Today begins the age of discovery. Today is the first day of spring training games for the New York Mets. This afternoon, the Mets will renew old acquaintances with the Washington Nationals. This seems apropos, seeing as the Mets and Nats will likely wrestle for the NL East title all season. Yes, the shortest/longest winter in Mets’ history will officially be over this afternoon and we’ll begin to uncover a few things.
We all know these games mean nothing. Most of us, anyway. The Yankees played their first spring game yesterday, with their scrubs erasing a seven-run deficit to the Detroit Tigers and walking off with an 8-7 victory. I have a NYY-fan friend on Facebook who posted a game recap with the title “BIG WIN!!!!” I was afraid to ask if he was being sarcastic or not. These games are for revving up to actual competition, early bloodless skirmishes the get the platoons ready for open conflict one month hence. They are for seeing pitches speedier than batting practice tosses. They are for getting most valuable arms loose. They are for evaluating raw young talent and making sure established commodities are healthy and ready to rock. And they are for finding stuff out.
Will Neil Walker and Asdrubal Cabrera click as the everyday double play combo? Is Michael Conforto as good as we think? Can lightning rod Yoenis Cespedes handle center field on a regular basis? How quickly will Zack Wheeler recover from last year’s Tommy John surgery? Is Steven Matz really ready for prime time, despite impressive showings in the post-season? Will this bullpen be any good? And what about David Wright’s back? Who aren’t we talking about that will surprise us? All this will be revealed – painfully slowly – over the course of the next four-plus weeks. Meanwhile, we can brace ourselves against the chill of March by tuning in and thrilling to the green grass, the gaudy blue and orange outfits and the right-now-rusty skills on display. Actual spring will be here soon, sooner than we think. The games will start meaning something come April 3 – when on Opening Sunday night, we and the team will have to endure watching the Kansas City Royals raise their World Champion banner and two days later when they’ll be presented with their rings. Spacing it out like that is kind of a rotten move on KC’s part, if you ask me.
See? It won’t take that long to build up genuine dislike for an opponent. For now, let’s just enjoy the games while they still don’t really mean anything.
Follow me on Twitter @CharlieHangley.
Concerning the Royals championship events, it’s all about selling tickets – “giving more fans a chance to see something” wink, wink.
Concerning the Mets, I don’t know if they should even be in the dugout to watch the whole thing but how ironic. David Wright forgets something very important: Every sport has a “long” preseason. This allows all the work that needs to be done and also to get players in shape slowly.
Nice piece Charlie.
I can smell the fresh cut grass all the way from NJ.
Time to cut ties with Montero. He’s a total loss.
Why? He still has 2 options left
simple, he sucks.
At least he’s got a better shot of being useful than a Josh Smoker or Jeff Walters. And just my opinion, Zack Wheeler.
Name, please. Montero cannot pitch at the major league level. Wheeler is at least a 5 starter
A bad sign:
http://www.northjersey.com/sports/klapisch-for-mets-david-wright-it-s-as-good-as-it-will-get-1.1519520
This article was from Leap Day, don’t know how many people saw it…
Good catch Gus. It only reinforces how fragile the situation at 3B really is. I dont understand why we didnt sign Uribe for a year, or why on earth we passed on going after Todd Frasier.
Chris, we passed on both because we had Flores and Tejada (ahem, we already paid for Cespedes, the fans should be happy).
It’s going to come to a head soon with Wright. If a player after four months of complete rest isn’t ready, how can he handle a season? He’s done.
Edit: Hopingly Wright can go out like Payton Manning, that is, the team basically carries him on their back – he wins – he retires. I say “hopingly” because if he wants to come back next year, we don’t even know how much worse will that injury be?