Keeping Ike Davis should be a no-brainer.............................             as should Josh Thole at catcher, but Nick Evans, maybe not.    Photo by Jonathan Daniel- Getty                                                     Photo - by Jonathan Daniel- Getty

Okay, you’re expecting some Mets news here so here it is…..the Mets still stink.  They are a little more fun to watch though.  And taking 2 of 3 from Washington sure beats losing another series.  Of course, it hardly matters now.

Thank God they’re not still pretending to contend.  Now we can watch all the rejects in their farm system.  Of course, the new guys are outperforming anything the regulars ever put together.  So what does that tell us?

Bad things can happen  when a team sits on its laurels, watching every significant deadline for adding players go by with barely a twitch.  A flower grows way faster than the Mets moved this year. 

Of course, that can only mean the ownership, aka Jeff Wilpon, has totally lost faith in the general manager.  At this point, that can only be a good thing.  Omar Minaya is a personable fellow but he hasn’t done much towards fashioning a championship team.  I think a break is needed for Mr. Minaya.  Have you ever considered fishing, Omar?

Let’s recap, 2006 was a tough year, 2007 was even tougher, 2008 was incredibly bad, 2009 was a hard luck year and 2010 has been another tough year.  Hmmm, not good.  There are a lot of teams that have done more with less. 

Minaya does have time left on his contract though.  If Wilpon hasn’t been in a spending mode, to say the very least, he may not jump at the idea of firing Minaya, who he seems to like despite his failures.  There are some signs though that the two of them are already planning for next year, even if Minaya may not be the ultimate recipient of the benefits of the plan.

Here’s my take on the Beltran, Perez and Castillo flap (they didn’t attend a hospital team visit).  Wilpon is greasing the skids for getting rid of all of them.  If he can turn the fans against these guys, principally Beltran as it’d be difficult to suggest any Mets fans like crazy selfish Ollie or poor picked-on Luis Castillo, it’ll be easier to trade him for a lesser player, and let’s face it, these are the Mets, they’ll inevitably make a bad deal.

I’ve put my request in for a second baseman.  I think this Tejada little guy is really slick with the glove, and I like watching him in the field, but he’s really got to show me something the rest of the way.  I hope he does.  If you’re going to have a weak spot in the lineup, it may as well be at second base.

Some team will want Beltran though, especially if they can negotiate a lesser rate for his services.  Carlos Beltran, minus the attitude, would be a hell of an asset for any team.  He’s still the most feared batter in the Mets lineup.  Of course, that’s saying very little.

It’s fun to speculate though.  The Mets could use a pitcher for sure, even if Dickey and Niese continue their winning ways.  Who knows what Mike Pelfrey can do going forward?  Not even Mike could tell you. But he is a hard-throwing right hander, as is the new kid Mejia.  They probably mix things up pretty well for the two left-handers, Santana and Niese, and then of course, there’s the knuckleballer Dickey, who doesn’t even resemble other knuckleballers!

The Mets aren’t that far off really from some respectability.   The bullpen isn’t really that bad with Takahashi and Purcell and perpetual Pedro out there.  You can have the other two guys.  So they need a couple of relievers on the pitching side of things. 

On the hitting side of the ledger, the current depth chart shows a left field of Lucas Duda and Chris Carter, a ridiculously weak spot.  Carter’s a pinch-hitter.  Who knows about Duda?  But Jason Bay will be back and maybe he’ll return to some semblance of a power hitter.  In center, there’s Beltran or his replacement, In right field there is Pagan, not too shabby.

Then there will be an infield of Ike Davis at first, Tejada at second, Reyes at short and David Wright at third base.  Davis will hit better next year for sure and he hasn’t been so very bad this year either.  I don’t care for his backup though, this Hessman fellow.  A nice big guy who can hit for power would be a nice addition.

It looks as if Josh Thole is a keeper at the catcher position too.  He seems to be a tough out when the pressure is on.  The Mets don’t have a lot of talent in that area….that’s for sure.  Maybe Beltran’s replacement can at least be a guy with good stats for hitting with runners in scoring position.  And maybe Bay will start pulling his weight.

The Mets could use a good utility guy in the infield too, a Ryan Theriot type guy who can play second base or shortstop.  Even better would be a power-hitting second baseman/shortstop, even one that would just backup Tejada on one of his prolonged slumps, or one of Reyes’s prolonged injuries. How about Theriot and that magnificent Jose Uribe?

When you think about it, what makes the difference between the Mets and the Padres right now?  And the Padres, despite their recent slump, may still outlast everybody else in the NL West.  The Phillies and the Braves, though, would still be the class of the division unless Bay and Pagan and Wright and Reyes and even Ike Davis all hit and play to their capabilities. 

Okay, enough about the Mets.  It is, after all, football season.  The Giants open up against the Panthers.  They’ll lose, but by a less embarrassing score than last year, when the Panthers killed them 41-9 in the last game played at the old Giants Stadium.  Look for Carolina to take the opener, but only by a 27-24 score.

Those crazy Jets finally signed Revis.  But that doesn’t mean they’ll win Monday.  Ravens 17-13.