Sporting News always has several guides for each baseball season. They have a 2008 fantasy guide, a 2008 season preview guide, and then a 2008 baseball preview issue (a regular issue that has the 2008 preview in it). The differences are usually slim between the preview guide and preview issue, but this time around, there are huge differences because the Santana trade happened after the preview guide went to press.
Lets start with the old and then work our way up to the new. The preview guide has the Mets finishing 3rd in the division. They basically harp on three main issues in the write up. The first two are legitimate, one being the Mets age and the other one is a hangover of the collapse (like over compensation swings and such). The last concern they have, is funny because of what happened after the preview went to print. They talk about how Omar didn't pull the trigger on any big trades, and we all know thats not true.
So with that, lets move to the more recent issue. With the Santana trade included, the Mets are predicted to finish second in the East. The issue they harp on now is the depth and age of the Mets overall and how Spring Training has showed weaknesses that the team has.
I know last year is a bad example with the collapse, but 2007, and even parts of 2006, showed the Mets could play well, even great, with major injuries. My favorite example is April 2007, the best month last year by far. Although there were a lot of off days that made a 4 man rotation with the occasional fifth man possible, they worked with a fifth pitcher that was a combination of Sosa and Pelfrey. And then when they got Pedro back, they lost Duque and had to go back to this system. In September 2006, Duque went down right before the playoffs, and the Mets starting pitching held up very well in the playoffs without Pedro, without Duque and with a really shaky Perez.
The point I am making here is that if the Mets play with the same energy they had in 2006, which seems to be there because of the Santana trade, the injuries will have less of an impact because the players will find ways to win.
