<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>7. Who's next in line for the Mets, Tom Seaver?With St. Louis in full retreat, the Mets should be a clear No. 1 in the NL, but they remain vulnerable because of their fragile, ancient starting pitching. Pedro Martinez is getting his shoulder into shape to pitch in the big leagues again, with Aug. 1 a reasonable target date for his return. By then Tom Glavine might have finished off his slow climb to 300 victories. The Mets may need to catch some lightning in a bottle from Martinez just to hold off Atlanta and Philadelphia and reach the playoffs. GM Omar Minaya is likely to trade for a starting pitcher, but he can't be sure of getting an impact guy now that Mark Buehrle is off the market. One interesting idea is adding Contreras to a mix that includes Orlando Hernandez -- a Cuban tandem that helped the White Sox win in 2005.</div>Nice Research before writing something that's flat out wrong. The Mets 'remain vulnerable' because their Entire Offense (That is Healthy) outside of David Wright, Jose Reyes, and I guess Carlos Gomez (Who just got injured) has been underperforming what they are capable of the past 2 months (Hence why they just fired their Hitting Coach). Their starting pitching has been probably their biggest strength this season so far, as their entire rotation has their ERA under 4.5, with 4/5 of the Rotation being under 4 and John Maine being under 3.
