Sorry for the lack of updates GUF-ers but – after a tough week for the Mets – the 2009 MLB season just got a lot rougher for an already depleted New York Mets team. Carlos Beltran was placed on the 15-day DL on Monday and joins a plethora of Mets stars (Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, JJ Putz, and Oliver Perez) on the injured reserve. Those five players add up to $55,368,682 in salary for this season. To put that in some perspective, the Mets DL is worth more money than the entire Pirates, Padres, and Marlins teams. If you add the 10 million that the Mets are paying Billy Wagner this year, the Mets’ DL is worth more than the Rays’ and Twins’ team.

So how are the Mets going to overcome this “D-team” that they’re going to have to field for the next two weeks? Frankly, they’re not. They will lose. A lot. Unfortunately, they have to face the Cardinals, Yankees, Brewers, Phillies, and Dodgers over the next two weeks (with one make-up game against the Pirates muddled in there). While the Mets probably won’t come through this gauntlet with a winning record, if they want to make it through and still remain close to the top of the NL East standings, they need to do two things:

1) Continue to pitch well

2) Cut down on mental errors

The Mets starting pitching has been consistently solid over the last month and a half. There was some fear that Johan Santana might be hurt because he has been sub-par over his last few starts. The way the Mets season has been going, it seems fitting that Santana lands on the DL; but I don’t think he’s hurt and I have a feeling that he will step up big time now that the Mets really need him to perform well. The Mets’ bullpen must also regain their consistency.

As for the second point, mental errors have killed the Mets this entire year. We, as Mets fans, have seen a barrage of baserunning snafus, dropped pop-ups, and erred sacrifice-bunt attempts. The Mets can not afford to make these simple mistakes if they hope to come out of the next two weeks with a couple of wins.

It will be interesting to see how the Mets perform over the next couple of weeks. If they really struggle – and with no time table for the returns of Reyes or Delgado – you have to wonder if the Mets will do something they haven’t done in a handful of summers: start to build for next season.