Kuzul

We all know that there are some teams that flat out don’t like one another: the Mets and the Phillies, the Yankees and the Red Sox, the Cubbies and the Cardinals.

But there isn’t a single team in the league that couldn’t be a little bit better. The Yankees look a little lost in the outfield as soon as a few injuries strike, the Tampa Bay Rays have question marks up the middle of their infield despite leading all teams, and you know the White sox want to do something about their hitting.

Rivals tend to trade with each other less frequently than with teams from their own division, but sometimes it just makes sense for both clubs to pull the trigger, regardless of the animosity.

I’m not talking about the Yankees sending Derek Jeter over to Citi Field, but surely a piece like Javier Vazquez couldn’t hurt, especially if they got some value in return.

Out on the west coast, would it be so much of a sin if the Giants traded away some of their ample pitching to the Dodgers in exchange for a bat that could push them over the edge in the National League?

Here are 10 trades that teams could make to improve in 2010 and beyond…if only they didn’t hate each other.

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If you thought ‘Shea’ was just the name of a stadium, or you don’t know your Jay Payton from your Joan Payson, a trip to the New York Mets’ Hall of Fame and Museum may be just what the baseball doctor ordered.

When Citi Field opened its doors to 41,007 baseball enthusiasts on April 13, 2009, the one thing Mets fans wanted more of was history.

There weren’t enough memories of former greats who patrolled the Polo Grounds, there was precious little mention of the World Series victories from 1969 and 1986, and, on a more superficial level, there simply was not enough orange and blue.

The Mets listened to fans’ suggestions and after ensuring the stadium was ready for Opening Day last year, they put in hours of work throughout the off season to make Citi Field feel like home this year.

Over-sized baseball cards of historic Mets now line the concourse down first and third, the home run apple from Shea takes pride of place outside the ballpark right next to the No. 7 subway stop, and a new museum branches off from the Jackie Robinson rotunda to the right of the main entrance.

I had the opportunity to meet with Tina Mannix, the senior director of marketing with the Mets, for a behind-the-scenes tour of the museum to learn a little more about the newest addition to the stadium. Putting it all together, it seems, is much more than just getting some game-used jerseys and balls and displaying them for a year or two.

Relative humidity in cabinets has to be maintained around 50 percent, UV filters need to line the windows, and every aspect of the storage and recording of each item is determined ahead of time.

“This was all built as part of the game day experience,” Tina said. “The goal was to house and pay tribute to Mets history in the right way and to build it in a way that it can stay here for a long time.

“We wanted to honor our history, whether it’s players or managers or members of the team that made a mark­—we kept using the term ‘an indelible mark’ on the franchise. We wanted it to be a great place for fans to learn a little bit about the history that they may not have known, and for a generation to pass along to another generation.

“We wanted it to be a place people would be proud of. We will have been around 50 years in 2012 so it’s not like we’ve been around that long, but our history is very unique and very different, and we clearly wanted to celebrate those great moments.”

While the two World Series trophies are the first thing you notice in the Ring of Champions when you enter the museum, the Mets hit all of the right notes with their displays.

The busts commemorating all 21 members of the Mets Hall of Fame that were on display in the Diamond Club at Shea Stadium have been replaced by Cooperstown-esque plaques, and there are fantastic displays dedicated to the history of Mr. Met and defining moments of the franchise.

Add that to one of Keith Hernandez’s 11 Gold Gloves, Tom Seaver’s Cy Young award, an original record of Meet the Mets , Benny Agbayani’s bat from the Subway Series, and John Franco’s FDNY cap that he wore after 9/11 and you leave the museum full of nostalgia and pride.

Even Casey Stengel’s handwritten notes saying Ed Kranepool “should block more grounders at first base” and that Bobby Klaus was a “fair bunter and good hustler” are pure gold for fans of an older generation.

