It’s quite possible that Metsies’ fans are witnessing (and really just witnessed over the last month and a half) the evolution of Mike Pelfrey from an underachieving, overrated prospect into the bona fide ace the Mets thought they were drafting in the first round of the 2005 draft.

It doesn’t usually happen overnight with young pitchers, but something inside Pelfrey’s head clicked at the end of May. Sure, I’m a die-hard Mets’ fan , of course I’m going to be slurping this guy — but here are some stats that simply cannot be refuted by any baseball fan:

• Pelfrey’s won his last 6 starts (4 of them on the road against the Yankees, Rockies, Cardinals, and Angels)
• He hasn’t lost since May 26th
• 2.26 ERA over his last 9 starts
• At least 5 strikeouts in 6 of his last 7 starts
• Pelfrey’s ERA was 5.33 on May 26th…it’s now 3.64

He’s pitching with the swagger an ace is supposed to pitch with, and it couldn’t come at a better time, with the other two right-handers in the rotation (Maine & Pedro) struggling.

Confidence is a funny thing, but as long as Big Pelf continues to believe in his stuff and himself, it looks like he’ll be tormenting hitters for years to come at Citi-Field, while providing one of the best 1-2 punches in all of baseball.

Assuming Pedro makes his scheduled start on Tuesday, Big Pelf should be tossing at Shea on Saturday — otherwise, if ‘Dro gets scratched, Johan will go on Tuesday against the Phillies, and Big Pelf will go on Friday night against the Cards. If you don’t have a GO BIG PELF shirt, it’s time to get one. I couldn’t have said it better myself:

GO…BIG…PELF.

We’re all about facts here at The Mole, so let’s get right down to business:

1. Willie Randolph was fired the day after Father’s Day.
2. Three weeks later, the Metsies are 1.5 games out of first, and playing good baseball.

When the Metsies got Johan Santana last winter, they became the immediate favorites to win the National League. Unfortunately, Omar gave Willie Randolph another opportunity to prove that he’s a horrible manager who should never have been hired in the first place, and the Mets played crappy Willie-Ball until he was finally canned last month.

If you watch this team day in and day out, you can see a difference on the field since Willie was let go. Just the way they go about their business. That ‘06 swagger is back. Delgado is even contributing on offense.

Jerry Manuel came in and gave Castro a chance to get frequent at-bats, and it’s already paying dividends.

Manuel solidified roles in the bullpen; guys finally know when they’re gonna pitch, and when they can expect to chill out and relax. Willie had everyone in the ‘pen anxious, not knowing what was going to happen — now, they’re relaxed, and it’s showing on the field — Heilpimp is even getting outs now!

Manuel has this team focused late in games, scoring huge insurance runs.

Barring any serious injuries to Santana, Ollie, Big Pelf, Jose, or D-Wright, the Metsies will run away with this division, and when that happens, how can you not award Jerry Manuel the NL Manager of the year?

The Phillies pitching staff is an absolute joke, and we all know the Marlins will stumble in the second half. I’m actually more concerned about the Marlins than the Phillies, especially if Josh Johnson (starting tonight for the first time in more than a year after Tommy John surgery) can pimp it the rest of the way, and Ricky Nolasco can continue to dominate like he’s been doing.

For those of you who are still skeptical about the Metsies, here are some more facts:

• Oliver Perez has an ERA under 3 in his last 6 starts.
• Mike Pelfrey is unhittable (seriously)
• Johan’s still one of the best in the game, despite slightly diminished stuff from the Johan of old.
• Pedro’s throwing in the low-90s consistently and feeling good (don’t worry about the recent shellings, he’s still Pedro).
• Johnny Maine’s still wearing dresses and leaving games with cramps.

It’s kinda crazy to think about, but two of our biggest weaknesses right now are Pedro Martinez (our #5 starter) and Billy Wagner — two first-ballot HOFers.

The Metsies have 4 games remaining before the All-Star break — taking 3 of 4 would be huge, but regardless of what happens, the first half of the season HAS to be considered a success; the clubhouse cancer (Willie) is gone, Ollie’s throwing 97 mph gas, and Pelfrey recently established himself as a Major League pitcher.

Metsies’ fans have a lot to look forward to the second half of the season.

Thank you Omar Minaya. Thank you Fred and Jeff Wilpon. It’s about freakin’ TIME!

It’s 5am right now, and I feel like a little kid on Christmas morning.

MLB.com has an article announcing the firing of Willie, Rick-Pete, and Tom Nieto, and the MLB.com homepage is rocking a picture of the FORMER Mets’ manager (god that sounds amazing!) looking like an idiot.

Jerry Manuel will take over as interim-manager, while Ken Oberkfell and Dan Warthen (from Triple-A New Orleans) have been called up to join the coaching staff, along with field coordinator Luis Aguayo.

The Metsies will hold a press conference at 5pm EST to formally introduce our NEW manager.

No more Willie-ball means the Metsies can get back on the winning track and make the playoff-run we all know they’re poised for.

