Game #56 (29-27) - Who is the Real Jon Niese?

The Mets won their NL leading 21st home game yesterday, and it was one of those rare days where it felt good to be a Met fan.  They looked great in all aspects of the game, and played well for all nine frames; in all, it was one of the stronger performances of the year.  Jon Niese gave 7 strong innings in his first start back after 3 weeks on the shelf, but to look at things pessimistically, it's become maddening to try and figure out exactly what the Mets have in Niese.  This was the 4th of his 9 starts this year in which he's pitched well, and probably right up there with his April 30th start at Philly for his best of the year.    It was similar in 2009, where 2 of his 4 starts were good, and the others were on the other end of the performance spectrum.  On the good side, Niese is only 23 with only 17 MLB starts under his belt, but he has yet to find any kind of consistent groove at the top level, and so for now he's still another question mark in the rotation.   We'll get a little bit more information on Niese when he makes his next start against Baltimore this weekend; he should perform well against the worst team in baseball, and if he doesn't it will only make the Niese question more maddening

Lots of positives yesterday, and I hate  to focus on them, but it was REALLY nice to see that kind of production from Davis and Wright in the middle of the lineup.  If they can find any sort of groove, the Mets could be on their way to a really nice little run, especially with another home series up next with the Padres, and then trips to see the two worst teams in the AL (Baltimore and Cleveland) before the rematch with the Yankees at the Stadium starting June 18th.   On top of Niese's effort, the Mets got extremely efficient work from Mejia and Nieve, only needing 19 pitches to get the final 6 outs, with only 1 hit.

I'd also like to make a quick note about a terrible column I read from Larry Brooks today in the NY Post.  The column advocates a trade for Cliff Lee, which I agree is a great idea.  What makes Brooks' column lazy journalism is at no point does he mention how the Mets should pull off said trade, what teams they'd have to compete with (and how the farm systems would match up), or Lee's financial situation for the remainder of the year.  Sportswriters so often criticize bloggers for being "lazy", meanwhile to read a professional piece like Brooks' that is so poorly fleshed out makes me wonder if we've reached a point where the amateurs have truly surpassed the pros.  Food for thought.

The Mets go for the sweep today at 1:10 PM with Takahashi-san trying to rebound from his poor outing Monday in San Diego against Ricky Nolasco.  Nolasco has made more starts against the Mets than any other team, going 4-6 with a 5.62 ERA and 1.46 in 15 career starts.  He is right-handed though, so when Wright goes 0-4 with 3K's against him, it'll be a nice reminder of why being a Met fan sucks.