I am surprised by the high-level of near-certain doom being expressed by some Mets fans.
I understand the skepticism and the criticism, no question. I feel the same way. But, I’m sensing a whole other level of doom-and-gloom in my inbox and comments section, and I hear it on talk radio and from fans on the street… and, that I don’t get. I’m not predicting the Mets will win the World Series this season by any means, but I’m certainly not going to say they can’t.
I mean, how do I know the Phillies or Braves are not doomed to be injured like the Mets were in 2009. Or, how do I know the Mets will not make a significant, helpful mid-season trade. Or, perhaps this is the season Mike Pelfrey puts it together, in the same year Jose Reyes hits 25 triples and steals 80 bases. Again, I’m not saying all of this will happen, I’m not even sure it can happen, but I can’t say it won’t happen… at least not yet.
The thing is, baseball is such a long season, with so many twists and turns, and that’s what makes it so great: so long as there is one out remaining, anything can happen… and there are still at least 1,400 innings to be played.
I mean, had someone told me in February 2006 that, in eight months, Pirates LHP Oliver Perez would be starting Game 7 of the NLCS for the Mets, I’m not sure I would have believed them. And that’s the point, I don’t know, definitively, what the 2010 Mets will or will not accomplish.
Matt i could not agree with you more. Thats the beauty of baseball you just dont know. So many people comment like we are the Pirates ! The negativity is expressed here is beyond the pale.
Optimism…. Matt your crazy! Just kidding your right on the money here.
You don’t know, and the team has talent.
It’s not doom from me at least.
It is called being a realist.
Watching enough baseball in the last 35 years to know when a team is seriously flawed even before the injuries last year.
You even said it yourself.
Optimisitc? Nah, realistic. And have had enough hearbreaking years and moments with this team to know when to temper my excitement.
I am bummed I can not enjoy spring training this year.
Hopefully I will be surprised. I don’t see it though.
And the treatment of the fans by ownership only fans the flames in my case.
I am getting sick of the media using met fans to sell papers, web traffic, ratings, & espn subscriptions though. Stop with the drumming up of garbage to rile the fan base and sell. From Francesa to Olney to the writers to Rosenthal & Heyman….Enough is enough.
Just take everything those windbags say with a grain of salt. i don’t believe anything Rosenthal or Heyman says. The are full of #2….. Same with francesca i don’t listen to him for that reason. He’s so slanted towards his Yankee bias his show is un-listenable, especially since all his callers are Mets fans.
That’s great. Except when I log on here and have to read how this one & that one said this, that, & the other thing.
While Cerrone tells us he is hearing the opposite and everything is gum drop mountains & candy cane forests.
Enough is enough.
Stop using Met fans passion as a money maker by throwing rhetoric and unsubstantiated rumors, quotes, & speculation out there.
Whatever happened to real journalism integrity?
Guess it died with the majority of integrity in this country.
To be clear I am not ripping Matt so much as all the other low lives trying to USE Met fans completely legitimate feeling towards the organization as some sort of free pass to just fabricate stuff for the sake getting hits on their blog, site, or ratings or subscriptions, or papers, etc…..it is pathetic imo.
My point is stop reading them, stop listening. The only way you get a change is to stop listening and reading.
i know Matt posts these things on here, because he’s running a site that reports all mets news which is fine and dandy. I know i don’t listen to them at all.
I agree. The wonderful talent Matt points out has not brought us a division title or pennant. Don’t get me wrong, I love watching the games and I’ll enjoy watching Johan pitch every 5th day and Wright and Jose are great.
I just don’t have any hoped that the Mets will be a playoff team and I won’t watch anywhere near the number of games I did last year.
If the ownership doesn’t care about the team why should I?
They will be MORE watchable this year. If you watched any games past Father’s day of last year God Bless You! Almost every game after that point was unwatchable. Imagine how Gary, Keith and Ron felt. At least they got paid for it. This year can’t be worse than last year…..it just can’t
You’re not a realist.. You’re a pessimist! Don’t say you see “serious flaws” after the fact. By the same line of thinking.. You’re saying we should never have signed Beltran, because you foresee 5 years down the line he has bad knees. We should have just traded Reyes after the first year because he had hamstring problems. We should have traded Wright before we moved into CitiField because he’ll have a power outage.. We should have never signed Santana because he had an elbow problem.
Fact is… If there wasn’t so many injuries last year, the Mets would be in the middle of the hunt. You should be looking into this spring training as you did last spring training… full of hope.. because it’s essentially the same team.. except we exchanged Bay for Delgado.
While all that may be true, you cannot put blinders on and ignore the fact that this team is still severely flawed. The “Love will get us through this” mentality is going to fall apart the minute this team his a rough patch.
