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It takes a special kind of Mets fan to stream a Binghamton Mets game in the Pacific Northwest while it’s sunny outside. 

I live in Eugene, Oregon. There are few, if any, who share similar enthusiasm for my beloved New York Mets. Before the 2015 MLB season began, I purchased an account for MLB.tv and Google Chromecast, which allows me to broadcast anything streaming on my phone to my television, so I’m able to watch the Mets on the TV while also typing away notes and/or tweets on my laptop. 

I have five roommates, and the six of us share one television. Only two watch any kind of baseball, and one is a Braves fan. No one really appreciates how many times each has had to watch Bartolo Colon pitch since living with me.

So when I turned on the Double-A affiliate on Saturday to watch Robert Gsellman pitch his debut, my roommates didn’t seem thrilled. 

In fairness to me, however, there was plenty of reason for excitement surrounding this rising star. In eight games at High-A ball for the St. Lucie Mets this season, Gsellman had a perfect 6-0 record. 

The Mets were 7-1 in games that Gsellman pitched for St. Lucie, with the only loss on May 11, when he threw eight innings, allowing just one run on five hits. However, when recent MLB closer Bobby Parnell came in to earn the save, the former MLB pitcher blew the 2-1 lead, and the club lost 4-2. 

Otherwise, Gsellman ended his tenure with St. Lucie with a 1.76 ERA and 0.941 WHIP, allowing 1.9 walks per nine innings, along with a solid 6.5 strikeouts. By his start on May 18, his ERA was as low as 1.43. In fact, through his first seven starts of the season, Gsellman had allowed just seven earned runs.

By the time he was called up to Double-A on May 27, he had already earned some accolades. For example, he won Florida State League Pitcher of the Week (May 11) after throwing eight scoreless innings on May 4; during this game he took a no-hitter until the eighth inning and allowed just one hit.

In September 2013, Gsellman won the Sterling Award for the Brooklyn Cyclones as the Most Outstanding Player for the Mets affiliate and was honored at Citi Field for his accomplishments. 

He is 23-16 overall in the minors, with a cumulative ERA of 2.82. Hitters are batting just .253 against him, and he’s thrown four complete games while displaying his endurance.

I’m not the only one talking about Gsellman these days. His fastball, which reaches 94 mph, is his most dominant pitch. But with solid command on his changeup and a developing curveball, he is receiving praise from websites like Baseball Prospectus.

“It isn’t very often I come across a prospect I know very little about who impresses me as much as Gsellman had just a week earlier,” explained Jeff Moore. In another profile on Gsellman for Baseball Prospectus, Moore projected his MLB future. “Gsellman should fit nicely in the middle of a big league rotation…even if the changeup never reaches its average potential.”

Gsellman (6’4”, 200 lbs) is a natural athlete who also played varsity basketball for Westchester High School in Los Angeles, where he won a state championship.

“It might be time to re-evaluate how we view Gsellman, who carried a no-hitter into the eighth before losing it on a one-out single,” wrote Greg Karam on the Mets blog, Amazin’ Avenue. “There’s still time to jump on the Gsellman bandwagon, but he might not be our little secret for much longer.”

Gsellman, who was drafted in the 13th round in 2011, is no longer a secret. MiLB.com produced this video profile, which claimed Gsellman “wouldn’t be outworked by anyone in the organization” in March 2015.

MinorLeagueBall.com ranked him No. 12 overall in its preseason top prospects, ahead of 2013 first-round pick Dominic Smith. Newsday ranked him No. 8 overall for pitching prospects, just two spots behind now-MLB pitcher Rafael Montero. 

Amazin’ Avenue had Gsellman as its No. 15 overall prospect before the season, listed in front of top prospect Matt Reynolds. The story was published in February 2015, and four of the players listed (Noah Syndergaard, Kevin Plawecki, Montero and Gavin Cecchini) just ahead of him have already earned spots on the MLB roster this season.

When I turned on his Binghamton debut, I missed the first inning, which means I missed the strikeout he recorded against his first batter. I did, however, turn on the game just in time for the two-run home run he allowed versus Eric Wood in the second inning.

My roommates were far from impressed. Gsellman was pulled after 4.0 innings pitched; he recorded six strikeouts but allowed six earned runs. His bullpen allowed another seven runs, and the Mets lost 13-4 in his debut. 

On the bright side, in his first two at-bats as a hitter in the minors, Gsellman reached base both times. He leads the minors in hitting, batting 1.000 with two hits.

At this point in the story, it’s also worth mentioning (though it’s far from the most important part of this story) that Gsellman was my next-door neighbor growing up. He was also my childhood best friend and one of the nicest and goofiest kids on the planet.

When he gets the ball for his next start for Binghamton, expect my roommates to give Gsellman another shot to win them over. It’s a long season.

Bryan Kalbrosky is a writer whose work has appeared in The HuffingtonPost, Yahoo! Sports, ESPN Denver and various other publications. For more of his work, follow him on Twitter @BryanKalbrosky.  

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

New York Mets fans are confident that there’s a method to the madness, that one day soon this beloved team from Flushing, Queens, will once again become a playoff-caliber ballclub.

In fact, earlier this week, Mets GM Sandy Alderson told MLB Network that he believes his team has “players with the potential to improve us by 10 games next season.”

