{"id":1033,"date":"2011-03-09T09:47:42","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T14:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/?p=1033"},"modified":"2011-03-09T09:47:42","modified_gmt":"2011-03-09T14:47:42","slug":"debunking-pessimism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/2011\/03\/09\/debunking-pessimism\/","title":{"rendered":"Debunking Pessimism"},"content":{"rendered":"

I stumbled across this extremely negative post <\/a><\/span>on the Mets through some Google alerts. \u00a0At first I thought it would end up being a Philly blog, but nope. So here\u2019s his five reasons why\u00a0the Mets will suck post is way off the mark. <\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Spring training games began over the weekend, reminding us all how terrible the Mets will be this year. \u00a0Fittingly, Luis Castillo booted a ball at second base yesterday. Way to set the tone for the new season, Luis.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are my top 5 reasons why the Mets will be terrible this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, I\u2019m sure Castillo booting a ball in practice\u00a0just doomed the Mets all season. Real players never actually make mistakes in Spring Training. Nevermind that Scott Hairston hit two home runs. This is just an excuse to pick on Castillo, who might not even make the team. <\/span><\/p>\n

5- Ownership: Between borrowing $25 million from Major League Baseball, looking for minority ownership, and facing a multi-million dollar law suit, it will be a distraction all season. If the Wilpons sell the team, maybe it will make them less terrible, but still not good.<\/span><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t tell you that the Madoff stuff is a positive in any way, but it\u2019s hardly going to be a distraction that causes the Mets to fail. \u00a0Wright\u2019s not going to be worrying about the state of the lawsuit while he\u2019s standing out at third base or at the plate. \u00a0They won\u2019t even have to talk about it with the press, they\u2019ve all said what they can say and their business is not finance, it\u2019s baseball. \u00a0The state of the finances is not going to have much of an effect on the play on the field. \u00a0The only real thing it might do is prevent Alderson from adding pieces around the trade deadline, but so far there is no word that it will. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4- Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez: It\u2019s March 1, and for some reason they are still on the team. Perez got bombed in his first spring training game and Castillo is abysmal. Sadly he could actually win the starting second base position. It is unbelievable the Mets do not have anyone better than Castillo. Please cut your losses. I would rather have Ike Davis play first and second at the same time.<\/span><\/p>\n

They\u2019re on the team because they can\u2019t lose the Mets games in March. \u00a0Whether or not they make the team will solely be based on merit, and it\u2019s not looking good for either of them. \u00a0The players that help the Mets win will make the team, and therefore these two players will not be why they suck. \u00a0Reyes and Davis do have pretty good range, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s enough to cover second base too. Plus, the rules don\u2019t allow for only eight players in the lineup. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3- Carlos Beltran playing right field: How long until he complains about it? I give it a month. Just imagine if he gets off to a bad start on offense. I know what the excuse will be.<\/span><\/p>\n

#blamebeltran. \u00a0This pretty much debunks the whole post right here doesn\u2019t it? \u00a0Never mind that he voluntarily moved there or that he\u2019s not a complainer or an excuse maker. \u00a0A more valid question is how much regular rest is he going to need, and how well do those knees hold up? \u00a0Still, he\u2019s been taking batting practice, and he should be ready to go as a hitter. \u00a0This should help prevent a slow start offensively at least. \u00a0Carlos Beltran continues to be underappreciated. <\/span><\/p>\n

2- The NL East: The Phillies are probably the best team in baseball, which is not even fair, but the Braves and Marlins are better than last year too. The Mets are closer to the Nationals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just stating it doesn’t make it so. Probably? What if they’re not?\u00a0 What if someone gets hurt? Their offense no longer looks formidable, Utley hasn’t even played yet and it’s looking more and more likely that Wilson Valdez may be starting for them, and they don’t even know what scrub or under-prepared prospect they’re going to throw out there in right field.\u00a0 What if they don’t score runs when they pitch these great games, and what if age catches up with them?\u00a0\u00a0 The Marlins are not very good.\u00a0 They’ve got some pitching, but it’s hardly amazing and they’re fielding a AAA offense outside of a couple of guys.\u00a0 The Mets are capable of being in the thick of things just with their offense and with Pelfrey, Dickey and Niese doing what they did last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

1- The Pitching Staff: \u00a0With Johan out until God knows when, Mike Pelfrey is the ace of the staff. Enough said. The Mets are depending on RA Dickey to repeat what he did last season, which is insane. I can\u2019t even tell you who the 4th and 5th starters are: Chris Young?, Chris Capuano?, Dilon Gee? Oliver Perez??? Who the hell knows. As for the bullpen, talk about a disaster. Hopefully K-Rod won\u2019t get arrested again or injure himself while beating up an old man. I honestly can\u2019t even tell you who else is in the bullpen, so I have no further comments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Enough said?\u00a0 Sure, I could agree with that.\u00a0 Mike Pelfrey was basically the best pitcher in baseball last April.\u00a0 He had a horrible July, and it’s important that he minimizes that this year, but to dismiss him as crap is silly.\u00a0 Why is it insane to expect Dickey to be as good as last year?\u00a0 Did you really watch him all last year, and listen to him talk about pitching, and deduce that it was a fluke? It wasn’t.\u00a0 He’s learned and adapted, and crafted his knuckleball to be a dangerous weapon.\u00a0 It’s certainly possible he’s not as good, but the dropoff won’t be that extreme.\u00a0 The ignorance in the rest of this ‘reason’ is too large to argue with, but I do have faith that some combination of Young and Capuano can give us some quality innings and keep the Mets in the game.\u00a0 Losing Santana is rough, but given how many of his great games they let turn into losses last year, I’m confident with a little hitting the Mets can win more games that a lesser pitcher starts than they did last year with Santana on the mound.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I do have something good for Mets fans to look forward to. On Tuesday night (After the Knicks game) MSG will have a 4 part series on the \u201986 Mets. Bar fights, sex, drugs, alcohol and more sex, drugs and alcohol- the good old days. Should be interesting. I guarantee it will be better than anything the Mets do on the field.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ll grant a pass on this statement since it was written before hand, but most accounts I’ve seen of the show have been pretty negative.\u00a0 You can take your ‘guarantee’ and shove it, the Mets are going to be interesting this year.\u00a0 Optimism is not a sin. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I stumbled across this extremely negative post on the Mets through some Google alerts. \u00a0At first I thought it would end up being a Philly blog, but nope. So here\u2019s his five reasons why\u00a0the Mets will suck post is way off the mark. \u00a0 Spring training games began over the weekend, reminding us all how … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Debunking Pessimism”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1133,19,166,259,3,261,6],"tags":[1505,2968,1506,2974,1503,11,1492,1493,4,1500,1364,1498,2978,217,1496,2964,1499,1497,1494,1495,1504,45,14,338,1381,435,1501,1502,26,1491,506,2979,1059,1440],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1033"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1038,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1033\/revisions\/1038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}