New York Mets 2012 Banter

[yachties23]

Originally Posted by kelmac07

Nats continue to OWN the Mets this year as we lose another 6-4. Santana looked good the first three innings...after that he looked like stir fried sh*t. Good news is that Philly lost too. I truly believe he is done as a starter...might be time to put him in the bullpen as a lefty specialist. His fastball lost 4-5 MPH from inning to inning last night. We all know that won't happen because of the money we are paying him.

Oh, on that same note of money being paid...sure glad we are getting our value out of Bay...hitting .155 with 6 HR and 12 RBI...not bad for $ 16.5 million a year (4 year $ 66 million contract) for a part time player huh?

I'm just going to say a few things about this season, and what to expect over the next few years with this team.

First, this is the team I expected all year. NY sports talk radio always gets on the Yankees for living and dying by the home run. Well the Mets live and die by the 2 out hit. At some point, those two out hits aren't going to come, and instead of winning 1 and 2 run games, you lose them. There really isn't much talent position player wise on this squad. Wright is the only legit threat in the lineup, with Davis, if he keeps it up the only other potential danger for opposing pitchers. Sure I think Tejada, and Murphy can be good players on a good team, but who actually says "Oh crap, Daniel Murphy is up?" nobody. Our catching situation is a joke, as we have had 3 guys up all season who are borderline major leaguers at best, and adding Shoppach isn't much of an upgrade.

We have 0 legit starting outfields, and that was ok in 2000 because our infield was Ventura, Fonzie, Piazza and Olerud, but not with this infield. Nieuwenhuis showed flashes in the early part of the year, and maybe he can be a decent player, but we need two solid MLB quality outfielders in the corners.

The starting pitching, has a bit of a better feel too it than any other part of this team. Dickey has been arguably the best pitcher in the NL. We have seen real good signs from Harvey. Niese has been up and down, but I still think he is a #3 starter in this league. And of course we have Zach Wheeler one step away from joining the big club. Johan... he gave us our first no-no, but he should be shut down for the season. He just doesn't have it right now. Maybe it was the 130 pitch game on June 1st, or maybe its a result of his surgery.

The bullpen. A total cluster fcuk. Omar used to be able to piece together decent bullpens. Sandy has utterly failed at this. If he continues to fail, it won't matter much whats going to happen with the rest of the team.


On the horizons, we have 2 very solid young pitchers who could be stars in this league in Harvey and Wheeler. Most likely we lock up Dickey and Wright to deals in the off season. But the biggest issue is we still have Johan and Bay on the books for 40 million next year. Odds are we won't be players in free agency, and the team you see now is most likely going to be the team you see next season. They may add a few guys in the bullpen, and sign an outfielder to a one year deal, but won't be players in free agency until at least 2014.

Honestly, I'm ok with this approach. I expected nothing from this team. I knew that there wasn't an abundance of talent. I've been glad to see Ike turn it around and start to hit. Tejada hasn't made me forget Reyes, but he has played really well and will be a good player on this team. There are some good pieces coming up and already playing on the big league rosters, and two years ago, all we heard was how awful the Met's farm system was.

So here you have it; the team you see now, is pretty much what you will see next season. You will get to see Wheeler, maybe a slight upgrade at catcher, and a patch in outfielder, but for the most part this is your 2013 NY Mets. Get ready for another rough season, but at the very least the outlook is better for the future than we could have hoped for even 2 years ago.