Considering the club won 79 games in 2014, Alderson’s estimate would put the Mets just one game below 90 wins next season. For context, the Kansas City Royals won the American League with 89 wins last season, and the Giants won first the National League and then the World Series with only 88 victories.

If he’s correct, then the Mets would break .500 for the first time since 2008. Should the Mets fail to do so, however, Alderson will continue to draw his share of criticism for his lack of tangible production this offseason.

“One of the reasons we’ve been quiet in the offseason is that we have quality players at every position,” continued Alderson. “They’re not all proven above-average major league players, but we’re at the point now where we have to give them the opportunity to perform.”

Some may agree with Alderson and argue that such criticism is unfair. But there are certainly scenarios that the team will have to address heading into spring training and beyond.

Until then, many fans and critics will absolutely consider each of the following decisions to be a mistake.

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The New York Mets have sent R.A. Dickey to the Toronto Blue Jays, and the identity of the franchise, into a state of flux, hoping to reach the playoffs by 2015.

For Sandy Alderson and the front office of the New York Mets, it became clear that their management is planning for the season of 2015 rather than 2013. The fact of the matter is that the Mets have a strategy in mind, and it has everything to do with the prospects rising within their system.

The Mets may be admitting defeat, but they also realize they will not contend for the next couple of seasons. And while it’s difficult for me to write an article praising the departure of my favorite player in the MLB from my favorite team, it’s easy to see why the Mets made this trade.   

With constant unwelcoming reminders, it’s never hard to forget that baseball is a competitive game, and one rooted in business. If the price isn’t right to make your team the best that it can be over the long haul, the pieces simply won’t fit into the puzzle.

Keeping R.A. Dickey until he was 41 years old simply was not what they foresaw as the best option for their success, as they capitalized on a market hungry for starting pitching.

“I recognize this is an entertainment business and it was great to have R.A. here,” said Mets GM Sandy Alderson. “Were we not able to get the quality in return … I expect R.A. would have remained a Met.”

If you’re looking for a piece on how the Mets mistreated Dickey and threw him under the bus, it’s true. The Mets showed very little appreciation for R.A. Dickey and the wonderful things he has contributed to the game of baseball in the past two years. And you don’t need me to convince you of this once more, especially when so many other writers are arguing this.

Ultimately, the Mets made a smart baseball decision in their move to pick up Travis D’Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard.

This follows a trend of impressive moves from Alderson, who now has gotten extremely high value for both Carlos Beltran and R.A. Dickey when testing the trade market.

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The New York Mets showed up as an utter failure in the MLB Trade Deadline of this season.

It’s funny how well your sports team can act as a perfect mirror image of your life at some points. The relationship of your favorite sports team and your role as a fan is entirely abstracted in that you essentially make of it what you wish.

While we like to think (and often humorously firmly believe) that our superstitious antics of not moving from a lucky spot on the couch during an important at-bat or not discussing a no-hitter while in the process of one makes a difference. All too often, we realize that it pays no matter to any substantial result.

That’s the most fatalistic way to explain to a Mets fan that, while other teams made a difference this trade deadline, our beloved Mets stood idle.

Sometimes, that’s just the way it is. Sometimes in life, you’ll sit and watch as the tides violently throw you into the water as a suave surfer glides right by as everyone watches him and you simply get no regard. The Los Angeles Dodgers, who were recently as bankrupt and lowly as the Mets were over the offseason, came out of this trade deadline with two bit time hitters (Hanley Ramirez and Shane Victorino), and were inches away from pulling in starting help with Ryan Dempster. Their fans realized that they cared.

Meanwhile, the New York Mets sat and watched.

“30 minutes until deadline,” explained ESPN’s New York Mets writer Adam Rubin. “So far recapping #Mets activity: Traded Omar Quintanilla to Orioles for cash.”

According to Rubin, there were many scouts interested in trading for Mets outfielder Scott Hairston.

In their final game before the trade deadline, Hairston hit his second homerun of the game to beat the Giants in 10 innings. Hairston remained on the Mets for another day.

“I’m kind of glad I’m still here,” Hairston confessed. “Like I said last night, I’m having a lot of fun playing for the Mets and this is a great team to be a part of. I admit I didn’t sleep as good as I thought I would last night. I kept staring at the clock. So I’ll get that out of the way. But I’m just excited I’m still here.” 

Well, so long as Scott Hairston is “kind of” happy to be back.

“Right now, he’s a very important part of our team,” explained Mets general manager Sandy Alderson. “And we do feel it’s important to field as strong a team as we reasonably can for the rest of the season. We haven’t given up on the season. We didn’t move players off the team for a reason. We think we still have lots of good baseball in front of us. And Scott can be part of that.”

With the addition of a second wild card team for this season, there’s an increased perception for MLB teams around the league that they’re still in contention for the current season. Right now, however, the Mets are sitting 12.0 games back of the Washington Nationals for control of the NL East.

With a winning percentage of .485 (50-53), the New York Mets are also 8.5 games back of the Atlanta Braves and the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are tied for control of the two wild card positions in the National League.

 “I think there’s a lot of value, for example, in finishing well over .500. I think there’s a lot of value in finishing over .500,” Alderson continued. “I think those things create a perception. What happened or didn’t happen on the deadline may be largely forgotten if a team is able to create a positive impression the second half of the season.” 

That doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly frustrating in the moment.