We’re still without a solid starting catcher. There is a hole at 1B. We, apparently, dislike our 2B so much we try to trade him at every chance we get and our pitching staff behind Santana is a buch of maybe’s, IF’s a could’s.
Oh did I mention we have one of the highest payrolls in the league? How’s that for money management?
I consider it MIS-MANAGEMENT.
You continuously have one of the highest payrolls, yet continue to have major holes and severe flaws.
I believe they cut payroll this year by a higher percentage than they cut ticket prices.
You go on the radio, promise to fix everything and because you signed Bay I am supposed to get out my pom poms?
I am actually more frustrated because we have guys I love like Wright, Reyes, & Johan and we won’t win……I see us wasting these guys like we wasted Piazza.
They will retire without rings too if things don’t change and fast.
Ummm your argument is flawed….In fact The Mets are not even in the top 5 possibly 10 for payroll this year as there payroll currently stands at 117M almost 25 M less than last year. I honestly dont see this hole your talking about at first, Murphy excelled as the season went on at first. If you watched enough games you would know that, and even thought our 2-4 are maybes/if’s when there on they are all #3 possible low end #2 pitchers.
I’ll always love my team, but the fact is the Wilpons suck; nothing else needs to be explained.
Agreed. Hate the Wilpons, love the Mets. Look at those early 90s teams. I convinced myself they could go far into the playoffs. We were a playoff contender before the season started last year. How can I not convince myself again this year?
Flawed Shmawed….baseball fans must go into every season with some optimism that is the nature of being a fan and don’t tell me you are a realist…you cannot be a realist when it comes to sports thats what makes sport games so great….
Exactly… I’m a Giants fan… They were what 7-0 this year, and collapsed, nobody saw that coming. Just like nobody saw last year’s injuries coming.
I’m on board with Matt. While i didn’t Love their offseason moves, i still get excited every year.
this is true. look how far the jets went i know its football but all the same you just dont know.
24 years and counting will make anyone a realist…..
Not sure about you Matt, but I usually look forward to the Super bowl as the end of football season, because it signals the ‘start’ of baseball season. Pitchers and catchers report soon, baseball talk starts to dominate talk radio etc.
This season is different though. While I agree with everything you said, and cannot wait to get started watching this team, the start of baseball season is going to bring with it much more of what sparked your post hear today. WFAN is going to be non stop whinny Mets fans. ESPN and other national outlets will ramp up baseball coverage and we all know it will feature alot of negativity toward the Mets.
The season hasn’t started yet… we don’t know what other moves might be made between now and then. Hope for the best.
Matt, we’re all Mets fans! We all wann believe… and we do (otherwise we couldn’t keep reading and commenting).
You’re right! There’s no reason to believe that the injury bug will hit twice. There’s every reason to believe that Beltran, Reyes, Maine, Pelfrey and Perex are now all ‘pain-free’ and will play to their potential. And with those additions, this is a SOLID team!
The “doom & gloom” perspective (for me) comes with the team’s management, and thier apparent inability to get the deal they wanted. Its not bad the Molina and Piniero signed elsewhere… its bad that Omar and co. couldn’t sell the deals they wanted. Either they’ve got a bad read on the market or they’re poor salesmen.
The Mets said they had a plan for the offseason… they tried like crazy to execute that plan (which included adding Bay, Molina, Piniero and trading Castillo and adding a 2B, etc.) They did not execute that plan well. They got Bay.
Now the season’s about to start, and the plan is to win games, get to the post-season and win the WS. If they can’t execute the off-season plan, it doesn’t give confidence to they can execute their in-season plan.
Well said!
There’s still about 6+ weeks till the season starts… you never know… if they can swing a trade for a legit #2 starter between now and then it could really change the outlook for the team.
Everytime I logon to this site, I’m hoping to see the headlines that the Mets make a trade… something like Castillo, Maine, a high-prospect and cash to either CIN for Arroyo & Phillips or to KC for Callaspo and Meche.
Its within the realm of plausibility… just not sure if its in the realm of probability…
A move like that could dynamically change this team’s outlook for 2010.
And neither of those moves would impove the mets. People just want them to do something, anything. But making either of those moves aren’t going to transform this team into what people would consider a championship caliper team…. It would just be acquiring 2 mediocre guys for 2 mediocre guys who we have had.
I see it as a marginal improvement for the Mets… in that they get more athletic at 2B, and gain some durability in the rotation… something Maine hasn’t proven he can do.
The other team gets younger in their rotation (with greater upside), and some cash and a prospect to offset a .300 singles hitting 2B for two seasons.
