Three Reasons for Excitement

Written by Andy the Lawyer....

Yes the Mets are only 3-3, but there are some real reasons to be encouraged by the team's play over these first 6 games. As we get ready to see CitiField in action, here are the positive signs as we start our first home stand:

1) Lots of guys are hitting, including hitting late in games.

Of the "big four" only Wright isn't off to a great start, and while he is struggling to show power he isn't hitting .200 either (.304/.429 ba/obp). The rest all look like they are ready to have great seasons, especially Delgado, who was probably the biggest question mark of the 3.

Secondly, the supporting cast has been better than expected. Church is positively raking the ball, Murphy is doing what we expected at the bat (if not in LF - ugh), and Castillo is non-terrible, which is all you need from him. Schnieder is the only offensive player truly to be off to a "bad" start.

Most importantly, unlike last year when the Mets scored early but not late, this year they have as many RBI's in inning 7-9 as they do 4-6, and have nearly come back in a couple of tight games already, showing some real fight. Church's fly out with 2 out in the 9th was about 1 foot away from being a hit - so even the outs are well hit balls.

2) The bullpen will be better.

Its early, so Manuel is stil trying to figure out "what he has" with some of these guys, but its pretty clear that Putz to K-Rod will be one of the nastiest 8-9 inning tandems in baseball. O'Day will probably be gone soon (he's a submariner but his ball doesn't move) and Feliciano needs to figure out how to not walk guys, but overall I like what I've seen from Parnell and the rest of the 6th-7th inning guys.

3) Santana is still awesome.

Unlucky, but awesome. Should have had a shutout yesterday, but Murphy's screwup ending his winning streak. A healthy and awesome Santana gives the Mets a head up on every other team in the NL East at the #1 pitcher spot.

There you have it - 3 things to be excited about for this season, which is appropriate given our 3-3 record. I'm excited to see Pelfrey tonight - I'm hopeful he can build on his gutsy first start and put forth a more complete outing tonight, but I'm a little worried he'll be too juiced and lose command.

Lets go Mets!