I've been watching baseball since around 1955. There's nothing unusual about what happened to the Mets this year. It happens all the time...to everybody, not just us. The reason is that while a ot of teams can put a decent team on the field at the start of the season, only the good ones have depth and can relace players who get injured. Injuries are unavoidable. Our bench was lousy, when the injuries came...we went.

Another reason is having a lot of young players. They can, and often do start off looking great...but then they get scouted, veteran players figure them out, and their performance drops off. We had quite a few guys like that. Rarely does a prospect have a good complete year. Be happy if one does, but don't expect it. You'll be disapointed often

I have watched baseball since 1944 and you were spot on with your analysis. The word gets around on a young player's weakness and with Duda and Nieuwenheis it was proven to be true.They looked great in April and May but both wound up in Buffalo.

And the injuries took a fearsome toll because there was just no depth,a 46-39 team has now gone 8-21 and I just cannot see any turnaround.If the Mets can play .500 ball for the rest of the season to finish with 78 wins,1 more than last season,I think I would be happy.

In a way we were just lucky earlier in the year - many 2 out hits with risp that stopped happening. ANd in addition to lots of prospects which can start Ok and fizzle, the FO relied on guys from the other end of the spectrum: old post-surgery players like Young and Santana - 2/5 of our rotation looking real old right now.

It's just not really understandable. 07 they caved late. 08 the same but a little earlier. Now the last 3 years tease us with good first halves just to not show up after the AS break. Just like Wright. His fielding and throwing at least has held up...better than almost ever, but how does he go from a .350 hitter to a .200 hitter overnight. Not exact numbers but you get the meaning.

Really frustrating to watch, but each year I fork out the MLB Extra Innings fee....just in case!

Its because we lost Gee.

This should be fun.

All we would have needed was a strike, a split-season format, a few more wins in the first half, and we'd be just as good as the 1981 Expos.

I agree with HoneyBadger--it's worse when the team has the talent but doesn't give a d**n; ...hence 1993...or just blatantly underachieve, like '87 + '88

1962, the first year, was just for fun...Casey mispronouncing players' names + falling asleep in the dugout...just having NL baseball back in the city was a hoot...and as an 11 year old, I found the Polo Grounds to seem as big as the Grand Canyon...'63 was less fun, and they were still terrible, but we were looking forward to Shea and then had our first All Star in Ron Hunt as Shea opened and the World's Fair was across the street...

I have to say the three years under Jerry Manuel felt worse than this year--to me at least, because he just sighed his way through post-game, talked "gangsta" occasionally, and there were clubhouse cliques and bad mojo...This year, post All-Star game, has been awful, but the team just basically doesn't have the talent...and with THREE shoulder capsule surgeries on the pitching staff, and no money to work with, and Bay's contract sitting there (and I really can't hate the guy--he looks miserable but he does care)..and again, the Wilpons...I didn't expect them to go above .500--that they are way below that now speaks to injuries and our 4A minor leaguers (Duda, Kirk, etc.) getting a reality check as teams learn how to pitch to them and they endure a long season. The nice surprise is Ruben Tejada...

As long as the Wilpons are in charge, I don't see this getting very much better.