If you look at the standings from a “games behind” standpoint ten games ago, you won’t have seen a lot of movement. The Mets and Braves are both 6-4 in their last ten and neither the Phillies nor the Marlins have either made a run nor slid back either. The good news is though, the Mets remain in first and while 2 1/2 games could disappear in a hurry, if they can put together a nice run, they could make it five or six games just as quickly.
Carlos Beltran is starting to heat up. He has homeruns in his last three games and two hits in four of his last five. And while his batting average is still hovering around .260, his OPS has peaked and it’s been three weeks since he had his current .831 mark. Still, for Beltran to be worth the bucks, we need to see him up near .900 and hopefully he can continue his run and get there sooner rather then later.
John Maine is stuck on ten wins and he’s been roughed up his last two times out. It’ll be interesting to see when the Mets make the playoffs (yes, when), who the starters will be. You figure Glavine and El Duque are locks, and Pedro will be in there if healthy. Then it’s down to Oliver Perez and John Maine and the nod may go to the veteran. So John Maine could lead the team in wins, yet not be one of the four starters come playoff time.
Tom Glavine continues his march towards 300 wins but he got bombed his last time out. Glavine’s been solid but at times inconsistent and hopefully he can iron some of that out over the next few weeks heading down the stretch. He’ll be one of the guys we rely on down the stretch if things remain tight.
Carlos Delgado, despite the lack of homers, is having an excellent month of July. His 1.023 OPS is almost .200 points more then his previous month high this year back in May and since June 30, his batting average has climbed 24 points and his OPS is up 63 points. He’s another guy who has to heat up for us.
The Mets have an easy week coming up. They finish up with the Dodgers today, then it’s three against the Pirates and three against the Nationals. You’d have to hope the team would have an extra game or two lead by the end of that time although the Braves play a less then stellar Giants team to start the week.