You never know who might be made available before the season starts. For all we know the Padres and Dodgers will have fire sales due to their ownership situations.
Every team has flaws and question marks. The Mets don’t even have many more than any other team. _anything_ can happen. The Mets have a lot of talent, and there is no hall of fame team in the division that’s going to win close to 100 games. It’ll be virtually impossible for the Mets to be out of it in June. They can be good, and the doom is just a way to avoid the disappointment that most baseball seasons end up having. Expect nothing and you’ll never be disappointed. I’d rather enjoy the ride.
I have to disagree with this. We have a lot more question marks than any team in the division other than the Nats. IF Reyes is healthy, IF Johan comes back ok from surgery IF Beltran is only out 1 month. IF Wright’s regression was just a 1 year thing. And that’s just our “reliable” players. Then there’s Maine, Ollie, Pelf – all unreliable. 2B, C and bullpen are question marks.
The good teams have less question marks. Phillies – what is their big weakness? That lineup is solid, 1-6 at least and they have an ace, a strong #2 and 3 decent guys behind them in the rotation. They’re not saying IF Halladay is healthy IF Utley improves IF Howard’s power comes back….
The “doom and gloom” is a culmination of what the fan base has been through the last few years. The fans have had enough, and rightly so. Since 2006 the team has choked away two division titles, then won only 72 games (based somewhat on injuries but also based on bad management decisions) and had an AWFUL off season. What else can be expected??
I sound like a broken record here with consecutive posts saying the same thing. Can we all stop blaming, writers, wfan, espn, etc.. for writing bad things about the Mets, can you give me a good reason why they shouldnt? what should they report about after the Mets organization shows the city and the country it has no idea what its doing. In any news do something positive and they will report it, do something continuously negative and guess what they are going to write about that and run with it, thats the business. You know how you get everyone to report good things about you, win games, stop acting like a dysfunctional circus, and shut up, the only thing you should give them to write about is how you won the night before, not I cant believe the Mets did this or that at this press conference. Act inept and you get what you deserve.
That being said I am looking forward to the season, and I too think if all things go right maybe something special happens, we dont know yet. I want to see the games on the field already and enough of this hot stove garbage. If they do well great, if they dont well than we all know what has to happen but lets see what happens first. However dont blame problems of the team on anyone else but the team itself, cause thats where it comes from.
well said. When this TEAM – , players, GM, ownership, manager, does something good then the media will write about that. People on here don’t like hearing what unobjective people with a good knowledge of the sport are saying, then direct your anger towards those making the poor decisions, on and off the field.
I agree 100% Matt. Maybe it is the fact that I don’t live in the NY area and don’t get bombarded with the anti-Met media that seems to prevail in that area, but I am really looking forward to this season.
I get excited knowing that in a few short weeks that I will be able watch baseball again. In fact, I need to call DirecTv so that I can get SNY added to my package so I can watch preseason games and then look to the regular season schedule so that I can schedule my work around the night games. (I may have a slight problem!)
I guess what I am saying is that I just cannot being myself to think that anything but good things will happen this year.
Right on target Matt… To a large degree, I think it’s refreshing that the Mets go into Spring Training and the season with low expectations. If anything, it’s a change from the high level of expectations from the last few years. I’d like to see them slip under the radar (although very hard in NY) and just go out and play. If they stay healhty, they WILL compete…
… and for all those wondering why the Wilpons feel they can get away with handling their team the way they do and expect to not lose money…
Doesn’t change the fact this team has alot of good players on it.As many as 6 potential allstars.
Matt,
I find this posting to be a little juvenile in nature. Sure, when I was a 11yr old, I felt the same exact way about the team.
However, when the management slashes their payroll $30million dollars and then conducts a marketing campaign asking us to “Believe Again,” they are essentially playing us all for fools.
Traditionally, Mets fans are cut from a different cloth. We will take interest in the team even when they are not winning. While Mets fans want to win, its not essentially to the identity of our fandom, as it is for Yankee fans. We are very patient and loyal and more or less expect the best, even in the wake of soul crushing defeats or setbacks.
I think over time, the Wilpons have learned that and what annoys me most is that they seem to have such contempt for their customers. They continually lie, deceive, and try and sell us in order to exploit us and make more money.
Have you ever seen a team move into a new stadium and slash payroll- after 4 years of elite attendance figures? Maybe I am wrong, but I think I speak for many die hard fans when I say these types of things have tarnished the goodwill and optimism I had for this team. As much as I like the players and our core, the spectre of the Wilpons is hanging over this franchise right now in a very negative way.
They have done too much to the fans to ask them to blindly believe, like you are advocating….
