Mack – Welcome to the Rest of your Mets Life.

Good morning.

Hope you had a nice New Year’s Day. It may be the best day you have this year.

There doesn’t seem to be anything on the horizon before pitchers and catchers report next month.

Oh, I’m sure Sandy might find another Matt Purke or Drew Gagnon to add to the already bloated AAA bullpen projection, but I don’t see any major purchase at any position until the market comes back to the Mets limited budget left in the Hot Stove.

Remember now, the Wilpons have spent a lot of money this year. They bought the AAA-Syracuse team. They invested in Belmont Park for the New York Islanders. And they bought some video game company (NYC team for the Overwatch League).

I’m sure their accountants have told them that they will eventually improve the ‘bottom line’ with these purchases. See, this is the only thing that big business companies care about… not WAR… but P and L.

So, it’s time for me to start to try and get out of this Mets funk I’m in. This looks like the team that the Wilpons will deal us and I need to get back to that ‘if’ mood I’m always in around this time of the year.

Ya know, remember those yearly posts I would write with the title “If”?

I would outline all the reasons the Mets were going to win the World Series… ‘if someone hit 30+ home runs’ or ‘if someone won 12+ games as a starter’.

It was very easy to write this kind of column last pre-season. The Mets had potentially one of the top three rotations in the business and enough bats to compete for the most home runs in the game. Of course, like all my other ‘if columns, health was the most important factor to make things fall into place. Once that began to crumble, so did our team.

In my opinion, there are only three factors that need to fall into place for this current team to excel. They are the same I’ve been barking about for years.

1.     We need our health. And, we need it at all positions. The talent base has little depth so our starters have to stay out on the field.

2.     We have the rotation. Healthy, they could be one of the best in the National League. Hopefully, our new manager and pitching coach will juggle the innings with the relievers and drastically lower the runs per game given up. Give up less runs means you win more games.

3.     We need to stress middle field defense. Right now, we don’t have the perfect second baseman to do this, but Amed Rosario at short and Juan Lagares in center can win us games with both their gloves and arms. Wilmer Flores will probably be some degree of liability at second, but he hopefully can make that up with his bat.

I need to get past the Wilpons. They suck, but so do most owners.

And, I’m going to try and stop trashing ‘Sandy and Company’. They aren’t going to change either.

It’s time for me to return my writing to the positive side of the players we have, both playing Flushing ball, but especially in the pipeline. THAT’S what put this site on the map back in 2005 when Toby Hyde (what the hell ever happened to him?) and I were the only dudes writing about the Mets players in the minors.

I may not like what’s going on with the Mets, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love the Mets.