The 2010 version of the New York Mets is very hard to watch. It’s easy to have a love/hate relationship with this team even though they have more mental lapses then my softball team.

I’m not going to point the finger at one particular player. I will point my finger at the manager, Jerry Manuel, who doesn’t seem to make his players accountable. With a runner on third and no out the Mets continue to strand runners. No squeeze, no hit and run, no running on contact, nothing, and this has happened in a lot of close games this season which is the difference of winning and losing.

A lack of leadership was evident when the Mets skipper was considering using K-Rod, after he beat up his father in law, before the Mets had suspended him and place him in Mets jail at the ballpark. Instead what happened was they didn’t use him and he was arraigned a few innings later. Manuel made sure he used K-Rod immediately in a meaningless game, funny since he passed on using him in the game against Colorado which some think set off the unfortunate incident. K-Rod was booed and Mets fans, who aren’t showing up as much at the ballpark these days, are tired of this regime but the cash strapped Mets seem incapable of firing Manuel and replacing him with an interim in there at the very least.

David Wright is a player who has no direction. He has some embarrassing strikeouts this season, 14 errors (the worst fielding percentage in his career), and his clutch stats are nonexistent. He’s hitting .203 in late and close games, which is when the batting team is tied, ahead by one run, or the tying run is on deck in the 7th inning or later (http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?n1=wrighda03&year=&t=b). WOW, that’s a very telling statistic.

The Mets did nothing at the deadline, Newsday is reporting that Omar Minaya will live out his contract for the next two seasons but there will be a new GM next season. Should Mets fans be excited about that? Luis Castillo demanded a trade but when he had a chance to make a difference yesterday against the Phillies he swung at the first pitch in a pinch hitting situation and grounded out to 1B, a trademark of his since he can’t hit the ball out of the infield any longer.

The only positive this season is the emergence of 1B Ike Davis and C Josh Thole. Getting two positional players who seem capable of anchoring a team for the next ten years is nice, but in the end if there is no leader on and off the field, then this team has no future and so far leaders are few and far between in this organization.