New Year's Resolutions for the Starting Nine

What's up guys, A Friend of Mr. Glass' here. Not a lot going on in Met or Yankee land. The Mets signed a reliever, Chad Bradford, but to be honest I can't recall ever seeing him pitch. He seems to have been part of the much-maligned Red Sox bullpen in 2005, and I have to say it's with no great enthusiasm that I note that all the articles on this guy downplay, at best, or omit, at worst, how he did last year.

But the news is not all bad, and if you're in a hopeful kind of way, there's a lot to like with this signing. The angle being worked by most of the media is that Bradford has never allowed a run in 9.2 postseason innings, and that his sidewinder delivery would make Dick Cheney blush. In spite of what kind of numbers he put up last year (which, in fairness, weren't horrible on the whole, it's just that his speciality, retiring right-handed batters, suffered), this is a pretty solid move for the money we invested.

Omar locked up Bradford with a 1-year, $1.4 million deal, so Fred "Money Ain't a Thing" Wilpon didn't have to tap into the retirement fund to make this happen. Best of all, if Bradford can return to form, the Mets could have a dominant left-right combo in the bullpen between Bradford and Aaron Heilman.

OK, they're both right-handed pitchers, but they have different strengths. Right-handed hitters have a .225 average against Bradford in his career. As mentioned earlier, that number ballooned to .282 last year, but we've got a new year on the way and we're trying to think positive here. Besides, Bradford was returning from injury in 2005, and that's always challenging. Meanwhile, Heilman and his two pitches held lefties to a .208 average.

If Bradford can return to form, if Heilman can prove last year wasn't a fluke, and if Billy Wagner can be Billy Wagner, this bullpen, to quote "Major League" (one of our favorite movies here at Yankees2000), may not be so fuckin' bad. We're still counting on the Juan Padillas, Royce Rings, and Heath Bells to provide some quality innings, but I'm confident enough in those guys to git-'r-done in the year ahead. That's the last Larry the Cable Guy reference this site will ever have.

Anyway though, by this point you're probably wondering where the hell the title of this post came from. In keeping with the spirit of Sippy "Vacationing from Vacationing" Momo's posts of the last two days, I decided to look around our projected starting lineup on Opening Day 2006 and offer some new year's resolutions for each player.

Obviously, some of the below is guesswork. I don't know exactly who will start in certain areas (by which I mean second base and right field), nor do I know that some of the other players won't get hurt or traded before Opening Day. I'm going with educated guesses based on the players we have now -- enjoy.

1. Pedro Martinez, SP: Stay healthy; keep arm from falling off.

With Pedro the only real concern is health. As he demonstrated last year, the read on his fastball isn't the most important part of his game, and he can still be a dominating pitcher without it.

Now look, do I expect him to be as good in 2006 as he was in 2005? Not really. Pedro was just about everything you could ask for last year. If he does it again, and I'm not going to say he can't, that's just gravy, but even if his ERA rises to the 3.10 ballpark he'd still be a No. 1 pitcher who would electrify Shea Stadium.

I've said it many times, with a better lineup supporting him last year, Pedro could've won 20 games. Pedro figures to have a better supporting cast in 2006, both in the lineup and in the bullpen (anyone remember that time Pedro left the game with an 8-0 lead that the bullpen couldn't hold?). Twenty wins is conceivable if Pedro stays healthy.

So how can Pedro make this resolution actionable? No. 1: Do not play in the World Baseball Classic. No. 2: Do NOT play in the World Baseball Classic.

I'm sorry, someone with the Mets just has to level with him on this one. He was injured at the end of 2005, he says his toe is still hurting him, and now he wants to go throw competitive innings for the D.R. The Mets not only have a lot of money invested in this guy, but they've got a lot invested in 2006. If you look at the ages and contracts on the Mets, you'll see that this team is built to make a run in 2006, hopefully in 2007, and then who knows about 2008.

In order for the Mets to accomplish their goal in 2006, Pedro must remain healthy. If he goes down, there's a good chance the Mets' season goes down with him. He cannot play in the WBC. End of story.

2. Paul lo Duca, C: Stay what you are.

Mr. Lo Duca, you're not Mike Piazza. Nobody's asking you to be Mike Piazza. You don't come in to Shea burdened with huge expectations, we just want you to be sufficient. We want you to make us not second guess Omar for passing on Ramon Hernandez or Bengie Molina. We want you to be a leader in the clubhouse and an ambassador for the team with the media. If you continue doing everything that you've done in your career and avoid developing a Mike Piazza shadow complex, you'll be just fine.

3. Carlos Deglado, 1B: Provide middle-of-the-lineup pop; nail Anna Benson.

These two are self-reinforcing. First you hit the homeruns. Then you get the love of the fans. Then you get the love of the players' wives. Oldest trick in the book. You read that interview where she bashed you. Yeah... this girl's taken notice.

4. Kazuo Matsui, 2B: Don't kill yourself.

Sometimes I wonder how the Kaz Matsuis of the world don't decide to put on that song by the Landlords that was sort of about Amanda and kill themselves. Like Roger Cedeno before him, KazMat is a lightning rod for fans' ire. There's no great mystery here. Kazuo has been a bust any way you slice it.

