Tomorrow is Opening Day and will start another marathon for the New York Mets. The Mets have basically become the insult bag for the major leagues, where pretty much every media outlet doesn't think twice about insulting the Amazin's. As stated earlier today, predictions for this team have ranged from Wild Card to basement. The reason for the wide variety of predictions is no one knows how to handle the Mets. Last year, they were a World Series team in the preseaon. Then they got injured, and no one knows where their potential actually is. They can be that tough team that wins the division, or they can also fall flat on their face.
I like to think of it as the Mets represent baseball. That results are pretty much unpredictable.
Anyway, the main strength for the Mets this year is their lineup. Even without Reyes and Beltran, this is a tough lineup. As soon as Reyes and Beltran come back, this lineup gets that much better. We have spent a lot of time this offseason argueing about firstbase. Although I side with Murphy, honestly I don't think we need to be worrying about firstbase too much, as long as Reyes and Belran are healthy.
Pagan is a great example of how this team needs to perform, and he could be a microcosm for the entire team. He has tremendous talent like the team, but doesnt always play the fundalementals. Play good fundalmentals, get good resutls.
While the lineup is the strength for this team, the rotation is the weakness. Honestly, who knows what we are going to get out of Perez, Pelfrey and Maine. If the three of them perform like they have in the past, when they work together, this is going to be a good team. If they don't, then this team is going to have rely on the bullpen and the lineup.
Overall, the media isn't expecting much of the Mets this year. This is the time for the Mets to show what they can do. A good April will do this team a lot of good. It will shake off 2009, it will shake off the critics and they will be doing it without Beltran. I'm optimistic about this season, and you should be too.
