Those Amazing Mets...and Yankees

There's a guy at my gym who's a diehard Mets fan -- the kind of fan who whose opinion of a player's moral fiber is directly proportional to his batting average over the last six weeks.

Mostly I giggle when we talk, but every once in a while I make an attempt to reorient him to reality. Met fans should be making sacrifices to the baseball gods for the team's continued Wild Card contention.

This is an outfit built on an eye-popping young rotation and a couple of other assets. Sixty percent of the starters are on the shelf and manager Terry Collins has lost the services of his team leader, his slugging first baseman, his star keystoner and various others. His only remaining power bat has bulled through a serious of pulls and strains throughout the season.

The Mets' Wild Card fortunes turn on the contributions of rookies Seth Lugo, Robert Gsellman and Logan Verrett, and veteran castoffs Kelly Johnson, James Loney and Rene Rivera. And they're 10 games over .500.

The House That Refsnyder Built
The Yankees are likewise in a Wild Card chase, if only peripherally, but their miracle has a somewhat different shape. A broken down old roster with questionable pitching at season's start, the Bombers jettisoned their best players at the trade deadline and began the youthful march towards 2017.

Yet somehow, the future's remained now. Gary Sanchez, in a mere 44 games, is the team's second most valuable player by WAR. But besides him, this is a team without hitting (next to last in the AL in OPS) or pitching (non-Tanaka starters sport a robust 4.78 ERA).  Their roster rates as below average by Wins Against Average and they've been outscored on the season by 25 runs with eight games left.

It's hard to imagine either team making much noise beyond Fan Appreciation Day. The Yankees will need a miracle finish and they just don't have the horses. The Mets might slip into October baseball where anything can happen, but how will they score runs?

Nonetheless, both teams merit some props for making it interesting. And then, there's next year.