The Mets have a rich broadcasting heritage too, and it seemed only fitting that Ralph Kiner, Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy, Howie Rose, Gary Cohen, Billy Berroa, and Juan Alicea were represented in the museum. You can hear four famous calls from each broadcaster and watch the corresponding footage on an overhead monitor, reliving the moments these personalities brought into your living rooms.

Tina said: “Interactive displays are part of the whole experience and they are important especially with our younger fans because they help them learn about the team and its history…about where the team came from.

“We are very proud of the Jackie Robinson rotunda and we realize that we are a product of the Dodgers and the Giants. It’s fact. We wear the NY symbol because of the New York Giants and we wear orange and blue because of the blue of the Dodgers and the orange of the Giants.”

History and story-telling is a theme throughout the 3,200 square-foot museum, and nothing tells a better tale than the ball that Mookie Wilson hit that trickled through Bill Buckner’s legs in the 1986 World Series, on loan from private collector Seth Swirsky.

Swirsky, a songwriter and long-time Mets fan, said he was more than happy to loan the ball to the museum.

“I’m a die-hard longtime fan and I went to Shea Stadium,” he said. “I went to the World Series at nine years old in ’69, and I really grew up with it. So for me to end up with this ball was a tremendously humbling experience and I was glad to be able to lend it to the Mets. I’m so, so happy that fans are getting a good feeling from it.

“I was completely thrilled to help the Mets in any way I could. They have given me so many thrills and they’re my team, you know. The way the Mets have done everything is very professional.

“I’m happy to give back to the Mets. The more that see it, the merrier.”

The ball is housed next to the timeless photo of the ball getting through Buckner’s wickets in the Defining Moments exhibit, inscribed with the message to Mets traveling secretary Arthur Richman: “To Arthur. The ball won it for us. Mookie Wilson, 10/25/86.”

Tina added: “We all knew this ball existed, the Mookie ball. This is the ball. We knew Seth was a big Mets fan and he wanted to make sure it was protected.”

To read a special article on the history of the ball and an in-depth interview with its owner click here.

While the ball is one of the higher-profile artifacts at the museum, there are more than 60 items in total, many on loan from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and private collectors.

The museum was specially designed by Populus, formally HOK Sport Architects, who helped create the Royals Hall of Fame at Kauffman Stadium, and there are a number of controls in place to make sure everything stays in pristine condition.

“The National Baseball Hall of Fame has been amazing to work with and they were one of the first people we called. We have a great relationship with them,” Tina said.

“These display units were built to Cooperstown’s specifications and we wanted to make sure we did everything the right way. They’re trying to protect what they loan, and so it if meets with Cooperstown approval we should be good.

“We had talked about a museum for a long time. It was something that had been part of the conversation and it was really just a matter of priorities and finding the right space and allocating the right amount of time to do it the right way.”

Temperature and humidity monitors, called thermographs, gauge conditions inside the cabinets and staff members record the totals every week before reporting back to Cooperstown every three months. The exterior windows all have UV treatments to limit the type of light entering the museum, and the exhibits are strategically arranged so that sensitive items are not exposed to direct sunlight.

In addition, the museum staff has to reach a consensus on the appraisal of every item on display, and loan agreement forms have to be exchanged and signed between the Mets and every exhibitor.

When I spoke with Erik Strohl, senior director of exhibits and collections at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, he said it takes years of experience to put a museum together successfully, but that he was excited to be able to help the Mets highlight their own heritage in Flushing.

“We have had a couple of staff members visit the museum and they have said it is fantastic. From the pictures it looks like they have done a really good job and the visitors seem to enjoy it,” he said.

Erik worked with the team to determine everything from security measures and cabinet temperatures to where the Mets store items that are not on display to where they check new artifacts in when they come to the stadium.

Most of the items on loan from Cooperstown are hardy and durable—Tommy Agee’s glove from 1969, Mike Piazza’s batting helmet, Agbayani’s bat that drove home the winning run in the Mets only Subway Series victory—and that is important because they generally require less stringent care than items like documents or photographs.

