CONTINUING IN A NEW VEIN, SOME MORE BRIEF THOUGHTS ON THE METS

That's right, brief. I've decided -- for me and my readers -- to abjure the 162 game-long posts that marked (marred?) my analytical and hilarious baseball stylings last season. Anyhow, the Mets didn't win the championship, it's obviously my fault, and I need to change it up.

(So there.)

1. The Mets can put runs on the board pretty quickly, huh? Even with one extra base hit yesterday, they drew about 16 walks and hit exactly 100 singles in the 8th inning alone. The runs come in bunches with these boys. And with their overall speed, and decent team-wide ability to put the ball in play, other teams have made their share of errors. And the Mets have really made them pay for doing so. Not good to give an extra out to a team sporting a .372 OBP.

2. I'm cool with Willie letting the Amburglar face Ryan Howard. Why: (a) Burgos was dealing, (b) bad idea to load the bases with either a wild reliever or a fresh reliever, (c) Burrell --on deck -- has been the Phils' hottest hitter, and he has 755 lifetime homers at Shea, (d) Met LOOGYs are either not very good against lefties (Pedro Dos), or not very good against men standing in the batter's box (Schoeneweis), (e) Howard can hit lefties fairly well -- .279 with 16 HRs in <200 ABs last season, and (f) 'cause I said so.

3. David. Wright. Is. Back. He smacked the shit out of that ball in the 8th, missing a grand slam by the diameter of Ryan Howard's biceps. Granted, that's a decent enough distance, but we're still not talking about missing the jack by much, are we?

But you know what, that's not why Wight's back. This is why Wright is back:

[Our comeback] reminded me a lot of last year, the way we battled and never gave up.

Battled. Never gave up. Not quite five cliches-in-five sentences level, but it's early. At this rate, he'll be invited back for the NL Sports-Cliche Derby. And I see the first homer coming soon.

4. Jose Reyes failed to triple yesterday.

Fucking bum. That's it, the engagement's off. Nice time to slump, huh?

5. I can't reitterate this enough: the Mets have a problem in terms of left-handed bullpen arms. Pedro Dos is actually a decent enough 6th or 7th inning guy, but he's not especially effective against lefties (.231 last year.) And in case I was unclear earlier, or in the pitching preview last week, Schoeneweis is awful.

6. Beltran.

(That's it.)

7. Even though Reyes is on quadruple-secret probation for failing to hit a triple in the last 29 1/2 hours, I have to note that through 7 games he's scored 10 runs, driven in 8, drawn 5 walks, stolen 3 bases, and played flawless defense.

I tell ya folks, this Reyes kid's gonna be alright. Just remember Larry King told you first.

8. Joe Smith.

(Nothing more to add there either.)

9. Today's Vote: What was more fun? Watching Chipper botch two pop-ups in two games, or seeing Jimmy Rollins boot that grounder to open the floodgates?

I'm going with Chipper, but that's because I rock it Old School. But I'd love to hear what others think.

10. In case you're scoring at home, the Mets have plated 47 runs in 7 games, while yielding only 16. And they've played all their games so far against the defending WS Champs and their two primary divisional rivals. As we all know, winning the one-run games tends to balance out from one season to the next (and consider last year's 29-14 record in such contests). But the really good teams win the blowouts. Lots of blowouts, by big margins.

47-16. Seven games ain't 162. But it ain't two either. The Mets lead the majors in both categories. Long season, that's for sure. But it's seven games shorter than it was last week.