Exactly, I WANT to believe, but I will not blindly do so in the face of the lies and deceit they have continuously given us week after week.
You guys gotta take a chill pill. You act as if we do not have a solid core of players, and as if the payroll is 60 million or so. You can argue that some of the mgmt decisions have been wrong, but it’s silly to believe that the COMMITMENT to winning is not there. You gotta lighten up some, and ENJOY the upcoming season. This team CAN compete, and the future is not as bleak as many in the media want it to be..
Mets management has lied about:
1) Promise made by Jeff Wilpon in October to spend this off-season to get team back to being a championship contender. I know he used carefully used words but this was totally deceitful.
2) Impact Madoff scandal had on them- they claimed they lost money with him and it turns out they didn’t
3) Extent of players injuries- JJ Putz confirmed that last week- it was obious last yr when Reyes’ “day-to-day” hammy cost him 4 months
I love the Mets and will root for them, but to turn a blind eye to this and go in with your mouth wide open screaming “yaaaayyy” is juvenile fandom in my opinion…
I mean seriously, don’t you think the Pirates, who lost 99 games last year, could be saying the same thing? Oh, if Doumit doesn’t get hurt and a full year of Milledge and Snell and Duke bounce back, we COULD win. I’m not saying we will, but we could!
This is a team that was predicted by many to reach the World Series, and was a couple of tweaks from once again being a very good team. To sit here and say, “well, everyone agrees the team should be better but because anything can happen, I’m excited” is crazy. It’s one thing to say you are a Mets fan and want to root for them, and want to believe, but to confuse that with actually believing is short-sightededness that I’d expect from a seven year old.
I root for the Mets, I’ll root for them, and I hope they somehow win, but I am not confusing that with thinking they can.
That’s where you’re wrong.
How is it short-sighted to think Pelfrey will improve? To think Maine’s figured out how to manage his shoulder and pitch effectively? That Perez could return to a 15 win form?
That Murphy after a year of being jerked around could have a better season? That Wright is more likely to hit to his career power numbers than the ones last year? Are you saying it’s short-sighted to think Beltran and Reyes and Santana can heal?
I didn’t say it was short-sighted to think Pelfrey would improve. I don’t think I even typed the word Pelfrey in the last few weeks.
What I said was it is short-sighted to confuse wanting to believe in something with actually believing in it.
You can feel free to believe that everything that went wrong last year will not go wrong this year. Don’t forget to also hope that nothing that went right last year doesn’t go wrong this year while you are at it. I, personally, hope it doesn’t rain at all this year when the Mets are playing at home. We’ll see how that goes.
Again, I’m not saying your believing in these things is short-sighted. I am saying that just believing in them because you are a Mets fan who wants to believe and likes the team is the type of thinking I’d expect from a seven year old.
Yes, but I didn’t say believe. I said can. All those things _can_ happen, and they’re not even that much of a stretch. And if they do go right, this team can definitely win.
It’s a matter of percentages, the Pirates have to have a lot more things get much much better to win.
Yes. A lot of things can happen for the better. A lot of things can happen for the worse. To me, in order to get excited you must ignore the MANY things that CAN go wrong, and only think about the things that CAN go right. Optimism is great, but blind optimism is dangerous.
This is the most blah I have ever been about our team. I have 0 expectations for this year. With that being said I am sure they will be good just cause people are counting them out!
Gotta love that nobody believed in us Card….
Yup including many of us here!
Anyone who wants to tell me that all will be alright in Met land is only kidding themself. Especially after these last three seasons. people no longer want to hear it, they, like me, want to see it. If people don’t perform at their jobs they can expect to face consequences. The Mets are not likely gonna do much at all this year and while I will still be a fan I will not spend that kind of money to go to a team when they play as horrible as they have been. I am still a fan, just gonna watch them on TV and follow them from the PC. If they want support they should open their ears as well as their hands!
Matt, you are urprised by the high-level of near-certain doom being expressed by some Mets fans.
I am surprised that you are surprised.
Perception is interesting. When reading anyone’s post, you cannot hear tone or read facial expressions … so you may not always be able to tell 100% what the person is truely saying.
I was wrong too. I didn’t read YOUR posts as “skepticism” and “criticism” … I read a number of YOUR posts as “criticism” and “hopelessness”. When reading some of your posts, I thought that you meant to convey doom and gloom.
I apologize for not reading the optimism that you have.
