On July 30, 2004, the Mets traded Scott Kasmir and Joselo Diaz to the Tampa Bay Rays for Victor Zambrano and Bartolome Fortunato. Likely one of the single worst trades ever made in Mets history.

At the time the Mets were 49-53, seven games back in fourth place. The Mets hierarchy, led by General Manager Jim Duquette thought the Mets had a chance to win in 2004 so they made the trade sending their top pitching prospect who has flourished in Tampa Bay. The Mets finished the season 20 games under .500 at 71-91. Victor Zambrano was a total bust ending his Mets career in 2006 running off the field during a game with a blown out elbow while Kasmir celebrated an American League pennant last season.

The trade was panned when it was made by the press and the fans. No one realistically felt the Mets had what it would take to win the wild card let alone the division. The Mets rolled the dice and they came up craps. There is a lesson here.

This season, the Mets have suffered a series of injuries a team experiences once in every 20 years. I think back to 1987, the year after the Mets won their last World Series. That season, the Mets lost most of their starting pitching staff. After winning 108 games in ’86, the Mets fell back to 92 wins in ’87 ending up in second place and out of the playoffs. Of course, it was easier to handle then given the fact the Mets were the reigning champions. This season it’s a bit harder to be patient since the Mets have not been in the Series in nine years.

But sometimes you just have to say it just isn’t meant to be. Everyone, fans and media, are bashing the Mets poor play but let’s be fair. No team could survive losing six key players the way the Mets have. The Mets have lost Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, J.J. Puts, John Maine, and Oliver Perez for an extensive period of time. None of them are playing yet or are due back soon. How would the Yankees be doing right now if A-Rod, Jeter, Teixeira, Burnett, Pettitte, and Hughes were out.  What if the Red Sox were missing Beckett, Lester, Saito, Pedroia, Youkilis, and Oritz? Would they be leading the division?

Is it worth trading top farm players for a player that might or might not help the Mets win this year? And let’s be logical here. It will take more than one player to make up for the loss of all the Mets injured.

Many have complained that the Mets farm system is barren and cannot provide replacements for those who have gone down. I am the first one to criticize the Mets for not building a better farm system but this is an unrealistic expectation. First off, according to Baseball America, the Mets farm system is ranked at 17 out of 30, not last or at the bottom the way some angry fans have suggested. And do not forget, the Mets traded four prospects last year to acquire Johan Santana. Daniel Murphy is having a bad sophomore year but has the ability to be a fine hitter and believe it or not, he could be the first baseman of the future. Nick Evans should have been on the club after spring training and now that he is here, he’s not being played after having a couple of games where he had three big hits. That’s another story.

Do the Yankees or even the Red Sox with their fine minor league system have the players to replace six key players if they went down? I doubt it.

I’m not trying to defend Omar Minaya but I really do not think there is much he can do considering the severity of the injuries. The worst thing he can do now is make a trade for the sake of making a trade. Minaya has stated he would make a deal for the right player, a player that will be with the Mets for a while, not just rented for the rest of the season. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen.

Mets fans need some perspective. While their anger runs deep following two seasons ending on the last day in utter disappointment, it could be worse believe it or not. We love to bash Minaya, I have done it too, but let’s be fair, the culture of this team changed when he came on board. The Art Howe/Duquette Mets were horrible. Omar made the Mets relevant again. Has he made good deals, yes he has. He has made bad ones too. I love the way fans say that Omar has only made good trades because he has so much money to work with. One fan said give Billy Bean that money and he would build a dynasty. We don’t know that. Maybe Bean’s talent is working in a small market with little money to work with.  It’s so easy to be critical when things do not go right.

With the way the Phillies have played this season, I shudder to think just where the Mets would be had they not suffered such devastating injuries. What are you going to do? That’s baseball. You just cannot predict what can happen.

What should the Mets do? Should they give up some or all of their prime prospects for a batter? Or should they just bite the bullet and hope that key players return from injuries and help right the ship?

