first quarter report

hard to believe, but this weekend will be the1/4 way point of the baseball season. mets are 2 games back of the first place marlins and not showing any signs of being a team that can truly contend. here are some of the ups and downs of the young season so far...

first, the ups:

• ryan church and brian schneider - trading milledge for both of them is looking like a huge coup- they're each hitting over .320 and church is leading the team in HR. (as a side note, i think every met fan is breathing a huge sigh of relief that we didn't trade milledge a few years ago for barry zito.)
• john maine - is he the ace of the staff? pitching better almost every time he's out there.
• david wright - late april slump is hurting the average, but he's been solid as far as run production (3rd in NL in RBI) and clutch in the field (8 errors, but gets to more balls down the line than most).
• luis castillo - showing signs of his former hitting prowess and playing above expectations at 2B.
  

and the downs:

• pedro- getting hurt 3 innings into the new year was not a good sign. due back in a few weeks, but how long will he last?
  
• jose reyes - flashes of brilliance in a sea of mediocrity- can't have a leadoff guy with an on-base percentage of .335 and expect to contend.
  
• carlos beltran - sorry, but i don't think we're getting our 18M/year worth. only 3 HR so far- less than guys like paul bako and rickie weeks. ("who?" exactly.)
• the bullpen - some guys have been ok (schoenweis) or even pretty good (smith, wagner), but the disappointing showings from heilman and sanchez, who were supposed to be our solid setup tandem, and the horrendous blowouts by jorge sosa (mercifully cut today, praise zeus) have made every game an adventure after the 6th inning.
  

the rest of the team seems average at best. santana has been fine but not scintillating, delgado seems to be giving us what we should expect (.250 and on pace for about 25 HR), and the bench has been fair but not fear-instilling to opponents.

maybe starting off like they have is their way of avoiding another late-season collapse; if they're mired in 3rd place, there's nothing to collapse from. next update at the all-star break, hopefully with a brighter outlook.