The Phillies were the 2008 Champions,but yet the Mets were the favorites going into last year.Alot of the same fans and media that are so negative on the Mets this year totally believed that to be true.With pretty much the same team,how is it these guys became bums,not capable of finishing better than 3rd or 4th(according to many)? Other than Pelfrey and Wright ,who else on the team didn’t live up to expectations? The team was a mash unit last year.Now alot of fans think this team sucks.IMO this team didn’t suck last year,they were hurt.Theres no team in baseball that could recover form that many injuries,no team.I think we’re going to see a highly motivated team this year,and I believe they will give the Phillies a run for their money.
They were a second place team before the injuries.
Except they were in 1st place in the division.
Exactly,they were in first until Betran went down.
Hmmm, I thought the Phillies came in first the last three years…
Would they have won the division with a dozen injuries?
There is no place to argue logic. This team should be able to survive the injuries and succeed.
Had the Phillies lost their SS, 1B, and CF they wouldn’t have been in the WS. They wouldn’t have even made the playoffs.
Say what you want about the front office or GM, but when healthy, this team is as good as any in the National League.
The thing is the Mets can use injuries as an excuse for 2009 but what about 2008 and 2007?
Give it up already! I’m sick of hearing about 07 & 08,they were in it till the end.What more do you want,they we’re very competitive teams.It doesn’t matter what their record was after games145,it’s a 162 game schedule,and they lost.
That’s what I was saying… 2009 you can use the injury excuse but what was the excuse for 2007 & 2008?
i can’t believe how many people are down on our team,is it the result of the injury riddled season? the less exciting off-season than recent years? What is it that makes people not believe in the team? I always believe in this team and I think this team is better than 2006, I think it’s better than 2009. I think they are going to surprise a lot of people. I just hope those who believe we’ll be fighting it out for the nats for fourth place are back here admitting they were wrong when we are in 1st place.
I think the 2006 team is better than this team right now.
And just because I am down on the team does not mean I believe they will be fighting it out for 4th place. You are the one making predictions that they will be a 1st place team. I am just skeptical about this team after three years of falling short for one reason or another. There are five or six more ways a team can have a bad year… it’s not always just choking a lead, a bad bullpen, or injuries. Can they put it together and finally win? Of course. I would never predict against that because they have that talent. But to predict they WILL do that, in the face of everything that happened to them the last few years and this offseason? That’s a bold statement and I hope you are right.
I’m loving the over confidence of the Phillie fans.It’s going to be all the sweeter when the Mets shock everybody.
Really?
Willie once said something like that.
I am still waiting to taste that champagne.
I think it’s partly a cummulative effect of having 1 playoff appearance (that ended poorly) since 2001. If the Mets were coming off a string of 5 playoff appearances in 7 years it would be viewed differently.
I hope your on here too saying you were wrong if it doesnt turn on well
Well, the team’s lack of success – only 2 WC in 48yrs with the last Championship over 23 yrs ago – despite their payroll being amongst the top 3 or 4 payrolls in all of baseball for the last several years might have something to do with the fans pessimism.
I am excited for baseball and a new season means all teams start at the same spot. However, I have to be realistic and I see this team at or just above 500 if most things break right, otherwise, if guys dont perform or we get hit with a ton of injuries again, we will be in the 70 range in wins.
I am hoping when Sept comes, we are still within 3-4 games of a wild card or division with some meaningful baseball. I think thats the best we can hope for right now if we look at things as they really are.
At this point in the season, EVERY team has questionmarks. Some more than others. There are no guarentees.
If some people are down on the Mets, they are allowed to be. If things go well, some of these same folks will tell you that they knew it all along.
If the Mets finish in 4th, some of these same folks will say, “See, I told you”. Good for them being right, I hope they bet on it and made a lot of money.
But I’d rather hear what they think the Mets could do today to improve … either short term or long term.
“If some people are down on the Mets, they are allowed to be. If things go well, some of these same folks will tell you that they knew it all along.”
That is because we all know this team CAN win. I believed in 2007, 2008 and 2009, why would I suddenly think this team can’t win with the same guys? They can. But to not be down on the Mets for not trying to improve the team more than they did after three years of disappointing finishes is more fair than people on here are giving us credit for.
Being down on the Mets does not equate to thinking they will lose. I am merely disappointed that after the last three years, they did not make the extra effort to improve the team beyond a reasonable doubt (i.e. less question marks). The more question marks, the more things have to go right.
All I hear on this site is “wahhh, wahhh, wahhh…” like a bunch of crybabies. What ever happened to loving the game of baseball, regardless of who is playing? You whiners are too busy letting the business side of baseball get you angry that you’re forgetting why you watch this game in the first place.
Shame on all of you.
You sound like a flag waver.