“It’s hard to maintain levels exactly in a museum where members of the public are. You really want the temperature around 68 degrees, but for relative humidity it depends because each type of artifact needs a different type of humidity. In this case where you are talking about things that are made from all different types of medium you really just try to pick a happy point in the middle, somewhere between 45 and 55 percent relative humidity.

“The most important thing is not necessarily what the actual temperature and humidity are, but that they maintain a standard and that they don’t fluctuate. That is more dangerous than having it a little bit too high or low.”

There is a fine balance between invaluable and priceless at the museum, and I think that is one of the things that makes it intriguing.

The original scouting report on Darryl Strawberry is a remarkable artifact, but it actually came from the Mets own human resources department, and the paper mache head of the Mr. Met mascot is one of the originals from the mid 60s that was just stored away until now.

Wherever you look, there’s a story to be told. That is one of the reasons behind replacing the Hall of fame busts, like what you would see at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, with the plaques which provide an insight into their careers and contributions. Four more will be added on Aug. 1 when Strawberry, Doc Gooden, Davey Johnson, and Frank Cashen are inducted.

“We knew we wanted to do something different with the busts because they don’t really tell a story. We felt like we wanted to tell a little bit about the person and what their impact was,” Tina said.

“It’s not that the Hall of Fame wasn’t a priority, but we decided we needed to bring it back. We needed our Hall of Fame to actually have a home, otherwise you have these members but what does that really mean? It’s just something on paper as opposed to a place where people can really learn about it. You want people to know about who Joan Payson and Casey Stengel were.”

They will join the famous icons of Mets history, which include Bud Harrelson, Jerry Koosman, Ed Kranepool, Gary Carter, and Tom Seaver—someone who is featured prominently throughout the museum.

Speaking about the Seaver jersey on the uniform display wall, Tina said: “A lot of the collectors have different items, and it was just about what tells the best tale.

“Collectors have game-used Seaver jerseys, some have signed Seaver jerseys, and others have jerseys from the ’69 season. But this is a Tom Seaver game-used 1969 signed World Series jersey. That’s pretty special.

“Could we have filled a wall with Tom Seaver stuff? Sure, but we wanted to show unique stuff and and we also wanted to show more current stuff which is why you’ll see a Jose Reyes jersey or a Carlos Beltran jersey or a Gary Carter bat. We didn’t want it to be just about guys in our Hall of Fame because our history’s more than that.”

As Tina moves along the display she stops at a smaller jersey that evokes a completely different emotion. “I can stand here and look at Mookie Wilson’s jersey and think ‘Oh my God, I remember when he wore that, look at how small it is. Look at the different fashion through the years.’”

If the jerseys were an expected element of the museum, one little collection which was not was the set of four World Series press pins.

“The press pins are a baseball tradition if you will,” Tina said. “They end up being collectibles and you have to work with MLB on the design.” In the past, say in 1969, only a small number of pins were made for the press. As more and more credential were handed out, clubs decided not to date the pins with a specific year, allowing them to be created in advance when a trip to the World Series loomed.

“More recently the pins will say ‘Third World Series,’ ‘Fourth World Series,’ etc. They’re not dated like they use to be.”

While there are obvious benefits to this in ensuring the pins are ready, it also leads to disappointment when they have to be locked away. As for the Mets’ “Fifth World Series” pin, it has been safely locked away since 2006 when Carlos Beltran struck out against the St. Louis Cardinals with the bases loaded in Game Seven of the NLCS.

Tina added: “It takes a while to create a pin and we were one inning away in Game Seven from going to the World Series, so our pin was already made. That is the world of baseball. There were t-shirts in my office saying ‘National League Champions 2006’ which we had to mail back to MLB.

“You can’t have thousands of pins made overnight. You have to prepare a little ahead of time.”

And when history moves on and the need for the press pins leads to the Mets bringing home a third World Championship trophy?

“You bring me that problem and I’d be very happy,” Tina laughed. “I don’t think anyone would mind having to move parts of the museum around to deal with that.”

