No matter who’s in charge of the team and no matter what they do, the Mets, it seems, can never do anything right.

Last year, bowing to the demands of the people (or at least to those of talk radio blowhards), the Mets traded away a pile of prospects in a deluded and futile attempt to compete for a playoff spot. Through the autumn and into the winter, the Mets’ fan base made its voice heard: Build for the future. Don’t trade prospects for quick-fix solutions. Do the right thing, and think in the long term.

Moving Jose Reyes to shortstop, letting go of longtime fixtures like Al Leiter and John Franco, and signing Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran were all generally applauded as moves that would not only help make the Mets respectable this year, but would help make them serious contenders for years to come. The expectations of fans and the press were realistic. If everything broke right, they assumed, the Mets might contend, but this was generally viewed as a year for building towards a serious run in 2006 and beyond.

But all of that went out the window once the Mets treated their fans to the first sustained spurts of well-played baseball seen in Flushing in years. The Mets, who have dropped nine of 11 thanks to a stretch of some genuinely uninspiring baseball, are now the subject of fan wrath for, of all things, their focus on building for the future at the expense of chasing the 2005 pennant.

Manager Willie Randolph is derided for batting Reyes atop the order, for failing to bat David Wright in the middle of the order, and for sticking Aaron Heilman in the bullpen. General Manager Omar Minaya is damned for not acquiring championship-caliber replacements for the right side of the infield and the back end of the bullpen, and for rumors that have him shopping Mike Cameron. All of this is pretty silly.

The Mets are essentially a .500 team. It’s understandable that Mets fans, who for years have been watching the most maddeningly bland baseball to be found in the majors, would want the team to go for the pennant at the first sign of life. But that’s not what you do in June with a .500 team – something Mets fans, of all people, should understand after last year’s bitter experience. The right move is to wait and assess your position, and that’s exactly what Randolph and Minaya are doing. It makes sense. A week and a half ago the Mets were four games over .500 and right in the thick of the race; now they’re the NL East’s only losing club at 33-36 and seven games behind Washington, of all teams.

But the quality of the team hasn’t changed, nor has the long-term goal of building a winner. Looking at the Mets in the proper context, it’s hard to be anything but encouraged by what Randolph and Minaya are doing, both in the broadest sense and in more narrow ones. Broadly, they’ve instituted a sense of stability, which is very important. There is, admittedly, a fine line between decisiveness and stubbornness, but their refusal to react to the perceived crisis of the day is refreshing, and shows up on the field in specific ways.

The Mets’ handling of Heilman, for instance, has been excellent, despite what the critics may say. At 26, he has unimpressive stuff and entered the season with a career 6.36 ERA. This season, his ERA is 1.44 at Shea and 6.29 on the road. There is no particular reason to insert him into the rotation – other than the fact that a high draft pick was once expended on him.

Randolph has found a proper role for him as a long reliever and spot starter, precisely the role every pitcher who isn’t established as a starter should be given when he hits the major leagues. If Heilman thrives in the role, perhaps he’ll crack the rotation next year. In any event, this is what should have been done with him three years ago, and it makes sense both for his long-term development and the short-term needs of the team.

Randolph has also been criticized for keeping Wright low in the order, to take another example of baffling shortsightedness on the part of his critics. There are two possible explanations for Wright hitting seventh. The first is that Randolph doesn’t realize he’s a good hitter; the second is that he thinks hitting him low in the order will help his development by keeping pressure off him and ensuring he sees better pitches than he would with Cliff Floyd looming behind him.

The first explanation doesn’t merit response, and the second makes sense, even if one happens to disagree with it, as I do. I don’t think Wright would crack under the pressure of batting third in the order, and I’m skeptical about the notion of protection, but there is no reason to think that batting Wright seventh instead of third will cost the Mets more than a handful of runs over the course of a season – no reason to take a risk with talent the likes of which the Mets haven’t seen in 20 years and every reason to err on the side of caution. It’s unbelievable to me that after spending the last three years watching the results of the Steve Phillips mentality, where only today counts, people don’t have a bit more appreciation of longer-term thinking.

This is true of pretty much everything the Mets have been criticized for, and it makes no sense at all. For once, the Mets have leaders who aren’t going to overreact to a good start by a dubious pitcher or a bad run by a decent team.

If the Mets find themselves in serious contention midway through July, I have no doubt that Minaya will find a way to bolster the team’s chances, perhaps by finding a good reliever or a solid first baseman. If they continue losing, I have no doubt that he’ll open up spots for the youngsters – Minaya may not get much credit for it, but that’s what he’s done when problems have arisen this season, and there’s no reason to think he won’t do it on a larger scale if the Mets continue their slide out of contention. That’s real progress.

The Mets aren’t above criticism, and they haven’t done everything right. Randolph’s usage of the bullpen is at best perplexing, there’s no earthly reason why Jae Seo is pitching in Triple-A when he’s probably the team’s third or fourth best starter, and it’s probably time for the team to cut bait on Kaz Matsui. Still, the simple fact that the team is being run by people capable of realistically appraising how good their chances are, and with an eye towards the future as well as the present, is in itself cause for celebration.