Is there any hope for the 2012 Mets? Yes, there is some hope. First, the Mets settled the big lawsuit during the off season essentially putting the Bernie Madoff issue behind them. Secondly, there is a 2nd wild card added to the league so the Mets will invariably be kept more alive in the hunt for the post season if they play .500 baseball. Lastly, Johan Santana is back. Last year the pitching was simply not very good while the offense produced at an above average clip. With Johan Santana pegged as the opening day starter, the leadership and dominance he is capable of can potentially set the table for the rest of the pitching staff.

Predicting the Mets 2012 season is not easy. Most likely they will finish 4th or 5th in the division. The Phillies have great starting pitching that should carry them to their 6th consecutive division title. The Atlanta Braves also have pitching and were a pretty good team last year up until their late season collapse. The Nationals have some young talent and are probably fielding their best team since arriving in the capitol. The Florida Marlins picked up some serious free agents including Jose Reyes. The Marlins have several big name players and should be a very strong, winning team. With all of the National League East foes the Mets face seem very talented, a situation that will make it challenging for the Mets when they face those teams. The good news is that since they will all play each other many times, each team will have a hard time piling on victories against any single opponent. This will keep the wins-loss records close to one another, hopefully providing an opportunity for the Mets to hang with the group especially if the Mets can win a good percentage of games against the other National League divisions.

Good Luck to the Mets in 2012, stay healthy, play good defense, and beat the Phillies often.

The Mets finished the 2011 season 77-85 which is a rather disappointment for what will be a transition period for the Mets as Carlos Beltran is gone and Jose Reyes will likely find a new home as a free agent.

Speaking of Jose Reyes, he won the batting title for the first time in the Mets history, an amazing accomplishment edging out MVP seasons from Matt Kemp and Ryan Braun. However, no player in the history of baseball has ever received more slack for winning a batting title than Jose Reyes. Some say his classless act on the final day of the season was selfish and made his personality flaws more apparent. After leading off the game with a bunt single, the Mets manager immediately put in a pinch runner for Jose Reyes effectively taking him out of the game so that he may stay pat on his seemingly comfortable batting title lead over Ryan Braun. By going 1 for 1, Jose Reyes made it so the Brewers Ryan Braun would have to go 3 for 4 or better to overtake Reyes in the batting average percentages. Reyes said afterwards it was his idea, and he told his manager before the game to pull him out of the game if he got a hit in his first at bat.

The greatest hitter of all time, Ted Williams was the last to bat .400. On the final day the Red Sox had a double header, and Williams had a batting average a fraction of a percent under .400, a number which would be rounded up to .400. Ted Williams was given the option to sit out the double header, but he wanted to play because he is a competitive ballplayer and realized that if he was going to be a .400 hitter he was going to do so because he made it happen on the field. The beauty of this story is that he went 6 for 8, and finished the season with a .406 batting average which is something incredible and may take a very long time to match. The Jose Reyes incident happened on the anniversary day of Ted Williams .400 season.

Personally, I am happy Jose Reyes got the batting title award. He has had an up and down time with the Mets. A cornerstone of a generation of Mets teams that had a couple of good runs, but more often than not came up short of being spectacular and were often overshadowed by the Phillies and Braves in the division. Often injured, when in the game he was often the best player on the field and extremely exciting to watch play. Jose Reyes had a great smile and his playful personality made him popular to his teammates and to fans who he interacted with in a great way at home and on the road. Overall, Jose Reyes had many great memorable moments for Mets fans but injuries over the past few years really hurt the Mets chances of success.

I am giving him a ‘pass’ on this icky situation with respect to the batting title. I kinda understand why he did it, he is competitive in his own way and with the Mets out of contention he has been focused on winning the batting title for sometime. He earned the right to be in the drivers seat going into the last day by taking a couple percentage points lead the night before. He chose to sit on that lead if he could increase it by a small amount with a hit, therefore forcing Braun to have a difficult to achieve multi-hit performance. From a team perspective this was certainly a weak move by Jose Reyes, but seeing the Mets had little to play for except for the fans in attendance on the last day of the season it should not be considered to be over the top egregious. Especially considering those fans were lucky to see him at all, because during his stint with the Mets there were seemingly hundreds of games fans would not get to see him at all due to his hamstring, calf etc. Reyes did earn his spot in the record books wearing a Mets uniform, something Mets fans will appreciate overtime once the initial shock of the move wears off.