The Hall of Fame and Museum is open to all ticket holders on game days. Individuals and groups can also visit the museum as part of the newly-announced Citi Field tour which opens on Memorial Day next weekend. For more information, click here or call 718-507-TIXX.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Former All-Star pitcher Jose Lima died of a heart attack Sunday morning, according to a news report by ESPN.

Wife Dorca reportedly told ESPNdeportes.com that the 37-year-old star from the Dominican Republic was complaining during his sleep, but that she thought he was just having a bad dream.

Lima was signed by the Detroit Tigers as a free agent in 1989 as a 17-year-old and he made his debut in 1994.

He went 89-102 (.466) during his 13 seasons in the Majors, having played five years with each of the Tigers and Astros, two seasons with the Royals, one season with the Dodgers, and a small handful of starts with the Mets.

Lima was probably best known for his middle years pitching in Houston in the late 90s.

He won 16 games in 1998 and led the National League with 5.28 strikeouts per walk, and he followed it up the following year with a 21-win season en route to his only All-Star appearance. He finished fourth in the Cy Young voting that season behind Kevin Millwood, Mike Hampton, and winner Randy Johnson.

Lima had not pitched in the bigs since his 2006 showing with the Mets, although he did pitch for Aguilas Cibaenas in his native Dominican Republic last winter.

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Heading into this weekend’s Subway series at home to the Yankees, David Wright will be looking to swing the type of bat that produced four RBI against Washington on Thursday, rather than the one that has seen 55 strikeouts already this year.

I’ve heard a lot of people saying: “Apart from the strikeouts, he’s having a pretty good year.”

And in some respects he is; his power numbers are certainly heading in the right direction, and his patience at the plate, especially in April, was rewarded handsomely with a high number of walks which almost averaged one a game.

But that is where the praise has to stop for now.

After 21 walks in 23 games to start the season, Wright has just seven walks in his last 18 games. He’s batting just .250 in April and he racked up a 15-game streak of at least one strikeout. Most importantly, he’s only making contact with just 82 percent of the pitches in the zone that he swings at.

So not only is he swinging at one-in-four balls, when he does swing at something in the zone, he is failing to put it in play more than ever before.

That is what I wanted to focus on here, because there is no doubt that Wright—for whatever reason—is swinging through an alarming number of pitches. Just last week he was on course to set an all-time baseball record, and only yesterday did Mark Reynolds and Justin Upton move above him in the inglorious strikeout category.

Here are some statistics that I put together.

• On 43 of the 55 occasions, Wright has struck out swinging.

• Four times he has struck out with the bases loaded, including twice with less than two outs.

• 40 percent of the time Wright has struck out on a fastball. That rises to 47 percent if you include cutters and sinkers. Pitchers are throwing him more off-speed stuff than ever before (only 54 percent fastballs) and when he does get a fastball he is late on it.

• Wright has struck out on nine curveballs this year. Six have been called third strikes.

• All seven sliders that Wright has struck out on have been at thigh-high or lower.

• As is the book on Wright, he has struggled the most with the fastball up out of the zone and the fastball away.

• There have been six occasions where Wright has struck out on three pitches. Two of them were when he swung through fastballs right down Broadway.

• When Wright struck out four times on May 9, he whiffed on two fastballs inside and a changeup and curve, both down and away.

Here’s a chart looking at where Wright has been striking out, as seen from behind home plate. Therefore, pitches on the right side of this chart are pitches away from the right-handed hitter. I compiled this data from MLB Gameday, so it’s important to look at general trends and overall tendencies rather than whether a borderline pitch was really a ball or a strike.

Note the fastballs (green) up out of the zone that he has chased, the changeups (light blue) down and in that he has swung over, and the sliders (dark blue) down and away that he hasn’t been able to put bat on. Note the fastballs (green) up out of the zone that he has chased, the changeups (light blue) down and in that he has swung over, and the sliders (dark blue) down and away that he hasn’t been able to put bat on. Yellows represent curveballs, and red and pink represents cutters and sinkers respectively.