No, I’m just amazed by how many “baseball fans” come on here and whine about things like this. I’m not saying it’s unpatriotic or anything, just a shame. I am angry about the situation the Mets are in too, but I am not letting it affect my passion for the sport. Rather than focusing on what could go wrong, why don’t we start talking about what could go right?
Some may call themselves “realists,” but I disagree. There is no such thing as a realist, only angry people who let their pessimistic side show more often. Seriously people, some of you complain like the Mets are ruining your life. There are much more important things to be worrying about right now other than the Mets’ offseason acquisitions. Baseball is supposed to be the escape, not the problem. I guess all I am trying to say in this rambling is grow the f*** up. It’s baseball time again!
Agreed.
Its entertainment and people should not make ‘rooting for the Mets’ even one of the top 5 things in their life.
You hear quotes like “Mgmt lied to me”, “Omar is a loser”, “We need to taste the champagne” … get over it!!
You are just fans, nothing more.
If you dont like the way the team is run, then root for another team and act like a misery on their message boards.
Agreed, if we want the players to play for the name on the front of the jersey, so should the fans. We are Mets fans, players will come and go, nothing we can do about it, all we can do is support the players who are Mets.
My biggest problem with the Mets this offseason is that we didn’t bring in another SP who is reliable. I know that there was no legitimate no. 2 other than Lackey and I would have thought Omar was crazy to spend more than what the Red Sox paid. But it seems like everyone else was dismissed as not representing an upgrade over what we have. That may be true in theory but Pelfrey/Maine/Perez/Nieve/Niese don’t have an established track record to believe that they will be able to give the team solid reliable innings for the whole season. It would have been prudent for the Mets to get a reliable, if unspectacular, starter (e.g. Marquis, Garland, Pineiro) to add to Santana so that we’re not in a position to count on all of the other starters to pitch as well as they have ever pitched in a prior season.
That being said, I am choosing to look forward to the 2010 season and am excited for spring training to start. The team is still good enough to compete for a playoff spot. With the money that was cut from payroll, we have the financial ability to make a trade or 2 before the trading deadline if we’re competitive and just need a missing piece or 2. And if the 2010 season is disastrous, as many on the board seem to be anticipating, there will be major changes next off season where a real opportunity will exist to remake the team. There will be a deep FA pool and the team will have money to spend (taking Wilpons’ public claim that Madoff is not an issue at face value). Some of our promising prospects will also have another year of experience and and it is much easier to eat Castillo’s and Perez’s bad contracts when they only have one year left. That’s assuming that Castillo/Perez have horrible seasons in 2010.
At least in my mind, I can see the Mets being competitive this season and hopefully making the playoffs. And if they don’t, there are no excuses for not completely revamping the roster and front office for 2011. (Of course, I am also hoping that Fred and Jeff will realize that if it comes to that, they need to bring in true baseball people with the freedom to run the baseball side of things and stop acting like Dolan).
If you look at the numbers,there wasn’t a starter out there that was that much better than the Mets already have(other than Lackey).
I don’t think the issue is that they’re much better but rather have a more established track record to deliver the innings and performance.
Whatever their track record may be, SI picked the Mets to win last year for a reason – talent. The only difference between the start of last year and this year is the Bay/Delgado wash. As Matt says, the potential and the talent is still there. There are always a lot of ifs – that’s baseball. But IF Wright and Reyes return to form, Bay delivers what he did last year, Beltran comes back solid in May, Castillo reruns last year’s performance, Frenchy, Murph and Thole mature and come into their own, and we get solid performance from 2 or Pelf, Maine, Oliie, Niese or Nieve….I mean dang – that’s a heck of a team! Let’s Go Friggin’ Mets!
WELL SAID MATT WELL SAID!!!!!!!
Im way past sick of Met “fans” How much fun is it being “realistic” in the off season?
Ill start being realistic IF the phils ,braves or marlins have a 10 game leave with 10 games to go.. Im a Met FAN and I will always believe ,because its not fun being realistic/
*lead
Why should fans be enthused about a team that did nothing to address obvious deficiencies at C, 1B, 2B, #2 starter, setup man?
I want them to win and expect the best- but why get all hot and bothered about this product now?
If you are not enthused, you are not a fan. It’s that simple.
Oh is that so?
Since when do YOU define fandom?
Get over yourself.
Because they’re not really that deficiant at 1B/2B, catcher wasn’t exactly a big point the last 2 years and is a hard position to upgrade anyway. They’ve brought in some relievers already, and yes, they need to acquire another pitcher.
They are not deficiant at 1B/2B? My oh my.
Catcher wasn’t a big point the last two years, you’re right. But you’re saying when we had shoddy catching we didn’t win, so continuing to punt the position, and even downgrade slightly, should not affect us. Yes, but how does that help a team that wasn’t winning?