The Mets off-season should be interesting, and no doubt entertaining with issues and news about to be created throughout all levels of the organization. Best of luck in the off-season and here’s hoping the Mets 2012 opening day roster is something to get excited about all over again.

The year was similar to 2010, in which early in the season the Mets outplayed expectations but fell apart right after the All Star Break. 2011 was no different as Jose Reyes and resurgent Carlos Beltran got the Mets off to a fairly good start and kept them within striking distance of a wild-card birth during the first half of the season. Then it all slowly went downhill, Reyes got injured and re-injured, Beltran and K-Rod were traded away, Ike Davis hurt his foot and was out for most of the season. Still no sign of Johan Santana, but he is supposed to make a couple starts before the season ends.

No 90 win team. No playoffs. Nope, another year of watching the Phillies and Yankees tear-up the playoffs, while Mets fans ask themselves the same questions over and over. When will this change?

Hopefully, 2012!

The A’s had chosen to intentionally walk Jose Reyes to load the bases and put all the pressure on the Mets batter Justin Turner who would be facing a situation in which there was two out, bases loaded, tie game, bottom of the inning walk-off potential, extra inning game, at home in front of 38,000 screaming New York fans, and then…Justin Turner got hit by a pitch, a HBP, essentially walking to first and ‘batting in’ the game winning run. A walk-off…. no a hit-by-pitch-off game ending shocking and unusual ending to a game. Crazy, and the 36-38 New York Mets are remaining around .500 meaning they are in the wild card picture still. Several new New York Met players have really stepped up including Justin Turner and pitcher Dillon Gee. The first 10 starts for Gee were VICTORIES for the Mets, an awesome accomplishment. Gee is the real deal.

Jose Reyes is possibly, and in many many people’s minds, the best player on the planet right now. This is because he is leading the league in batting average, and doing so with top numbers in runs scored and stolen bases. Plenty of doubles and a boat load of triples makes Jose Reyes one of the most electrifying players in baseball.

Jose Reyes might be gone soon. Whether it is at the trade deadline, or more likely after the season, Jose Reyes is gonna cash in on his skills and the Mets might be outbid for his future services. Mets fans have to accept this, because it is the likely scenario. It makes me sad, obviously he is such a fun personality and an awesome talent. I wish we find a way to keep Jose Reyes in a Mets uniform for many, many years. I sure hope so.

David Wright has been injured for some time with a broken back, Jason Bay is working through an extremely extended slump in which he forgot how to hit home runs, and Ike Davis is hopefully going to stay healthy for the rest of the season. K-Rod is locking it down in the Mets bullpen, while in general our pitching has been fairly good and our overall defense has been solid. The Mets have a pretty good looking lineup when they get Wright and Davis back and will be capable of scoring 10 runs in a game once in awhile.

The Bottom Line is this. This game tonight is the start of a nice run of games for the Mets in which they blast past .500 and start sweeping some serious series. Let’s Go Mets!

Well as far as Mets Mets sees it, the Mets have made strides, at least when playing bad teams like Arizona. For the most part there offense has been respectable, but the glaring weakness is the Mets pitching which just doesn’t stack up well without Johan Santana. With Johan recovering from surgery and out for several more months, the Mets need to lessen the number of runs on average they give up each day.

The Mets are at this moment 8-13, and in the midst of a three game winning streak. This is obviously not the start they were hoping for, but it is not all that bad considering if they use this momentum they have going right now they could be close to .500 by the end of April.

The bright spots in the month of April for the New York Mets baseball team:

Ike Davis, who managed to deliver many clutch hits and leads the team in RBI’s with 17. To begin the season, Ike Davis had at least one RBI in 9 out of the team’s first 10 games… a new Mets record!

Players still look silly swinging against the knuckler thrown by R.A. Dickey.

K-Rod is locking down games for the Mets, but in general the bullpen has not been a strength.

Jose Reyes is healthy and scoring runs, leads the team with 16 runs scored and 8 stolen bases.

Carlos Beltran is playing well, though his 0 stolen base attempts shows the focus to keep him healthy.

