Spring training will be over today, and the wins and losses will start counting on Thursday against the Astros. The offseason’s hard work and player signings will come to fruition to kick off what is hopefully a fantastic campaign. There’s tons to be excited about in this year's edition of the Mets.
The offense should be better than last year, and the
pitching should also be better. Sure, injuries affect the pitching staff, but
Clay Holmes has shown during this spring training that going from relief to
starting pitcher will not affect him. Getting the opening day nod is pretty
special for him, and against an Astros lineup that is different but still
powerful, he will get to showcase his skills and hopefully get the Amazins their
first win of the year.
History has shown that to win the NL East, you need to go
through Atlanta and Philadelphia. This year is no different, but what is
different is that this is not a patchwork Mets team. This team may be the most
complete team under Uncle Steve’s ownership so far. Beating Philadelphia is
always a fun treat, and being down south, beating the Braves brings a sort of
guilty pleasure, which I believe the Mets will be doing a lot of this season.
What will need to happen for the Mets to be successful is what is required during every game and every season, and that is pitching. Pitching takes your team to the next level and has you competing for championships. This rotation is going to be sneaky good, Pundits be damned.
Every
time a critic looks for something to criticize the Mets on, it is either two
things: one, the Mets pitching will be their Achilles heel, or my personal
favorite, which is the Mets lineup, which is top-loaded. Both, in my humble
opinion, are not true. The best part of being a fan is looking up and down your
team's lineup card and not counting the superstars, but looking at the bottom
of the lineup and seeing those hits come from your seventh, eighth, and ninth
hitters is where good teams win. The Mets will have a sturdy and robust lineup
from top to bottom.
So many questions are just sitting out there waiting to be answered. Will Juan Soto win the MVP in his first season as a Met? Just how far can the Mets go in the playoffs this year? The fun thing about Opening Day is that every team starts with a clean slate. The moves made in the offseason are over, and time to come to fruition. The speculation and anxiousness that has lingered all winter will become your favorite team's daily grind of wins and losses.
Opening Day is a baseball fan’s Christmas, not just one game but one that holds a baseball fan's heart in its hands. The time for talk is over. It’s time to put up or shut up, and if I were a betting man, I would say the Mets will be bringing the thunder all season long.
LGM
3 comments:
Good chance we get final cuts today
Great article, Clay. Although I will disagree with you on one thing for at least this year. I think the Mets 2025 season hinges on their offense.
I don't disagree with you on the pitching itself and am a fan of the way Stearns has built the staff for the last two years. I think the 2025 version will be a lot better than many people think.
With that being said, this team is not the 1993 Atlanta Braves, but they are good enough to post a sub 4.00 ERA as a full staff (last year they hit 3.96). If the starters can log a 4.2 or 4.3 and the pen gets close to a 3.0, they will be fine.
Last year, the Arizona D-Backs led the majors with 886 runs scored. The Mets line-up looks like it might be able to come close to that almost 5.5 runs a game pace. If it does, they will win a lot of games even if the pitching posts that 4.0 ERA.
Clay, very true. The Wilpon teams were a facade….some stars, but then clumps of bad to mediocre talent. Stearns has expunged that.
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