But he's shown flashes, hasn't he? I remember watching a game mid-summer 2004 when Kaz went with a pitch and punched it into center for a base hit. Seeing Kaz adjust in the box to the pitch being thrown, Keith Hernandez instantly declared that Kaz Matsui would hit .300 that year (he was hitting .270 or so at the time if my memory serves).

Readers of this site know I'm on Keith's jock pretty hard. I believe he was right about Kaz, and that if he'd stayed healthy, he would've put together a solid first season, at least at the dish (his fielding sucks, I don't think there's any way around it).

Let's give the guy one last chance to redeem himself. He couldn't possibly redeem the contract he was awarded before 2004, but a solid season in 2006 would at least help us forgive. So don't boo him if you're there on April 3, and if you really want to help the guy out (albeit with a meaningless gesture), take a moment and add your name to the Don't Boo Kaz petition, available here: http://www.petitiononline.com/nobookaz/petition.html.

5. David Wright, 3B: Marry my sister.

This isn't a knock against Studly Steve. Truth is, there's not a guy out there against whom David Wright wouldn't be a significat upgrade, myself included. The guy's just perfect. He's already a great player. He's determined to get better and become one of the best players in the league. He's popular in the clubhouse. He's got a megawatt smile. What more do you want?

My whole life I've seen one prospect after the other come and go without hardly ever making a blip on the major league radar. Alex Escobar, anyone? Mets fans suffered through the Escobars, and the Generation Ks, but at last, a savior is come. David, it would be an honor to welcome you into the family. Think it over.

6. Jose Reyes, SS: Improve pitch selection; get on base more; make me change my blogger name.

Jose Reyes' flaws are well known to Mets fans, so there's little reason to belabor them here. Suffice it to say that Reyes scores ridiculously often when he gets on base, but getting on base 3 out of 10 times just doesn't cut it for a leadoff hitter. The guy needs more plate discipline. If he can get on at a .350 clip the Mets would score 1000 runs. OK, maybe not 1000, but they'd probably score enough to be one of the better offensive teams in the National League.

Now look, a .350 OBP is not absolutely inconceivable, his OBP in July 2005 was .355 after all, but I'll concede it's not bloody likely when you consider is OBP numbers in August and September were .300 and .302, respectively. You know what? A .350 OBP isn't going to happen. Let's call it a deal at .325.

As for the third resolution, you made big strides on this front in 2005. The nickname "Mr. Glass" isn't entirely fitting for a guy who played in 161 games last year, now is it? You keep it up in 2006 and you could go around the clubhouse singing out "Unbreakable! What you thought they called me Mr. Glass?" over and over and it'd actually make sense. Hell, I may just have to change my blogger name to A.F.O.J.R.

7. Cliff Floyd, LF: Channel the 2005; get over Killer Cam being traded.

What more do you want out of old Cliff than for him to do everything he did in 2005? He was healthy and productive, what more can we ask? I guess in a perfect world he wouldn't be so streaky, but if the numbers come out at the end of 162 games in 2006 looking anything like they did at the end of 2005, I'll take it.

As for the loss of Killer Cam, that's a hard one. He was your best friend on the team, but you've still got D-Wright (speaking of which, word is you're not going to make him carry your luggage anymore, what gives?). We all liked Mike Cameron here at Yankees 2000, but he's in a better place now. Rejoice.

8. Carlos Beltran, CF: Channel the everything you did before 2005; get that facial wart removed.

As good as Cliff was in 2005, Carlos Beltran was bad. Again, this isn't a point worth belaboring. Everyone knows Beltran busted about as much as you could possibly imagine in 2005. As much as we heard about Beltran being a 5-tool player, you maybe saw one or two of those tools last season, and none of them were seen at the plate, which is where you expect to see them in a guy making $119 million over 7 years.

Now look, is Beltran ever going to be worth the money we paid him? Probably not. He's just not that absolute top-tier kind of player as far as I can tell, although he may prove very good when all is said and done. But Carlos isn't beyond hope. He was a pretty great player in the years before he became a Met, and with Delgado added to the lineup and the continued ascendence of David Wright, maybe Beltran will be able to relax some in 2006.

But yeah, about that facial wart, that thing's gotta go. Come on, Carlos, you're making 17 mil a season, you're better than that thing. I want it gone by Opening Day.

9. Victor Diaz, OF: Make me look smart, appear in lineup on Opening Day.

Victor Diaz is one of these players who just doesn't do a lot for me so I'll keep this brief. It's a toss up as to whether Diaz or Xavier Nady will appear in the starting lineup on Opening Day. I'm guessing Diaz though. Assuming Livan Hernandez starts for the Nationals, Diaz has better numbers than Nady against righthanded pitchers (.257 versus .223) and better numbers against Hernandez (4-for-10 vs. 1-for-3, admittedly these are two very small sample sizes), so I'm guessing he's gonna get the nod on April 3.

So there you have it, resolutions for our projected opening day lineup. I've got another four days of blogging responsibilities looking at me so I may get around to resolutions for the bullpen and the scrubs, but we'll see. Keep checking in with Yankees 2000 -- there are no holiday breaks here.

- A.F.O.M.G.