Personally, I would bite the bullet. If the Mets make a deal for even an Adam Dunn, they are going to have to give up a lot of talent because of the position they are in. But even Dunn, with his home run power, may not make much of a difference.  If the Mets had lost the three games from the Yankees playing fundamentally sound baseball, I would feel more confident in giving up some of the future for help now. But how is Adam Dunn or whomever going to teach Daniel Murphy how to play fundamentally sound? How is giving up a Jon Neise or Bobby Parnell going to make Fernando Tatis hit the cutoff man or stop hitting into double plays? How is a trade going to help David Wright hold the ball when he has no chance of making the play at first? How is bringing in another player going to convince Jerry Manuel to walk Derek Jeter because Mariano Rivera is on deck? How is acquiring a slugger going to make Francisco Rodriguez lay them over the plate for the same Rivera who had two at bats the entire season previously? Please explain that to me.  For all the hitting woes the Mets have, it’s the defense that has really killed them this month. The Mets simply cannot catch the baseball.

The Mets were outplayed and outclassed the entire subway series this season except for the one win in game 2 of the Yankee Stadium series. Think about it… Luis Castillo drops a simple popup that would have given the Mets the win in the subway series opener. Instead the Mets lose as Mark Teixeira crosses home plate. In the Sunday game at the Stadium, ace Johan Santana gets pummeled for nine runs, the worst outing of his career. On Friday evening at Citi Field, the Mets make three errors in one inning looking like the Bad News Bears. They are one hit on Saturday night when they went down 1-2-3 in all but one inning. Then last night, during a nightmarish first inning, they allowed the Yanks to score three runs in part from a fundamental blunder by Daniel Murphy.  The Yankees took the series five games to one, the worst since they were swept in all six games back in 2003. But in 2003 the Mets were horrible and not going anywhere. Hmm, come to think of it, maybe there is not that much difference to this year’s club after all.

As a Mets fan, the most embarrassed I ever felt was when the Yankees celebrated the 2000 world championship on Shea Stadium’s turf. This weekend was a close second. Our new ballpark was no advantage at all. Again, I did not have much expectations but I thought the Mets should at least have won one game.  And had they played well fundamentally, maybe they would have.

I am beginning to think that Jerry Manuel is not cut out to be this team’s manager but forget the Mets firing him. That is not going to happen while they are still paying ex-manager Willie Randolph through this season.  Manuel has not done a good job at getting this team to play the game the right way. I realize it could be the coaches too but the manager is responsible. He is the captain of the ship.

Manuel is not the only one to blame here. There is plenty of blame to go around. Omar Minaya should have gotten another bat last winter when everyone was screaming for him to do so. We kept hearing about how the Mets scored enough runs last year. While that was true, we see now there is no fallback if the worst were to happen and let’s face it, with Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, John Maine and Oliver Perez on the DL, the worst has happened.

So the question remains now, how should the Mets proceed? Mortgage the future making a trade and hoping it is not a sequel to the Scott Kasmir trade or ride out the storm and hope that Daniel Murphy, Nick Evans and others can start to figure it out.  The latter is a better choice to me but the Mets are faced with this glaring problem. They have a 140 million dollar salary, the second highest in baseball. That kind of money just cannot be justified for a team likely to finish 15 games under .500 at their current pace.  All I know is I’m glad I am not in Omar’s shoes.

The Mets at 6-12 for the month of June are currently playing through their worst month since September of 2004. They are sitting just a game over .500 for the season. If it wasn’t for the fact the rest of the division, including the 2008 World Champion Phillies, was playing so poorly, the Mets could be buried right now.

At what point do you throw your hands up? Certainly the Mets are not out of it but let’s be realistic. Against good teams, the Mets simply cannot compete.  They have now lost the last four series in a row. They beat the Nationals two games to one but prior to that were swept in Pittsburgh.

All that ails the Mets is finally catching up to them. Injuries to Delgado, Reyes, Putz, Perez, Maine,  and to back up players Ramone Martinez, and Angel Pagan are taking their toll. Don’t forget that Alex Cora is filling in admirably for Jose Reyes but has a completely torn tendon in his right thumb that will require surgery once the season ends.  Now Carlos Beltran will undergo an MRI today to determine what is wrong with his right knee. It is possible Beltran will be disabled.

