Say what you will about the Mets, you've got to admit they're interesting this year. Here's why.

There are two ways to be mediocre. You can be mediocre like Ed Lynch or you can be mediocre like Armando Benitez. Ed Lynch pitched for the Mets in the early and middle 80's. He was a .500 pitcher with an ERA of about 4.00. He was never going to be any better than that and, in his prime, not much worse. Consistent mediocrity. Benitez was/is mediocre in a totally different way. At his best, he's unhittable. At his worst, he's catastrophic. But he's interesting because there's always the hope of something fantastic happening.

The Mets over the past few years were like a team of Ed Lynches. Ty Wigginton, Rey Sanchez, Jason Phillips, Jeromy Burnitz and company had no chance of ever being great. This year's team is like a bunch of Armando Benitezes. I won't go through the roster but if you know baseball, you know what I mean.

It's perfectly fitting that instead of randomly winning and losing at a .500 clip, this team would lose five in a row and win five in a row.

One worrisome thing is that the Mets have won a couple of games playing small ball and they're liable to start to believe that stolen bases actually matter. They don't. If Reyes hits .300 with an OBP of .300, no amount of stolen bases will turn him into a decent offensive player.