Mets @ Halfway Point

METS (40-41 3rd place NL East)

Somehow, someway, the Mets are still in it. It is hard to believe, considering how much this club has underachieved, considering that their performance got their manager Willie Randolph fired, and considering that they consistently play listless and careless baseball day in and day out.

Yet the Mets are only three games behind the struggling Philadelphia Phillies entering Monday June 30.

This week marks a big week for the Mets season, and their hopes of making a run in September. They have to play a four game series in St. Louis against the wild card leading Cardinals, and a 4th of July weekend series in Philadelphia. If the Mets go anything less that 5-2 on this trip, the chickens will begin to roost and this season will begin it's death march. (Unless you consider this entire season a death march already).

The Mets have gotten little out of Carlos Delgado, Pedro Martinez, Louis Castillo - all three players look really old. David Wright seems lost; Jose Reyes has had his head in the sand all year, and Johan Santana has been a total bust, going 7-7 and giving up homeruns to AL pitchers.

Mosies Alou has been MIA since Christmas; Ryan Chruch, the team's most consistent player, has missed a month due to a concusion; Endy Chavez, Ramon Castro, Damien Easley and Marlon Anderson prove everyday why they are bench players - hitting little and playing bad defense.

This is the plight of the Mets, and yet they are still in it. Therefore it leaves us with this question: What do the Mets do now? Do they go out and trade top prospect Fernando Martinez for a right handed hitting outfielder and some relief pitching? Or do they accept the fact that they do not have enough minor leauge talent to complete a trade for a big hitter like Jason Bay, or Xavier Nady, or Alex Rios?

The pressure is now on Omar Minaya to make a deal - if he fails, or even worse if he does and it blows up in his face like Pedro, Delgado, and Santana have, then Minaya will be getting his pink slip at 3:00 AM on October 1.