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New York Mets rookie pitcher Dillon Gee pitched eight solid innings against the Pirates to move to 7-0 on the season. Despite his success at every level, most so-called experts keep expecting the 21^st round draft pick to fail.

Major league franchises spend millions of dollars on advanced scouting. In the draft, they look for “tools” in position players and “stuff” in pitchers. This means they want to see the players who show the ability to possibly succeed at the major league, while more times than not ignoring the intangibles that actually creates success.

While any team would love a pitcher who can throw a 97 mph fastball, there are plenty of pitchers who succeed with off-speed pitches and control. Dillon Gee is one of those pitchers. He does not do any one thing great, but he can throw up to four pitches with very good control, and it adds up to a great combination.

After being drafted in the 21^st round out of Texas-Arlington, Gee moved quickly up the minor league ranks. Starting in short season Brooklyn and moving up to Triple-A Buffalo in just two seasons, Gee was still not considered a prospect. He was never listed on Baseball America’s top 10 Mets’ prospects. Most scouts considered him to be a “4A Player,” someone who does well in Triple-A but will never have success in the big leagues.

None of this seemed to discourage Gee. When he finally received his chance last September after leading the International League in strikeouts, he performed masterfully. In five starts he pitched to a 2.18 ERA. But in baseball, players have short periods of success all the time. The water usually levels and those who are undeserving will eventually fall back to earth, right? Well someone needs to remind a certain pitcher about this.

This offseason, the Mets signed Chris Young and Chris Capuano to fill out the back end of the rotation. Dillon Gee once again remained silent and waited for his opportunity, which came in the form of a season-ending injury to Chris Young. The Texas native has not looked back.

The New York Mets have had a lot of things go wrong this year. Between injuries, poor performance on the field and an owner who cannot do anything right, the team needs something good to pick up the spirits. Dillon Gee has been that something, and the Mets have responded by winning in all nine of his starts this season.

After tonight, Gee is now 7-0 with a 3.05 ERA to go along with a K/BB ratio of over 2:1. If he pitches six or more innings in his next start he will qualify for the ERA title and all post-season awards. With stats like these, it would be hard to argue against him ending the season with a Rookie of the Year trophy.

Few scouts could have predicted this success a few years ago or even at the beginning of the season. Dillon Gee still does not seem to care.

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Last night against the Washington Nationals, Carlos Beltran broke out in a big way. He slugged two home runs against Tom Gorzelanny and scored a third run off of an error to help lead the New York Mets to victory. This is something the team, and fans, need to see more of during the duration of the season.

After two injury prone seasons in which he total only 145 games, Beltran has become the forgotten man in the middle of the lineup. However, he is one of the best players in the league when healthy. In his six years with the Mets, he has made four All-Star games, won three Gold Gloves and two Silver Slugger awards. Still, most fans will consider his contract a disappointment.

This season, he still feels he needs to prove himself worthy. He will be making $19 million this year and, unless agent Scott Boras pulls his greatest magic act yet, he is due for a hefty decrease in salary next year. The only way for him to help his case is on the field. This means not only performing his best, but also physically playing as many games as he can. There is very little market 35-year-olds who can’t play more than half of a season (unless your name is Moises Alou).

This is how the Mets and Carlos Beltran can help each other. If he performs well in the cleanup spot in the lineup, it will help the team towards their playoff push. While there are questions surrounding the team’s pitching staff, the lineup should be a strength for this team, and Carlos is as important to its success as anyone.

Meanwhile, if does perform well and the team “plays meaningful games in September,” other teams will definitely take notice. They will see a player who graciously changed positions for the benefit of the team, and performed well to help his team win. There are plenty of openings in Major League Baseball for players like that.

The other side of the coin is if he plays well, but the team around him does not. This will still help both sides. With very little chance the Mets re-sign him after the season, he is a perfect trade candidate at the July 31st deadline. If Beltran is playing to his full capabilities, the Mets will be able to unload him and receive some quality prospects in return.

Worst-case scenario, Carlos’ bothersome legs come back to haunt him and he is unable to remain on the field. He will remain with the Mets until the end of the season, where he will be lightly recruited around the league and the Mets will receive no compensation. When Omar Minaya signed the All-Star before the 2005 season, the contract stated the team could not offer him arbitration, and therefore no receive draft picks in return for losing him.

