Well the 2012 Major League Baseball season is just over a month away before getting started and the Mets are roaring to go. With the anticipation of a new season and new optimism with any season, comes the excessive questions; are we good enough, will Johan pitch like an ace, etc! I will do my best to break down this years preview of the Mets.
With a relatively quiet offseason the Mets really didn't make any moves to speak of, outside of a major loss in Jose Reyes leaving and bringing his talents to "South Beach". The Metropolitans did sure up their bullpen with the addition of a few good arms in that of. John Rauch, Frank Francisco, and Ramon Ramirez. Ramirez came in a deal which also included new Mets Centerfielder and potential lead-off hitter Andres Torres. The Mets acquired both Torres and Ramirez in a deal that sent Angel Pagan to San Francisco. The long winter after those signings would come to a screeching halt and the Mets would stand pat and consider themselves ready for battle. The Mets are cutting payroll significantly this year, with a starting 2012 payroll of 92 Million dollars. It is definitely the doing of the Madoff scandal, and horrible previous long-term bad contracts from the Manaya tenior. That is why the Mets are operating like the Pirates, Astros, Padres organizations. With David Wright and Johan Santana anchoring the ball club this year as the only true "stars" of the team. Their is still uncertainty about Johan Santana's shoulder after last years surgery he had. Santana is trying to get back to his old ways but age and inactivity might be working against this ace. With only 20 games started and not playing last year, Santana was 11-9 in 2010 and he saw his K/9 rate drop to 6.5, and his fastball lost 2mph as well. So that is just one of the many questions working against the Mets this year.
The good news is that David Wright, Daniel Murphy are healthy and ready to have monster years in the newly renovated Citi-Field! During the offseason the Mets bought in the outfield walls to make it more of a homerun friendly ball park for the Mets. Jason Bay, David Wright and Ike Davis should feast off the new dimensions of the field. The last question I have is will the Mets trade David Wright at the trade deadline in July? Wright has a club option for 2013, but the Mets are in financial straights, and dont want to see him walk for nothing. I expect the Mets to trade him for major league ready top prospects and possibly a starting pitcher or two in return.
Whatever the record if you are a Mets fan just enjoy the park get a good seat, because there will be many to be had and just have a fun summer at the ballpark,
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