I mentioned that he has struck out a dozen times looking so far this season.

The thing to note here is the number of times he has been fooled on hanging curveballs (yellow) that have started at his chin and dropped in just beneath the letters. Three of the six curveballs he has taken for a strike have come on a 1-2 pitch with at least two men on base. The green dot furthest top the left was of course the strikeout against the Giants where he got ejected after arguing that Brian Wilson’s fastball was inside.

So, what can we take from all this data?

Well, Wright is obviously having trouble catching up to fastballs, particularly up in the zone. He also needs to not fish at the slider that starts at the outer corner and keeps moving away. All seven sliders that he has struck out on have been swinging strikes, and five out of those times has been after he has worked the count to 2-2 or 3-2.

Wright is a professional hitter, so it’s no real surprise to see most of the strikeouts on the outer edges of the zone, if not out of the zone. There aren’t many professional baseball players who consistently miss pitches in the wheelhouse, especially guys who are career .300 hitters.

But there are a couple that are either dead center or middle in that he needs to put in play and drive for extra bases.

The game on May 5 really sums up his season so far. He had worked hard to get his batting average up from .244 just two weeks earlier to a somewhat healthy .286 and he had just homered in his second consecutive game.

After pulling a Johnny Cueto fastball for a towering home run to left field in the sixth inning, Wright took five straight pitches to work the count full in the eighth before striking on on another high fastball.

Then with two outs in the 10th inning, Wright swung through three straight Micah Owings fastballs in the middle of the zone. All were belt-high, all were 90 MPH and flat, and Wright swung and missed at all of them.

The Reds went on to win that game in the bottom of the inning on Orlando Cabrera’s walk-off home run, and Wright has been on a slide since.

He struck out eight times in the next series in San Francisco, and then at least once in his next nine games before being benched by Jerry Manuel.

Wright was productive last night when he returned to the lineup, going 1-for-4 with a double, a sac fly, and the first four runs of the game. More importantly, he put the ball in play all five times. A big start against struggling Javier Vazquez Friday against the Yankees could be just what he needs to get going again, because Phil Hughes and C.C. Sabathia aren’t going to hand him any freebies in the rest of the series.

You can blame it on him being beaned last year, a statistical fluke, or nothing more than a slump. But whatever it is, the Mets need him to break out of it quickly. Regardless of whether he bats third or fifth, the Mets need him to produce runs out of that spot. It’s a place where a strikeout simply will not do.

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There are some players in the game today who flat out don’t like each other; players who take rivalries further than most. They come in all shapes and sizes, and their feuds range from the one-off minor altercation to full-out fisticuffs.

Some feuds are an extension of historic team rivalries, others develop after friendships turn sour, and just occasionally a war starts when a pitcher comes looking for retaliation.

Here are 10 of the top 10 feuds in baseball, with odds on who would be the last man standing if it came to a punchout.

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The message proudly displayed on the giant scoreboard in centerfield after Tuesday night’s victory over the Nationals said it all: “We believe in comebacks.”

The come-from-behind win could rank right up there as one of the more important games of the season when things start to shake out in the standings later this year, especially considering it was a game they had no right winning for at least seven-and-a-half innings.

New York’s 8-6 victory marked the first time they had overcome a five-run deficit since last summer, and the first time this season they rallied from behind to win after trailing at the start of the eighth.

More importantly, a night after stranding 11 baserunners in defeat, the Mets found a way to pick up some clutch hits despite an otherwise lackluster display up until that point.

They had scored just one run on eight hits through the first five innings, stranding six runners. Ike Davis hit into a second-inning double play with two on and nobody out, and Angel Pagan grounded into a 6-4-3 in the bottom of the third after Jon Niese had led off the inning with a single.

The Mets left two more on in the fourth inning when Davis and Jeff Francoeur both struck out with runners on first and second, and Jose Reyes and Jason bay both left the bases loaded in the fifth.

