Opening Day!

It’s finally here…opening day of the 2008 season for my beloved Mets.

Sure there are a host of questions surrounding this team but you can say
the same for the other National League contenders. To me it all comes down to one player….Carlos Delgado. If he can put up good, not even great numbers then I think we will the NL East. Give me 25-30 homers and 100+ RBI’s from him and we will 93-95 games and that should be good enough to take the division. Wright and Reyes will be terrific but Delgado has to drive in runs and play 140 games.

Santana, Pedro and Maine will win at least 50 games between them and Wagner will save 50 as the anchors of the pitching staff. Everyone has concerns about middle relief and it’s a crap shoot because many of these guys are good one year and bad the next.

Hey the Phillies will be very tough but mark it down. Santana pitches a
great game in Florida today and might finally become the first Met to throw a no-hitter this season.

World Series…here we come.

Feeling Good About The Mets

Spring has officially arrived and opening day is just around the corner.
I feel pretty good about our team with one BIG exception and that is the
Injuries that have kept too many of our key players sidelined. Sure most of them are getting better and by opening day should be in the starting lineup but it’s scary to know that our trainer might have to be the MVP this season.

Pitching has looked very good of late with Pedro, Santana, Perez very sharp in their most recent spring outings. Along with Maine and either Pelfrey or El Duque you have to like this group….again if they stay healthy. Hamstring Injuries have been a problem with catchers Brian Schneider and Ramon Castro and plenty of other players have spent a lot of their Florida
time rehabbing injuries rather than playing every day, especially Carlos Delgado and Carlos Beltran.

As we get ready to start the season I still think the Mets are the team to beat in the National League East but only if they can count on their regulars to be in the lineup every day. The Phillies and Braves will be tough enough with out best “9”….if we’re forced to use bench players too much then the final season in Shea Stadium will be one of disappointment.

However let’s put the negative thoughts aside….spring brings excitement and optimism so let’s play ball!

Mets Sick Bay

I want to get excited about the start of the season but I’m really concerned about the growing list of injuries with Moises Alou headed to surgery to repair a hernia. The 41-year old leftfielder will miss the start of the season and under normal circumstances should be back by mid to late April but with Alou you never know. He was out half of last season with a quadriceps injury and does not seem to recover quickly.

Besides Alou the Mets are missing starters Carlos Delgado (hip injury), Ryan Church (concussion) and Brian Schneider (hamstring). In addition Carlos Beltran and Luis Castillo have yet to play a spring game while recovering from off-season knee surgery and pitcher Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez has not pitched in an exhibition game while he rehabs from toe surgery.

It’s only March and there’s no reason to panic yet but this is clearly not the start fans were hoping for. The Mets are not a young club and many of the injured players are on the back end of their careers which makes the situation all that more concerning.

Let’s hope that some of the walking wounded get back on the field and begin producing.