Tuesday, January 31, 2012


Hot Stove:  A rundown of each team in the offseason and what they are looking to improve in 2012. 

New York Mets:            Moving north along the NL east division, our next team, alphabetically, is the New York Mets.

Projected Starting Lineup:

1B            Ike Davis
2B            Daniel Murphy
SS            Ruben Tejada
3B            David Wright
LF            Jason Bay
CF            Andres Torres
RF            Lucas Duda
C              Josh Thole

Projected Starting Rotation:

Johan Santana
Mike Pelfrey
Jonathon Niese
RA Dickey
Dillon Gee

Projected Batting Order:

CF            Andres Torres
2B            Daniel Murphy
3B            David Wright
LF            Jason Bay
1B            Ike Davis
RF            Lucas Duda
C              Josh Thole
SS            Ruben Tejada

The 2011 New York Mets had a lot of problems.  After being named a plaintiff in the Madoff victims’ suit, owner Fred Wilpon was financially hamstrung and unable to bring in any high priced free agents.  If that wasn’t bad enough, injuries played a major role on this team, with Jason Bay, David Wright and Jose Reyes all missing games with injury and Ike Davis missing pretty much the entire season.  However, Reyes came back strong and won the batting title hitting 337.  And Carlos Beltran played well enough to get traded to the Giants at the trade deadline.  However the new concern for the 2012 Mets (besides the financial issues) is the fact that the team’s leaders in AVG (Reyes) and HR and RBI (Beltran) are no longer with the team.  And none of the other players really stepped up. The player with the second highest average (Angel Pagan, also gone) hit 262.  David Wright and Jason Bay are still with the team but neither really had a great year, both hitting in the mid 200s and slugging 14 and 12 HR respectively in that spacious, home run-killing ballpark.  They hope that those two can stay healthy and have better seasons this year, and also hope to have a full season of Ike Davis to help them out.  Outside of that, the Mets have a lot of youngsters finding their way this season and most people don’t expect them to be major contenders in the playoff chase.

The one area the Mets feel good about this offseason is their starting rotation.  Last year’s rotation is missing Chris Young and Chris Capuano, but they are hoping to finally have Johan Santana back and also are looking forward to a full season of Dillon Gee.  This rotation won’t be ranked among the greatest in the NL, but it is solid.  They have 5 good guys for 5 spots.  Gee led the team with 13 Wins last season and is back for a full season this year.  Jonathon Niese was second on the team with 11 Wins, but hopes to pitch a few more innings and lower that ERA.  Mike Pelfrey was expected to lead the staff last season, but struggled posting a 4.74 ERA and a 7-13 record.  He’s looking to bounce back this year as well.  RA Dickey might have been the best pitcher on the staff last season despite only recording 8 Wins.  His 3.28 ERA led the team, as did his 208 IP and 1.23 WHIP.  The knuckler hopes to have another good season in 2012.  The final spot in this year’s rotation goes to former Cy Young winner Johan Santana.  Santana hasn’t pitched a full season since 2008, and missed all of last year due to injury.  If he’s even half as good as he used to be he could be the best pitcher on the team.  His K numbers have dipped since he last struck out 200 in 08 (146 Ks in 09 and 144 in 10).  But a full season could see another 150 Ks and a low ERA.  If they can have a healthy Santana, and the rest of the staff is able to play as well as last season, the Mets will join the Braves and Marlins with their strong staffs and give the NL East some of the best pitching in the majors.  Beyond that the Mets feel fantastic about their bullpen spending essentially all of their 2012 offseason money to improve it.  They gave big contracts to Frank Francisco and Jon Rauch.  Some think these two were overpaid (including me) but with a good bullpen and solid starting pitching, the Mets will be in good position to lose a lot of low scoring games with their anemic offense.

2012 Prediction:            The Mets look like they are in trouble this season.  The Phillies have been the best team in the majors the past couple years.  The Braves were greatly improved last year and at the very least look to be just as good.  And the Marlins have had a big offseason trying to improve their squad.  The Mets weren’t great last year (they finished 4th in the division, 25 games out of first), and lost a lot.  They traded away Francisco Rodriguez to the Brewers and Carlos Beltran to the Giants.  Then they lost Reyes, Chris Capuano and Chris Young to free agency.  And finally they traded Angel Pagan away to the Giants in the offseason.  And they don’t have the money to go out and compete in the free agent market and get new guys for their roster.  Right now they are laying low, trying to pay off the debts of Fred Wilpon and preparing to be sued.  Unless he sells the team soon, Mets fans will probably be dealing with subpar teams for the next couple seasons.

Up next…Philadelphia Phillies.

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