While Scott Olsen was getting into and out of trouble pretty efficiently, the wheels fell off the Niese bus early on. After entering the game as the only Mets starter to go at least five innings in each of his starts, he was pulled after 4.1 innings of work. He threw just 51 of his 91 total pitches for strikes, and he walked five batters in a below-par effort punctuated by Adam Dunn’s three-run home run at the start of the game.

After cutting the Nationals’ lead to 6-2 in the sixth, the Mets looked to rally again in the seventh, but they failed to score once more as Luis Castillo grounded into a double play after the first two batters had reached base to lead off the inning.

Fortunately for Mets fans, though, they finally managed to string enough hits together off Brian Bruney in the eighth inning to make people forget about the inadequacies that preceded it.

Wright and Bay singled and doubled to put men on the corners and Ian Desmond booted a throw that scored Bay and put Davis on base. Barajas laced a double off of the left field wall to plate a pair, Alex Cora dropped down a perfectly-executed bunt single, and Pagan tied the game on an RBI single to right-centerfield.

A lot of fans had already left at this point, but those who had stayed knew that the Mets were on the verge of an improbable comeback.

Chris Carter gave the Mets the lead with a double down the first base line in his first at-bat after getting called up yesterday, and Jason Bay drew a bases-loaded walk after Miguel Batista intentionally walked Reyes.

It could have been much worse for the Nats had Wright not struck out with the bases full, or had Davis’ shot over the foul pole in right field not been ruled a long, loud strike on review.

The Mets were on the verge of losing four out of five to the Nationals and their third straight game at home. But on this chilly night in Flushing, the Mets reminded everybody why there is always a reason to believe. It took more solid bullpen work, an inspirational debut by another rookie, and what is becoming somewhat of a trademark head-over-heels catch at the dugout railings, but the Mets are hanging in there and fighting for every victory.

If the team continues to show heart and perseverance, they will win their doubters over in time. The only thing worse than losing is losing when you appear to mail in the defeat. This was just the shot in the arm the ballclub needed and undoubtedly their most important of five comeback win so far in 2010.

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Is speed more important than power? Is experience more valuable that youth? If you had to pick one man to lead your franchise, who would you choose?

In this special Would You Rather: MLB Edition I take a look at some of the burning questions in the game. Would you rather have Doc Halladay or Tim Lincecum? A-Rod or Evan Longoria?

What about anchoring your rotation for the next decade: King Felix or Zack Greinke? Is Jose Reyes a better leadoff hitter than Ichiro? Can anyone other than Mariano Rivera claim to be the game’s best closer?

Click here to see who I’ve chosen, and be sure to let me know who you would pick.

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For all the plaudits and accolades surrounding Mets third baseman David Wright, is he turning into the club’s strikeout king?

After going 0-for-4 with four whiffs yesterday—including a debatable called third strike against San Francisco closer Brian Wilson that led to Wright getting tossed from the game—the signs are there for all to see.

Wright is frustrated, and fans are getting increasingly tired of his inability to put bat on ball.

His loyal supporters point to him being a notoriously slow starter, someone who will heat up in June, but the Mets can’t afford him to turn in sub-par performances every night until then.

Wright has now struck out at least once in 25 of his 31 games this year. He is batting .500 (9-for-18) in the six games when he hasn’t struck out, but .214 (9-for-42) in games where he has fanned at least twice.

His 41 strikeouts rank second in the Major Leagues right now, and you know the situation is dire when Mark Reynolds is looking up the table at you.

Yes, that Mark Reynolds who struck out a league-leading 223 times last year.

I’m not interested in this “face of the franchise” rhetoric right now, because he’s not delivering in the way that a leader should.

The fact remains that he has always been a player who has a tendency to strike out, and these problems have become exacerbated over the last few seasons.

“But he’s an All-Star,” I hear people cry.

Yes, but so were Dave Kingman and Tommie Agee, who share the all-time Mets franchise record for strikeouts in a season.

Similarly, Darryl Strawberry was a seven-time All-Star in his eight years at the Mets.