Just like I explained earlier, sports can be eerily similar to the world that we as fans live in outside of the baseball diamond. Sometimes a job can go the wrong way. Sometimes a romantic interest can spurn. It simply doesn’t matter. The tide can be brutal to those unprepared.

Recently, I’ve been watched the television show Louie written, starring and directed by comedian Louie C.K. In a fictional version of his own life, he makes situational humor at those terrible instances in which everything seems to go wrong in an individual’s life. Each episode is given the darkly humorous motif of the New York life that Louie C.K. lives, which is a perfect fit for all things New York Mets.

“It’s hard to really look at somebody and go: “Hey, maybe something nice will happen.” You just don’t—I know too much about life to have any optimism, because I know even if it’s nice, it’s going to lead to [expletive].” he explained in one episode of his show. “I know that if you smile at somebody and they smile back, you’ve just decided that something [expletitive] is going to happen.” 

While the quote had nothing to do with baseball, it had everything to with the New York Mets. The disappointment begins to pile on more and more and it begins to become too much to bear at times. Yet writers and fans like Adam Rubin and myself keep coming back for more.

 “I understand our fans are disappointed with what’s happened the last three weeks or so,” Alderson concluded on the slump that brought the Mets below .500. “But it’s not the end of the season. And there are a lot of impressions to be made over the remaining two months. I happen to think those impressions can be more valuable than a low-A prospect, below the top 30, from some organization in the American League.”

Just as Rubin continued to tweet the lineup for the Matt Harvey-Tim Lincecum matchup, and just as I simply had to stop in the MLB apparel store near Laguna Beach and dish the necessary $25 for a retro Mets snapback simply because I was infatuated with the Mr. Met logo on it.

As sports fans, that’s just what we do. We’re the most reliable consumers out there in the market.

If there’s an episode of The Newsroom on HBO that I don’t like, there’s a pretty good chance I just say forget about it and discontinue my interest in the show. Their ratings may go down if enough people agree with me, and eventually the show could be cancelled if the network no longer wishes to support.

For a teams as established as the New York Mets, however, there’s virtually no chance that they’ll be leaving Major League Baseball.

Alderson may be replaced as the GM one day, David Wright may follow the suit of Jose Reyes and leave for free agency, Scott Hairston may be traded over the offseason for one of those low-A prospects we were hesitant about, but there will always be the amazin’ New York Mets playing ball for fans in Queens.

That’s a fact about sports that we just have to learn how to accept.

So the Mets did virtually nothing this offseason, and there’s a pretty good chance that they’ll finish exactly where they are right now: middle of the pack. They were unable to bring in relief help, they were unable to bring in batting help, and they were unable to bring in another starter to help an injured rotation.

Earlier this month, I was adamant that this was one of my favorite New York Mets teams since 2006. That team went on to play the Cardinals in the NLCS, only to lose on a Carlos Beltran strikeout. The memory haunts me to this day.

While I was assured that this team would do me better, leave me less crippled and without the heartbreak, sometimes you just have to wonder.

“Then again, when’s the last time that anything good happened?”

Follow @BryanKalbrosky

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals has quickly become one of the most compelling young players in sports.

The basics of Harper are simple. He’s blessed with the perfect body for baseball at 6’3” and 225 pounds, and he earned his GED in 2009 after his sophomore year of high school. In that same year, Harper was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

After a year of junior college ball, he quickly became the first overall pick in the 2010 MLB Draft. At seventeen-years old, Harper was the beneficiary of a five-year, $9.9 million deal. His agent was iconic baseball businessman Scott Boras. On April 27^th of this year, Harper was called up to the MLB.

Within his first ten days of the big leagues, Cole Hamels admitted to intentionally pegging Harper. In that same inning, after being put on the base paths, Harper became the youngest player to steal home plate since 1964. Hamels was suspended after admitting his mistake, and the next week, Harper became the youngest player to hit a home run in the MLB since Adrian Beltre in 1998.

Harper, with his trademark “hip” Mohawk haircut (or his adamant disapproval of Kevin Millar’s haircut) and droopingly intimidating eye black, clearly had no intentions of hiding his presence in the big leagues. And frankly, that’s a fantastic thing for the sport of baseball.

The confirmation of Harper being a figure here to stay has only continued through the season.

Bryce Harper, who has shared much of the spotlight this year with American League sensation Mike Trout, has been very impressive in his rookie season. He is hitting .282 with 8 home runs and an OPS of .826. His wRC+ (weighted runs created plus) is currently 127, only one behind Curtis Granderson and ahead of three-time AL MVP Alex Rodriguez (119).

What’s even more eye-catching is the fact that, as The Washington Post reports, his statistics thus far in his first year are alarmingly similar to the likes of former standout 19-year-old baseball stars, Mantle and Griffey.

In 248 at-bats, Harper is hitting .282 with an on-base percentage of .354 and a slugging percentage of .472. Through 238, Mantle was hitting .261 with an OBP of .341 and a slugging percentage of .424 in 1951. Griffey was hitting .279 with an OBP of .343 and a slugging percentage of .472 in 1981. The resemblance, of course, is striking.

His season earned him a spot as an injury replacement for Giancarlo Stanton on the 2012 National League All-Star team.

“I guess that’s pretty cool,” said Harper, his underwhelming tone coming as an utter shock to most of the major sports media.

