Our only hope at this point is a surge to the Wild Card.  It's been my general observation in the 15 years or so of Wild Cards that no one ever comes from the middle of the pack to take the WC except for that Colorado team a year or two ago.  If it's August and you're looking at jumping 5-8 teams to get to the WC, it's probably not going to happen.

I see the glass as half full in terms of coming back healthy because we never seem to (for a team that's had two pitchers in recent years miss time due to taxi accidents).  Delgado if we keep him is a year older and rusty.  We're not bringing back Wagner, are we?  Unless we dump Putz and hope Wagner can be what Putz was supposed to be this year.  No sense rushing the injured back, but I'd rather see some of whatever we have at Buffalo playing in September or sooner.  Even if I keep hearing Buffalo is stripped, etc., I don't care.  We need to get some MLB experience to make them tradable or able to fill in instead of always having to go find these journeyman utility guys we've had all year.  And we need a catcher who can hit .220.  If Schneider were Jim Sundberg or something back there, fine, but he's not.  So, yes, the best deals were perhaps ones not made, but it still doesn't set us up nicely for 2010.  We need to have Reyes and Beltrán come back, but they need to be Reyes and Beltrán, not some tentative versions thereof.

I suppose the Mets still have some sort of chance at the wildcard, but I agree with these decisions. The Mets are still built for next year, but it's important that every worker in the Mets' gym and training room be fired and we hire someone who knows what he's doing. The players need to keep up with conditioning both in the offseason and over the course of next year. There's obviously something going wrong in the gym when half the roster has gone down with a pull/torn muscle at least once this season.

Rob I think there's a problem with something on the homepage. those stories and blogs and articles that usually cycle through in the top right and top center haven't changed in 4 or 5 days. It seems as if whatever means you use to get that material is not refreshing. Maybe it's just my computer though idk. Is anyone else having this problem?

Yep, Im having the same problems so it's not just at your end.

Reyes Returns to NY with Leg Discomfort

Wagner Perfect Again

OK, we've had a ton of injuries this year and the talk is should we rush this one or that one back this year or just work on 2010?  The problem I see is that the team has played so poorly with all these backups that we can't expect them to flip a switch just because everyone comes back healthy (if they even do).  The team has to play together for cohesion's sake, get used to winning and then devleop some confidence, dare I say, swagger, which I'd say we haven't seen since 2006 at the latest.

We played second fiddle to Atlanta for so long, they finally fizzled out and Philadelphia leapfrogged us to take over the top.  This year'll be three years running and I don't see 2010 looking any better for the reasons above.

I think Mets fans have been somewhat blinded lately, concentrating only on the wins or on the standings and not so much on what's actually going on. With all the injuries the Mets have had, they should've been out of the running long ago (and the injuries continue with three people getting hurt yesterday). Still, the Mets have hung in there for the most part and have been playing quite well lately. The Mets had a five-game winning streak not too long ago and they've played pretty good baseball since. I mean, we lose a game on a wild pitch, then on K-Rod falling apart in the 9th, but both games were very well played apart from that. Even with Figueroa struggling early, the Mets managed to pull a pretty good comeback and got within one run tieing it up. Considering we were pretty much playing with a team full of backups, we've done quite well. The team hasn't played so poorly, they don't really need to flip a switch, just continue what they're doing with some better players coming back. We'll be fine in 2010 barring another Black Death-like injury plague.

Right hamstring tear ends Niese's season