The Mets are only two games back but that’s because the Phillies have lost six in a row. The Mets could very easily be eight or nine games back right now. How long can the Mets continue with a starting staff that cannot go deep into games? Even the rebuilt bullpen is beginning to show wear and tear from being over used. With the exception of a hot Brian Schneider, there is no batter past Gary Sheffield who strikes fear into opposing pitchers.

There are two things the Mets hierarchy can do.  One is to get another bat, someone with power, and another arm. The other is to punt. I know there are few Mets fans who will accept the latter. After all, Sports Illustrated predicted the Mets would win the World Series. But let’s face facts. The Mets are going to have to give up some huge chips (do they have any other than FMart?) to get talent in return. Every GM in baseball knows the Mets are desperate. Even with a trade or two, the Mets will still need help from a healthy Reyes and Delgado. And who really knows if those two will be able to contribute at all this year?

We may just have to chalk this season up to fate. It just was not meant to be.  No one would have ever predicted such devastation to one team in one season. I know all teams go through injuries but this is ridiculous. So what’s a Mets fan to do?

Lower your expectations. Enjoy what you can out of the season. Hope the other teams in the division continue to play as poorly as the Mets. Look forward to a deal being made or Fernando Martinez or someone else from the farm to come up and make a difference. Maybe Perez and Maine can come back and help make a difference. Go out to Citi Field and enjoy the beautiful new ballpark. In fact I went to yesterday’s debacle obtaining great promenade seats the last minute from StubHub. I got four $30 seats for 4.99 each. At the last minute, sellers are dumping their tickets.  Really, other than calling in to sports talk radio to rant and rave, what can you really do?

On the bright side, there still is a lot of baseball left to be played. The Mets are certainly not out of it although they are dangerously close to the precipice. If the starting staff, especially Mike Pelfrey, can get their act together and start going seven innings the way they did in May, then I think the Mets can get it going, even with their lacking offense.  But at the moment, it’s difficult not to be pessimistic.

If you think last Friday night’s disaster was the darkest day in Mets history, guess again. No doubt when Castillo dropped the pop up that ended the game in the Yankees favor; it had to mark one of the 10 worst Mets moments of all time. But perhaps the darkest of all days in the history of the Mets occurred on this date thirty two years ago.

On June 15, 1977, the Mets traded Tom Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds for Pitcher Pat Zachery, infielder Doug Flynn, outfielder Dan Norman and outfield prospect Steve Henderson. If you were old enough to remember it, you would have to agree that day was far worse than Friday night's shocking loss.

Tom Seaver, whose number 41 is the only retired number of any Mets player, was known as The Franchise. A Hall of Fame pitcher who won three Cy Young awards, was the 1967 National League Rookie of the Year, won twenty or more games five times, a world champion, won over 300 games with over 3200 strike outs, and most importantly a fan favorite, was traded away over a contract dispute with the worst baseball executive of all time—M. Donald Grant.

At the time of the trade the Mets were 26-35 going nowhere. But Seaver was the only starter with a winning record. He was 7-3 having won the last game he pitched in a Mets uniform the previous Sunday in Houston.  Seaver was still in the prime of his career, a career with the Mets that ended because of a disagreement between what Seaver felt he should be earning compared to other stars in baseball who had accomplished far less than he.

M. Donald Grant, who never saw a nickel he didn’t like, felt that Seaver had a contract and should abide by it. Many agreed with Grant including Daily News sports writer Dick Young who decided his pen would side with the Mets owner. Young wrote many articles on how ungrateful Seaver was and that he signed a deal and should stick to it. Much was written of Seaver’s unhappiness with the Mets who were unwilling to spend money in the new free agent era that had begun.  And while Young may have had a point in regards to a contract being a contract, baseball fans did not have to look far to see how the face of baseball was changing in the 1970s.