More likely than not, Carlos Beltran will not finish the season with the Mets. The only chance he has of staying is if the team were still alive in the playoff race, at which point they would gladly keep him. In any scenario, the only way both sides will benefit is if Beltran is on the field and doing what he does best.

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Baseball is not for everyone. When non-baseball fans question the appeal of baseball, a response is hard to come by. It has a long season, games are slow and players change teams frequently. With the lack of parity, teams can go decades without making the playoffs and giving fans a glimmer of hope.

This is why it takes a lifetime to be a fan of a team.

As Terence Mann said from Field of Dreams, “The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America…has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time.”

Even if your team is in the middle of the worst season in history, it is easy to believe that “There is always next year.”

This allows baseball to be a more rewarding experience for the diehards. Many fans use the terms “we” and “us” when referring to their favorite team. They do this because they are a vital part of the team. True fans have been around earlier and will stick around longer than any players and they are more invested in the long-term success of the franchise.

This is why it is so hard to be a just a casual fan, and it takes a certain level of dedication to make baseball a rewarding experience.

Here are three reasons why:

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With everyone else making predictions for how the rest of the season will play out, I would like to focus more in the here and now. People often forget that the first three games of the season count as much as the last three games of the season. More importantly, the first week of games are a decent indicator for how the rest of the season will turn out…you just need to know what to look for.

How Aggressive is Jose Reyes on the Base Paths?

Last season, Jose Reyes was coming off of a hamstring injury, as well as a thyroid problem. Once he entered the lineup, he stayed relatively healthy and finished with 133 games. In that time, he stole 30 bases, which, compared to an average player, is a very good season. But at his best, Reyes is much more than an average player.

From 2005-2009, Reyes averaged 64.5 stolen bases per season. What made him an elite player was that once he got on base, he was able to score so often, without even the aid of a hit from his teammates. I believe in his last year of his current contract, he will try to be more aggressive to help himself put up stats and his team put up runs.

How Often Will Terry Collins Change the Lineup?

Terry Collins was firm in saying that he does not want to tinker with his lineup too often. He even named his first six spots in the order over a month ago. Unfortunately, the injury to Jason Bay has changed the dynamic of the order, especially when Willie Harris is patrolling left field. The Mets need more run production out of Angel Pagan than they were planning and Collins has moved him back to the fifth spot to account for that. As the season progresses, he might need to get more power out of the bottom of the order and make changes accordingly.

It will also be interesting to see how Collins adjusts his lineup to account for the opposing pitcher. Five of the Mets’ first six games are against right-handed pitchers. As much as the team wants to get a look at Brad Emaus in major league games, Daniel Murphy has a solid bat from the left side that can really help produce runs. Once Ronny Paulino returns to the bench, he might also receive extra looks against lefty pitchers.

Will Lucas Duda take advantage of Bay’s injury?

A year ago at this time, Lucas Duda was considered to low-level prospect that would probably never crack the majors. After crushing both AA and AAA pitching last season, he has established himself as the most major league-ready outfielder in the Mets system. With a few good weeks in the majors, he can prove that he belongs for good.

Even though the Mets have three established outfielders at the moment, all three have been injury-prone throughout their careers. An opportunity will certainly present itself for Duda during the course of the season. If not, there will be an opening in right field in 2012. If Duda can provide the offense necessary from a corner outfield position, he will certainly alleviate some roster concerns going into next season.

  Who will pitch in the seventh and eigth innings?

The fan choice for the setup role is undoubtedly Bobby Parnell. He is a young, home-grown player who throws in the upper 90’s. However, Taylor Buchholz had a great spring and has more experience pitching in the late innings. D.J. Carrasco will probably be saved for long outing scenarios and Tim Byrdak will be used exclusively as a lefty specialist. This leaves Blaine Boyer and Pedro Beato as the other contenders to bridge the gap from the starter to K-Rod. Each of the four contenders has shown promise, but it will take consistency from each for the Mets to make a run at the playoffs this season.

The season is not won or lost during the first week, but it is always good to see that your team is at least headed in the right direction.

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