seem to correct them come May, but it's just becoming an old act at this point. All the fans knew who belonged and didn't belong here on Opening Day, and yet management still screwed up. Granted, they can't be perfect — but sometimes their mistakes are just silly. With Emaus and Young, they were silly. 

I've heard a lot about the Mets trading Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran by the All-Star break. While trading Beltran makes sense to me, trading Reyes does not. I'm not the GM though, so it doesn't really matter. This is Sandy Alderson's team and if he wants to rebuild it, he can.

The Mets are struggling right now and there is no doubt about that. They are tied for the second worst record in the league, are six games below .500 and are in last place in the NL East. But when I watch the Mets play I don't see a bad team. I see a team that is in almost every game they play, no matter who they are facing. They've had a couple of games when they've gotten blown out, but that happens.

When Angel Pagan comes back, this line-up can go toe-to-toe with any line-up in baseball. It has a nice mix of speed, power, and contact hitters, and they can put a lot of runs on the board. Unfortunately, the Mets haven't had their whole line-up healthy and playing yet this season. But with Pagan coming back soon, we'll be able to see it in full swing, no pun intended.

The main problem with this team is pitching. They have two our their key members of the bullpen on the DL right now in Bobby Parnell and Pedro Beato, and one of the best pitchers in baseball, Johan Santana, set to come off the DL in late June, early July. It may not seem like a big deal to get 13 or 14 starts from him this season, but when he comes back it will make the whole rotation better.

So what if the Mets are in the Wild Card hunt when Johan comes back? Is it so impossible to think? What if they start winning these one run and two run games and put together another winning streak? Is it possible that the Mets might look to add a starting pitcher at the trade deadline?

Maybe Mark Buehrle from the Chicago White Sox if they fall far enough out of it? Not a lot of big names out there that could be available, but they could add someone to improve their rotation. Maybe they'll look to improve their bullpen by adding Heath Bell or Matt Capps? A power hitter for the bench would also be nice. It's still hard to tell who will be available, but there should be some players out there that can help the Mets.

So let's say their line-up is 100% healthy, Johan comes back into the rotation, they move Chris Capuano to the bullpen, and they trade for, let's say… Heath Bell. Welcome back to New York.

Line-Up:

1. Jose Reyes
2. Angel Pagan
3. David Wright
4. Carlos Beltran
5. Ike Davis
6. Jason Bay
7. Daniel Murphy
8. Josh Thole

Rotation:

1. Johan Santana
2. Mike Pelfrey
3. R.A. Dickey
4. Jon Niese
5. Chris Young

Bullpen:

• Francisco Rodriguez
• Heath Bell
• Jason Isringhausen
• Bobby Parnell
• Pedro Beato
• Chris Capuano
• Dillon Gee

That's a pretty nice looking team right there. Question is, will it be good enough to win enough games to get that Wild Card spot.

Maybe I'm just kidding myself and I'm in denial that this season is over and the Mets are going to have to trade my favorite players away. Maybe after the deadline Reyes, Beltran, Pelfrey, Rodriguez, Young, Capuano, and Izzy will all be gone. But hey, everyone else is talking about dismantling this team, why not try to just make it better?

I think the main reason a lot of us are calling the Mets dead and a disaster at this early point in the season is we continue to see failure, and deep down inside we know what talent is on the field and expect them to lose. However I notice that we also, myself included, expect way too much out of some of these players heading into each season. And quite frankly, maybe it's time we lowered our expectations and accept them for who they might be — mediocre. 

The one main aspect that intrigues me the most about this Mets team is their youth and the potential we have down in the minor leagues. Pitchers like Jenrry Mejia, Brad Holt, Jeurys Familia & Matt Harvey have great potential at being vital parts of our rotation down the line, and when you see young kids like Ike Davis, Lucas Duda & Josh Thole make their way into the big leagues with early success we just automatically assume they have not peaked. Unfortunately, some players perform outstandingly in AA & AAA and hit the big leagues at their peak. Unfortunately when it comes to players like Ike Davis, Jonathon Niese & Mike Pelfrey, I already fear that they have peaked and this is the highest they can perform. The only one I think still has a lot of room to improve is Ike Davis mostly due to his outstanding power and ability to drive the ball to the opposite field. Yet when we look at the rest of this team, for some reason we either:

