{"id":1600,"date":"2011-10-06T09:33:31","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T13:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/?p=1600"},"modified":"2011-10-05T19:03:58","modified_gmt":"2011-10-05T23:03:58","slug":"a-week-later-hopeful-for-the-2012-mets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/2011\/10\/06\/a-week-later-hopeful-for-the-2012-mets\/","title":{"rendered":"A Week Later: Hopeful for the 2012 Mets"},"content":{"rendered":"
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No Met has made an error, hit a home run, or struck out looking in over a week. \u00a0With a week of the offseason under my belt to let the highs and lows of emotion mellow out with time, it’s time to take a closer look at what transpired in 2011 and what hope there is for 2012.<\/p>\n

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The team played harder than was expected. \u00a0 They didn’t give in, whether because of a tough loss, a rough week, or a poor start to a game. \u00a0They’d battle back late in games, and bounce back from a tough loss with a solid win. \u00a0There were plenty of times late in the season where they did seem to be going through the motions a little bit, but they seemed to bounce back from that as well. \u00a0Hopefully 2012 avoids any long periods of being out of it and prevents the team from getting complacent.<\/p>\n

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The bullpen, while successful for some stretches of times, was mostly a failure. \u00a0Part of this was the trade of Francisco Rodriguez, part of it was the depression of Taylor Buchholz. \u00a0 Part had to do with the starters rarely giving length, as was the main problem in April. \u00a0 The Mets are aware of this problem, and with some good scouting and analysis, there are relievers out there that you can get for reasonable prices. \u00a0 I would expect at least 2-3 new faces in the pen to compliment the ones that stay. \u00a0The Mets lost a lot of games late last year, and strengthening the pen will go a long way in 2012.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The starting rotation is what’s going to be the big deal in 2012. \u00a0This is what’s going to make or break the team as a contender. \u00a0 Niese and Dickey are locks. \u00a0Mike Pelfrey is also pretty much a lock, although he does become a trade candidate as well. \u00a0I wouldn’t be against keeping Capuano, but I suspect he’s priced himself out of what the Mets want to pay him. \u00a0Johan Santana is supposed to be ready to go as normal during Spring Training, but I’d put the certainty of that at somewhere around 75%, and that may be optimistic. \u00a0Right now he’s penciled in, and it won’t be until February before we know if he’ll be able to progress normally towards an Opening Day start. \u00a0 Therefore the Mets need a backup plan. \u00a0Adding Santana would certainly help, but it’s likely the Mets need to upgrade further. \u00a0 Finding another quality starter and reassigning Dillon Gee to be depth for Santana could be the way to go. \u00a0However, Dillon Gee may have earned a major league job. \u00a0 If the Mets can get to the regular season with a healthy Santana, and everyone else, having to send Gee to the minors to start the season would be a nice problem to have. \u00a0From there they could reexplore trading Mike Pelfrey. \u00a0Other teams will deal with injuries, and many teams could make good use of a guy that will throw 200 innings of slightly above league average value pretty consistently.<\/p>\n

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Then there is the offense. \u00a0 The offense was very good last year, despite few home runs and a lot of injuries. \u00a02012’s hinges on Reyes staying, but if he does the Mets offense again looks to be very potent. \u00a0The biggest concern would be if Pagan can shake off the bad defensive year, and if Duda can take a step forward out in RF. \u00a0 Thole needs to improve as well, and there’s something to be said for having a veteran right-handed catcher to work with him. \u00a0The Mets are discussing moving the walls in a bit in right and left, which will probably help the home run numbers, although they may shrink the gaps a little bit. \u00a0 It looks like the Mets should still have a top-flight offense next year, capable of dealing damage to opposing pitchers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Mets could be competitive next year. \u00a0A lot hinges on Reyes re-signing and Johan turning up healthy. \u00a0The Mets do need to revamp the bullpen, sign another starter, and address the bench, but those are all reasonable expectations. \u00a0It’ll be an interesting offseason, and hopefully it will be a launching pad for a good season to come.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No Met has made an error, hit a home run, or struck out looking in over a week. \u00a0With a week of the offseason under my belt to let the highs and lows of emotion mellow out with time, it’s time to take a closer look at what transpired in 2011 and what hope there … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A Week Later: Hopeful for the 2012 Mets”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1133,1248,19,3],"tags":[1138,1400,2968,5,1566,1659,1495,14,2310,1646],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600"}],"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=1600"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1603,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1600\/revisions\/1603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}