Ever since the Mets team that won the 1986 World Series and made it to the NLCS in 1988, the Yankees were thought to have owned New York. The last time the Yankees finished below .500 was all the back in 1992, which was also the last year that the Pirates had a winning record before 2013. The Yankees without a doubt have been consistently good over the past 20 years. The Mets had their flashes in 1999-2000 and 2006-2007, but could not sustain the success. The Mets teams that had success then are very different than the team now and what could be the next few years for the Mets. The youngest key players back in 2000 were starting pitcher Glendon Rusch at 25 and all-star second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo at 26. With Sandy Alderson, the Mets have built a core group of young players that should be with the Mets for a few years and allow them to compete for than just two years here or there. The Yankees current roster is filled with a lot of aging veterans and their farm system is ranked in the lower half of the league. The Yankees still managed 84 wins last season and the only big differences are Derek Jeter is no longer on the time and Alex Rodriguez is coming back.
The Yankees rotation has a chance to be good, but there are a few concerns with it. CC Sabathia was really good for the Yankees in his first four seasons with them, but then did not go as well in 2013 pitching to a 4.78 ERA. He also had a 5.28 ERA last year in 8 starts before going down with a knee injury. Before last season Sabathia had pitched at least 180 innings in every season he has pitched including his debut season. After a solid start to his season Masahiro Tanaka suffered from a patially torn UCL, which is what they use Tommy John surgery to fix. Instead of electing to put Tanaka through that, they decided to wait it out because it was not completely torn. Behind those two it is Michael Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi, and Chris Capuano. Pineda finally made his debut with the Yankees after two years with the team and managed to get himself suspended because of pine tar and then got injured and missed three and half months of the season. He pitched great when he was on the team, so he could be a bright spot for their rotation. Eovaldi is not a bad starter, but he is not a top of the rotation guy. He could be very useful for the Yankees or he could just be a back of the rotation starter until someone better comes along. Former 2011 Met Capuano is a fifth starter on most teams or not in the rotation. He has been that for most of his career. His lowest ERA of his career came in 2010 with Milwaukee at 3.95. He is by no means a star player, but he does go out their every fifth day and throws up six innings. The Mets rotation is definitely going to be more exciting to watch this season with the return of Matt Harvey, the sophomore season of Jacob deGrom, Zack Wheeler, and the eventual call up of Noah Syndergaard. Hopefully, these guys can be good for the Mets franchise as a whole and be able to put people in the seats and watch the games on TV and put the Mets closer to the top.
After two of his worst seasons Jeter finally hung up his cleats and left a hole at shortstop that the Yankees quickly filled with Didi Gregorius, who many fans wanted the Mets to trade for. He will provide some nice defense, but his offense is some what lackluster. The Mets lineup is poised for better run scoring compared to the Yankees lineup. The Mets do not have a player who going into the season is viewed as a definite leadoff hitter. The Yankees have Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury, who both get on base and have a decent amount of speed. Both Brian McCann and Mark Teixeira have seen a decrease in power and average recently with Teixeira posting his first full season with an OPS under .800. At this point the better bet would be Travis d’Arnaud and Lucas Duda over the other two unless Teixeira can come back strong.
The Yankees have two players on the top 100 prospects on MLB.com and that have six players on the list topped by Noah Syndergaard at number 10. Not on the list as well is Dilson Herrera and Steven Matz who are also viewed as top prospects. The Mets farm system has been rated in the top 5 on various lists this offseason and the Yankees. In the Yankees lineup they only have one player who came up through the Yankees system, Gardner, who debuted in 2008. The biggest difference is that the Yankees owners and general manager are not afraid to spend money to fill the holes they have. Is it a good strategy? Well it has worked for them before, but it looks like they may struggle if they cannot sign the right players next offseason. The Yankees have been considered the top team in New York for a while and likely to continue, but with their seemingly declining success and the Mets rise of young stars, the Mets can bridge the gap. Having a few good years and getting rid of the stigma the Mets have of failure will help bridge that gap of the fan bases.
