3rd Place or Bust for Mets

According to a published report on Tuesday, the prize on which the Mets have their eyes is third place in the National League East.

“We talked, how it would be great for us, with the way we started the season, to finish third,” Terry Collins told the New York Post. “We played so well so long, let’s get back and at least play for third.”

Collins admits third place is not the be all and end all, but the way this season has gone, it would be nice.

“Ultimately when you finish in third place, it’s still third place — it’s not good enough. We’re aware of that. We have to get better. But for all intent and purposes it would be good for guys to say, ‘After that real bad August we had, we fought back and finished it.’ That might be something.”

This third place talk is news to Mets players.

“I haven’t heard that from anybody,” Chris Young said. “But our goal was to finish first and we want to finish as high as we possibly can.”

“That’s the first I’ve heard of that,” said Josh Thole. “We want to be in first place. If we’re in third place and we’re ahead of the Phillies and the Marlins, we’re still not necessarily in the playoffs.”

While most “experts” pegged the Mets for last place in their pre-season previews, at least one intrepid blogger boldly predicted they would end the season in third. Let’s hope the Mets prove that handsome young man correct.