The long, dirty end of a too-short season

The long, dirty end of a too-short season has come to Metland. By any account, it's just not pretty. It's hard to watch a game and find ways to distinguish what's going on now from what should have gone on during Spring training. Half the players are newer than the new players who came to replace the half that became injured. They're auditioning for next season while the other, kinda healthy half appear that they couldn't care less about ending strong or being spoilers to the teams that have so gleefully filled that role toward them during past seasons. And since the tone is set at the top, I can't help but think there's more to it than they just can't compete with the big boys.At the All-Star break, Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya held the mutual hallucination that the cavalry would come to Citi Field in the form of healed starters to save the day. Last I checked, that wasn't exactly true, and if the Mets were a bank, subpoenas might be flying out of DA Andrew Cuomo's office faster than relievers running out of the bullpen. Of the season's starting lineup, Wright, Beltran (kinda, sorta), Schneider, and Castillo are sometimes on the field. Those are our big boys at this stage of the game. The little boys have been filling in everywhere else, and I understand that maybe they shouldn't be expected to fill big shoes. But another part of me asks "Why not?" Isn't the point of being a minor league player that you'll have your shot to show what you're made of and - no pun intended - step up to the plate and show what you're made of? If that's the case, those who've been screaming that the core of the team should be demolished should instead change their chant to "bomb the minors." There is obviously virtually no depth (I saw a depth chart recently that barely had more than 9 names on it) and there's no potential for depth within the organization if those little guys are the ones to be relied upon. Which now begs the question: Wait till next year...for what? As I've stated here before, the "healthy" team that took the field to start this season didn't look like a contender. At best, my estimation was that they might end up in third place in their division. So now, from fourth place, has there been such a demise and can it really all be blamed on injuries? The team on the field has no heart and has no life, and it hasn't since long before this season became officially dead. If the top is where the tone is set, then the top needs to change, as well as the bottom. The core has talent, but it'll take some new magicians to bring them out of the bottom of an already strength-challenged division. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the off-season, try not to get too excited when pitchers and catchers report for training, and place a plaque over my desk, next to the caught foul ball, that says what the realist in me knows is the real truth: "Wait till...whenever."