After teasing their fans by opening the week taking three straight from the wild card leading Rockies, cutting the gap in the WC to a seemingly manageable 5.5 games, the NY Mets Extended Spring Training Team would drop the last game of the series before then dropping 2 of the next 3 against the even worse (record-wise) Arizona Diamondbacks... thankfully, we never jumped back on the wagon after declaring the season over...

As for the lowlights:

• Not much truly to report.  The week was a 'success' in that the team finished with a 4-3 record, but still ended the same 7.5 back in the wild card that they were when the week started.
• The trading deadline came and went with no deals, which is good because there is no sense giving away prospects in a misguided effort to save a season already done with.
• Every Oliver Perez is compounded by the fact that for a few $$ more, Derek Lowe and his 11 wins could be with the team instead. Yeah, his 4.21 ERA is not great, but it should is a hell of a lot better than 2 wins and 7.03.
• Why is Tim Redding still on this team?
• On the 'plus' side, Gary Sheffield and Brian Schneider returned from the DL, and it sound like Carlos Beltran, JJ Putz and Billy Wagner... yes, that Billy Wagner... might rejoin the team in August.  To temper that though, there is still no time table for either Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes or John Maine... although some still hope the hitters will come back optimistically sooner rather than later...

At the end of the day though, things stand pretty much as they did last week.  9.5 back in the NL East, 7.5 in the WC... The East is done, and there should be no misguided thoughts to the opposite... as Cliff Lee let us know in his first Phillies start... and the wild card is very unlikely with this roster.  By the time the 'talent' infusion comes, it will be too late... No, it is too late.

On the pluse side, NFL training camps opened last week.  And not a day too soon!