Their bullpen is a blatant question mark, and they have not acquired the pitcher you say they need. And look, if they do acquire that SP, then maybe I WILL be excited. but, they have not, and until they do, I remain skeptical, hoping for the best.
What issues do we have at set-up man??? He have potentially the best bullpen in the majors with K-Rod, Escobar, Parnell, Feliciano, Igarashi, Green, and Figueroa.
I am a huge Mets fan, but you guys are chugging the Kool-Aid.
Our 1B hit 12 HRs- that is WAY below average for a 1Bman
At 2B, we have a aging injury-prone speed/defense reliant player, whose speed and defense has already seriously regressed. He is among the league’s worst at the position
Our C is a C-level prospect who has never done anything close to what he pulled off in 2009 that we are no asking to do again in more time with no backup plan.
In 2008, our set-up corps was weak and cost us a division with Aaron Heilman, who is much more proven than Igarashi and Escobar coming off 2 years of DL…
Mets CAN be good cause of their corp, but as I said doing nothing to address these issues doesn’t make me “believe again” blindly, like Matt appears to be…
As Al Franken once wrote (and I’ll change certain words to apply):
If you listen to a lot of commenters, they’ll tell you that the difference between them and us is that they love the Mets because they are enthused and we hate the Mets because we are not…. They don’t get it. We love the Mets just as much as they do. But in a different Way. You see, they love the Mets the way a 4-year-old loves her Mommy. We love the Mets like grown-ups.
To a 4-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad. Love takes attention and work and is the best thing in the world. That’s why we want the Mets to do the right thing. We love them and want them to do well. We also want them to do good things.
When we look back on history, we see things we’re very proud of. And we also see some things, which might have seemed good at the time, but turned out to be mistakes. And some things the Mets did, well, they were just bad. That doesn’t keep us from loving our team — it’s part of loving our team. It’s called honesty. What do you think is more important to a loving relationship: honesty or lies?
Last year was a very negative season. Mets fans are down on the team. But their attitude is more consistant with a team like the 1978 Mets than the current squad. Back then, there was reason to assume the worst. Back then, the Mets had no talent. This current team has lots of talent and untapped potential. There is every reason for hope. Of course no one can predict what will happen and the 2010 Mets have plenty of question marks. But that’s why the games are played. The current state of the overly negative Mets fans says more about them then it does about the Mets.
Exactly. As I said above, we have the same talent now that we did at the start of last season when we were picked to win it all. The pieces are all there. Of course there are areas to worry about, but that’s part of the game. Lets Go Mets!
There are BIG differences between the start of last year and this year. Last year, we had the alleged 2 headed bullpen monster of Putz/K-Rod. This is why people picked the Mets to win. Even with our pitching staff, they only had to get through 7 innings and then the studs would take over. It didn’t work out that way.
Also, before last year, Pelfrey, Maine and Ollie had taken steps forward, not backwards. So the hope/belief, was that at least 1 or 2 would continue to develop positively.
This year, no shutdown guy for the 8th inning. All 3 pitchers took steps backwards. At what point do you say – this is who these pitchers are. Inconsistent and/or oft-injured. PLus the unknown of how Reyes, Wright, Santana will bounce back from last year’s various problems and if/when we will see Beltran on the field.
To say no one can predict what will happen and that the 2010 Mets have plenty of question marks in the same post that you say the overly negative fans are more about them than those question marks is a bit odd. I am not negative about the Mets. I am negative about how they approached the question marks.
i think ill be excited when i see an organization set out goals and clearly try and get to them – everything from tactical free agent signings to medical care of our players.
there were reports the front office wanted to emphasize on speed and defense…we have a glaring issue at second base right now which could have been dealt with.
the front office said we needed a #2 — nothing done here either.
we also saw from all the injuries last year that we didn’t have the best bench in the world and that’s being kind…i think a adam kennedy type would have helped here.
so yes, there are plenty of reasons to be highly doubtful going into this season…
I don’t put much stock in the “speed and defense” talk. That is the defacto line for what an organization tries to do.
#2, Easier said than done. There is no #2 out there that doesn’t involve gutting the farm.
NO bench can sustain injuries to so many of your All-Stars.
Take last season for what it was… a freak aberration. Have hope now that the team is coming back relatively healthy (except for Beltran).
Thank you. A sensible post.
I know underneath your post that you look forward to the players going out there and proving themselves, winning games, getting on board with Jerry and finally realizing their talent and abilities.
But after this offseason of lies and deceit and failure, you are doubtful, and that makes more sense than anything. To be doubtful doesn’t mean you don’t think it CAN happen. It can. It probably won’t tho.