Just across the river, George Steinbrenner started pouring money into players to bring them to the Bronx and in short time, built a championship team. In 1976, the Yankees won the AL Pennant but lost to the Reds in the World Series. Steinbrenner then went out and spent millions bringing in super star Reggie Jackson and others for the 1977 season.  What did the Mets do prior to 1977 as far as free agency goes? They signed pitcher Ray Sadecki who they ended up releasing in early May. Grant and the Mets hierarchy did not believe in free agency and the results on the field proved it.  

Toward the end leading up to the trade deadline, Dick Young wrote an article blaming Nancy Seaver, Tom’s wife, for orchestrating much of the problem. That was the last straw for Seaver. Tom demanded to be traded and much to the shock and dismay of Mets fans it happened. On the evening of June 15, 1977, the old trading deadline, a creeper message on my early cable TV system notified me that Seaver had been dealt. The disappointment and anger was much more severe than what happened last Friday night.  Castillo’s dropped pop up lost a game for an injury riddled team still being competitive with a chance to win something this season. Seaver’s departure 32 years ago marked the beginning of a dark age for the Mets which did not turn around for seven years.

Everything we experience is all a matter of degree. While we agree this was a lost weekend for the Mets and Friday night’s loss was horrible, it could be so much worse. I’ll take the 2009 Mets currently at 32-29 and 4 games out, over the 26-35 Mets from 1977 going nowhere, who just traded away the greatest Mets player of all time.  You have to ask yourself would you rather be watching a Mets team lose a terribly tough game in a season they can still win  or a Mets team that has no shot at anything now or in the foreseeable future as was the case with the 1977 club. It really is a matter of perspective.

Once again, it's time to interrupt the baseball season for the subway series. Of course the games count but let's face it, these games become more spectacle than regular season games. And because these games sell so many tickets and attract even more viewers on TV, the Mets and Yankees play six games against each other. Three will be at Citi Field and three at the new Yankee Stadium starting this evening.

Over the years, the Mets and Yankees have played 66 regular season games. The Yankees have won 37 while the Mets have won 29. Inter-league play began in 1997. The Mets did not win a series against the Yankees until 1998 when they won two of three at Shea Stadium. The first two years of inter-league play, the Mets only played the Yankees one series, the first year at Yankee Stadium and the second year at Shea Stadium. From 1998 to the present, both clubs play a three game set at each others park. Although the Yankees have won more games in the series than the Mets, the Mets do have a winning record against the Yankees since 2004 (17-13).

This year of course, the Yankees and Mets visit each others brand new ballparks. Here are my top ten favorite highlights from the regular season subway series in chronological order... 

1) June 16, 1997, Yankee Stadium - Dave Mlicki pitched a complete game shutout as the Mets beat the Yankees 6-0 in the very first meeting between the two clubs.

2) July, 10, 1999, Shea Stadium - In a wild game that changed leads several times, the Mets defeated the Yankees in the bottom of the ninth when Matt Franco singled in the winning run against Mariano Rivera. The Mets won 9-8. Mike Piazza hit a monstrous two run home run into the picnic area in the seventh inning.

3) June 17, 2001, Shea Stadium - The Mets were trailing in the game 7-2. But in the bottom of the eighth, the Mets rallied for 6 runs topped off by a Mike Piazza two run home run. The Mets won 8-7.

4) July 7, 2001, Yankee Stadium - The Mets and Yanks were scoreless through nine innings. With Mariano Rivera on the mound, the Mets rallied for 3 runs in the top of the 10th inning. John Franco got the win.

5) June 15, 2002, Shea Stadium - For the first time since beaning Mike Piazza and throwing a broken bat at him in the 2000 World Series, Roger Clemens would have to bat against the Mets. In the top of the third inning, Mets pitcher Shawn Estes, who was not even a Met two seasons previous, threw a pitch behind Roger Clemens in an apparent attempt to intimidate. The crowd roared (and laughed). The Mets pounded Clemens and won the game 8-0. Estes hit a home run and so did Piazza...again.

6) June 16, 2002, Shea Stadium - Yankees pitcher David Wells was pitching a shut out leading the Mets 2-0 into the eighth inning. Robby Alomar doubled then Piazza reached on an error. Mo Vaughn came up and absolutely crushed a Wells pitch into the night to give the Mets a 3-2 lead. This was Mo Vaughn's shinning moment as a Met. Armando Benitez got the save.

