Three Mets minor league affiliates made the playoffs this year, but none are faring too well.

The Rookie league Kingsport Mets were swept by the Greenville Astros. The ‘Stros have been 100% focused on building their minor league system from the bottom-up over the past 2 years, and it appears to be paying off.

At the higher levels, the Double-A Binghamton Mets are down 2 games to none to the Trenton Thunder, and the Triple-A Las Vegas 51s trail the Salt Lake City Bees by the same margin.

Here’s a look at Rafael Montero’s less-than-stellar start last night.

Despite their performance in the post season, it’s encouraging to see the affiliates playing well. Win-Loss records are not the ultimate measure of the health of a farm system, but there’s no doubt the system is in better shape than it was a few years ago. Having a deep farm system not only produces some players who will stick around and play for the major league team, but it also gives the organization trade chips.

Tonight, the Mets open a series with the Cleveland Indians. Game 1 will be a matchup of former and current Mets prospects, Scott Kazmir vs. Zack Wheeler.

Kazmir has struggled lately, but overall, has had a solid bounce-back season, pitching to a 4.36 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP. He’s also struck out an average of 8.2 batters per 9 innings. Most importantly, he’s been healthy enough to make 24 starts. Wheeler has been outstanding after struggling during his first three starts. Overall, he’s 7-3 with a 3.36 ERA and 1.30 WHIP.

Finally, with Ike Davis done for the year, Lucas Duda will get a good, hard look at first base. One can’t always trust what one sees in September, but you probably have to break it down to a more granular level – what kind of competition they’re facing, is the opposing team in contention, etc. The Mets must figure out what to do with first base going into 2014.

David Wright missed out on winning the Gold Glove this week – the powers that be decided Chase Headley of the Padres was more worthy.  They know that the Gold Glove has nothing to do with home runs, right?  In fact, Headley’s Baseball Reference dWAR was 0.0, while Wright’s was 2.1.  So, essentialy, a replacement player (defensively) won the award.

Ah well, there are more important games afoot when it comes to Wright.  Conventional wisdom around baseball has it that Wright will re-sign with the Mets for a 7-year deal in addition to his option year.  Former exec Jim Bowden predicts it will cost the Wilpons about $18 million per year.

But what if he doesn’t re-sign?  There are indications that talks have hit a snag.  Who would be the most logical TRAID..er..I mean…trade partners for the Mets, and who could they get in return?

Of course, the Mets have other needs, most notably outfielder and catcher.  A.J. Pierzynski has hit the open market.  He would make sense for the Mets in the short term.  He’s a solid backstop and a good hitter, but he’ll be 36 on opening day 2013.  And he’s a left-handed hitter, which would make him less of a match with Josh Thole, who needs to stick around to catch R.A. Dickey.  Perhaps the Mets could retain Shoppach and part ways with Thole, but that doesn’t seem likely.  Of course, there’s no law against carrying 2 left-handed hitting catchers anyway.

Bullpen is another area that needs help.  How about Ryan Madson?

But chances are, they won’t be signing any big free agents this offseason.

Meanwhile, the Astros have joined the Mets in going back to a more retro look.  They accidentally leaked the cap on their website – I have to say, I like it much better than the recent look.  So at least they’ll be well-dressed as they take a good beating by the AL West.  Who else should revive the classics?

So, we’ll see what kind of offseason the Mets have in store for us.  Stay tuned for the drama.

Mets 2 Astros 1

The Mets follow up their offensive outburst on Saturday with yet another explosive win over hapless Houston.

Mets 3 Astros 1

R.A. Dickey comes to the rescue, and the Mets finally score a few runs against horrific pitching.

Astros 3 Mets 1

After 18 years managing in the minor leagues, Suffern High School grad and Seton Hall University alum Tony DeFrancesco finally won his first game as a MLB manager. Unfortunately, this is a Mets blog so this milestone doesn’t warm our hearts as much as we’d like it to for the local boy who done good.

Astros 8 Mets 1

Are the Astros this good, or the Mets this not good? A worn and tired-looking Mets club was swept in Houston, with few positive takeaways.

Here are today’s lineups in the contest between the New York Mets and Houston Astros; game time is 2:05 p.m. EST. I’m working all day and through the evening, so please post your notes about the game in the comments; my hot air will go into a postgame wrapup at some point late in the evening.

New York Mets

Ruben Tejada SS
Daniel Murphy 2B
David Wright 3B
Scott Hairston LF
Lucas Duda RF
Andres Torres CF
Ike Davis 1B
Josh Thole C
Chris Schwinden RHP

Houston Astros

Jordan Schafer CF
Jose Altuve 2B
J.D. Martinez LF
Carlos Lee 1B
Jed Lowrie SS
Brian Bogusevic RF
Chris Johnson 3B
Jason Castro C
Wandy Rodriguez LHP

I know Hairston is supposed to kill lefties but seeing him in the cleanup spot screams “mediocrity” to me. Ike Davis finally has the bat going, so why is he #7? Because it’s assumed he can’t hit a lefty like Sandy Koufax Wandy Rodriguez? Lucas Duda is hitting ahead of Ike, and he looked pretty sick (literally) the last few days — hope he’s feeling better. That’s it for my ranting, now it’s your turn. Unleash in the comments.

The Mets wrap up their thus-far disappointing series in Houston today.  It’s not a shock that they seem to be having a “let down” series after three exhausting games in Colorado.  On top of that, the flu bug is propagating its way through the Mets locker room like the trollop it is.  But the team looks to rise from the ashes today before they head off to Phoenix.

The Blogs take their Zicam:

• Adam Rubin says Terry Collins is confident in his decision to pinch hit for Jonathon Niese in the fourth inning last night.
• Daily Stache thinks it would be wrong not to sign David Wright.
• Seedlings to Stars has the Mets picking a high school pitcher in their mock draft.
• Bleacher Report brings us the tale of the tape between Kirk Nieuwenhuis and the Nats’ Bryce Harper.
• Rising Apple examines Ramon Ramirez, and wonders what we should really expect from him.
• Metstradamus reminds the Mets that they’re playing the Astros, and hopes they avoid Cooter’s bar this time around.

Take plenty of vitamin C, and perhaps some antacids – it is the Mets after all.  And this is Mets Today.