ON TO JUNE

As we turn the calendar page, I'm going to throw some numbers at you.

The Mets finished with a flurry towards the end of May, keeping me interested into June, at least. And Pedro Martinez* comes back on Tuesday night, so as long as he doesn't get hurt again, that's exciting.

Here's the breakdown:

March: 1-0
April: 13-12
May: 13-15

That 13-15 might not look too impressive, but from where the Mets were a week ago, the overall 27-27 is a huge sigh of relief.
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You know things aren't going so great when I'm relying on an end-of-season prediction in the beginning of June, but I feel like after a hot start like he's had, there's no better time to bring this up. If the name Jay Bruce sounded familiar to you after his call-up by the Reds this week, maybe it's because I had him pegged early (from my season picks on March 23):

NL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: I really have no idea who the rookies are this year. Just looking randomly at a list of rookies in 2008 I'll go with this Jay Bruce of the Reds. He's an outfielder, and maybe he'll lead the resurgence I think they'll have.
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WRIGHT WATCH: David Wright had a key double Saturday, getting on base ahead of Carlos Beltran's 2-run game-tying homer in the eighth inning. That made me realize we haven't looked at his doubles in a bit:

ALL-TIME LEADER: 792
WRIGHT THIS SEASON: 17 (Berkman leads majors with 21)
WRIGHT CAREER: 158

Watch out, Tris Speaker.
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And finally, this could easily be a joke from one of my friends, but here's an e-mail I got after Saturday's posting about Gary Carter (I know, since I now know he's a regular reader, that he doesn't mind that I post the e-mail):

"J:

Enjoyed your take on Gary Carter, and appreciate him being your favorite player. I was just poking fun—hope you weren't too offended.

Best,

Jeff Pearlman
espn.com"

It looked legit, figured it was worth posting. And, for the record, Pearlman's piece was funny.