2011 has so far been a season composed of around 66% bad news and 33% good news for the New York Mets. We all know about the financial woes of the ownership and the patchwork pitching rotation that is basically the exact opposite of what the Phillies have assembled. There has also been plenty of bad news on the injury front with top pitching prospect Jenrry Mejia scheduled to have Tommy John surgery, SP Chris Young having season-ending shoulder surgery and most recently 2nd-year Slugger Ike Davis was sent to the DL for an ankle injury. However despite all this adversity there have been some bight spots for the Mets.
The pitching has improved significantly since the Mets started the year 5-13, especially in the bullpen which hasn't allowed an earned run in almost 20 innings. Even closer Francisco Rodriguez is tossing some of his best ball in recent memory en route to racking up 10 saves in 11 chances.
On the offensive end we have seen a Renaissance in the career of Carlos Beltran who appears to have recovered from the chronic knee injuries that rendered him almost completely ineffective for the past couple of seasons. Playing RF this year Beltran has made significantly more starts than was expected of him after he battle arthritis in his right knee all spring. Beltran has been swinging a hot bat over the past 4 weeks or so and that power of old was on display yesterday as Beltran blasted 3 home runs against the Rockies in Coors field. Beltran now leads the Mets with 8 HRs and 24 RBIs and is hitting at a .295 average which is about 30 points higher than his career average.
Beltran is in the final year of his contract and with the Mets likely to flounder at around .500 this year it is becoming more and more likely that he will be dealt before the July 31st trading deadline. The Mets have missed this kind of production from Carlos over the past couple of unsuccessful years but fans can take some small consolation knowing the team should be getting something good in return this summer.
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