I asked one of my friends who is a die hard Mets fan if he wanted any input on this post. Here is his answer: “No. I don’t want to write about it, I don’t even want to think about it. Its too depressing.” The Mets are in for a long, long, losing filled season as they embark on their first post-Omar Minaya campaign. They’ll be missing their ace Johan Santana until at least June or July but even he would have trouble bailing out this soon to be sinking ship.
Projected Lineup:
- Jose Reyes (SS)
- Angel Pagan (CF)
- David Wright (3B)
- Carlos Beltran (RF)
- Jason Bay (LF)
- Ike Davis (1B)
- Daniel Murphy (2B)
- Josh Thole (C)
Starting Rotation:
- Mike Pelfrey
- R.A. Dickey
- Jonathan Niese
- Chris Young
- Chris Capuano
Strengths:
Um, the seasons only 6 months long. Is that a strength? ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian recently did a 30 questions style season preview. The questions were along the lines of will so and so step up and be a fifth starter for this team or will this guy be a good fit in the five spot in this lineup and so forth. For the Mets is was very close to “Do we really have to play 2011?”
I guess David Wright is a strength, he’s good.
Ike Davis is good too. He’s only 24 but hit 19 HRs in his rookie year and drove in 71 while walking 72 times.
I’m not sure R.A. Dickey is a strength this year but he definitely was last year, going 11-9 with a 2.84 ERA.
Weaknesses:
Everything else. Really.
I’m hating on the Mets a lot, their offense really isn’t that bad but only if everything falls into place. Jason Bay must be healthy and concussion free. Jose Reyes also has to play and play well The last 2 years aren’t good enough, especially for Reyes’s sake as this is his free agent season. Reyes needs to hit close to .300 and prove he can steal bases with consistency and be healthy.
The Pitching: Even with Johan Santana the Mets pitching is bad. Without him, its abysmal. Last year would have been even worse if it wasn’t for the surprisingly good Dickey. Niese was 9-10 last year and is expected to be a number 2. Really? Pelfrey is good but he’s no number 1. Chris Young is a crapshoot after a shoulder injury that limited him to 20 innings last year and Capuano is a Brewers castoff also recovering from an injury.
Storylines:
For today’s storylines, I’m going to pose a series of questions about the 2011 Mets:
- Will their closer Francisco Rodriguez, whose contract was almost voided last season after his arrest at Citi Field, punch anymore family members?
- Who is Terry Collins?
- How long until Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez (see my previous post) are released?
- Will Bernie Madoff doom the Wilpon’s ownership of the Mets? (Hint: Yes)
- Are the Mets the worst run organization in the MLB? (Hint: Also Yes)
- Carlos Beltran is coming back from an injury, can he run? (Scouts say no)
- How will Beltran deal with the move to right?
- Can Pagan hold down center for an entire season?
- Will anyone go to Mets games this year?
Prediction:
Sean said I can’t predict the Mets to have 12 wins this season like I originally intended so I guess I’ll give them a little more credit.
71-91, Last Place, NL East. (My Mets friend said 80 wins, we’re both biased) The Mets aren’t as bad as I’ve made them out in this post ( I was just having fun at their expense. Especially Mets fans. Every time I go to a Mets game I root loudly for the other team just to see if I can get a rise out of the Mets fans, thus far I’m like 0 for 10.) but they certainly aren’t good. This team has a long way to go to recover from the damage Minaya did to it. Sandy Alderson is the right guy for the job but this will be a long process and many of the guys on the roster now (Beltran, Reyes, Castillo, Perez) shouldn’t be part of it.
Bold Prediction:
- The Mets win 12 games this season. (Yes! I got in in)
- Beltran can’t make it through the season on his bad knee resulting in another lost year for him.
- Reyes signs elsewhere after the season
- Sanatana comes back around the All-Star break and goes 3-8 in the second half despite having an ERA under 3.00.
And Now Something Completely Different:
Chad Johnson (I’m not calling him Ochocinco, that’s stupid) has a creative way of dealing with the NFL Lockout.
Its important to keep up with current events.
Here is a cool trailer for a bee related movie.
This is a really cool video about old car crashes.
I have some really good stuff for the links section over the next few days, stay tuned.
As always, comment below or at offthebench@offthebenchbaseball.com
-Max Frankel