This is probably my second happiest day in 20 years of being a Mets fan, trailing only the day Johan was traded to Queens back in February.

What a great day to be a Metsies fan. Enjoy the day, folks, and don’t forget to watch the press conference at 5 o’clock tonight. Maybe SNY will even carry it…

I’m ashamed to call myself a Mets fan, not because of the pathetic baseball this team has played over the last year, but because my fellow Mets’ fans might be the dumbest fans in all of baseball.

I was at yesterday’s double-dip, fingers crossed that we’d get swept so that Willie’s days in a Mets uniform would officially be over. After single-handedly costing the Mets Game 1 by completely misusing the bullpen (what else is new?), Willie needed to win Game 2. I moved down about 5 rows behind the Mets’ dugout for the second game and was giving Willie the business, but for once in his life, he actually made the correct decision.

Bottom 6, tie game, bases loaded, two outs, and Pedro due up. Pedro’s standing in the on-deck circle, and I’m screaming at Willie from about 15 feet away to save his job and get a pinch-hitter in there for Pedro.

Shockingly, Pedro is called back into the dugout, and Willie sends up Robinson Cancel to pinch-hit. Wow — Willie actually made the right move! I couldn’t believe it.

Then, the few fans who were still at Shea, ALL started chanting “we want Pe-dro!” They wanted Willie to leave Pedro in, so that Pedro could make the third out, and then pitch maybe one more inning. Idiots!

Cancel obviously got the big hit, giving Pedro the W, something he most likely wouldn’t have gotten had he hit for himself in that 6th inning.

So Willie thinks he’s a genius, even though the move he made was blatantly obvious to anyone who’s ever watched a baseball game before. And the Mets won the game, and Willie lived to see another day, and another road-trip.

ESPN’s Buster Olney reported earlier that he doesn’t think Willie will make it through the week. God do I hope he’s right.

NL Manager of the Year (NOT!!) Willie Randolph will be a “special guest” tomorrow when a new search engine is officially launched. We’re pretty sure the word “special” is meant to describe Willie’s retardation. Nevertheless, if you’re in NYC tomorrow and want to stop by and tell Willie how incredibly dumb he is without having to worry about getting kicked out of Shea Stadium, I suggest you check it out.

Instead of “schooling” his players (as Willie alleged he does), throwing BP, or watching video after an embarrassing sweep in San Diego, the former-Yankee will be at the Prospect Park Tennis Center (corner of Coney Island and Parkside Avenues) to celebrate the launch of BeFitNYC.com, a new search engine that “allows New Yorkers to find recreational activities in their neighborhood tailored to their age and interests.”

I’m interested in beating Willie with a stick until he cries and resigns from this job he clearly has no business working. I don’t think that activity is going to be offered though.

Just hours after the Willie’s-not-fired-yet Meeting, the Metsies took the field and kicked off an important seven-game home stand. Minutes later, Jose booted a routine ground-ball that ended up costing Big Pelf and the Mets two runs to start the game. I was sitting just a few rows off third-base and gave Jose some shit for the pathetic miscue, and then when he led off the bottom of the inning blasting-off to right, some fan a few seats away yelled at me, “hey buddy, you still gonna boo Jose NOW!?” He had a disgusted look on his face, like it was he who I was booing. I told him Jose cost us two runs in the first, and after another blast I’ll stop booing. A couple innings later, Jose blasted off again. Great. Now Jose thinks he’s a homerun-hitter for the next two months and’ll go 15 for his next 150. I know he hit two bombs, but what the Metsies need from Jose isn’t homers, it’s for him to focus during every pitch and stop playing the game with his head up his ass.

Big Pelf seemed to take almost every batter to a full count and only went four innings before the old Heilpimp re-appeared, dominating Marlins hitters in the 5th and 6th. The damage had already been done though, and the Mets couldn’t get a big hit the rest of the night.

I got a couple decent “FI-RE WILL-IE” chants going in the late innings, and even saw one dude behind the plate holding up a sign reading, “DON’T FIRE WILLIE.” After the final out, I filed out of the stadium, serenaded by the loudest “FI-RE WILL-IE” chants I’ve heard at Shea all season. Music to my ears.

The Metsies could’ve used Ryan Church’s cannon out in right field to nail Luis Gonzalez at the plate in the third, and if Beltran wasn’t playing Luis Gonzalez on the center-field warning track, maybe the Mets end up winning the game. Do I fault Beltran for playing so fuckin’ deep? No! Willie probably positioned him there, and if he didn’t, he should’ve seen how deep Carlos was and told him to move the fuck in!

Things need to change around here and they need to change soon. Pedro’s coming back against the Giants one week from tomorrow, but as big of a boost as Pedro will be to this troubled clubhouse, he can’t steer the ship. Unfortunately, neither can Willie, and if we drop 5 of 7 this week, I don’t see how the Wilpons can really justify allowing Willie to get on the plane to San Francisco.

Gopher-Ball Santana on the bump to try to stop the bleeding in Game 2. Let’s just hope nobody’s on base tonight when Uggla and Hanley are breaking Citi-Field windows.