A Bumpy Road for the Mets in the First Half

It might be summer time, but that doesn't exclude the New York Mets and their players from receiving their first half report cards. The 2009 season was one of hope and revenge for the Mets after signing Francisco Rodriguez to anchor the bullpen and two straight collapses on the season's final day. The Mets finished the first half of the season with a 42-45 record.

Here are the grades some Mets players received.

Francisco Rodriguez: Grade A, He has been everything the Mets could have hoped for when they signed him to a three year, $36 million deal in the offseason. He is 23/26 in save opportunities this season, and would be 24/26 if it was not for Luis Castillo dropping that popup at Yankee Stadium that cost the Mets that game. He is 8 for 9 in one run games, and he has pitched six scoreless innings and racked up three saves against the Phillies.

Johan Santana: Grade A-, Johan was lights out to start the year and lost a few games where he did not allow an earned run. However, after a 7-2 record and an ERA below two through the first two months, Santana struggled in June with a 2-4 record and an ERA of 6.19. He's bounced back with two solid starts in July, and he could have been 2-0 this month if the Mets gave him support in his July 5th start in Philly. Johan's clearly been the ace of the staff, and without him the Mets would have no chance to make a second half run. If you think Johan was on in the first half, just wait until second half because that is where he dominates.

Mike Pelfrey: Grade B-, Pelfrey has been like gas prices, up and down. He started off poorly in his first two starts, but pitched great during May and received a few no decisions in starts where he pitched well enough to win. He had a June to forget with a 1-2 record and an ERA over six, while only pitching more than five innings in two starts. The inconsistency is the real reason he gets a B- in my book because you don't know if he will give you seven innings of two run ball or get knocked out in the third inning.

Livan Hernandez: Grade C+, Hernandez won the 5th starter's job out of spring training and took a little while to get going. He was very good in May and June, going more than six innings in eight of 11 starts with a 4-2 record in that span. However, he's also given up 5 ER or more in five starts, and he's given up 121 hits in 100 innings of work. While he's been very good at times, he has also pitched very poorly at times. Hopefully the break will help get him back on track.

Bobby Parnell: Grade B-, This was a tough one because Parnell was dominant in April and May as the 7th inning guy, but he struggled mightily when he was pitching in the 8th inning when Putz went down. Bobby was 2-0 with an ERA just over two through the first two months, and he has not allowed a run in July in 5.2 innings of work. On the other hand, his June stats were dreadful with an 0-3 record, 12 ER, 18 H in 8 innings of work. He's pitched pretty well overall, especially for his first full big league season, but the one bad month brings him down since the Mets needed him to step up in the wake of Putz's injury.

Pedro Feliciano: Grade A, Feliciano has been fantastic out of the bullpen as a lefty specialist. He is 2-2 with a 2.52 ERA, but what is even more impressive is holding lefties to a .167 average and the Phillies are only hitting .167 against him. He did a great job shutting down Howard, Utley, and Ibanez when he faced them, and he has been the second best pitcher out of the pen behind K-Rod. Hopefully the Mets can find another lefty or Wagner comes back soon, so Pedro can get some more rest.

David Wright: Grade B+, The first half has been full of peaks and valleys for the Mets, a nd that would also be the way to describe David Wright's 2009 campaign. On April 26th, Wright was hitting a season low .271, but then went on a torrid stretch and was hitting .362 after a May 22nd game in Boston and leading the NL in hitting. The average dipped down to .321 on June 2nd in Pittsburgh, rose back up to .365 on June 16, and now it's down to .324 at the break. Wright is a career .311 hitter and he's on pace to bat better than that this year, but he's only hit 5 HR and driven in 44 runs so far. What should give Mets fans hope is that in the second half of 2006, Wright only hit 6 HR and drove in 42 runs, but went yard 20 times and drove in 72 runs in the first half that year.

Luis Castillo: Grade B, Everyone will look at the dropped popup at Yankee Stadium that cost the Mets the game when they think about Luis Castillo's first half of 2009. His defense has been average at best, and his range has diminished because of all the leg injuries he has suffered. With the bat, he is hitting .285 with a .386 OBP, and he has been much better hitting 2nd and 8th than leadoff. He has a much better swing from the right side, and he's batting .16 points higher as a righty than a lefty. He's definitely hit well and he has done a nice job getting on base, but he does not drive in many runs or get extra base hits.

Daniel Murphy: Grade B-, Murphy started where he left off last year by hitting .324 in April and showing great plate discipline. Then his performance started to decline in May, where he hit .176 because of his lack of plate patience and possibly cause of all his struggles in the outfield. He has played a pretty good first base and has shown very good range around the bag. Murphy batted .333 in his last six games before the break, which should give people some hope that he might have found his stroke at the plate.

Gary Sheffield: Grade A-, Sheffield came in expecting to spell Ryan Church in RF a few games a week, but the door was open when Church and Delgado went down with injuries in May. Sheff struggled in April with a .167 average, but hit great in May and June with 9 HR and 26 RBI, and he currently leads the club with 10 HR. He has been getting on base a lot and is batting .301 with runners in scoring position. He has by far exceeded expectations for the Mets so far.

All injured players like Reyes, Delgado, Beltran, and Putz are receiving incomplete grades.

First Half: The Mets started off poorly at 9-12 in April because of poor starting pitching from everyone other than Johan Santana. Things came together in May with a season high seven game winning streak from May 4 to May 11, but then the injury bug started to bite. In a span of three weeks, the Mets lost Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes, and J.J. Putz, and a lineup that was already struggling to score runs and hit in the clutch was in even worse shape. The Mets finished 19-9 in May, but they were dreadful in a tough June stretch and finished that month with a horrendous 9-18. Nothing went right in June with the offense, defense, and pitching, and even Johan Santana showed he was human with a few bad starts.

Another mind boggling thing was the lack of fundamentals the Mets displayed. When Jerry Manuel came on board, he said his goal was to make the Mets a fundamentally sound ball club. Well, the Mets made countless poor plays in the field, many base running blunders, and players did not slide when they were supposed to. The Mets defense and blunders were so bad that SportsCenter even did a Not Top Ten Mets feature last week.

Second Half Outlook: Despite the lack of sound baseball, the 15th ranked slugging percentage in the NL, and injuries to key players such as Delgado, Reyes, Beltran, Putz, and Maine, the Mets are right in the NL East race. All things considered, the Mets are lucky to be only 6.5 in back of the Phillies and the same amount back of the San Francisco Giants in the wild card hunt. If New York can tread water and start to get healthy, this team can go on a serious run in the second half.

The Jeff Francoeur acquisition for Ryan Church (pictured right) could really be a steal for the Mets if he finds himself, and Johan Santana is almost unhittable in the second half. The rest of the rotation needs to step up and pitch more consistently with the offense in shambles because of injuries. Jerry Manuel needs his club to play more small ball to scratch out runs. The Mets lead the NL in stolen bases, but more guys need to get on base to put pressure on opposing defenses.

My ultimate prediction is that the Mets big players will come back too late, and they will lose out on the division to the Phillies and have too many teams to climb over in the wild card hunt. This team has just been way too inconsistent this year, and they have way too many injuries right now to think they can win the NL East or the wild card.

(Photos Courtesy of myself, David Suntup)