Absolutely agree Tyler. This is the season where the tide can easily change. I had no idea that the 2000 Championship team was that old. I’m hoping this is the season where the Mets compete for the playoff spot, and continue to contend from here on out. As you pointed out, Alderson has done a great job in replenishing the farm system and bringing in young talent. Hopefully it all pans out!
Yeah the team had a decent amount of veterans on it. The two main stays with the least experience were Benny Agbayani and Jay Payton who both had their first full season in 2000. Keith Law said that the Mets are drafting better in recent years. Also, Alderson some how makes these trades that get rid of veterans and bring in top prospects. The Mets lineup this year will be nicely split between prospects from other organizations, guys who came up through the Mets system, and veteran signees. That I believe is the big difference between the Mets and the Yankees. The Yankees bank on their being a big free agent class at the positions they need to improve on and just over the biggest contract to them. They do not have enough young talent. The only player this season that is believed to make an impact on their team coming up is Rob Refsynder, who is ranked their sixth best prospect overall.
Mets > Yankees
Who cares about the Yankees?
Maybe it is my geographic location but I have never had the hatred for lack of a better term for the Yanks as many of my fellow Met fans. We don’t play in the same division, we don’t even play in the same league and if it weren’t for the abomination that is called inter league play we would have never swung a bat towards each others pitches in anger except for the 2000 WS.
I would rather beat up the Phillies or Braves any day of the week or Cards or Dodgers for that matter than beat the Yanks. Big deal they are on a supposed down swing, that is what 18 playoff seasons out of 20 and 5 WS titles during that time will do to you. Why don’t we start claiming victories when we get say 4 playoff berths in a 5 year period while they are locked out, this is more of the same as the pie in sky articles talking about our coming sustained winning when we haven’t won crap yet, here we are talking about our soon to be superiority over a team that has 16 more playoff appearances and 5 WS wins more than us over the last twenty years.
And they still won 5 games more than us last year.
Forgive me for not standing and enthusiastically joining you in a cheer of:
“soon we will suck less than you Yankees”!
It could be a geographic thing, but where I grew up, I lived among many Yankees and Phillies fans and any year either of the teams would be doing better than the Mets it would be reinforced every time someone who was also a baseball fan would talk to me. Personally, I would much rather beat the teams in the NL East as well, but there is still a rivalry between the Yankees and the Mets. Just like there was a rivalry between the Yankees and the Dodgers or the Giants before they fled to California. They played each other more in the World Series back then, but they still had tension.
It is also not just the fact that “soon we will suck less than you Yankees!”, but also winning over the people in the area and getting them into the seats. The more the Mets are able to win people over the more money they will have to spend on the field and please the fanbase.
“The more the Mets are able to win people over the more money they will have to spend on the field and please the fanbase.”
Being a Met fan since 62 I have seen more losing than I want to remember the flip side of what you said in the copied phrase is that if that happens the more entrenched the Wilpon’s ownership will be which is the root of all our problems. We will never achieve any of the delusions of grandeur that so many Met bloggers write about nowadays while they own this team. I rather lose another 5 to 10 years and get rid of them risking never seeing a winning season the rest of my life than to think this vermin will poison another couple of generations of Met fans baseball enjoyment.
I agree the Wilpon’s ownership is not helping the Mets, but I do not think that are going to give up the team that easily. Someone would have to over them a king’s ransom and a half for them to sell or have Manfred intervene. You may not agree, but at this point I have accepted that the Wilpon’s are the owners and the Mets fanbase will have to deal with whatever follies that come with them. I can hope they sell, but odds are they will not.
Of course they won’t if people start buying tickets again. We had them on the ropes and still do, if we stay away from the park come hell or high water. But that ship sailed in this country long ago, solidarity became the butt of jokes decades ago only useful when we want the likes of Lech Walesa to take on a super power in our steed in the meantime we became a nation of rats and sell outs to the highest bidder. So of course there is no hope that enough people will stick together to oust the Wilpon’s.
