We’re not patient enough to accept a 70-92 season while you develop a lineup full of 20-year-olds who may or may not make it.

But we’re also not going to accept a 70-92 season while you tread out a lineup full of guys whose best days are behind them. We don’t like to lose.

The Mets are in much better shape than they were at this point last season. They’ve been teetering at .500 for the entire month of August, finding the average in what was a roller coaster few months earlier in the season. The 2008 team was a glorified .500 club (one good stretch as summer heated up) that almost won a playoff berth. There isn’t any reason why this year’s club couldn’t (though, personally, I don’t see the Mets having it in them to go on that type of run again this season). While I thought the season was lost back on August 1, maybe the Mets shouldn’t be giving up.

I’ve said since the middle of 2009 that the Mets should rebuild under a new regime. They did that exact thing in 2005, and long before it was expected, the Mets won their division. I still believe that is the best course of action for the club, but you are absolutely right that they can try to do both right now. Neither of those tasks should be abandoned until complete. There’s no reason why a season has to be essentially a waste while rebuilding (if that were the case, maybe the rebuilding team should just take the year off while getting it right).

I predicted 75 wins when I saw the Mets in Port St. Lucie back in March. I won’t consider myself wrong until they win 80 or lose 90. I never could have predicted anything else that’s gone on this season, aside from the fact that Ike Davis would be called up at some point (and even then, I never would have guessed the timing and circumstances). In a way, it’s fun watching the season unfold and saying “what the hell do I know” when evaluating pre-season predictions.

Minaya’s entire administration has not been a disaster. He started off strong, but he appears to be finishing very weak. Something happened in the past 2 to 3 years that has changed his entire outlook. Or he just got very very lucky with what he was handed and what he initially did in 2005 and 2006.

I agree 100% with your final statement. The Mets haven’t won. And some of their losses have been really bad ones (the 3 biggest ones that come to mind ended the final 3 seasons at Shea – you know the games I’m talking about). The problem with the Mets franchise in their nearly 49 complete seasons is that except for the 10 year term of Frank Cashen, the Mets have been constantly building up from nothing to something, and then not sustaining it, and falling back down, with the valleys much flatter than the peaks. That pattern probably won’t be fixed with a new GM and/or a new Manager. With this day in mass media and communication (where so many fans have a voice), the failures are just so much more under the microscope than they were 35 years ago.

There has been a lot of good this season that we forget about behind all of the bad managing, bad play, bad press, and unlucky injuries. But I’d rather see a sustained winner.

I still don’t think that this season has been a disaster. I have enjoyed watching Niese and Pelfrey pitch, and it has been fun to watch Ike and Thole. I’ll cheer them on until they’re mathematically eliminated, and then I’ll still cheer them on because they’ll still be playing baseball games. It’s not just about winning it all at the end.

My son and I will be there tomorrow night, and we’ll probably try to catch some other games as the prices fall on stubhub. It’s still baseball, and it’s still our Mets. We’ll just keep hoping for a better season next year – and for a time I won’t have to say that!

The Mets have not hit well in the clutch this year, which is an understatement. I can’t deny that. But I also can’t explain it either. And I know it is not because the team has a lot of guys who have never hit in the clutch.

As for 3): Dana I love the Mets with all my heart too, but they have been awful overall this year. I’ve said this many times before: it’s not just that they lose. Lots of past Mets teams did a lot of losing. It’s *how* they lose. This team, and the teams of 2007-2009, turned losing into a very intricate and distinctive art. IMHO, anyway.

Maybe it’s the swings that make me feel that way. The Mets sit at .500 right now, but they have hardly been a .500 team. They’ve been a .300 team and a .700 team for long stretches this year too. This happens at the micro level too – e.g. Wright and Pelfrey. I dunno. I really can’t put my finger on it.

It is true that good things happened this season, at least.

You’re a tool and your life is sad. Shut up and go back to the pub.