DYNASTY? by Tom Brennan

DYNASTY? by Tom Brennan

Never judge a how good a player is when he is ice hot or how bad he is when ice cold.  I've been married over 30 years now, and I keep telling my wife a hot streak is coming.  She still won't let me out of the doghouse.

 

Hot and cold. The same can be said about teams as a whole.  The Mets started the season a sensationally hot 13-3, then floundered for 3 months, playing more than 10 games below .500, which certainly qualifies as cold. They have played roughly two dozen games over .500 in the ensuing 2 months, and you can't get much hotter than that outside of the late season supernova surge of the 1969 Mets.

So how good are these 2015 Mets? Terrific acquisitions, terrific pitching, both starting and relieving, and terrific hitting for average and power. In a word, terrific.

But the 1969 Mets lagged in 1970, and finally got back to the World Series in 1973 despite being 10 under heading into September. They could not sustain it.

The 2015 team, by contrast, smells like a perennially playoff bound team to me if the right moves are made. After all, deGrom is awesome, Harvey is great, Matz is masterful, and frankly, as good as those 3 are, Thor blows my mind when I watch him pitch and may become the best of the 4.

 

And if the post surgery Wheeler is better than the pre-Tommy John Zach who pitched probably impaired with a sore arm, this just could turn out to be the best starting 5 - ever.  I know, I am just too Met-centric.

Anyway, relief-wise, Familia is the best we've ever had, or at least on a par with the great Billy Wagner.  Other solid pieces too, and the bullpen appears to be above average for 2016 and hopefully longer.

Hitting-wise is where it will get interesting. Over the past 2 months, this team has probably hit better than any Mets team I can ever remember for a 2 month stretch. I love the power, as the Mets have taken a page out of the Yankee power playbook and the fans are loving every minute. Just getting a guy like Conforto in the draft, too, is an incredible, sustainable boost for the future offense.  The same can be said of d'Arnaud via trade.  The Yanks had Jeter, Rivera, Williams and Posada, and that internal core was the fuel to 2 strong decades for them.  We've got that now.

The question will be, will Sandy see all the offensive ingredients here as potential dynasty pieces and pay for Cespedes, for starters. And make the right call as to whether to keep guys like Murphy, who has been terrific. Guys who strike out under 50 times don't grow on trees. 

Don't go cheap, a huge fan base in attendance will follow a boldly assembled great team, and we could have anywhere from a perennially playoff bound team to a dynasty.

I am excited. Even before this year's playoffs start. Just looking ahead. Excited.  Just. Plain. Excited.

And in the here and now, I may just get to my pre-season predictions of 94 wins and 700+ runs scored.  Though I must admit that how they're getting there I never could have envisioned back in the spring.

 
Sit back and enjoy. I sure will.