This week, the Mets finally 100% officially said goodbye to Jorge Sosa . He’d been struggling for quite some time, we had more relievers than we realistically needed, someone had to go. That someone was him. After all, Matt Wise once healthy looked promising. Joe Smith was young with potential. Billy Wagner is almost unhittable lately. Aaron Heilman…umm..well, needless to say, Jorge Sosa was the man to go. The Brass hit a point where it was finally acceptable to say, ‘keep your $2 mill, don’t let the bullpen car hit you on the way out.’

It was a bold move, eating that much money. But then again, its NY, and the Wilpons probably bring in that much from the beer carts on a good weekend, probably more the way the team is playing. So the question now, when does it become time to think about this option for some of the other vets that aren’t carrying their weight?

Lets face it, while we’ve used the phrase, ‘how much worse can it get?” here a few dozen times this season, we do so while hoping never to find out. Getting swept in a four game series by the Braves: bad. But is it rock bottom? Nooooo. Now losing a four game series to the Nats or Pirates, now that would be bad. But as they team struggles and struggles, would it really be that surprising? Should we wait and find out if its even possible?

Fancy speeches about stepping up, players only meetings, Willie getting sassy with the media, all thats nice, but it doesn’t win ball games. Sooner or later, if things stay as they are, Omar has to go upstairs and put some interesting options on the table, such as eating Carlos Delgado’s contract. Sure, he hits for power, and one in every six hits he has are homeruns. The problem being though that he’s getting mighty close to that Mendoza line. Something like that is useful sometimes. Last season Ramon Castro had a stretch where he hit .200 but every other hit went out of the park. But he’s a backup catcher. Delgado is our starting first basemen, and .200 isn’t quite going to cut it, no matter how many of those hits are homeruns.

We must ask the same of our aging starting rotation. When do we just give El Duque his checks to stay home rather then pretend he’s rehabbing? The team needs to just admit Duq isn’t returning, and put effort into finding a full time fifth starter, rather than pretend he’ll be back in blue and orange and its ok to juggle journeyman starters and career minor leaguers in that spot, since they’re just keeping it warm. I’m a big fan of Figgy and all, but he’s a band aid not a real solution.

Firing Willie will not solve any of our problems, since a new manager will be looking at the same players. If we truly want to avoid finding out what rock bottom is, sooner or later the team is going to have to think about saying Goodbye to its non-producing vets.

As we impatiently await the 10pm start time of the night game, the question to ask now is does the past few days mean anything?

The Mets went up against one of the best teams in baseball, and took two out of three. The team is finally healthy. Not 100%, but if we learned anything the last few seasons it never will be. Chances are one of our starters will be hurt, this is the organization that went through over a dozen starters in a season, sinking as low as Jose Lima. Chances are Pedro and Duq will not be healthy at the same time, and even if they are lets face it, someone else won’t be if and when that day comes. Joe Smith might have hit the wall again. Ollie could have dead arm. Alou might have shattered into pieces or Castillo’s knees could buckle. This is as healthy as they’re getting.

With the renewed health, we’ve seen the offense return from its slumber. Is it the return of Alou and Schneider? Partly. Is it a team with renewed fire, after being embarrassed by one of the worst teams in baseball? Perhaps? But quite honestly, who cares. All we need to know, is can they keep it up? So far they’ve taken down some good pitchers in Atlanta and Arizona. Did they take advantage of good pitchers having weak moments? Yes, but thats what good teams do. They take advantage of a weakness. Its what others teams have done to Ollie. What opposing pitchers have done to Delgado. Its what until now, the Mets have failed to do. But for all this to mean something, they have to do it again. And again. Because that is what good teams do. They don’t just do it every once in awhile. They don’t just do it against the good teams and mail it in against the bad. They do it regularly. No one can ask for perfection, not even fans in New York. Sure, technically they can, but they won’t get it (see attached files, Met No Hitters, Met MVPs). But to prove they’ve finally turned, they need to do it often.

So the last few days were not the test. The Royals have beaten the Yankees. The Rays the Red Sox. Anyone can take a series. The next few are the test. Of can they do it again. Of can they be consistent. When they do that, then we can acknowledge a turning point.

Now we gaze into our crystal ball to give you our picks for the 2008 baseball season. Give us your own predictions in the comment section.

Our picks, after the jump.

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