7) July 3, 2004, Shea Stadium - In a game that see-sawed back and forth, the Mets entered the bottom of the ninth with the score tied 9-9. After two walks and a hit by pitch, Shane Spencer (playing on the Mets) hit into what could have been a double play but beat the ball to the bag at first. Kaz Matsui scored the winning run. In the three game sweep by the Mets (only time that has happened) Richard Hidalgo hit three home runs, one in each game. 2004 was also the first time the Mets won the season series from the Yankees.

8) June 25, 2005, Yankee Stadium - With a 10-3 win, the Mets secured the first series win at Yankee Stadium since inter-league play began. Cliff Floyd hit two homeruns and David Wright hit his first homer ever against the Yankees.

9) May 19, 2006, Shea Stadium - David Wright hit a walk off single in the bottom of the ninth against Mariano Rivera to win the game 7-6. The Mets trailed after the top of the first 4-0. Carlos Beltran hit a three run homer in the bottom of the first to make it a one run game. The Mets eventually tied it, the Yanks went ahead then the Mets tied it again at six until Wright's hit in the ninth.

10) June 27, 2008, Yankee Stadium - In the first game of another two ballpark doubleheader, Carlos Delgado exploded for a double, grand slam homerun, and a three run homerun. He batted in nine runs, a Mets record. The Mets defeated the  Yankees 15-6.

How ironic was it that in a game where the Mets handled Cole Hammels, they did end up choking the game away.

In case you were unaware, last winter Phillies pitcher Cole Hammels called the Mets choke artists in a couple of different radio interviews. Last evening the Mets did a good job of getting out to a 4-1 lead against Hammels who in his last start, shut out the Dodgers in a complete game effort. But ultimately the Mets blew the game, and they did so in many different ways.

Don't point the finger at Bobby Parnell. The hard throwing rookie right hander gave up his first home run of the season to Chase Utley in the 11th that gave the Phillies the lead and ultimately the win. But this game was lost on the base paths where the Mets left 16 runners on base. They also blew it in the field where in the seventh inning, the Mets gave the Phillies five outs. So did the Mets choke? Answer: no!

Personally I don't believe that a team chokes. Major League ball players are professionals. When they lose as a team it is not because they choke, it is because what they do is very difficult. In the case of the Mets, they are managing to keep afloat (currently tied for the wild card lead in the National League and only 3 games back in the division) with a team on the field not of design but of necessity.

Injuries have tested the Mets for much of the season. They are without their slugging first baseman till August and perhaps later. Oliver Perez has a bum knee and is out indefinitely. Reliever J.J. Putz has had surgery on his pitching elbow and is gone for 12 weeks. Perhaps the most devastating injury to the team is to Jose Reyes who is out indefinitely with a small tear in his hamstring tendon. Plus there have been other injuries such as the torn tendon in Alex Cora's thumb, Carlos Beltran's bruised knee, Angel Pagan's groin injury, and Ramon Martinez's broken finger. And don't forget the stomach virus that kept  Beltran out of the lineup for a few days and didn't help John Maine in a couple of starts.

Yet though all of this, the Mets have managed to stay relevant. It's a long season so there is no telling if they can keep it up. You would hope the Mets can simply stay close so that when they get healthy or a trade is made they can make their move. But choke? I don't think so.

The 2009 club is different from the teams of '07 and '08. This Mets team has character and grit. They do not give up no matter what. It's easy to say a team chokes when they clearly need more help. The Mets need more help and frankly they needed it before all the injuries began. Another bat would have helped this lineup. But apparently, the money was not there to get the hitter they needed. When you compare the Phillies and Mets there are two major differences I see. The Phillies have a more consistent lineup from top to bottom and they catch and throw the ball better. The bottom of the Mets lineup is weak and the Mets are close to the bottom of the league in defense. Until those two things change, the Mets will continue to struggle and give the perception of choking.

