Mets at the All Star Break

Carlos Beltran has not played a game all season. Jason bay has 6 HR and 44 RBI. Oliver Perez and John Maine are a combined 1-6 with a 6.24 ERA. If you were to tell me this at the start of the season I would have said the Mets would be 10 games under .500. Yet somehow, they sit at 48-40 at the All-Star break which puts them on pace for 88 wins this year.

I always send out an email with yearly projections to my boys; this year I am allowing all of my readers to ponder the stats.

David Wright: 161 games, 188 H, 96 R, 46 doubles, 26 HR, 120 RBI, 179 K, 35 SB
Jose Reyes: 142 games, 163 H, 96 R, 27 doubles, 11 triples, 61 RBI, 35 SB
Angel Pagan: 147 games, 173 H, 85 R, 31 doubles, 11 triples, 74 RBI, 35 SB
Jason Bay: 157 games, 151 H, 85 R, 35 doubles, 11 HR, 81 RBI, 18 SB
Ike Davis: 138 games, 70 R, 29 doubles, 20 HR, 74 RBI
Jeff Franceour: 159 games, 28 doubles, 14 HR, 77 RBI
Rod Barajas: 125 games, 20 HR, 59 RBI

So what do we think? Well, if you ask me, Pagan, Wright, Ike and Barajas are all exceeding expectations while Reyes and Franceour are slightly below. Bay obviously is failing. Not mentioned is Ruben Tejada, who while only hitting .217 has provided the team with some great defense and intelligence. Count me as a fan who thinks he should be playing even once Luis Castillo comes back from injury.

On the pitchers side of things, Maine and Perez are somehow even doing worse than expected - so much so that they have been replaced by Hisanori Takahashi and RA Dickey. Both have been absolute studs since joining the rotation, so our hats go off to Johnny and Ollie for sucking. The other nice surprise has been Jon Niese who is 6-3 with a 3.61 ERA.

Overall, Mets fans should be ecstatic with the pitching and comfortable with the hitting. Obviously we can have more pop in our bats (and hopefully that will increase with Beltran's return) but so far we have played well to the strengths of CitiField. If this can continue, we will be in the hunt until the end. Lets Go Mets Go.