The Mets are rolling. Since July 1 to today the boys in Orange and Blue are 32-15 and winners of 14 of their last 18. With a 2 ½ game lead over the Phillies and a macho performance by Johan Santana last night Metsdom should be as giddy as Jeffey Skill Sets when he’s opening up the season ticket renewals. But of course there always has to be a turd in the punch bowl.

Gimp Castillo who has been a way from the team for what seems like three months has bogarted his way back into the starting lineup in what looks to be the first power struggle loss under the rule of Warlord Jerry. This is Omar Minaya pulling th “I’m the boss” card out on J-Man as Manuel knows he’ got a good thing going here and doesn’t want it disturbed. It’s not so much that Gimp is back in action, it’s more who gets the furlough to NOLA that is disturbing.

Look we can all read and the number that Gimp has over both Argenis Reyes and Damien Easley is his OBP of .365 which is superior to Reyes (.297) and Easley (.312) so if it were a question of the Mets needing an offensive shot in the arm then Gimp coming back would be greatly anticipated. But offense has not been a problem for the team since Gimp went out in fact the resurgence of Carlos Delgado and the LF platoon of the Gold Dust Twins added to the resurgence of Fernando Tatis makes the Mets offense one of the deepest and most productive in baseball. Sure the offense has helped the Mets-troliner get back on track but the biggest ingredient to the surge has been starting pitching and defense which always go hand in hand.

When you have a strong up the middle defense like the Mets have now with the Reyes-Reyes/Easley-Beltran tag team, it gives your pitching staff a little more confidence to pitch to contact because of the great faith they have in their fielders. That’s what Argenis and Easley have brought to the table that Gimp hasn’t. Gimp is shell of himself in the field and like the Visa commercial where everyone on line has a Visa check card and then one guy stops the line by writing a check that’s what Gimp will bring when he comes back. The baseball term on offense is when your down by a lot runs and you need a big inning when guys get on base you will hear from the bench”Just keep the line moving” and that’s what J-Man wants for his defense to keep the outs coming and he knows with Gimp out there that could be a problem.

But J-Man like most of us has a boss and his boss is Omar Minaya and not only is J-Man limited in his taking on the boss as he still has the”interim” tag next to his name he also has to know the burden Omar has with the albatross contract around his neck that is Gimps ridiculous deal. As bad as that signing has been for Omar and the Mets it’s unfair to kill him on it as so far Minaya has made many more positives moves than bad during his rein as Mets boss. If he could have just found a way to keep Gimp away from the team until September 1, that would have been another check maker in the positive column for him.

Meanwhile with all the bloviating I just got finished doing I will still be cheering for Gimp tonight as he is a Met and we have something very special going on here at Shea, that’s why I leave all my “hatein’” here and not at the ball park.

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