As a Met fan for the past 20 years (my God, has it really been that long), I have seen my fair share of unfortunate situations befall this team. Some have occurred on the field, such as Kenny Rogers walking the Mets out of the playoffs in 1999 or their 0-for-August home record in 2002. Others have occurred off the field, like signing Bobby Bonilla or trading away Scott Kazmir and trading for Mo Vaughn. But nothing in my recent Mets memory is as bad as the freak injury to Duanar Sanchez, which has reverberations for the Mets far beyond their bullpen. I know that you American League fans will disagree, but this Mets team had a legitimate shot at winning the World Series. HAD a shot; not any more, at least not with the current team.

The one positive point to make about the injury which will sideline Sanchez (5-1, 2.60 ERA) for the rest of the season is that it occurred before, albeit barely, the trading deadline, allowing GM Omar Minaya to scramble to pick up another reliever. But the Mets paid dearly for 41-year old Roberto Hernandez, in the form of starting right-fielder Xavier Nady. Nady may not be an All-Star caliber player, but what he did was allow bench player Endy Chavez to stay where he belongs, on the bench and young Lastings Milledge to stay where he belongs, in the minors. Trading Nady also hurt the Mets’ potential for picking up another starting pitcher because Milledge was now needed on the Mets and became un-tradeable.

Now they will platoon as starters, with Milledge getting the majority of the starts. So, not only are the bullpen and outfield significantly weakened, but so is the bench. Is Lastings Milledge ready to be in the majors? How will he react and perform under the bright lights of the playoffs? It appears as if we are going to find out. As a frequent listener to WFAN sports talk through the internet, I hear a lot from Met fans and the sportscasters in New York. What I would like to know is why is there not a single word about the Mets possibly trying to get an outfielder after waivers. Plenty of teams will be getting high-priced players through waivers in the next few weeks. We all know that it is very unlikely that any pitcher will fall all the way to the Mets through waivers, as they have the best record in the National League, but outfielders who have high contracts would easily survive the claiming period, allowing the Mets to make a trade. Why are they not trying to make a move?

Do they really think that a player who they deemed too immature to stay in the majors only a few weeks ago should be starting in the playoffs? Before this past weekend, this felt like THE season for the Mets. Sure they had weaknesses, but it just felt like this was the year for them - they managed to pull out so many close games (leading the majors in 1-run wins and extra-inning wins), their offense was scoring a ton of runs (leading the National League in runs scored) and their young starting pitchers were performing much better than expected. But if they are throwing their support behind Lastings Milledge coming through in a clutch spot late in a playoff game, either in the field or at bat, then I hope Minaya is ready for a disappointing off-season. The kid may be a great player in a few years, but he is a liability right now for a team that has championship aspirations.