Next month I am going down to Venezuela to visit a friend of mine who is establishing a farming community deep in the Amazona province of Venezuela. Hopefully I will only be coming back to pack the rest of my things and join him for what little there is left of my life.
Vaya con dios!
Hope the Venezuelan economy improves.
As wonderful as it all sounds, I think you forget just how fast the Yankees tide can change. In any event, the only way opinions change is by really winning big time. Until that, it’s just all hypotheticals.
I don’t think you are correct about “bridging the gap.”
I think the Mets could bypass the Yankees, as they have in the past. Right now the Mets are a much more likable team and the Yanks are taking on water.
Mets ownership is facing an historic opportunity to capture the hearts & imaginations of the fickle NY fan base. Alas, I wish they did more than Cuddyer & Mayberry this off-season; it indicates to me that they still just don’t get it.
Two questions.
Why are Met fans so concerned about getting others (mainly Yankee fans) to become Met fans? Why do we care about bandwagon fans?
Um, revenue. I’m not going to try to explain it to you.
But the city was more fun when the Mets were on top.
As a fan, i couldn’t care less about that. That’s a concern for ownership.
As a fan, have you never sat in the stadium? Ever notice a difference when the place is full of passionate fans . . . and the morgue it’s been for the past six seasons?
I get your point, but it’s a small one.
Eh. The crowd thing is a double edged sword (much like restaurants, amusement parks, concerts, stores, etc…).
It is much more exciting atmosphere when you’re surrounded by lots of people, but that comes at a cost of higher ticket prices, longer lines, and more crowds.
I also like not following the fads (which is why i became a Mets fan instead of Yankee fan in the first place) so i guess that plays into my not caring about other fans as well.
The issue is not converting people who are already Yankee fans. The target is the next generation, kids in the New York area who are not really fans yet but will be in the next few years. We want to see them in blue and orange.
Kids are naturally attached to younger players. For the Mets in the coming years, success and youth go hand in hand, which would put them in good position to court the next generation of fans if things pan out as hoped.
It’s important to win over bandwagon fans because the Yankees have more fans in Queens than the Mets do.
Never count the Yankees out until the coffin lid is closed and the first shovelful of dirt is thrown — ie. they’re mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.
I agree with that Charlie — which is why I think this season presents such a great (and rare) opportunity for the Mets.
In a year or two, there’s no telling where the Yankees will be.
[…] The Yankees, without a doubt, have been consistently good over the past 20 years. The Mets had their flashes in 1999-2000 and 2006-2007, but could not sustain the success. The Mets teams that had success back then were very different than the team they have now and what they can be the next few years. And so, with the Yankees seemingly declining success and the Mets rise of young stars, the Mets have a chance to bridge the gap >> Read more at Mets360 […]
While we remain eternal optimists when it comes to the #Mets, this is more about the #Yankees spiraling downward while the Metsies claw, ever-so-slowly, up from their self-created abyss, no?
In a sense, yes. The Yankees are now in a tough division where it is more than just one other team being competitive besides them. Their core that they had is no longer in tact, and have only one big homegrown player still on the team, a lot of aging veterans, and some injury concerns. It just so happens to coincide with the Mets gaining a footing in the division and look to be competing for the next few years after the two collapses and transition to Citi Field.
Great article, but I think you missed a word in the following sentence:
“With Sandy Alderson, the Mets have built a core group of young players that should be with the Mets for a few years and allow them to compete for than just two years here or there.”
It should be pointed out that the Yankees took an uncharacteristic approach to this recent off-season. After handing out some more bloated contracts last year, they decided to take an approach that avoided some of the higher-priced players in past years would have almost certainly signed with them. I think they are now realizing that the model of simply buying an all star team of 30+ year old is not working. Looking at their midseason acquisitions last year and this past off-season, and it looks like they are following the path trying to find hidden value.