As the dark clouds crowded over chilly CitiField, the 2010 Mets season came to an appropriately dreary 14-inning end yesterday. With the added financial disaster of being a season ticket holder with no market for unused or second-seat tickets, I’m as, if not more so, disappointed by how the Mets finished this season as anyone. Even the minor hope of winning more games than they lost wasn’t fulfilled.
And yet, I’m glass half full about the future.
One reason is a lineup oddity. The Mets had exactly one player in yesterday’s last game starting lineup as opening day back in April – David Wright. Here’s a comparison between the opening and closing day lineups, by position:
2010 OPENING DAY LAST GAME
1B: Jacobs Davis
2B: Castillo Tejada
3B: Wright Wright
SS: Cora Reyes
LF: Bay Duda
RF: Francouer Feliciano
CF: Matthews Jr. Pagan
C: Barajas Thole
The closest most recent parallel I could find to this anomaly (I’m sure Elias could do a more proficient job) was 2003, when only Roger Cedeno and Ty Wigginton started in both the first and last games of the season, and only Wigginton at his original position. This year’s changeover was additionally radicalized by five of the eight opening day starters not even being on the team anymore, and a sixth (Castillo) soon to join them in ex-Metdom. I’d be surprised if there were many, if any, as radical a starting lineup transformation over the course of a season in major league history.
This year’s roster makeover, I believe, is not necessarily a bad thing. With five rookies starting, it gave us and the assumed new management a chance to see and judge the kids, which will give everyone a better idea of what the Mets have to work with going forward.
My other note of optimism is the Mets, even with this radical makeover, although five of their best players coming into the season missed substantial chunks of time (Reyes, Beltran, Bay, Santana, Rodriguez), last year’s co-home run leader missing the entire season (the nearly forgotten Daniel Murphy, perhaps the future second baseman), the complete collapses of two fifths of the rotation (Perez and Maine), and a conservative manager who seemed to play for one-run matter what the situation, still managed to win nine more games than last season.
That’s not a disappointment. That’s a minor miracle.
With a huge chunk of major league playing time, both Davis and Thole look to grow into solid, reliable major league starters, with Davis emerging as at least a solid number 5 hitter, perhaps even cleanup wedged neatly between righties Wright and Bay. Jonathan Niese may have tired toward the end of the season, but he looks like 12-15 game winner now that he’s put a full year in. We also found a solid bat off the bench in Chris Carter, and of course R.A. Dickey as a 12-15-win starter and Hisanora Takahashi as a reliable closer.
This year’s NL wild card winner won 91 games. This means the Mets merely have to improve next year as much as they did this year to contend. What do the Mets have to do in the off-season, player-wise? Not add, but subtract – Perez, Castillo, Rodriguez (except, and maybe not even, at a much humbler price), and let’s see how the kids will grow in their sophomore season. To me, it feels like 1984-85, the eve of adding one or two final pieces on the way to the World Series.
I contend that it’s not only possible to contend with full seasons from the current star veterans mixed with maturing youngsters, but a reason to be optimistic.
Some final final game notes: When Manuel removed Wright and Reyes in the eight inning in a tie game, many fans gave the two franchise cornerstones a nice round of applause, but most were either stunned or outraged that Manuel was jeopardizing the game’s outcome for a few seconds of cheap sentiment. Most in my section (319) felt it was a slap in the face to the loyal fans who showed up and deserved to see the team given a fair chance to win this final game…When Perez started his parade of walks in the 14th, the few fans remaining in section 321 started sarcastically shouting “MVP! MVP! MVP!” bringing a bit of laughter to an otherwise dismal and cold finish (could anyone hear it on TV?). But Perez being brought into the game instead of Feliciano or Dessens – or ANYBODY – then leaving him in long enough to walk in the winning run perfectly summed up this manager’s cluelessness. Farewell to a nice man but a frustrating manager.
16 comments
stickguy
10/4/2010-1:10pm at 1:10 pm (UTC -4)
I believe the MVP chant was heard. Some guy in the upper deck dropping his change was probably heard.
and as you note, they did take a nice jump in wins (12+%). If they increase by the same percentage, they would be at 89 in 2011. And given how many guys missed lots of time or underperformed (or both), any return to reasonable health and normal expected production should make that possible to do.
as to the 2984 analogy, you could say that with Bay (and a lesser extent Beltran), they already have those vet bats on hand to blend with the youth movement!
stickguy
10/4/2010-1:11pm at 1:11 pm (UTC -4)
and before the typo police come out, yes I meant 1984.
TRS86
10/4/2010-1:12pm at 1:12 pm (UTC -4)
wow, that looked weird though.
