What can be said about the Mets other than they stink? Not much in all reality, I was hoping for a 70 win season at least. For a long time early during the season I thought they would accomplish that minor goal. But alas, it was near the All-Star break and beyond where they had a stretch playing all the soon to be playoff teams in a row. A 3-17 stretch will take its toll on the best of teams and players. After that their will and confidence was shot, they lacked anything emotionally on and off the field.
However there was a few bright spots after everything was said and done. Abdul Riggs was awarded the team MVP honors. He had his best season as a pro and was actually an honorable mention as one the best Center Fielders in the league by the press. His play garnered him a 2 year extension by the team. Not bad for a player that was traded to the Mets for a bucket of golf balls. George Atkins came in second in team voting with his 15 win season. That was the most wins by a Mets pitcher since season 7.
Other than those two accomplishments the highlight of the season was the Mets High A team that won their World Series as a 6 seed over the 6th seeded Padres. They only lost two playoff games on their way to the title. The future does seem a little brighter at least as there was a possibility of 6 future stars playing on that team.
What do the Mets need to do to get better? Basically we need to get better at every aspect of the game. Hitting was not a very strong suit and may have caused the bulk of our losses. When you have the worst Run Scored record in the league, ya just know there is a problem. Fielding was great overall but could be better. Pitching to me was a question mark. Yeah, there was some bad outings where the starting pitcher was rocked, everybody has those. Overall, I think the pitching was better than the records and stats indicated.
To remedy the problem will take some time. Overall there is some help in the minors but won't be ready any time soon. Most of the help is in the pitching arena, offense is sparse. How will the Mets plan next year is still questionable. This season we did get the best offensive player available in the draft, in our minds anyway. However, we failed to land a top IFA as they were either not seen or was way out of our budget range.
Here is our analysis by position:
C: Hitting: D Fielding: A Needs to improve especially in the backup role
1B: Hitting: B Fielding: C Was marginal all the way around at best
2B: Hitting: B Fielding: B May be much better next season
3B: Hitting: F Fielding: A Have defense but no hitting
SS: Hitting: D Fielding: B+ Defense was outstanding comparatively but no hitting
LF: Hitting: B Fielding: C Very lackluster performance but could get better
CF: Hitting: B Fielding: A Surprise pickup helped here
RF: Hitting: D Fielding: B Ugly with no actual starter
Only three hitters averaged above .270 while the rest was well below .260, that in itself must be addressed somehow in the off-season. No help coming from the minors as there is nothing that isn't at least 2 seasons away.
Pitching analysis:
I judge pitchers by their OAV more than any other stat. When this stat is constantly above .270 for any player he doesn't hang around very long unless he is lucky in other areas. With a bad offense, the pitchers were constantly working in a hole. A season with only 15 blown saves is good but when you only have 51 opportunities it looks worse than it is. When you have complete games and lose 1-0 it isn't the pitchers fault either. Pitching in the minors is further along than the offense but no help is close for next season in this area either.
Options:
We will draft either first or second in the draft next season, so a very good future player should be picked up. This World tends to have a high amount of supplemental draft picks and getting a second player by the draft is tough but not unheard of. This years second round pick was a bit iffy but I didn't think he was worth the money being requested and turned down the initial offer. Very doubtful we will have any supplemental picks next season.
Getting ML players by trade is intriguing but we are not going to give up the talent we have for an older player. We might look at substantial players in the salary dump department for a bucket of balls however.
We will have some holes to fill next season for sure and the FA market is about the only way to fill the needs we have at this time. Will the needed players be there is the question we have at the moment.
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