He struck out more than 100 times in all but one season with the club, averaging 120 each year and setting the record for strikeouts in a career.

Wright, in his sixth full season as a Met, has seen his strikeout tally creep up each year since 2006, culminating in 140 Ks in 144 games last season. Through 31 games in 2010, he is on pace to shatter his own record once again.

He is already fifth on the Mets all-time strikeout list, and he is only 12 behind Mookie Wilson, a career .274 hitter, despite playing some 238 games fewer.

Wright will undoubtedly overtake Cleon Jones for third before the end of the season, and he will leapfrog Howard Johnson into second sometime around the mid-way point of the 2011 season.

It seems ironic that Wright—who worked extensively on his hitting over the winter with HoJo—will soon pass his mentor in one unflattering category.

Wright is contracted through to the end of the 2012 season, with a club option for 2013.

There is no doubt in my mind that by the end of 2012, Wright will own the franchise record alone, closing in on 1,000 strikeouts if he hasn’t already surpassed it.

Putting it into perspective, only six players in the history of the game have struck out 1,000 times in their first eight seasons, and only 19 have ever hit the milestone before their 30th birthday.

After a disappointing and powerless 2009, the third baseman seems to have found his power stroke in early 2010. He has already hit seven home runs this season when he only managed 10 in 144 games last year.

His production is slightly up, despite his batting average hovering around 40 points below his career average.

So that is a positive, if not bittersweet sign, but I think it’s unrealistic to expect his value to mirror that of his 2008 season if he continues to chase bad pitches.

Evidence suggests everything will return to somewhat normal levels over the course of the season. That is the way with baseball statistics and their cyclical nature.

He is striking out at a faster rate than ever before at the same time as walking more than ever before and hitting more home runs than ever before.

In the same way that he won’t finish the year with 18 percent of his fly balls going for home runs, he’s not going to strikeout out once in every three at-bats.

The problem is, he is swinging at fewer pitches and still taking bad swings at the ones he is choosing to offer at.

That is a recipe for disaster.

If you’re not swinging at that many pitches, it stands to reason that you are either seeing a lot of balls or being very selective. It follows then, that you are either constantly ahead of the pitcher in the count, or that you are waiting on your pitch in your part of the zone.

In either situation, you expect Wright to be getting good looks.

It explains why his home runs levels have returned to somewhat normal levels, and it goes some way to explaining why he’s drawing walks.

But it doesn’t explain why he’s swinging through more pitches than ever before while struggling to put the ball in play at a record rate.

Wrights problems have not come from being caught with the bat on his shoulder, but rather from missing a pitch when he faces a two-strike count.

He is currently making contact on 85 percent of pitches he swings at in the zone, (a career low) while putting bat on ball just 52 percent of the time when he chases a pitch (another career low).

You can put it down to a slump if you like, but I think a better explanation is that he just hasn’t adjusted to the new ways pitchers are approaching their at-bats with him.

With the exception of the high stuff, Wright is a decent fastball hitter, but he’s seeing fewer fastballs now, instead being fed a diet of sliders and curveballs that he just can’t handle.

It isn’t so much that Wright has a new-found plate patience, it’s just that pitchers are throwing considerably more pitches out of the zone to him. He either works a walk or swings through it.

I don’t know the answer for Wright, other than to keep working on his pitch recognition and handling breaking pitches.

As long as he continues to struggle, expect teams to keep exploiting the weakness.

Brian Wilson did yesterday, and Wright ultimately got thrown out of the game because of it. He’s frustrated with himself, and he’s not the only one. Fans are starting to lose their patience too.

People tend to grin and bear it when the team’s winning, but expect the chorus of boos to start up again when the club hits an extended rough patch.

With Philadelphia Phillies slugger Ryan Howard recently being awarded a top-dollar contract, I wonder whether the Mets No. 5 thinks strikeouts equal paychecks.

If he does, he’s got some awfully disappointing news coming his way.