The sports media had every reason to be confused as to why Harper was not more excited. The only All-Stars younger than Harper were two 19-year-old pitchers: Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets in 1984 and Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians in 1938, according to the Boston Herald.

That made Harper the youngest position player to be selected for an All-Star team.

Aside from the fact that Harper lost a fly ball in the lights and made a base running error between second and third during the All Star Game, Harper proudly showed up to the game as the new guy on the block.

And Harper, not one to go unnoticed, made the most of his evening. His fashion caught the headlines, as he wore golden cleats that specifically caught the special attention of ESPN personality Skip Bayless:

You know what, this was LeBron-esque. LeBron-esque. To me the kid is saying, I’m gonna be a bigger star than any of you guys one day. I’m here, and I’m here to stay. And in the big picture, LeBron did pretty much the same thing coming out of high school.

Let’s not forget that this comparison not be entirely far off. After all, Harper did become the most hyped high schooler in baseball since the 1970s. And much like LeBron, the fate of the sport seemed as if it was in his hands.

“Now Bryce is saying I can do this, and I give him a shot at it. But he has just set his bar seriously high, with his compadres in that clubhouse,” continued Bayless, confirming and solidifying the implications of his comparison.

As usual, some feel that Harper is not up for the weightiness of this challenge.

This is deonstrated with stories like the one about how he tricked out Mercedes with a curly “W” and a glowing bat, the incident in which he was caught blowing a kiss to a pitcher after a homerun, the fact that he Bryce Harper named his new dog “Swag”, that he was caught on Twitter rooting for the Yankees and the legendary “That’s A Clown Question, Bro” answer to a reporter.

But often, Harper has found that his demeanor is largely misunderstood:

I don’t think it’s a cocky thing at all. You don’t ever want to go out there and not be the best. You want to be the best cop that you can. Be the best writer you can be. Everybody has their goals. Everybody has their dreams.

This is a beautiful statement coming from Harper, an emerging voice in a community of young baseball players hoping to confirm that their play is supported by a future of legitimacy.

If the hard-nosed and all-around tight style of play and his strong support from other baseball players around the league is any indication, than Harper and his class of ballplayers may in fact represent the next generation of stars in the sport.

“You’re looking at Trout and Harper as being the faces of baseball in their respective leagues,” said Chipper Jones. “For a long, long time.”

“It’s like Bird and Magic,” added Harper, putting his own unique spin on the emerging talent. “I’m Bird.”

“I hope I play with him one day, I can tell you that. Him playing center field and me playing right field, I think, would be a 1-2 punch,” said Harper, on his relationship with Angels rookie Mike Trout.

But what kind of player does Bryce Harper want to become? These are the questions that fans need to contemplate as Harper continues his ascension from adolescence and into stardom.

“Jeter’s the guy I want to be like,” says Harper. “What I love about him is that he’s not just the captain of the Yankees, but he’s the captain of baseball. He plays the game a certain way, and he’s so good for baseball. Really, he is baseball.”

This means that Harper is infatuated with the idea of becoming a part of the global image of baseball.

Much like Jeter, who has earned corporate sponsorships and has become a force of nature as untouchable to the nation as the game itself, Harper wants to transcend the game and actually become a LeBron-esque figure to the sport of baseball.

At this point in time, that’s exactly what baseball needs.

The sport needs someone who not only able to hit 502 ft. homerun in 2009 when he was seventeen-years-old, but also someone who’s charismatic and unafraid to unleash a little bit of Kenny Powers from Eastbound & Down every once in a while with a blown kiss to a humiliated pitcher.

Harper, a devout Mormon who insists that he will never take a sip of alcohol in his entire life, is also a force to be reckoned with for the future. Harper speaks for himself, with a self-confirmed and evolving identity that is taking form with the sport that he plays. In the post-steroid era, we are watching the desperate need for a five-tool athlete like Harper for fans to understand as a star.

For better or for worse, Bryce Harper is acting like a star in a sport that could very much use the confirmation prowess of a young and marketable athlete that kids can look up to and that sponsorships can grab onto. If the success is getting to his head, his play will need to confirm the ego or he will be forced to level himself out like other young stars (including LeBron James) had to do as well. 

The future is indeed exciting for Bryce Harper, a baseball sensation who’s now continuing to make waves in the community of baseball. Regardless of whether or not his dominance continues for years to come, his potential is something noteworthy that fans across the nation should be paying attention to at-bat after at-bat

In baseball, the rise of a personality as strong, bold and talented as Harper’s should only be considered to be a fantastic addition to the league.

Follow @BryanKalbrosky

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

R.A. Dickey is having the most dominant season in baseball, and is the rightful starter in the upcoming All-Star game.

In fact, if Matt Cain were to be elected the starting pitcher for the National League team, it would be the biggest injustice in baseball since Pablo Sandoval was elected to start at third base over MVP candidate and New York Mets star David Wright. Wright, who’s hitting .353 with 11 home runs and a career best OPS of 1.012, is beating The Panda in every major categorical outlet (.314/7 HRs/0.867).

Wright has 4.9 wins above the replacement player—the most out of anyone in baseball not named Joey Votto, while Sandoval has earned only 1.4—comparable with New York Mets rookie outfielder Kirk Nieuwnheis (1.3 WAR, did not make All-Star ballot).