So what it looks like based on reading all of this is that about 30% of you will still spend your $$$ (The Wilpons Love You Guys BTW)and go to Citi Field in 2010 .The other approx 70% of us who are disgusted and can’t take it anymore will not go to the games in 2010 and show the Wilpons that we are done being made fools of.
but don’t forget to add that we will still root for the team and that we don’t think they will necessarily finish in 4th place. I am tired of being lied to and treated like a fool.
All is forgiven if the team wins.. If the product on the field stinks.. let your wallet show the displeasure and not go see the games. Sometimes the best move is the non-move. Because of all injuries last season, I’d like to see what we’ve got before making any drastic moves.
I will watch and root for the team always. Nothing can change that. It’s part of who I am. The thing is, this year I feeel I owe it to myself and other fans like myself to take a stand against ownership. I also feel like they are about a .500 team right now and that’s not what I was sold by ownership after 2009.
Keep the faith, Matt. I 100% agree with you – and I can’t wait. I’m kind of excited by the fact that the Mets are underdogs again, instead of being the pre-season favorites to go to the World Series. It will make it more exciting when they play great baseball!
I also can’t wait for baseball. I’m cautiously optimistic – I recognize this team has holes (what team doesn’t), but I see no reason why this team can’t compete.
LGM
I know that sometimes I have a hard time not getting too down on the Mets and especially their management. There is so much money involved at this level and certainly with the Mets. Combined with the fact that the team does have a great deal of talent. These two things lead most of us to have big expectations, if not overly lofty ones.
A large percentage of the fans who visit this site are knowleadgable baseball fans, who understand the game, and understand what it takes to have a winning organization. Therefore when mistakes or foolish decisions are made it really becomes magnified.
I still have hope for 2010, but it is what I would call cautious optimism, that could turn negative very quickly. The rotation is certainly my biggest worry, and I’ve made that well known on the site. I think we all assume Santana will be okay, and Pelf we hold his own. Now if Maine and Ollie have good seasons then game on, I expect the Mets to be a serious team then. Maybe not has a good as the Phillies, but I’m still hopeful.
If the rotation stumbles and looks weak then I believe Omar should take the fall for not doing something to improve it. Jerry will probably lose his job as well, whether deserved or not.
The shortlist of my wishes for the season….
– The rotation is solid and the pen does their job
– Murhpy plays stellar defense and bats .300 with some pop
– Reyes is back to form and healthy
– Wright bats .300 and gets a little power back
– Beltran comes back and picks up where he left off
– Bay plays well enough to keep the fans off his back and hits a few dingers
– Niese emerges as a stud
Oh sweet lord, can we give the media bashing a rest??? They respond to the pulse of the fans and run with hot issues just as much as they shape them. Metsopotamia is right, there has not been much postiive to report lately, so what is Francesa supposed to do, betray his own mind and say the Mets have a great shot at the playoffs?? Fans here preach objectivity yet cannot accept the reality of what the actually means. Right now, the Mets are stinking as an organziation, and no rational writer/broadcaster can put a positive spin on it (unless you are Matt, who is “paid” to do so, otherwise homer Met fans won’t read the site). Are you all really going to say that ESPN, Francesa, SI, the Sporting News, local Networks, and every major outlet do not know what they are talking about? Give me a break! And then to top it off, you pick the one minor outlet that says something good and label it legitimate. Just call a spade a spade and barring something highly unusual, admit the Mets most probably will not sniff 2nd place even.
On another note, as far as the breakdown of the team, they do not have holes. They have GAPING HOLES. For all of the love Murphy gets, when the Brewers have the Prince, the Yankees have Teixeira, the Phils have Howard, the Padres have Gonzales, the Sox have Youkilis, the Rays have Pena, the Twins have Morneau, the Tigers have Cabrera, etc., Murphy does not look impressive. Nor does 2-5 in the rotation, and even though the Phillies had guys who were inconsistent, Hamels and Happ have far more ability than anyone the Mets will trot out there, as does anyone the Braves and Marlins will have. 2b is a weak spot, as is C, so no matter how optimisitc you are, at this point, logic dictates the Mets need an avalanche of miracles to even think wild card… Can I honestly say I am excited for baseball? At this point no, I rather talk about Olympic Hockey, the NFL draft, and the World Cup. Will I follow it (as I follow the NHL)- yes, but I will not watch every game unless I know it will be worth it. I’ll still be a fan, but I will not be blindly optimistic nor root for this front office to succeed. That is called fandom with some objectivity, not being a jaded fan who will smile at anything they trot out there, especially with the prices they charge.