A) Expect a lot out of each individual player, probably more than we should. We assume that pitchers who have had injury-riddled careers will provide stability in the back end of our rotation. We sign multiple players to our bullpen with very little money, and clearly other teams with more financial flexibility passed up on the arms of Taylor Buchholz & DJ Carrasco. A kid like Pedro Beato was added to the bullpen because he is a Rule V pick. He has great potential, but I don't think he's ready, and thus we kept him on the roster to avoid losing him outright. We gave a 2nd base starting gig to a second baseman who provides less offensive firepower (something we NEED) than Daniel Murphy because his defensive work is supposedly better and, of course once again, he is a Rule V draft pick. We expect a young catcher who basically hits for AVG and the occasional double to step up and be an offensive weapon, as well as bounce a kid like Lucas Duda from AAA to MLB to AAA to MLB whenever someone struggles or we suffer another injury. We expect two young pitchers, Mike Pelfrey & Jonathon Niese, to 1) be an Ace and 2) go from being the #4 pitcher to being the #2 pitcher, something that at a young age he is not ready to undertake. And lastly, we expect the nicest man in the clubhouse to be a leader and someone who will grab a player by the collar and yell in his face when he plays with a lack of motivation — David Wright. 

Nothing against David, but he's just too nice. To be a leader you have to be good with the Media but a stern vocal asset in the clubhouse, something I just don't see in him. 

B) We expect average ball from each individual player yet assume it will transpire into absolute success. We expect our top 3 power hitters to hit 28, 25, 22 Home Runs, and for our top base stealer to bat a .280 average and steal 40-50 bases. Unfortunately we expect these guys to come through with runners in scoring position — Newsflash, this is a very similar lineup to 2010 and that lineup rarely came through with men in scoring position. 

What does this mean? We live on Fantasy Island. It's plain and simple. Our expectations are through the roof and quite ridiculous at times. We expected two young, unproven arms to lead our rotation, for an aging knuckleballer with 1 successful year to provide stability along with two pitchers bouncing back from major arm surgeries. Our $120M Ace can't stay healthy and may never again be what he once was, and when he is healthy and dominant our lineup and/or bullpen kicks him in the crotch. 

Maybe this team will turn things around and with a 4 or 5 game winning streak make us realize that they're more motivated. Unfortunately sometimes it takes more than motivation. 

P.S. — With every diving catch Daniel Murphy makes at second base Terry Collins dies a little bit inside. 

The thing that bothered me the most this offseason was all the worries about or rotation, that without Johan Santana we would get clobbered unless the pitchers stepped up. That annoys me because even without Santana last season at times our rotation was superb, and overall our tema had one of the best ERA's in MLB. 

The issue last year was obviously our inability to drive in runs, and that's still the case. Until that gets fixed, we're not going to amount to much. 

Now I know it's early but lets just take a look at the Mets in 2010 and thus far in 2011.

I went on FanGraphs.com and switched to 2010 statistics, Men in Scoring under the 'Splits' tab.

2010 — .252 AVG w/ RISP – R21 in MLB. Strikeout % w/ RISP was 22% – 17th highest in MLB. SLG% w/ RISP was .381% – R22 in MLB. 

2011 — .273 AVG w/ RISP – R11 in MLB.  Strikeout % w/ RISP is 25.8% – R20 in MLB.  SLG% w/ RISP is .379% – R16 in MLB

So while we have had a better average with runners in scoring position, we have struck out more and have showed slightly less power at the plate. You can look at HRs, RBIs, AVG all you want but when you scale it down to important situations with men in scoring position, this lineup still struggles and until that changes the Mets will continue to play like a .500 team. Our pitching hasn't been pretty either, that is pretty obvious. However, when the lineup is absolutely unable to drive in runs or hit sacrifice flies with runners on second or on third base, it doesn't matter how good or bad your pitchers perform — you will finish with the short-end of the stick 90% of the time — unless of course you have four aces in your rotation. 

This team really hasn't changed much. Johan is hurt, Pelfrey squanders under pressure, R.A. Dickey is our most consistent pitcher, and the lineup is lewd, lascivious, salacious and outrageous!