For once, the team blundering around Citi Field looking like the ’62 Mets wasn’t the Mets, it was Bobby Cox’s Braves, led by none other than Shea Jones’ daddy Chipper whose birthday weekend was not a good one.

And on the flip side, the Mets looking brilliant, led by none other than Angel Pagan.

The Met highlights:

• Angel Pagan scored from second with the infield fly rule called, as the Braves bumbled.
• Reyes scoring the game’s only run Sunday by stealing second, then scoring on Chipper’s throwing error.
• Henry Blanco stole his first base in 9 years, and caught his fourth runner, remaining perfect for the year both stealing and catching runners.

Meanwhile the Braves:

• Let 2 pop-ups to center fall in.
• Blew the infield fly
• Bizarre baserunning blunder by Yunel Escobar whose failure to tag turned a sacrifice fly into a double play.

Meanwhile the Mets on defense:

• Great plays by Reyes and Wright
• The play of the week: Jeff Francoeur prevented Chipper from scoring from first on a double, despite running with the pitch with 2 out. Go Jeff!

Yeah, that's how I feel too

It has been a long season with both good times and bad times.

But for some reason we Mets fans seam to remember the bad more then we remember the good.

I think there are two reasons for that.

1. We are Mets fans
2. There is way more bad then good to remember

There have been lots of bad moments this year.

How many times have you said this is as low as the Mets can get, and then they prove you wrong.

I feel that way every day, and I don’t think I am alone.

And now comes the hard part, picking the worst moment of one of the worst seasons in Mets history (at least since 1993).

The Mets have had many bad moments this season. Is it Luis Castillo dropping the game winning ball against the Yankees or is it the ugliest inning ever in Dodger Stadium?

Mets fans may not get baseball in October or good baseball in 2009, but at least we get to pick the worst moment of the season.

Vote now and use your right as a Met fan to help us rank the top 10 worst Mets moments of the season.

Vote for as many moments you want, but please do not vote for the same thing twice.

As most of the world knows by now, the Mets stink and are having a very bad year.

And we all know the biggest reason the Mets suck this year is that most of their star players are on the DL.

As the Mets keep on losing and falling back in the division, you’ve got to wonder if it is worth it to keep the rest of the core of the team on the Mets for the rest of the season.

I am not saying trade them or anything like that, just give them time off so they don’t join the rest of the top players on the DL.

The thing is that I do not just think it’s bad luck that Reyes, Beltran, Delgado, Maine, F-Mart and Putz are on the DL.

You can say we may have seen it coming with Delgado, Maine, F-Mart and Putz. But Beltran and Reyes and lots of good back up’s also going down I think we have more to blame here.

And that is why I hope Omar cleans house in the medical staff department so the Mets don’t end up killing themselves.

But as we all know even if that does happen (and I don’t think it will) it will only happen in the offseason.

Until then it may be a good idea for the Mets to keep Wright, Santana and K-Rod off the diamond and away from the danger.

I know I am not a season ticket holder, but I think this is the best move the Mets can make.

Maybe the Mets can do something like the Pirates did with their tickets sales.

I feel sorry for the fans, but I think it is for the better of the team.

I bet Omar and Jerry told these three guys that they are a big part of the future and to avoid injure any way possible.

Even if that means not diving hard for a ball or not sliding hard in to a base. And maybe we will not see Santana throw over 100 pitches often.

That is good, but I think the Mets should take it to the next level and keep their players safe.

I know Omar and the Wilpons will never do this, I don’t know if any team’s front office would ever do it.

But I just think it for the good of the team.

Rob Neyer at ESPN listed his 4 leading candidates for NL MVP. David Wright was one of them. The biggest irony? Wright’s having his worst season. He has the lowest slugging percentage of his career, 30 points lower than last year. OBP only 3 points above his career low, 32 points lower than last year. Same caught stealing as each of last 2 years, but with only half as many steals as last year. RBI total is good, but that probably says more about Reyes than it does about him. Fielding percentage a bit up, Range Factor a bit down.

In fairness:

• Neyer thought he should win last year too. Mostly because Neyer park-adjusted away Rollins, Holiday, and Fielder’s statistical advantages.
• Neyer may be right. Wright’s having a very good year, just not quite as good as his other years, and significantly worse than last year.
• Neyer did say that he’d need to pick up his numbers a bit and lead the Mets to a division title for him to really have a chance. Last year he finished 4th largely because of the Mets’ historic collapse and the Phillies’ and Rockies’ historic comebacks. Had the Mets and Padres held on, Wright would have probably finished second only to Fielder.

The greatest thing about this is seeing other people’s comments that the Mets’ other 25 year old may be an even stronger candidate. Though for reasons that I think are mostly BS, Reyes has a bad rap. I love everything about Reyes, especially his happiness, enthusiasm and love of the game, but he’s picked up a bad reputation. And don’t look now, but Santana would be a Cy Young Award candidate if he were getting reasonable support from his offense and bullpen.

So — don’t look now, but the Mets have two 25 year-old MVP candidates and one of the best pitchers in the game. And some exciting rookies, the NL’s best starting rotation, and a one and a half game lead. Wow, how far we’ve come in the past 2 months. Remember when we didn’t even have an All Star, were under 500, and were baseball’s most disappointing team? That was less than 2 months ago. On July 4 we were 42-44. Let’s hope this never gets back there.