Wright’s 59 RBI dwarf the 28 runs that Sandoval has driven in, and Wright even led Sandoval by 460,000 votes the Tuesday before the ballots closed.

Yet, Sandoval finished with 1.6 million more votes than Wright when the polls closed, ensuring that he would start at the hot corner when the National League takes on the American League in Kansas City.

The fans got that one wrong, and one San Francisco player will be starting in the spot of a New York player. Thankfully, there’s room for redemption. Not so quietly, New York Mets staff ace R.A. Dickey has been dazzling fans all season long and has yet to hear whether or not he will get the starting nod by manager Tony La Russa in the upcoming All-Star game.

His primary competition is San Francisco Giants wiz and workhorse Matt Cain, who highlighted his season with a perfect game on June 13th. While he has had an undeniably awesome season by anyone’s definition of the word ‘awesome’, La Russa has an opportunity that the general public does not: settling the score.

While position players are (often obsoletely) decided by a fan vote, pitching decisions rest in the hands of an all-knowing skipper.

When put under the responsibility of La Russa, the decision is given the thankful elimination of fan bias and is replaced with baseball facts.

Some facts off the bat: Dickey is baseball’s best 12-1 on the season, sports a flashy 2.40 ERA, has an impressive K/9 rate of 9.23, has a WHIP of 0.93 and virtually never allows a batter on base as evidenced by his two consecutive one-hitters.

Cain is 9-3, has a 2.63 ERA, has a K/9 of 8.83, a WHIP of 0.96, and most importantly, he has no cute nickname for Sandy Alderson to make fun of. He’s also no more impressive than Dickey in any major indicating statistic. As inspiring and dominant as his perfect game was, that was a single day in his history. Dickey, on the other hand, continues to make history with every pitch—namely, his knuckleball.

His knuckleball is revolutionizing the game of baseball day in and day out, with every outing of his on the mound. With three different versions of the pitch, including the fastest and most accurate knuckleball in history, it’s a new beast from anything ever seen in baseball.

Tim Wakefield, for instance, was the most recent knuckleball pitcher in baseball. Like Dickey, who has thrown the pitch 86.2 percent of the time on the mound this year, Wakefield heavily relied on the pitch and threw it 84.3 percent of the time he threw a pitch.

Unlike Dickey, however, his pitch was inaccurate and he walked 3.36 batters per game, compared to the 1.95 Dickey has recorded this season. Wakefield was also not a strikeout pitcher, and recorded only 6.01 K/9 in his career. This season, Dickey has recorded 9.23 K/9 and fans 26.6 percent of the batters that he faces. In his career, Wakefield struck out only 15.5 percent.

The most perplexing statistic in Dickey’s favor as a knuckleball pitcher is the speed of his pitch. Dickey has somehow managed to throw his knuckleball at an average speed of 77.0 MPH this season, whereas Wakefield’s career average was only 65.8 MPH for the pitch.

“Boy, I’ll tell you, he’s on fire,” said Hall of Famer knuckleball pitcher Phil Niekro on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Radio. “He is the talk of baseball right now. The talk of sports. I’ve never seen a knuckleballer that has pitched as well as he has. I certainly haven’t done that and I don’t know of any other knuckleball pitcher that I’ve seen has done that. Everybody in baseball is talking about this guy.” 

To make matters even more impressive, Dickey is the only remaining knuckleballer active in baseball,  and he’s doing all of this at 37 years old, coming out of an offseason in which he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in an effort to raise money for child sex trafficking and in which he published an extraordinarily well-written New York Times Best Seller that he co-wrote with Wayne Coffey, entitled Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity, and the Perfect Knuckleball—a memoir about his life and troubled childhood in which he was molested in separate incidents as a child.

Dickey, as we’ve all realized, has also done all of this phenomenal work without an ultra collateral ligament, the primary elbow stabilizer and critical for the profession of, say, a professional pitcher in Major League Baseball.

“I just try to be in the moment with every pitch,” says Dickey in an L.A. Times article, who’s hoping to hear if he will be selected to start in the All-Star game.

“Dickey could certainly start the game,” La Russa explained in a Yahoo Sports article. “He’s got the credentials. But I look at the starter types of the five guys that were selected and each of those guys can make a claim, so as a manager, you have to keep your heart pure and do the best you can for the team over one individual.”

Other names still in the running for the starting spot include Matt Cain, Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, Clayton Kershaw, and arguably, even Philadelphia Phillies starter Cole Hamels.

But which catcher would be able to handle the knuckle ball?

“With Dickey, I’ve given that a lot of thought,” La Russa added in a Wall Street Journal article by Brian Costa. “There is an issue about catching him and what spot to use him. His season has gotten everybody’s attention, including our staff’s, and we’re talking about the best way to just win the game with the personnel—and how we use Dickey will be a part of that.”

According to CSN writer Andrew Baggarly, he’s not the only one concerned. “Buster Posey got the number for Mets catcher Josh Thole from Andres Torres. Hasn’t called yet to get advice about catching knuckler.”

“I would have no problem starting him,” added former pitching star John Smoltz. “Dickey has dominated a stretch of baseball we haven’t seen in a long time.”

And now that Dickey’s story has become one of the most talked about in recent baseball memory, fans have begun to hamper on a new question: should Dickey’s life be turned into a movie? If so, the baseball star would also become a Hollywood star; for a man who understands culture as deeply as anyone in the game, acting as a cultural icon of his own.

