New Mets, 1986, and Johnny's Overture to Red Sox Nation

What’s up guys, A Friend of Mr. Glass’ here. So it’s been a while hasn’t it? It’s been a while a) since I posted, and b) since this site had any honest-to-goodness baseball content.

Now that’s not a knock on young Sip, who’s been a soldier over the past month and change. Open up the sports section this morning and flip to the pages on the Mets. Not a hell of a whole lot doing, is there?

For much of the past month, that’s been the story line on the boys. But every once in a while during this mid-winter swoon leading up to the day pitchers and catchers report (just a week away by this point), you come across an article or two that get the good old baseball blood flowing.

Yesterday was one such day. Over lunch yesterday I happened upon the following three articles: one of which features a bold prediction for the Mets’ prospects in the year ahead, the second a certain anniversary that will be observed at Shea several times during the upcoming season, and the third an advertisement taken out by Yankees2000’s worst person alive, Johnny Damon.

Without further ado:

1. MLB.com declares Mets favorite in NL East.

(http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article_perspectives.jsp?ymd=20060207&content_id=1307889&vkey=perspectives&fext=.jsp)

As Jim Molony writes in his lede, it ain’t easy to easy to pick against the Braves and their tyrannical 14 consecutive NL East titles. “And yet,” Molony writes, “the more you compare the rosters, weigh the various team factors and consider the dynamics of the 2006 National League East Division as we head into Spring Training, a case can be made that this will be the year a team finally puts an end to Atlanta's amazing run.

“That team is the New York Mets.”

Readers of this site know that I’ve been very hesitant to call the Mets or anyone other than the Braves favorites in the NL East. There have simply been too many years when the Braves looked vulnerable, only to somehow find a way to come out on top once again.

All in all, it’s a pretty simple calculus that Molony’s cooked up here. It looks a little something like this:

Mets get better + Braves get worse + [(-1)(improvement in other NL East teams)] = Mets win division

Let’s start with the Braves. With a final record of 90-72, Atlanta finished 2 games ahead of Philadelphia in 2005.

They did it on the strength of an MVP-caliber season out of Andruw Jones, strong starting pitching, an excellent second half from Rafael Furcal, a strong debut from rookie Jeff Franceour, and a bullpen anchored by Kyle Farnsworth.

Looking at that list, it’s plain that there’s been some overhaul on the Braves’ roster; Furcal and Farnsworth are gone. Beyond that, they’ve got nothing but uncertainty in their bullpen and question marks at four positions (catcher, first base, and the corner outfield spots) to boot. They’re depending on a resurgence from Edgar Renteria (which, admittedly, if past reclamation projects like Johnny Estrada are any indication, can probably be anticipated).

Most ballyhooed of all Atlanta’s changes, however, is the defection of Bobby Cox's right hand man, Leo Mazzone, to Baltimore. Mazzone’s Midas Touch will be replaced by former Mets goofball Roger McDowell. He does have minor league experience, but this is McDowell’s first gig in the big leagues as a coach and he’s got big shoes to fill.

The Mets, meanwhile, are undoubtedly a stronger team. The acquisitions of Carlos Delgado and Billy Wagner addressed the team’s most glaring needs – pop in the lineup and a fearsome bookend in their bullpen.

But we’re also banking on injury-free seasons from injury-prone or high-injury-risk players like Pedro Martinez, Mr. Glass, and Cliff Floyd, as well as a resurgence from Carlos Beltran and the continued late-career renaissance of Tom Glavine.

Also, our fifth starter is Victor Fucking Zambrano. And our fourth starter is Heilman, he of the consistently inconsistent resume as a starter. Our third starter is Steve Trachsel, .500 hurler extraordinaire, now fully recovered from back surgery. If I’m not inspiring confidence right now, perhaps there’s a reason.

Alright, maybe I’m being a little overly critical here. I was never a big fan of Kris Benson's – he always seemed to wear down at some point and the truth is I would be more comfortable giving the ball to Trachsel in a big spot that Benson. Heilman really seemed to turn the corner in 2005, and if he didn’t earned the shot to start after his incredible 0.68 ERA in the second half of the season, he never will.

But my official advice is don’t pop those champagne bottles yet. The Braves still have a dominant 1-2 combination heading their rotation in Tim Hudson and John Smoltz. They’ve still got the Joneses, who besides being the two most loathsome Braves players not named John Rocker in lo these many years of their supremacy, are also really good at beating the Mets. And they’ve still got Bobby Cox, who’s about as good a manager in baseball as you’re likely to ever see.

As for us, we’ve got two unknown quantities in our rotation and a relative degree of uncertainty in our bullpen. Lord knows we shouldn’t have any uncertainty after trading two starting pitchers for bullpen arms, but for those that contest I would mention that we have no left-handed specialist and we’re hoping for bounce-back years from Chad Bradford and Jorge Julio.

