It’s not just Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya that have to worry about fast starts to the season or their jobs being in jeopardy.  The same case could be made for Jeff Francoeur, Daniel Murphy, and Rod Barajas.  The way Ike Davis, Fernando Martinez, and Josh Thole have been playing in a way this spring that makes you suspect they’ll be knocking at the door to Citi Field sooner rather than later.

With Reyes possibly being out some, or all, of April the pressure on the starting pitching has just doubled.  The most recent report on April suggests that he may be back closer to mid April, but that’s still a rough estimate.

We’ve known for a while that the season was going to hinge on the starting pitching.  The offense was projected to be one of the top in the league, and surely would’ve won some games on it’s own even when the pitching struggled.  With Reyes and Beltran out, they may not have that cushion for a while, but this doesn’t mean the Mets are doomed to a 9-13 type record to start the season.

The fast start is more important than ever, and if Maine, Perez, and Pelfrey can have a good month of April the Mets will still win games.  We all know they’re each capable of pitching good games.  It was expected before the season that they could definitely pitch competitively and keep us in games, but now they may be pressured to actually win the games.  Instead of quality start performances and limiting the opponents to three runs over six innings, stepping up and going seven innings and occasionally limiting the other teams to merely one or two runs becomes important to the Mets early success.

This isn’t to say the Mets lineup is useless, and that they won’t occasionally put up a crooked number, but Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran are two of the most irreplaceable players in the game today.  The season is never won and lost in April, but if the pitching can step up and win more games than they lose, not only will it minimize the damage caused by losing Reyes and Beltran, it will set them up nicely once they return.

This post brought to you by the self-proclaimed Optimistic Mets Fan.

NY Daily News Adam Rubin spins an interesting yarn about Canadian Olympic curler Kevin Martin, retired teacher Jeff Francoeur’s father, and Mets Left Fielder Jason Bay.

Photos:

Alex Cora signing autographs for the kids

Would have come in handy for 2009

A Jose Reyes Action Figure...cant get any cooler than that

Me, MRose and Jeff "Frenchy" Francoeur

Dirtysanchez:

Just got back from Port St Lucie and it was great. It has been unseasonably cold here in Florida but today was just beautiful. We got there at about mid day and walking up to the park, we saw Alex Cora (and his BMW) signing some autographs for the kids. Me and Matt didn’t have anything for Alex to sign so we just waved and he waved back. We decided to get something for the players to sign if we saw another one. At the Fanshop, it was honestly more difficult in showing restraint than anything. I could have bought half the store if I had my way (and a crap load of money), I mean who could resist a Jose Reyes action figure or a Mets Flask? After getting at least a baseball and sharpies, we went back to the parking lot and chatted it up with some other Mets fans.

The security guard was pretty good at letting us know who was coming out. We caught a glimpse of Jason Bay as he rode off, apparently he had to be somewhere fast but he was pretty apologetic as you could see him mouth “I’m sorry guys” while he made his turn up the ramp and out of the complex. Jeff was the next one up out of the complex and let me say, Jeff is a BIG guy…like TV does not do him justice. He actually was VERY cool and stopped on his way out and signed every fans ball that was there (including ours). He was smiling the whole time and didn’t mind taking a picture with whoever asked him too…Jeff was just really cool and definitely jumped up in my personal favorite Mets group. The last guy we saw was David Wright, but like Jason Bay he was in a rush to get somewhere (in a very nice Audi). Everyone there was waving to catch his attention but David just waved back and drove off. All in all it was a very nice trip and I would recommend that everyone should visit that place at least once. Even though there wasnt a game that day, you can still feel the vibe that baseball is seriously right around the corner.

MRose

I don’t have much to add from Dirty’s post, he covered most of the feeling.  I will add that David Wright must have had somewhere to be, as there was a girl there that had a picture from a “night out with David Wright” she had won, and he took a look, waved and kept on goin!  I have read in the past that he is typically very good about interviews, so I’ll give him a pass.  I also completely agree about Frenchy climbing up my list of favorite Mets.  When I said to him “Jeff, we are looking forward to what you can do for the Mets in a full year”, he responded with “Yea, me too! We have to stay healthy though!”.  Also, if you notice in the picture with him, before we shot it, he looked at Dirty, then looked back at me to make sure he wasn’t blocking either of us, and that we would all be in the picture.  He seemed genuinely happy to be there and be talking to fans.  I know there are a lot of people hes not too popular with, but I’m 100% pulling for him now.

I did catch on pretty quickly that Jason Bay was driving a rental car.  I believe it was some middle of the road small SUV, with Florida plates.  Being I’ve read his offseason home is Seattle, he is originally from Canada and the only teams he has played for are the Pirates and Red Sox, that was pretty obvious.  It also doesn’t help that all the other players we saw come out were driving much nicer vehicles, he must have just not shipped his down like the others.

All in all, we did not get to see a whole lot, but we got our feet wet with the Port St. Lucie area, and found it is just under 2 hours for us to get there.  I will be likely making a trip down in a couple weeks to see some games, which Dirty is welcome to join for or we may go to the Wide World of Sports and see them play the Bravos at some point as well.  Worst case, we did decide that this is a definite yearly trip and next year will be done with more planning and we hope that some of our readers or other authors can make a plan to join us as well!