If he were neglected for the start, it would violate the very fundamentals of what the All-Star game is about: showcasing the top talent and most compelling players in the game. That’s exactly what R.A. Dickey has become.

Of course, Dickey has had help from his self-titled “Jedi Council of Knuckle Ballers”, including Phil Niekro (318 career wins) and Charlie Hough.

After not making his first All-Star appearance until 37, after spending 14 years in the minors and after not getting his first full season in the MLB until he was 36 years old, we have some context to proven that Dickey is here to stay. Niekro retired at 48. Charlie Hough retired at 46.

The All-Star game is not a popularity contest when it comes to pitching. It’s a matter of who’s the best pitcher in the game at the time. That is, without a doubt, R.A. Dickey. So if we’re going to pretend that the All-Star game means something, then let’s actually do it and get the right pitcher on the mound.

If Mets fans had any say in it, they’ll be sure to try to keep it that way for years to come. With the book published this year, with the offseason feats of climbing a mountain and with all of his accomplishments on the field, this is the time for R.A. Dickey to shine in his new role—an All-Star.

If he doesn’t get the start, it would and should be a criminal offense.

Follow @BryanKalbrosky

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

From ESPN’s Sports Center to the subway streets of Manhattan, no one believes in the New York Mets.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Following Johan Santana’s terrifically inspiring performance against the St. Louis Cardinals on June 1, general coverage of the New York Mets is still held with a grain of salt.

As Santana became the first pitcher to ever throw a no-hitter whilst wearing the blue and orange jersey of the New York Mets, ESPN was given a perfect opportunity to perhaps bridge into a profile segment on the exciting and lovable group of ballplayers who compose one of the most compelling teams in 2012 baseball.

Instead, ESPN focused their coverage on the controversial call of ruling Carlos Beltran’s would-be double a foul ball.

Columnists and media pundits dwelled on the “missed call” and pointed to other instances of botched officiating in the history of the no-hitter. Rather than looking at the other 26 hard earned outs Santana recorded in his more than impressive showing, it was negativity that highlighted this performance.

After 50 years of hardship and an improbable run of flagship pitchers unable to close out the historic performance needed for a no-hit showing, this is what the folks at ESPN chose to focus on?

In the 2012 New York Mets, you have a group of young players rebounding from organizational financial crisis and the loss of star player Jose Reyes to a divisional rival.

With the guise of collaborative effort at the forefront of this team’s identity, the team is coming together and approaching each game with confidence.

Perhaps that’s why this team has actually been successful.

The players on the current team have certainly not been fans of the New York Mets forever, and none of them knew that they would be picked up by this particular organization when they declared for the MLB draft.

But, what brings them together is that they now put on the orange and blue hat at the beginning of every day of work.

This is their franchise, this is their team and many of them feel as if this their times.

Even if no one else in the world believes it.

When Johan Santana threw his final changeup of the June 1 game, a rush of electric emotion came over my being. I felt invincible. My father and grandfather had both gone their entire life without seeing a no-hitter by their beloved Metropolitans, and it was beginning to feel as if it was never going to happen.

Until it finally did.

As the entire team rushed the field and players like R.A. Dickey flashed their smiles of compassionate and poetic understanding, it all began to sink in.

Maybe this team could be for real.

Quickly, from my fraternity house in Eugene, Oreg., I put down my slice of authentic New York pizza I had happened to order for the game and frantically called my dad.

“LET’S GO METS! LET’S GO METS! LET’S GO METS!” were the words that carried over the phone from the Pacific Northwest to my home in Southern California.

My grandpa was the next one to hear my thrill. It’s just been one of those years for the Mets.

There are two extra wild card positions that can earn a team a spot in the playoffs this season. With their winning record (35-30), the New York Mets have as good of a shot at clinching the inaugural positions as anyone else in the National League.

If that’s what this season can come down to for the club, there is more than enough reason to celebrate.

Coming into the Subway Series against the New York Yankees, the Mets had been working to solidify their identity as a team. Centered around youth and strong pitching, their thoughtful resilience was beginning to unfold as a story central to the narrative of the 2012 MLB season.

Unfortunately, the Yankees swept the Mets.

Much of the momentum they carried was beginning to feel as if it may fizzle and fade, as Santana gave up two homeruns to Robinson Cano in a crushing 9-1 defeat.

The Mets went on to a 4-2 loss by Dillon Gee and a late 5-4 loss surrendered by Dillon Gee.

The most hyped game of the season was arguably an interleague battle between sudden star and New York Mets ace R.A. (C.Y.) Dickey (9-1) and David Price (8-4).

The two pitchers led their respective league in wins coming into the game, but that wasn’t going to stop Dickey. With confidence, the Mets offense came into the game and shelled the Rays for a wildly impressive nine-run performance.

In the game, Dickey took command of the 2012 MLB record for most consecutive scoreless innings pitched (32.2 IP) while setting the franchise record process.

He didn’t surrender a walk, which is wildly impressive for a knuckleball pitcher. He also had his career-best performance in strikeout’s with 12, inspiring the @RADickheads twitter account to spell his name with slightly too many K’s.

