After making waste of the Florida Marlins in the first series of the season last week, the Mets were quickly brought back down to reality by an Atlanta Braves team that looks like it is going to be right in the mix of things during this 2008 season. It wouldn't be fair to blame one sole person for the debacle that we saw at Turner Field this weekend, as there were many contributing factors to the lack of production we saw.

In a friendly debate with some of my fellow bloggers during Spring Training, I argued that the Mets have more pressing issues in their line up then they do in their starting rotation. Well after the first week of the season I feel both parties can claim victory in that battle. Pitching wise we lost Pedro Martinez for God knows how long. It looks like it will be up to Nelson Figueroa to help us forget about Pedro. But seriously, there can't be many of us over the age of 16 that remember Pedro in a Mets uniform. I mean I can recall seeing him in a Mets uniform about six or seven times in the past year and a half. My message to Mr. Figueroa is simple...make Pedro expendable. Besides that and a shaky first start from John Maine, the rest of the Mets staff looks great so far. Wait a second, that's less then 50% of the staff...oh man. I want to think Maine's poor performance was a fluke after that awesome spring he had. I also want to think that the Mets will throw a no hitter someday. Yeah well, I'm just going to keep hoping and praying.

Now the lineup is a whole 'nother monster. The Mets offense did not produce in big situations this weekend. We must have had six million chances to drive in runs on Saturday, and yet all we got were five small ball runs. All off season I complained that we don't have much in the ways of hitting after Jose Reyes, David Wright, and Carlos Beltran. Well you can scratch Reyes from that trio. That .238 batting average looks great at the top of the order. Wright and Beltran have looked great, and Ryan Church along with Angel Pagan are pleasant surprises. But at the same time the Mets have a mere two home runs this season. Carlos Delgado has only two RBI and that is unacceptable for him. We hired him to bat .275 and drive in 115 runs. I don't care if he's batting over .300, because in the long run that means nothing if he isn't driving in any runs. The Mets followed up their "stellar" Saturday performance with a five hit encore on Sunday. Way to go boys. This lineup needs to wake up if it plans on hanging with the Phillies lineup this week. Then again the Phillies haven't looked to hot to start the season either.

The bullpen has been overworked, overused, and at times some questionable calls have been made by Willie Randolph and his staff. Should Jorge Sosa have been relieved by Pedro Feliciano with the bases loaded on Saturday. Maybe. Is it Randolph's fault that Sosa gave up a grand slam to a guy with a girl's name. Not at all. Stop blaming Willie for trusting his pitchers. Trusting your pitchers will get you much further in the long run, and that is what the Mets need to be looking at. Plus has it crossed anyone's mind that Willie might have liked to save his bullpen for the next inning (or possibly two) of work. Keep in mind that he most likely would have seen the heart of the Atlanta lineup in those innings. Sosa didn't do his job, end of story. Not too mention John Maine recorded a mere 12 outs (for those of us that have a hard time dividing, that comes to four innings of work). On a more positive note, Joe Smith looked great in his one inning of work.

With all this being said, it is time for these bums to shake of the cobwebs of last season, and start playing like the team they should be. Santana looks great, Perez looks great, Christ almighty even Brian Schneider hasn't looked half bad. This is a huge tone setting series coming up this week against Philadelphia. The Mets we see in this series might be the Mets we see all season long. Now I ask myself, is that a good thing or a bad thing?