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After a full season at Citi Field without a walk-off home run, the New York Mets hit two in two days against the San Francisco Giants this weekend.

Rod Barajas went deep to give the Mets a 6-4 victory on Friday night, and backup catcher Henry Blanco repeated the game-winning heroics Saturday afternoon.

The walk-off home runs were the 102nd and 103rd of the team’s history, bringing the other members of the team out of the dugout for a celebration at home plate.

Here are the top 10 walk-off blasts in New York Mets history.

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Whatever way you want to slice and dice the Mets Sunday-night defeat in Philadelphia, there’s no getting away from the fact that Johan Santana struggled.

Struggled is probably the nicest word to describe his shortcomings in Citizens Bank Park. It’s like saying that Stalin struggled to understand the merits of democracy or that C.C. Sabathia struggled to fit into a pair or Chinos with a 36-inch waist.

Just how bad was Santana against Philly? Well, he tied his career high for most home runs allowed in a start (four) and gave up more earned runs than ever before (10).

Santana gave up four earned runs against the Phillies last June, but at least he got through seven innings. In fact, he only gave up five runs in that game despite the four long balls, and he even picked up the win.

Last night was different though. The Phillies sent 13 to the plate in the fourth inning and a dejected Santana was back in the dugout after just 71 pitches.

This ranks right up there with his all-time worst ever performances. It was worse than the 10-hit beatdowns against the Red Sox in 2000 and the White Sox in 2004 when he couldn’t make it through the fourth inning; worse than the time the White Sox pummeled him for eight earned runs and three home runs in 3.2 innings 2002; worse than the nine runs the Yankees tagged him for just last year.

But let’s not fool ourselves here. While Santana may not be the pitcher he was two or three years ago, he’s still a stud. Leslie Montiero wrote a great article today about putting the defeat in perspective, and it’s true. The loss does not make or break their season, just as a win would not have made New York favorites to win the National League.

Mets fans shouldn’t linger on Santana’s performance or the defeat, but rather to put it behind them and move forward. It’s not a quality Mets fans have displayed over the past few seasons, but a loss is a loss and there’s no point dwelling on it.

After a historic 9-1 homestand and eight-game winning streak, that was apparently the calm before the storm. We took a game against the best team in the division on the road. That’s nothing to really cry about.

Looking ahead though, how will Santana bounce back? He’s scheduled to pitch against the San Francisco Giants back at Citi Field on Saturday.

Since 2005, Santana has given up five earned runs or more nine times. In his next nine starts he is undefeated with a 2.25 ERA.

In fact, he has only given up five or more runs in back-to-back games twice in his entire career, and that was back when he was a green hurler in Minnesota in 2000 and 2003.

Simply put, Santana learns from his mistakes and puts a bad outing behind him. He has bouncebackability, a term coined by an English soccer manager to refer to a team that can recover from a defeat.

Whenever Santana struggles, he comes back stronger than ever. Look at the proof.

In 2005 he gave up a season-high seven runs to the Blue Jays but bounced back with 11 strikeouts in seven dominate innings over the Brewers the next time out. Later that year, he gave up six runs against the Angels but rallied in his next start 10 days later to pitch seven innings of one-run ball against the same team.

In 2007 he gave up six runs to Toronto while still playing for the Twins, but he struck out 12 Indians five days later.

Two years ago, Santana allowed five runs against the Reds and came back with eight solid innings against the Phillies, and just three weeks ago, the Mets ace allowed five runs in five innings against the Nationals, but shut out the Cardinals through seven innings when he was next on the mound.

Santana is not immune to the occasional meltdown, but he takes what he needs to from the beating. Past history tells us that he will be back to his dominant self this weekend. History tells us that he’s going to unleash a world of hurt on the Giants.

Pablo Sandoval may need more than kung-fu to hit the Mets when he rolls into Flushing. If I was him, I’d just close my eyes, swing the biggest stick of bamboo I could find, and hope for the best.

When Santana bounces back from an ugly defeat, hope is all you really have.

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