Perhaps the most impressive part of his day was the fact that he threw his second career one-hitter. Manager Terry Collins quickly tried to get the Mets their second no-hitter in two weeks as he appealed the ruling of B.J. Upton’s infield single as an error on behalf of David Wright.

Either Collins was specifically asking for the MLB to continue to help write the “Amazin’ Mets 2012” movie, or he was blatantly asking the MLB to remind the organization that it doesn’t believe in them.

Either way, it was an interesting decision for the Mets skipper.

“If anybody deserved a no-hitter or a perfect game tonight, it was him,” Collins told ESPN.com.

Collins was only echoing the sentiments of the rest of the country, who all seem to be riding his bandwagon. This ESPN article, for instance, discusses his Cy Young candidacy.

As does this article on Bleacher Report.

And this one on FanGraphs.

Meanwhile, we can only assume that Dickey will challenge San Francisco Giants pitcher Matt Cain for the starting spot on the National League squad in the upcoming All-Star Game.

“He’s at a different level right now. It’s amazing what he’s been able to do,” Wright said. “It just seems like each outing he’s getting better and better. It’s fun to be a part of.”

First he climbs a mountain. Then he publishes the beautifully written memoir.

Now this.

Dickey has been unstoppable as of late.

And, in my opinion, so have the Mets. They have been a pleasure to watch, sans the poor play from Mike Nickeas and the injury troubles of Jason Bay.

The team is coming together. Kirk Nieuwenhuis is finding his swing and hitting homeruns, Scott Hairston is hitting .428 with five homeruns in his last 11 games and the Mets are rolling.

The Mets are currently in third place in the NL East, but that has proven to be one of the more competitive divisions in baseball.

Behind only the San Francisco Giants for the first wildcard spot with 35 victories, they’re now tied with the Atlanta Braves for rights to the second spot.

The Mets are playing like a team this June, even if no one believes it.

We’ve learned lots about the Mets so far in June, but what is perhaps most impressive is the way that they’ve been able to rally around the team and play like a real club.

As long as they continue their hot streak into the second half of the season, we may be seeing the Mets in the playoffs for the first time in quite a few years.

Follow @BryanKalbrosky

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Are the New York Mets in the midst of an infamous “Nobody Believes in Us!” season?

Following an impressive and rare sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies, the New York Mets have now won an impressive five games in a row and are one game back of the lead for best record in the NL East. This was the second time since 2000 that the team has swept a series in which they trailed all three games. The other time in the last twelve years that this happened was against Miami this April. Their eleven comeback victories through 31 games is their highest in franchise history, and the repeated cardiac workout has given way to a considerable amount of entertainment. It seems as if the New York Mets are playing in a groove, and it has been undeniably exciting to watch.

After losing two players integral to the former identity of the team (Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran), the team came into the season with a lot of doubt surrounding the club. Perhaps, however, losing these distractions and focusing on youth and rebuilding were two things necessary to their renovation.

Their pitching staff has been playing to their potential, highlighted by impressive showings from pitchers Johan Santana (2.87 ERA, 9.87 K/9) and R.A. Dickey (4-1, 3.76 ERA). According to Amavin’ Avenue, their offense has been among the best in the game.

“As they won five of their past six games, the Mets scored 5.5 runs per game. In the National League,” the website points out, “the team ranks third in average and on-base percentage, eighth in slugging, and fifth in wOBA. Coming into the season, offense was supposed to be the Mets’ strength, and it looked the part this week.”

The youth and passion of this team has helped them realize their goal: a trip to the playoffs and relevancy in the sporting community. Both have been long gone for the team commonly recognized as the “other” team in New York.

Some sportswriters, such as ESPN’s Adam Rubin, have caught wind of what was happening at Citi Field (where the Mets are 10-6) and have begun to cover the excitement of the motley crue of characters that compose the make-up of this baseball team.

“In terms of likability, and energy and enthusiasm,” writes Rubin, “this Mets team—now five games over .500 for the first time in two years and coming off a sweep in Philly—demonstrates that you don’t have to break the bank to put an appealing product on the field.”

As Bleacher Report writer Harold Friend points out in his piece, “New York Mets Deserve Plaudits but Receive None from New York Tabloids.” however, not everyone in the media is on board with the New York Mets this season.

“Today, Ken Davidoff of the Post started his column with “Once the Philles blew yet another late-inning (sic) lead, allowing the Mets to post their third straight victory and a series sweep.”

Writes Friend, “The nerve of Davidoff and the ignorance of such a statement. The Mets (18-13) have a better record than the Yankees (16-14). The Mets are defying the ‘experts’ that wrote them off all winter and spring. Well, I have news for them. The Mets are not going away.”

His sentiments summarize the mood of the team, as well. There’s a layer of doubt around their successes, and no one likes to be doubted. Not even someone in a slump, like first baseman Ike Davis.

“When are you going to write a story that says I suck?” asked Ike Davis, Mets first baseman, to The New York Daily News. “Actually, write that they should send me to Buffalo,” continued Davis, who is hitting only hitting .179 on the season. “Then I’ll get fired up. Yeah, write that I suck.”

Wait a second. Isn’t this starting to feel a lot like Bill Simmons’s “Nobody Believed in Us!” theory?