That said, I’ve got more confidence in the Julio/Bradford-Sanchez-Wagner bullpen than I did in last year’s Manny Aybar-Roberto Hernandez-Braden Looper trifecta, but Julio and Sanchez have their work cut out for them if they’re to be as effective as Heilman and Hernandez were in 2005. The edge has to go to the 2006 bullpen, but it’ll be interesting to see what kind of seasons Rick Peterson and co. can milk out of our primary setup men.

As for our lineup, Minaya’s wheeling and dealing should pay dividends here. A lot of us are hoping to see a lineup of Reyes-Beltran-Wright-Delgado-Floyd-Lo Duca-Diaz/Nady-Kazuo/Anderson Hernandez, but fear we’ll see Reyes-Lo Duca-Beltran-Delgado-Floyd-Wright-Diaz/Nady-Kaz/A-Hern. No matter how Willie configures his lineup, it should be an improvement from last year, and you can bet that he'll still get his subs fresh toasted.

It bears mentioning that the offensive upgrade came at the expense of our defense (goodbye Doug Mientkiewicz and Mike Cameron, hello Carlos Delgado and Victor Diaz!), so that’s a definite minus.

But for me it all comes down to two things.

First is that we’re keeping our fingers crossed on a lot of things in the starting rotation. Pedro’s health. Tommy’s production. Steve being slightly better than .500. Heilman proving he can do it as a starter. Zambrano not driving us to suicide. If one of these guys falls or falters, we’ve got Brian Bannister and Alay Soler to step in, neither of whom has ever thrown a pitch at the Major League level.

All of which is to say that our rotation is a high risk-high reward bunch. It could be very good, it could be bad, it could be completely uneven. We’ll just have to see how it plays out.

And ultimately that brings us to point No. 2. Until the Braves fall, the NL East belongs to them. I appreciate Molony’s support and I hope he’s right, and, yes, I certainly believe he could be right. But we here at Yankees2000 are pretty set in our pessimism, so we’ll say the Mets are forever looking up at the Braves until the morning after game 162 comes and we open our sports pages to see New York standing above Atlanta, finally looking down.

Here’s hoping that day arrives Oct. 2.

2. Mets announce 6-game 1986 pack to commemorate the 20th anniversary of our last World Series championship.

http://www.nypost.com/sports/mets/61564.htm

A nice gesture and well earned, don’t you think?

Indeed it is a nice gesture, only there’s one problem. The teams the Mets are set to play in those six games are the Astros, Yankees, Orioles, Pirates, Phillies, and Rockies. Any name in that bunch stand out to you? If you were a fully cognizant Mets fan in 1986 (or, potentially, if you were reared on the 1986 Mets Tape), the Astros might. But for those living strictly in the here and now, it’s the game against the Yankees that will almost certainly stand out.

Man, oh man, I can already hear the shit-talking from the Yankee fans when we roll out the red carpet for the 1986 team. Possible lines of ridicule include mentioning that the last time we won the World Series was 1986, or that the last time we were in a World Series we lost, oh right, to them.

Now don’t get me wrong, we’re Mets fans and we can take it; we’ve been dealing with this shit since 1996 after all.

But still. It seems like a mistake to invite your last championship team back to soak up the adulation when half the freakin’ stadium will be cheering for the other team and jeering the heroes of the hosts (with ample ammunition no less).

But I suppose we’ll cross the bridge when we come to it. And hey, if Molony’s right and the Mets are in first place it’ll all be a lot more palatable won’t it?

3. Johnny Damon takes out full page ad in Boston Globe thanking Red Sox fans.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2323617

Good to see he’s putting that $52 million he’s collecting from the Yankees to good use, don’t you think?

"Many thanks to the great fans of New England and the city of Boston. It was a privilege and an honor," the ad said.

This statement is drenched in disingenuousness. If it was a privilege and an honor, if you really gave a damn about the great fans of New England or the city of Boston, you’d still be there.

Anyone remember how much Edgardo Alfonzo wanted the Mets to retain him after the 2002 season? Remember how he rented advertising space on taxicabs around the city to say thanks to Mets fans for their support? They looked a little something like this:

"I felt I had to do that because the fans made me a good player and a good person," Alfonzo said. "You've got to appreciate that. There are always a lot of great memories when I come back to play in New York."

For Alfonzo, the sum of those memories meant that he was desperate to play for those fans again. He lowered his asking price, he begged Mets management to bring him back to the only organization he’d ever known and the fans he’d loved.

Damon did no such thing. He went for top dollar and today he wears the uniform of those fans' greatest enemy. For Damon, the sum of those memories can be calculated in one fat 52 million dollar check.

Johnny, if you’re reading this, I can only hope your advertisement now adorns dartboards across the good city of Boston.

That's all I got.

- A.F.O.M.G.