When you write about baseball, sometimes you have to know when to admit you were wrong.

Sometimes you have to admit you should have waited for more of the season to pass before making a judgment.

Sometimes you have to admit you just messed up.

This is one of those times.

So on behalf of my contributors, my fellow Stewies, the Mets fans who criticized him for not taking a curtain call earlier in the year and the 580 people who voted in our "Who's the Worst First Baseman in New York?" poll, I would like to extend a formal apology to Carlos Delgado. 

Our bad.

Oh, I had my reasons for posting that "and death is not an option" choice between Delgado and Giambi — who "won" with 59 percent of the vote and who we have since given a summer's worth of fawning 'stache coverage for restitution — on April 25.

Not only was Delgado coming off a downtrending 2007, he was making it look like it'd take the placement of a gun to the head of Mets GM Omar Minaya for him to pick up the '09 team option on Delgado's contract. At the time of the post, Delgado was hitting .198/.290/.272 with one HR, 9 RBI and 17 strikeouts. I speculated that the 36-year-old was heading toward a non-guaranteed contract and the way he was playing, that didn't seem like a stretch.

But then a funny thing happened and it could have only been produced by someone with Delgado's track record. He took his bat and his season and started using both to make us all look silly.

The evidence:  

• Since the date of that poll, April 25, Delgado is hitting .278/.361/.563 with 34 HR and 94 RBI.

• He has hit two homers in seven different games (including the last two contests) and ranks just behind Adam Dunn in "No Doubt" tape measure blasts.

• He has sparked a debate on whether or not he should be named MVP (here, here and here), even in the face of Albert Pujols' stupid-as-usual resume, David Wright's important contribution and the offensive power of Ryan Braun in Milwaukee.

• He has changed the discussion from whether or not the Mets would pick up his '09 option to whether they'll be paying him $12 million or the $16 million he'll be owed if he finishes in the top tier of NL MVP voting or is named NLCS or World Series MVP.

So as we sit and watch Delgado pitch a little more yolk on our mugs, it is with deep conviction that we offer a heartfelt "I'm/We're Sorry." We couldn't have been more wrong about his future.