According to Simmons, “The most potent force […] is the “Nobody Believes In Us” theory.” He wrote of the passion level in sports that has determined so many of the great moments in the last decade of sports history:

“My dopey theory: In the age of parity, every contender has roughly the same level of talent. There is no such thing as a juggernaut anymore. The past decade featured two of the most defining ‘Nobody Believed In Us’ games ever played (Super Bowl XXXVI, Super Bowl XLII) as well as six teams (2000 Giants, 2001 Pats, 2003 Panthers, 2005 Steelers, 2007 Giants, 2008 Cardinals) that thrived on that mantra.”

So do the Mets have a bit of this whole ordeal, whatever it is, going for them? It certainly seems so, as the clubhouse is coming alive and together in this early part of the season. The team is young, the team is driven, and most importantly, the team is playing as a team.

“Whenever teams win a big game, invariably, they play the whole “Nobody believed in us!” card. Happens all the time,” wrote Simmons in a later story. “Just in this decade, nobody believed in the 2004 Red Sox, the 2002/04/05 Patriots, the 2000 Lakers, the 2004 Pistons, the 2006 Steelers, the 2003 Marlins and the 2001 Ravens. Yup, we didn’t believe in them, they off this energy, and that’s one of the reasons they won. Or so they said.”

If this is helping the Mets come together, then there are no gripes by me. I don’t know what’s going on New York, but it’s working. Even if it’s surprising, you might even say that it’s working well.

“Yet the Mets keep winning,” wrote Rubin, on the Mets channeling these competitive undertones. “They’re doing it with youth. And the success is fun in the interim while other touted National League East teams try to get their acts together. Maybe continued skepticism has a positive byproduct, too.”

For confirmation of this skepticism, just casually search the headlines on Bleacher Report. The headlines assert is as well as anywhere. Nobody believes in the New York Mets.

“David Wright and the Surprising Surge of the 2012 Amazin’ Mets” is the title of Eric Brach’s piece on the 2012 success. He ends the piece by quoting legendary Mets’ relief pitcher Tug McGraw: “Ya gotta believe!” McGraw’s famous quote is one as iconic to the New York Mets as any, and also one typical to the “Nobody Believed In Us!!!!” theory.

In Ross Bentley’s piece “At What Point Is It Okay to Start Believing in This Team?” he was significantly more direct in his analysis.  The New York Mets are playing as if they’re for real, and that’s the ultimate truth of the matter. If no one believes that this is legitimate, then they have only one thing to do: prove it on the field. This is what makes sports so great. It happens the way that it should when the better team wins. The better team wins when the team is playing like a team, and that often happens when the team feels as if they’re underappreciated and backed into a corner. How does the team feel about this?

“No one believed in us, and I hope they don’t still,” said Ike Davis, finally lighting the trigger of significance and giving the Mets an identity for this season. The words, as simple as they might seem, stand for something so much deeper. “We’re just going to continue to play hard. We have a lot of young guys—I mean, basically the whole team — but surrounded with some good veterans. And it’s just exciting. It’s a good atmosphere in the clubhouse.”

Folks, this season, the New York Mets are our first “Nobody Believed in Us!” team and quite frankly, it feels awesome. Having a team with an identity, as silly and simple as one by Bill Simmons might sound, is incredibly important to the character of the team. This gives them something to play for, and something that brings them together. 

Are the Mets going to win the 2012 World Series? I couldn’t tell you. The World Series is not played until October, and today is May 12th. If we look back on this piece at the All-Star break, we could deem this piece irrelevant and the Mets a lost cause. But that ruins the fun of the season. Every year is supposed to feel like your year. That’s why we keep watching our favorite teams.

Bryan is always interested in new opportunities and can be reached on Twitter. Click here to Follow @BryanKalbrosky.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

What’s worse than being a fan of the New York Mets in September if they’re not going to be a playoff team?

Literally 24 hours ago, I was at the dentist’s office getting my wisdom teeth pulled. As a New York Mets writer and fan, I’d rather go through that again than have to sit through another September and October of meaningless New York Mets baseball. At least the dentist gives me vicodin to numb the pain. What do the Mets do? I’m not entirely sure, but I can’t imagine that watching a mediocre R.A. Dickey (6-11, 3.57 ERA) face the Marlins will really help my morale much.

As I lay motionless in bed, flipping through crappy television shows and dusting off old copies of MLB The Show 2008, I’ve been forced to think about how pathetic the New York Mets have been this season. Getting your teeth pulled hurts; don’t get me wrong. Seeing your favorite baseball team miss the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year? That’s actually excruciating.

At 66-69, they’re not only below .500 but they’re also 22 games back of the division-leading Philadelphia Phillies. If the New York Mets ever wish to contend for another playoff berth, finishing around 20 games back of the division leader certainly will be of no service to the organization.

With Johan Santana, Ike Davis and Daniel Murphy all on the DL and with Jose Reyes potentially packing up and leaving town this offseason, Mets fans from across the country can either watch Jason Bay continue to underperform and earn millions of dollars doing so… or they can focus on the future.

Personally, I’m tired of watching Jason Bay underperform. I’d much rather focus on the future of the franchise, and what each position holds for the team. Here, we will look at the top prospect at every corner of the field for the New York Mets. Listen, if 2011 doesn’t work, there’s always 2016. Right? Right.

Note: I’ve chosen not to include names like Fernando Martinez, Dillon Gee, Jennry Mejia and Lucas Duda because they’ve already seen time in the MLB and, odds are, you’ve heard of them.

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