“The reality is, coming here to Pittsburgh and getting swept, for me, I feel embarrassed… We need to find a way to play better and to focus more on what we need to accomplish… I mean, we have to take this personally.  It can’t happen… I know the Pirates are a big-league team, but we’re better than them.  We’re better than them, and we know we’re better than them.  But, we have to do something about it.  McLouth wasn’t here and they still came out and scored 11 runs.  11 runs?  We have to play better.” - Carlos Beltan after today's loss.

Carlos Beltran said that? Really? Carlos Beltran? Well it's about time. What took this very talented baseball player, likely the best center fielder in the Major Leagues, so long to grow a pair? Good for him. I hope he continues to call out his teammates when they blow a game like this.

And of course, the self proclaimed sports talk show guru got it wrong again. Mike Francesa continued to pontificate, after the game, that the Mets need to trade for a hitter. Now I do not necessarily disagree with the rotund host but today the Mets did score six runs. Mike Pelfrey was the culprit unable to locate his sinker, leaving it up so Pirates hitters could hit it as if on a tee. If we had seen the Mike Pelfrey that pitched the last two times out today, the Mets would have salvaged a game.

But lets not forget the Mets should have at least won the game Monday night. With a two run lead in the eighth inning, the formula of J.J. Putz followed by Frankie Rodriguez failed, well at least the first part of the formula. In that inning, Putz allowed five runs that gave the Pirates an easy victory. Now we are hearing that Putz's elbow is still barking and that he might need surgery. That brings us to Omar Minaya.

Many, including myself, applauded the trade for Putz over the winter when the Mets shipped Heilman and Chavez to Seattle. The idea being that the Mets now had two closers. But as Bill Madden pointed out yesterday on SNY's Daily News Live, he thought something was up when Seattle agreed to make the deal. Putz's great year was not last year, it was the year before. Last season, Putz had elbow issues and spent part of the season on the DL. So I guess the trade that most thought was a no-brainer turned out to be a gamble on Minaya's part. I'm not blaming Minaya by the way, but expect many in the media to do so.

So the season is not shaping up the way we had hoped. The Mets have been battered beyond belief. I know injuries are part of the game but let's be real here. How could any team withstand the loss of their star shortstop and slugging first baseman. To this last point, Francesa has it right. You just hope the Mets can get healthy within the next couple of weeks and still be close to start making up some ground.

Hopefully, Beltran can continue to hit, now that he's back, the way he did today. And while he is embarrassed by losing to the Pirates, they are a better team than the Nationals. Now if the Mets go into DC and lose the series, I will really look forward to Beltran's remarks.

For those of you who recall the eighties, this season is shaping up to be worse than 1987. The year following the last Mets world Championship saw injuries and problems all season long. That's the year that Dwight Gooden started out on the suspended list in a drug rehab center. Injuries to pitchers, most notably David Cone, Bob Ojeda, Rick Aguilara, Sid Fernandez, and Ron Darling prevented the Mets from returning to the playoffs that season.

When you consider what the Mets have been going through in terms of injuries and illness this year, it's really amazing they are where they are in the standings. While many are angry the Mets dropped two to the Pirates, you have to consider the position the Mets are in. Here's the list of ailments:

Carlos Delgado - DL Hip surgery, likely out till August.
Jose Reyes - DL Tendinitis behind knee, due back on Friday hopefully
Alex Cora - DL Torn tendon in thumb, could be activated today
Ryan Church - DL Hamstring, due back Sunday
Ramon Martinez - DL Dislocated finger
Oliver Perez - DL Knee problems (or is it head problems)
Carlos Beltran - Day to day - persistent stomach virus (likely not swine flu)
John Maine - Day to day - same stomach virus Beltran has
Gary Sheffield - lower ham string but Sheff is hanging tough and playing
J.J Putz - Bone spur in elbow, can't seem to get anyone out.

Let's face it. As good as the Mets have played recently, these injuries and bugs have to catch up to them at some point. A lineup of Castillo, F.Mart, Wright, Sheffield, Tatits/Murphy, Santos/Snyder, Reed is not going to get it done.

The Mets find themselves three games behind as the Phillies have gotten hot in San Diego. Hopefully the Mets can get healthy in a hurry or 1987 may live again.