The New York Mets 2010: Meet the Lil' Mets

Oh, where to begin with the beleaguered 2010 Mets club?  How about a bit of history?

A BIT OF HISTORY

2007: After having a 7-game lead in the NL East, the Mets commit one of the worst collapses in MLB (if not sporting) history and lose 12 of their last 17 games to miss the postseason. 88-74

2008: On the last day of the regular season, the Mets screw the pooch again and manage to completely miss the postseason. 89-73

2009: After two years of near-perfect collapse, the Mets decide to give their fans a break and let them enjoy the amenities of the new Citi Field by not giving them a reason to watch any of the baseball being played.  70-92

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN 2010

Seriously?  Not a whole lot.  More of the same, really.  More of the same team that finished 70-92 last year.  The only major acquisition to speak of was former Pirate Jason Bay from the Red Sox.   He's pretty good at playing baseball, unlike the rest of the team.  He's one of the few things the Mets have to show for their $150 million payroll this year.  That's right - $150 million.  They've got over twice the payroll of the Reds, and roughly half the team.  Let the smack-talk begin!

3B: David Wright - The Face of the Team.  Also, the tiny-head-inside-a-giant-batting-helmet of the team.  Last year, the new home of the Mets also managed to give Wright a home-run-ectomy; after going yard 33 and 30 times the prior two seasons, he only managed to hit 10 long balls last year.  Not only does he have to have an amazing year for the Mets to make it to the post season, he's got to have an amazing year just to save this ballclub from embarrassment.

2B: Luis Castillo - 3X All-Star and Gold-Glover, although the last time either of those things happened was 5 years ago.  His defense seems to be on a slide as of late, and he's not got much power as a hitter.  Strong suits include walks and stolen bases.  So, that's something.

1B: Daniel Murphy - First off, I've got to get this off my chest: His walk-up music is "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" by the Dropkick Murphys.  Sure, his last name is Murphy, but…this is New York!  Why on god's grey earth is this guy using a song about Boston as his walk-up music?  New Yorkers HATE Boston!  (Also, it's a crappy song.)  On to baseball: average-gloved utility player, not so hot when holding the bat. 

SS: Jose Reyes - Reyes is the Mets all-time leader in triples and stolen bases and a 2X All-Star selection.  However, injuries are still the fashion with this ball club; Reyes' last MLB appearance was May 26th of last year, and he's been diagnosed with "thyroid problems," with probably another month (maybe more) of recovery before being cleared to play ball.  Fun Fact: steroid use can cause thyroid problems.

LF: Jason Bay - Second most Home Runs (with 14) and the highest batting average of any player with more than 100 at bats (.363, 58 for 160) at GABP.  A "Bill Hall All-Star" perhaps?  That, and a regular All-Star.  A good get for the Mets and a bright spot of the line-up; however, the wisdom of paying him $66 mil over 4 years when the team has little to no chance to contend and virtually nothing coming up out of the farm system is a little questionable.

RF: Jeff Francoeur - In a trade last year, made moments before the Reds' Citi Field debut on July 10th, the Mets acquired Francoeuer by trading Ryan Church to the Braves.  He's good, but inconsistent.  Can either be pretty good or pretty mediocre, and as far as I can tell, there's no real rhyme or reason as to why he's one or the other.  Mets fans had better hope Francoeueouer is the best Francoueuoeuor he can be.

CF: Angel Pagan - Carlos Beltran, who was sidelined for most of last year with injuries, has so far this year been sidelined with an injury.  So, now there's theologically confused Angel Pagan in center for opening day.  Do you care about Angel Pagan?  Me neither.

C: Rod Barajas - Signed as a free agent on February 21, Barajas hit 19 home runs last year with the Blue Jays.  That's 9 more home runs that David Wright hit last year.  Just sayin'.

Rotation

1. Johan Santana

2. Mike Pelfrey

3. Oliver Perez

4. John Maine

5. ???

Johan Santana's good!  He's one of the best there is, really.  He's coming off of elbow surgery towards the last year, but that shouldn't have much effect on him this season - it was a bone-chip removal thing and he's had it done before and still turned out to be a pretty great pitcher.  But it's no fun talking about positives, so let's get to the other guys:

You know you're in for some trouble when your second starter is Mike Pelfrey.  I recall seeing a game on television early in the season last year when Mike Pelfrey was having some trouble - he literally fell over while pitching.  Twice.  How does that even HAPPEN?!?!

Oliver Perez and John Maine are both giant question marks (in a bad way).  They both have the potential to be good, but neither one of them seem to much want to be.  Both caught the injury bug last year - Maine had "general weakness and fatigue in his throwing shoulder," which sounds made-up to me, and Perez had "patellar tendinitis in his right knee" which also sounds made-up, albeit by someone smarter than whomever made up that "general weakness" thing.

While the Reds are having trouble filling the 5th spot of the rotation because of the large number of good options they have, the Mets are having trouble filling the 5th spot of their rotation because they're having trouble finding a 5th person who can get the ball over the plate.  (Perhaps a bit of an overstatement, but not by much.)  I'm just going to go ahead a guess that the 5th starter will be Fernando Nieve, for two reasons:  1) His last name is one letter away from the spanish word for "nine," which is 3 more than the number of his career wins since his 2006 debut and 2) He kind of looks like a frog.

Bullpen:

Francisco Rodriguez

& a bunch of other guys

I'm not going to waste my time and waste your time by going into detail about the Mets' bullpen.  Francisco Rodriguez was their high-priced acquisition for the 2009 season and managed to have the worst season of his career: 35 saves in 42 opportunities, 3.71 ERA.  (Francisco Cordero, however, was 39-for-43 with a 2.16 era.  The Reds won the battle of the Francisco Closers!  Hooray for us!)

After last year's "how can it get any worse?!?" season, the Mets seem to be on track to demonstrate how low they can go.  Sure, it's entirely possible that everyone on the team could have an above-average to terrific year and they might make a run at the post-season, but first, the stars would have to align to spell out "Take that, Willie Randolph!"

Reds will be taking on the Mets at GABP on May 3rd through 5th, and then in New York City on July 5th through 7th.  Nycredsfan and I are thinking of arranging a RR meet up in New York to either attend the latter or simply catch the former at a bar and be obnoxious towards whatever Met fans are left - who's in?