  |
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Catcher
Omir Santos could knock in 80 runs
easily..................... And Angel Pagan provides
some lineup flexibility
File Photo by AP
Photo
by Al Bello - Getty Images |
|
In mid-winter every four years, a
young man’s mind must
surely turn to the thrill of watching the sport of curling….a cold and
slick
variation, it would seem, of horseshoes or maybe bocce, except for two
crazed
assistant sliders who accompany this foot-long disk down the ice,
somehow
magically determining whether the disk will attain its target. Gimme a friggin’ break….and pardon my
Latvian.
Latvia, of course, was in the
Olympic news as they faced off
against their captor Russians in ice-hockey. That
thriller could be witnessed on MSNBC also while
the regular NBC
affiliate carried the ever more popular men’s (using the term very
loosely) ice
skating. Woo_Hoo!!
And all that nonsense is still
more interesting than college
basketball and the NBA, where too many teams are chasing too little
talent in a
star system with not enough stars to go around. And
the Knicks might even get Tracy McGrady…about 6
or 7 years late…all
in what I’m almost sure will be a thwarted attempt at picking up one of
the
five or so superstars in the game.
Thank God for baseball. Thank God for the Mets. Thank
God
for the National League. And damnation
to all the rest…the hated Yankees, all Steinbrenner’s money, all
Cashman’s
Verducci pitch-count crap, the designated hitter rule and finally, all
those
alleged Mets fans and prognosticators just lambasting Mets management
for just
about every move they make…or don’t make, as the case may be.
My USA-Today Sports Weekly now
informs me in their
early-season power rankings that the Mets are the 22nd best
team in
baseball. I hear on the radio that they’ll
finish no better than 4th in their division.
What baloney!
How does a team that was a
title-contender in 2008, a team that
lacked only relief pitching, drop
so far in every man’s opinion? Here was a
team that picked up that needed relief pitching in 2009 but here also
was a
team that was then unlucky enough to lose its three biggest stars to
injury.
At the same time this Mets team
experienced every possible
malady known to mankind. They lost one
of those relief pitchers very early too. They
lost just about every player for significant
portions of the
season, including their #1 starter, Johan Santana.
And, in order to just get through
that stinking 2009, the
Mets did some good things. They picked
up Jeff Francoeur from the Braves to play right field.
Along the way and into 2010, the Mets got
arguably the best left-fielder in baseball in Jason Bay.
They also picked up two very decent pitchers
out of Japan and one Kelvim Escobar who could turn out to be as good as
a
number two starter, or at the very least, a nice long reliever.
Okay, so they didn’t pick up a
second baseman to replace the
guy who hit friggin’ .300 and did his job in every conceivable fashion. And they didn’t renew Carlos Delgado, one of
those stars who went down in 2009. The
one glaring error, but only in retrospect, was the re-signing of Oliver
Perez
for big big dollars. Failure, thy name was
Ollie.
Most of these alleged Mets fans
will also point to the
failures of Daniel Murphy at first base and do not relish seeing him
man the
position for 2010 as well. Not me. I think Murphy will improve a great deal over
his 2009 season. Most young players
do. And he’s got Keith Hernandez in his
corner, a hot corner, teaching him the finer points of defense….and I
wouldn’t
be surprised if he’s talking some hitting as well.
Keith has never been bashful.
So let’s re-hash and simplify. All those Mets-panners say we’ll get nothing
out of either Japanese pitcher, nothing out of Kelvim Escobar, nothing
out of
Jeff Francoeur, oh, and lest I forget, nothing out of Mike Jacobs, who
they
acquired for power at first in the event that Murphy continues to do
nothing.
Well gee whiz, guys, I think
that’s God-awful pessimistic
thinking, even for Mets fans. The only
real missing piece from 2008 will be Carlos Delgado.
Instead of replacing his power at first base,
the Mets have added power in left field. And
I’m sure every fantasy baseball player in the
land would take Jason
Bay over Carlos Delgado, any day of the week.
Oh, and Carlos Beltran will
probably return in June. He’ll miss April
and May for maybe 35 games. That leaves
only about 125 in which he’ll
play. Chances are he’ll be the old
Carlos Beltran, the 5-tool guy who does everything.
April and May will belong to Angel Pagan and
Gary Matthews Jr., either of whom I’d take over a lot of centerfielders
in the
game.
So here’s the lineup in June….
1.
Ss
Jose
Reyes – switch - .286 – 100 runs, 50 sb’s
2.
2b
Luis
Castillo – switch - .292 – 70 runs
3.
3b
David
Wright – right - .309 – 100 runs, 100 rbi’s
4.
Cf
Carlos
Beltran – switch - .283 – 100 runs, 100 rbi’s
5.
Lf
Jason
Bay – right - .280 – 100 rbi’s
6.
1b
Daniel
Murphy – left - .275 – 70 rbi’s
7.
Rf
Jeff
Francoeur – right - .271 – 90 rbi’s
8.
C
Omir
Santos – right - .260 – 75 rbi’s
9.
P
Pitcher
Before Beltran’s return in June,
there will be a deficit in
left-handed power as Wright, Bay and Francoeur all bat from the right
side,
which is somewhat problematical unless Pagan bats in the middle of the
lineup
and really doesn’t hit for power. (Detractors
will assert that Francoeur and Wright
don’t either).
Catching has also been cast as a
problem but I don’t think
so. Anyone watching Omir Santos knows
that he hit .260, and chipped in 40 rbi’s
in only 280 at-bats. I suspect two
things…one, that he’ll be even more productive with more at-bats and
two, he’ll
continue to improve as 2009 was really his first year in the majors. Santos could probably deliver over 80 ribbies
in 2010.
Let’s go Mets!
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