Seeing a strike and stealing bases

As a life long Mets fan, there are a number of things about them that drive me crazy, but right now I'd like to focus on two of them. I've never faced a major league pitcher and I know with some, you don't get a lot of "hittable" pitches, but I'm a big proponent of seeing a strike. Especially after the guy in front of you walked. If the pitcher you're about to face just walked the guy in front of you, I don't care how good the first pitch he throws you looks, take it. Make the pitcher find the plate. I know sometimes they throw a pretty pitch, but more often than not, it ends in a pop out. I wish they would be more patient and wait for their pitch.

As for stolen bases. I agree they're exciting, and they can completely change the track of an inning or the approach of a pitcher, but the Mets need to be choosier with when they run. They have stolen 271 bases and have been caught 70 times (most recent statistics I could find from www.thebaseballcube.com). 70 TIMES! They haven't been doing a good job of stringing together runs and are way too good at stranding runners - I get that a guy on second looks a lot better than a guy on first in terms of producing runs, but is losing 70 base runners in less than half a season really worth it? As a cynical Met fan, I would just assume those 70 runners would be tacked on to the number they've stranded, but from a logical perspective, you'd have to consider the fact that it could have led to some more runs.

I know their line up is a bit depleted due to injury, but they still have enough solid/decent hitters that they should be able to score more than 3 runs a game. The pitching in the National League, isn't THAT good that they can't.

Today's starting line-up:
Cora-.282
Murphy- .249
Beltran- .332
Wright- .345
Sheffield- .279
Church- .280
Schneider- .240
Valdez-.238
Pelfrey- .190

Granted that's not the best line-up, but it's a pretty good 3, 4, 5, 6. No reason they shouldn't be able to string together more than a couple of runs a game. Oh and a serious question, why can't David Wright hit homeruns this year? Are we blaming Citi Field? He's leading the league in average ... what happened to the home runs?