CaseStreet
10/4/2010-1:17pm at 1:17 pm (UTC -4)
The Mets could use a vet bat that has some winning experience. Don’t think Bay or Beltran quallify.
I know it’s kind of absurd (not realistic), but I’d like to see Werth in RF w/ Pagan playing CF. Werth is a winner.
stickguy
10/4/2010-1:42pm at 1:42 pm (UTC -4)
well, werth was on some winning teams, while in his prime as a starting player.
But I highly doubt he is good enough to trun around a struggling franchise and turn them into winners!
TRS86
10/4/2010-1:50pm at 1:50 pm (UTC -4)
Uh oh… define winner? Yes he made contributions on a winning team. Does that make him a winner? I think I shall run away and hide on this one. By the way what did his clutch stats end up looking like this year? I know at one point they were below unacceptable.
TRS86
10/4/2010-1:52pm at 1:52 pm (UTC -4)
RISP: .186 .353 .314 .667
RISP2/O: .139 .361 .319 .680
High leverage: .221 .367 .427 .795
Those are some ugly numbers. Especially the BA.
metsfan4decades
10/4/2010-3:59pm at 3:59 pm (UTC -4)
This goes in line with what I read Philly fans had to say about Werth up through August. They were all over him for not concentrating, for not knowing how to work a pitch count, for trying to ‘pad his stats’ by swinging for fences with guys on instead of trying to put the ball in play and some even commented being out and out lazy.
Over on Beerleaguer a common reference on Werth through the summer went along the lines of he needs to put that weed down in between games and actually take a look at the scouting report on the pitcher he’s gonna face the next day.
Doesn’t sound like a ‘team’ player to me….as team play’ apparently is going to be the new Met mantra going forward.
I’ll just say that winning cures all that ails a club. If you’ve got a mal content, it’s usually said affectionately along the lines of a ‘Manny being Manny’, when the team is winning. If the team is losing, fans quickly turn on whatever players are perceived to be bringing the club down at that moment.
stickguy
10/4/2010-4:07pm at 4:07 pm (UTC -4)
the philly fans also pretty much realized that he has every intent on taking the high bid out of town, and began the smear campaign early.
stickguy
10/4/2010-1:54pm at 1:54 pm (UTC -4)
don’t know if he picked up the pace at the end or note, but he was having a terrible year in “clutch” spots. Pretty much a K machine too. Actually was noticiable in his RBI output.
Good player, and maybe pressing trying to be the man in his contract year. Who knows. Could also have been a fluke.
I do still think some team is going to wildly overpay for what they get with him, if he gets a 5/80 contract or something close to it.
TRS86
10/4/2010-1:12pm at 1:12 pm (UTC -4)
This does bring us back to the beginning of the year. Most did not have high expectations and even the brightest stars like me were saying 82-88 wins. Is 79 wins really underachieving that much? You can’t have it both ways. Either they should be commended for being in the race as long as they were and playing over their heads when they did or they should be thought as living up to their low expectations.
njstuckintx
10/4/2010-1:14pm at 1:14 pm (UTC -4)
Did you just call yourself a bright star?
TRS86
10/4/2010-1:47pm at 1:47 pm (UTC -4)
Yeah, or as some others have also put it a sunshinner. I have been called a lot of names in the Mets blogger world. Some I can’t even repeat.
metsfan4decades
10/4/2010-1:19pm at 1:19 pm (UTC -4)
Those MVP chants for Ollie was definitely heard by me watching on SNY. The more sparse the attendance was as the season played out, the more comments/chants could be heard by those in the stands.
Mr North Jersey
10/4/2010-1:35pm at 1:35 pm (UTC -4)
MR Baby nice to see you again. It is nice to see your optimism. Indeed if things break the way you said you can make a good case as you just did for optimism.
Personally I just can’t get excited yet and I am sure you can understand why one may find it hard to be excited or optimistic.
Now come Spring Training I hope to be able to share your optimism but right now I just can’t.
It’s nice to read something from you again.
stickguy
10/4/2010-1:49pm at 1:49 pm (UTC -4)
keeping with a positive outlook here, of the 7 changes, at least 4 (to me) were clearly an upgrade (CF, C, 1B, SS). And yes, I know that SS was a temp plug.
RF, you can argue that the revolving cast was overall better than Frenchy.
LF though was a downgrade from what Bay should be (I hope). But, we get him back next year supposedly.
and 2B is probably a wash?
So overall, there was better talent on the field to end the year than what jerry put out to start it.
And 2011 should be an improvement, with bay replacing duda, Beltran replacing Jesus, and hopefully a better bat replacing Tejada (even if tejada is that bat!). And that is only the current guys floating around, and does not account for any imports.
Hey, just looking for progress anywhere I can find it!