by Different Matt
NEW YORK, NY – As we inch closer to the ceremonial halfway point of the season at the All-Star break and Baseball makes the turn for the back nine of the season, lets take a look at how some of the Yankees and Mets fared on the front nine:
DEREK JETER entered the season less than 100 hits away from becoming the 28th member of the 3000 hits club. Now Jeter is just two hits away from the milestone. While the Captain’s on-field exploits have been well documented, his off-field activities have flown under the radar. Jeter is on the cusp of another milestone. His next night out he will be looking sleep with the 2500th girl of his career. He’s got a ways to go to catch Wilt the Stilt, but lets all wish Jeter the best on his quest for these milestones.
It’s strange how players seem to always perform when there’s a giant payday at stake. In the last year of his contract, JOSE REYES was having an MVP caliber season. I say Reyes WAS having an MVP caliber season because he is now on the shelf for at least two weeks with a hamstring injury. He’ll probably miss more than that and the injury will surely cost Reyes a few million dollars come contract time.
CC SABATHIA is doing was CC sabathia does. He’s got 12 wins so far and if you’re keeping track that’s one win for every Chipotle he’s eaten out of business this season. It’s a good thing for Chipotle that CC is getting back to his KFC diet for the second half of the season.
After an abysmal start to the campaign, JORGE POSADA pretty much just continued to suck. He has sucked less lately, but he’s still hitting a pretty sucky .236 for the season. Some Yankee fans are hoping that Posada takes himself out of the lineup for good.
DAVID WRIGHT has been about as effective as Posada this season. The injured third baseman will look to get back in the swing of things after the break. He’ll probably have a massive season next year since it will be the last year of his current contract. We’ll see if he can keep himself healthy enough to get paid the big bucks.
THE YANKS have been better than expected this season. Coming into the term with a rotation boasting BARTOLO COLON and FREDDY GARCIA, the Yankees looked like they would struggle to keep up in the wild card race. 
Bart and Freddy got off to good starts and the Yankees are just a half game out of first place, only surrendering their lead last night. And I bet lots of pitchers are heading to the Dominican Republic to get whatever “procedure” Bartolo Colon had done on his elbow. The chubby righty has his fastball back in the mid 90s with movement after the rehab.
THE METS are a lot better than anyone expected. A couple of moths ago, everyone was talking about a Mets fire sale at the trade deadline. Reyes was as good as gone and Beltran was dangling as bait for a trade. Now the Mets are two games over .500 and not as eager to listen to offers. The fire sale still might happen since the Braves have been running away with the NL Wild Card. But the Mets can look forward to getting Wright, Reyes and Johan Santana back healthy to get back into the Wild Card race.
Only time will tell what the Mets and Yankees will do in the coming months, but it should be interesting on all fronts.
The Public Professor tomorrow…
