The long awaited day has finally come and the time for baseball is now. The Mets have a storied history of winning on Opening Day. This Opening Day feels great, but for a different reason. Yes, it is great to get out of the gate going strong, but it feels like the team confidence has not been this high in years. Even when the Mets debuted Citi Field back in 2009 the team confidence was not as high as it is right now. Today is not just Opening Day 2015, it is the end of the Mets rebuilding period. The Mets have yet to have a winning season in Citi Field and the reason has always been just wait until next year. The prospects are coming and the trades will happen and free agents will be signed. Those never came, until now. The Mets slew of young pitching is here and in Triple-A. The Mets did not go out and sign Hanley Ramirez or Pablo Sandoval, but they did improve with Michael Cuddyer. The Mets did not go and acquire Wil Myers or Justin Upton, but they did get Jerry Blevins and Alex Torres. Nobody would say that these are the moves that define a championship team, but they are trades that help the major league club. Alderson and the rest of the front office are finally focused on winning right now.
Compared to last year there is a lot more to this team. The Mets finally have Matt Harvey back after he placed fourth in the Cy Young voting in 2013 and then spent all of last season on the disabled list. They know who is going to be playing first base with Lucas Duda and the outfield is not filled with a bunch of question marks. Juan Lagares is now a gold glove center fielder and his bat is starting to come around. Looking back to 2013 is even more of a contrast. The outfield consisted of Collin Cowgill, Marlon Byrd, Duda, Mike Baxter, and Kirk Nieuwenhuis. Three of those five are fourth outfielders, one is an aging starter who resurrected his career after a suspension, and the last has no business in the outfield. Looking back to 2012, that is when the Bernie Madoff settlement was announced and the year before that was when the scandal broke.
The biggest controversy going into this Opening Day is should Wilmer Flores be playing shortstop, which compared to previous years is not as big of a deal. The Mets undoubtedly have some question marks, but they are nowhere near as bad as previous years. Before this year the last three outfielders the Mets had start in back to back Opening Days are Lucas Duda, Carlos Beltran, and Ryan Church. Duda started in right in 2012 and left in 2013, Beltran was traded away during the 2011 season, and Ryan Church has not played for the Mets since 2009 and never played that well for the Mets. The Mets have not had a stable productive outfield in a long time and it is definitely better this year. They may not be the best defensively in the corners, but offensively the Mets are better than have been since 2007 when they had a starting outfield of Beltran, Moises Alou, and Shawn Green. Travis d’Arnaud is finally coming around offensively, and the pitchers love throwing to him. According to Baseball Prospectus, d’Arnaud’s ability to frame pitches adds 75 strikes over the course of the season. The number is not spectacular, but it is at the middle of the pack. His 12 passed balls led the league last year and his low caught stealing percentage are nothing to be happy about, but if he can get the pitchers to pitch well then those become less important.
The team this year is going to be exciting to watch. The attendance numbers at games will rise and the TV ratings will go up. The long awaited time is now and the rebuilding from 2008 is finally over. I was at the last game of 2008 season when the Mets lost to the Marlins 4-2. The crowd that day was electric. A win that day would have meant continuing on and playing the Brewers in a one game playoff for the wild card spot. That was the last time the Mets played a meaningful game in September. The crowd then was electric, you could feel the Mets spirit in the stadium. The excitement that I remember from that day has only been matched with one other game and that was Johan Santana’s no-hitter. This year’s Opening Day has been the only one that has come close to the feeling from those two days. Reading, watching, and listening everything surrounding the Mets now, there is a palpable difference compared to the past five seasons, where Mets fans are excited and optimistic for this year’s team.
The Mejia injury could be a very big deal for the team.
It could be, but the Mets have options at least. Familia can go to closer for the time being and if he is successful then he stays, but Parnell will be coming back in a month or so and Vic Black sooner than that. Right now they have enough quality arms to make it for a little while. Torres is solid and Blevins seems to be a good lefty.
Mejia not being there hurts them, but they will survive with the arms that they have right now.
+1
Very exciting times, Tyler. If the Mets are in the thick of it, I expect a big trade near the deadline. Big like Brian’s Tulo trade prediction big (ok, maybe not quite *that* big).
Also, I thought Flores looked just fine in the field. At the plate? Eh….
A shortstop at this point, is the only position that a trade would make sense for and might as well get one of the best and there are not too many great options out there anyway.
Flores did not look great at all at the plate, but neither did Murphy or Lagares. It is one game. I will wait at least a week to make full judgements about them though.
not worried about murph I do think he’ll shake off the rust. Max was pitching very well so not going to judge the young guys off that start.
I like our young arms even if Mejia is out for a while both because of the returning pitchers and worse case you call up Matt Thoron for a while and push everyone else back. I’m not worried about it because for the first time in a long time we have organizational depth that is ready.
As for SS I don’t think you trade for one. Personally if Floras can’t get it done in may or June call up Reynolds. That said to help all these guys this is the lineup I’d prefer:
CF- Juan
2B- Murph
3B- Wright
1B- Duda
LF- Cuddyer
RF- Grandy
SS- Floras
C- Travis
P- For the love of god TC you ain’t LaRussa and hitting the pitcher 8th was stupid when he did it.
admittedly I go back and forth on 7/8 but I think batting Floras 7th will help him get comfortable in the bigs
I believe they’ll bat d’Arnaud 2 thru 7 whenever he’s in the lineup. The mission is to win games, not “get Flores comfortable”. On “Recker Day”, Flores will probably bat 7
Flores will need to earn his own bones…let his bat drive his lineup placement. Right now, he’s the weakest hitter in the lineup, and he’sa slow base clogger. That makes him #8.
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A week? Is that a joke?
Yeah, there will be some sort of splash at the deadline for a bat if they are in contention. The two trades right at the end of spring training signify that that time has finally come.
I really liked the two trades for veterans in the pen, and felt that it did signify a new sense of urgency. Mejia and Familia are both, historically, fragile pitchers. So was Edgin. So is Black.
I’ve long felt that Montero could be the key to that bullpen this year.