Is There a Light at the End of the Tunnel?

When I left for my end-of-summer vacation on Martha's Vineyard last Sunday, a lot of things were different with the Mets.

For one thing, I felt like I still understood the roster. But now that the youth movement is fully underway, I look at the lineup each day and have no idea who a lot of these people are.

The main question, which I'll start to figure out in the coming days, has been whether the new names are legitimate prospects or career minor leaguers who are here to help the Mets play out the string.

Speaking of playing out the string, the Mets are officially out of the playoff discussion, which presents us with the question of whether to root for the respectability conferred by wins or the higher draft picks promised by losses.

The Mets currently have the 12th worst record in baseball. Of the 11 teams with worse records today, 5 of them (Baltimore, Cleveland, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Arizona) will almost certainly finish the season with worse records than the Mets, meaning the best we can hope for is the 6th pick in the draft.

Judging from the standings, however, there are only two teams the Mets are "competing" with in their race for a better draft pick: Houston and Milwaukee. The Mets could very conceivably finish with a worse record than those two teams. If you're rooting for draft picks, root for those two teams to get hot and the Mets to tank the rest of the way.

As for me, I'm not rooting in that direction. Not out of principle, mind you; god knows that last year I rooted for losses. This isn't last year, however, and I still think the Mets have a chance to turn 2010 into a long-term positive.

As so many things this year have, the Mets' current situation reminds me of 2005. With the team struggling in the waning weeks of that season, Willie Randolph challenged his team to finish strong and end the season on a positive note. The team responded to his message and finished the year 83-79.

I'd love to see a similar finish this year, mostly because I still think this team can compete in 2011 and I put a lot of stock in organizational momentum. A dreadful finish to 2010 wouldn't serve the narrative the team is going for. (It's the difference between entering Spring Training with the storyline being about team that had a middling 2010 and was hoping to take the next step in 2011, rather than a team that was awful in 2010 and could they possibly be good in 2011 -- a big difference to my mind.)

To finish 83-79 this year, the Mets would have to go 16-8 down the stretch. First off, wow, there are only 24 games left -- how did that happen? Second, 16-8 seems almost impossible for this team to manage, but stranger things have happened, I suppose.

I think finishing with a respectable record is the only light at the end of the tunnel for the Metsies. If they completely blow it the rest of the way, 2010 will just feel like a total loss, and that's not what we need. We need to show the baseball world, and the fan base, that there is reason to believe in the Mets.

- A.F.O.M.G.