Do we have what it takes to be champions?
If you look at championship teams, overall, they succeed in two areas. First they have talent and talent in depth. If a player or two goes down, they have a slew of players to rise up and take that athlete's place. Those replacements have enough talent to keep the team on track. Of course, this statement is greatly over generalizing what it means to have talent and talent in depth. The other factor a championship team needs is that X factor. The drive to win. The drive to never lay down.
Going into the season from Spring, especially with the injuries to Beltran, Reyes, and Murphy, it looked like the answers to both of these questions was no. There were no replacements for the rotation, and the replacement for position players were far from ideal. This rippled to a weak bench that made our pinch hitters late in games look like no threat.
Also going into Spring, there was question about the intangibles of this team. After two years of collapses, and last year's debauchery, the drive of this team was (maybe rightfully so) in question. Did this team have strong leaders? Would the team meld together?
The 2010 season is about a quarter of the way through and the latter question has been answered. This team has the drive and the will to win. Although they don't always hit, and don't always pitch, the amount of close games the Mets find themselves in is evidence enough of this team yearning to win. For example, last year's team would not have lost 10-8 to the Marlins this week. They would not have scored those 8 runs late in the game to make it competitive.
The problem arrow is pointing at the depth of this team now, especially the rotation. The rotation had questionable talent to begin with, and now with one pitcher (Perez) in the pen and another (Niese) down on injury, the Mets find themselves at a pivotal juncture. Takahashi will get his chance to start this week, and we'll get to see how he fares facing batters a third and a forth time in the same game and Dickey will also get shot this week. But outside of these options, the only other available option is Gee.
If any team needs to make a midseason move, it might be these Mets. An additional pitcher (whether its Pedro via free agency or a play for high caliber pitcher on another team) could add that final spark this squad needs to succeed. The hardest quality to get on a championship team is drive. Having all the talent in the world doesn't necessarily work if the talent cannot work together and bond over a similar goal. This squad has that drive, it just needs another leader in that rotation to take work off of the bullpen staff and allow the offense to score runs that keep the Mets in the lead.
