If You're Looking For Hope, Hold On To This Thread

By Jaap Stijl
Posted Wednesday, July 1, 2009

"First you find a little thread, a little thread leads you to a string, and the string leads you to a rope. And from the rope you hang by the neck." -- A.I. Bezzarides, American novelist and screenwriter

Amid a deeply demoralizing downward spiral when the season seems to be on the verge of capitulation for these Mets, there are a few tiny, tiny shards of hope to hold.

Delusional? Well, in part, yes. That's what watching a Major League team fielding a Minor League lineup night in and night out will do for you. That and comedic ineptitude, inexplicable fielding blunders and downright putrid pitching at times. The season becomes surreal and the expectations recalibrate from World Championship to hopelessness.

But the season isn't even halfway concluded yet. Things could get inexorably worse and a longer losing streak than the Mets are currently spiraling down could see them fall too far behind to catch up in the NL East. But that would require a Phillies team who have lost with almost as much frequency as the Mets to suddenly getting hot. In a normal season, playing the kind of baseball the Mets have exhibited should see them out of divisional race by July and if they were playing in the NL West for example, they would already be at least a dozen games out of first, no hope in sight. Instead, although nestled comfortably in third, they are still only three games from first in the NL East. Not much to overcome.

ONLY three games from first. That's on the heels of a five-game losing streak, on the heels of losing player after player in an absurdist Disabled List nightmare. On that premise alone, there's reason enough to hope.

And hope is all we have to go on these days considering the Mets front office continues to sit on their hands, hoping things will get better instead of actively pursuing trades. It's this group or it's nothing. No one can see any trades on the horizon although that white flag Omar is holding is only weeks away from being waved.

And what to hope FOR exactly?

Well, in addition to their relative proximity to the top of the NL East despite the most wretched luck and most wretched play, the Mets have Oliver Perez lurking in the background ready to spell the starting rotation and add further comedic value to the season. No one in their right mind expects Perez to bring anything but more tears to the Mets but you have to wonder if his confidence won't be helped by seeing how poorly the Mets are already playing, how utterly decimated they are and knowing he has little to lose by comparison.

Then you've got the unexpected news that Carlos Beltran won't require season-ending surgery to his knee after all. And let's face it, that's what all of us were expecting, wasn't it? So fully rested for the second half, Beltran forms part of the waiting cavalry.

And Jose Reyes, remember him? Jose Reyes is also back to near-full strength and will be ready to head the top of the Mets batting order again shortly. Can you fathom how wonderful the top of the Mets batting order would seem like with Reyes in the lineup after seeing people like Argenis Reyes there? It would be nothing short of magic.

Delgado of course, is probably a lost cause that no one in the Mets organization will admit to. The Dan Murphy/Nick Evans hybrid is not an appropriate response to that lost cause so if there is any area the Mets need to move in it is getting a thick-batted first baseman with a reasonable glove. If he waits long enough, which appears to be Omar's master plan, he might just get one for a song.

So post-All Star Game could see the Mets batting order returned nearly to its original state, the starting rotation continuously interchanged whilst trying to find the hot hand amid five or six mediocre candidates to supplement Johan Santana, a bullpen spearheaded by K-Rod and perhaps, if one dare hope, magically augmented by the likes of Billy Wagner, who might be back as early as August.

That's an awful lot of maybes and hope and a right rosy scenario considering the miserable luck the Mets have had so far this season but on the other hand, their luck can't get much worse than it's been to date, you'd think.

It's true.

If the Mets can hold it together, if this patchwork rag tag collective can hold on by their fingernails for just a few more weeks, anything is possible.

But if they can't, if this downward spiral becomes out of control and the team becomes irreparably demoralised, the remainder of the season might turn into an early audition for 2010.