Lets not forget Duffy’s.  We went to Duffy’s for a late lunch, even though it was fairly empty it had a great atmosphere.  It appears that it gets pretty packed at night, or after game days.  Next time, we will plan that portion better as well.  Good beer prices, great food.

Enjoy the pictures (additional small pics @nleastchatter on twitter), hopefully we will have better ones in the future and hopefully we can get a TRDMB Bandwagon in ‘11 worked out.

Lets go Mets! Its almost time!

One Month to go.
One month until baseball comes back to Citi Field.
Thirty days until ” meaningful games”.
One month before Jose steals his first base.
Thirty Days until Johan wins his first game.
One month until David, Jason, Frenchy and the Murph hit their first home runs.
Thirty Days until we see amazing fielding plays being made.
One month until Frankie notches his first save.
Thirty days until the demons from ‘09 are exorcised.
And sixty days until Carlos Beltran comes back to the line up ! (knock wood !)
One month the BELIEVE !!

                                                                      ” I think this says it all!!!”

And with that said … HERE COMES THE INFAMY !!!!

Happy Birthday wishes go out to the Mets third base coach from ‘97 - ‘00 , Cookie Rojas (1939)

Los Angeles Dodgers signed backup catcher Rick Wilkins of the New York Mets as a free agent on March 6, 1999.

New York Mets signed free agent Tony ” Bong Hit” Tarasco on March 6, 2001. It appeared that he hit the bong more than he hit the baseball and was not resigned by the Mets after the ‘01 season had ended.

New York Mets signed free agent relief pitcher, Orber Moreno on March 6, 2003.
And don’t forget - There are just thirty Mike Scott ( he wore the number 30 when he was a Met) days until the Mets open the 2010 season against the Florida Marlins at Citi Field.

Jerry Manuel
Tuesday, March 2nd - The Mets skipper joins Mike live in Port St. Lucie to discuss the status of his club

Jose Reyes
Tuesday, March 2nd - A healthy Jose Reyes talks with Mike about the upcoming season live in Port St. Lucie

David Wright
Tuesday, March 2nd - The Mets 3rd Baseman talks with Mike live in Port St. Lucie about the upcoming season

Jeff Francoeur
Tuesday, March 2nd - Mets RF Jeff Francoeur talks with Mike about the Mets and playing in New York for a full year

Audio courtesy of 660 WFAN NY

“There’s no question that the Phillies are a great team.  They have, I think, arguably one of the best offenses in baseball, they’ve upgraded their starting pitching, and they play like winners.  They play like they expect to win.  So no one ever said it’s going to be easy, but we have to find a way to de-throne those guys… and it’s not just the Phillies.  I think the Braves have made some good additions.  I think the Nationals have had a tremendous offseason with some of the signings they’ve had.  And then you’ve got the Marlins, who go out there and play that loose, dangerous style of baseball.  I think we’re in one of the best divisions in baseball, but I don’t think, by any means, should anybody be counting us out before spring training starts.” -David Wright

And people wonder why this kid is the face of the franchise. David has been putting out the best PR for the Mets this off season and I think he is poised for a big season. Ialso think with a year under their belt playing at Citi, the Mets can now treat this place as a “home field advantage”. I also think pundits and overly pessimistic Met fans truly underestimate the impact a guy like Jason Bay and a returning star like Jose Reyes do to a team. I can understand being jaded from the 09 season but ladies and gents…we have a hellova team for 2010.

As David already said, the improvements made by the other NL east teams have to be taken into consideration as they all have gotten better. That being said, the Mets also have improved and gotten better…even if some of that improvement comes from returning health. In my opinion the biggest improvement of all is the fact that the Mets are no longer the favorites to win anything. I know David and Johan play it down significantly but what has made teams like the Marlins so dangerous is the “underdog” perception.

While your waiting on you turn here at the barbershop, lets get so to some real Mets talk

1. Reyes will have a better season than Jimmy Rollins.

Its all in the hips

2. Johan will throw a no hitter. Hes just got that look man…its on

Reporter: "Who is the best pitcher in the division" Johan: "Santana"

3. Oliver Perez will emerge as our #2 pitcher.

Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water AND make it drink...Ollie agrees

4. Krod will continue to give us gray hairs…but will get the job done. He will finish with over 40 saves and get into a on field brawl…

Iron K for Knockout!

5. David Wright will hit 40 home runs. When you look like this at spring training….

Your Welcome Ladies

Your either getting a gig at Chip & Dales or your going to hit 40 home runs…maybe in David’s case he might do both.

6. Jeff Francoeur will make the difference in getting this team to the offseason. Check this article out to see why.

Why So Serious.....

7.  Murphy will grow out a stache in honor of his mentor and will make another highlight play at 1b

Hey Murph...Nice game pretty boy

8. The Mets will retire Mike Piazza’s number

Time to put the Monster back in its cage...For all time

9. Jerry Manuel will make 1 really shrewd play to win a game

Im praying this one goes better than the Omir from the bullpen move

And last but not least..

10. Citi field will erect a statue in honor of GKR

Because i mean...who wouldn't...They are awesome

So there ya have it, a couple of statements for this upcoming year. Even if half this stuff doesnt comes to pass, it should be a very exciting year…LGM!

Sphere: Related Content