Jason Bay has only played a few games, but has shown flashes of power.

The not so bright spots.

Angel Pagan broke out last year, but his 2011 statistics are nothing near his 2010 numbers.

The Mets pitcher with the lowest WHIP is Niese, but his WHIP is at a very high 1.57. ERA is led by Dickey’s 4.10, but that is nothing special.

Atlanta, Florida, Washington and Philadelphia are all ahead of the Mets. The bottom line is this team needs to win games. Most experts have the National League East set as the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia will be fighting it out for the top spot in the division, and the other three will be battling it out for a distant third place finish in the division.

I don’t necessarily agree with that assessment, I wouldn’t be suprised if one – or two – of the bottom three end up mixing it up with the predicted division winners Philadelphia or Atlanta. I think the Mets, if they can improve some and get Johan Santana back at some point, the Mets could keep themselves in the picture.

First off, the 2011 NY Mets are under new management and a new coaching staff. This is good news. The ownership is still the same, though the financial situation of the ownership is certainly not. These are obvious pluses and minuses going into the season. Gotta love new management and the coaching change is certainly welcome. The trouble the owner Wilpon is in is the predominant question in the air surrounding the team. In my mind the Dodgers owner situation, pending legal preceding determining percentage ownership of the team with his ex, pails in comparison to the whole Bernie Madoff victims lawsuit situation the Mets owner finds himself in. The fact is he is one of the few people who actually profited from the scheme, and though he definitely could have been oblivious to the whole thing, the fact remains the people who lost money have hired expensive lawyers to get back some of what they lost from anyone who profited. Hopefully, these off the field distractions will not make a difference on the field, but really that is just being hopeful, because in this day and age the questions surrounding the uncertainty of the team’s future are going to be ever-present.

Secondly, the product on the field for the 2011 New York Mets is much improved potentially and hopefully much healthier. Carlos Beltran is back, Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez is gone, enough said for most Mets fans. Disappointingly, Johan Santana is going to be out most or all of the season following arm surgery. David Wright looks ready to go and Ike Davis has had some experience now so he should improve upon his middle-of-the-lineup bat that will be vital for RBI’s. Jose Reyes is in a contract year so I doubt he will get hurt this year so expect big numbers from him once he gets going. The pitching staff has some guys looking for bounce back years and a few surprises from last year. It should be enough to keep us in games and could really be pretty good if Johan Santana comes back and everyone drops a spot in the rotation. Our bullpen has to be our surprise strength this year because for us to compete, we can not be blowing up in the bullpen like we did last night against the Washington Nationals.

Lastly, our competition this year is very, very good. A lot of people have been quietly talking about the Florida Marlins this year as a sleeper. The Washington Nationals could be slightly improved, but will still have trouble against every other team in the division. The Atlanta Braves are a popular pick with their solid lineup and above average pitching. Finally, the Philadelphia Phillies have what some have deemed the best starting rotation in history…please they have Joe Blanton in that rotation. However, if none of their arms fall off this season their top four pitchers are insanely talented and have at one point in their career been the best pitcher in baseball. By pure talent alone I would rank the teams: Phillies, Braves, Mets, Marlins and Nationals. I think that is a fair evaluation, but the gap between the Mets, Marlins and Nationals is a lot closer than the gap between the Braves and Mets…or so the ‘so-called experts’ would like you to believe. I dunno, I hope the Mets obviously win the division, catch lightning in a bottle and just click on all cylinders.

With all that said, I feel the mets who are right this second, 4 wins and 5 losses and currently in a tied ballgame, 4-4, against the Colorado Rockies in the top of the 8th inning could be potentially a surprise team. We can win some close games and get timely hitting all season long – we are way overdue for this – and get some better than expected pitching all season long and win 90 games, make the playoffs and it would be a great season. I hope my 2011 New York Mets prediction of 90 wins and 72 losses is right on the money, but we have to be clicking on all cylinders to make this happen. Let’s Go Mets!.

It is really an embarrassing time to be part of the Mets organization, no matter how you look at it this whole Bernie Madoff mess is shameful.

Regardless if the Mets ownership knew or did not know about the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme that cost investors 50 billion of dollars, many losing their entire life fortune, but the sad fact is that while $50,000,000,000 was lost the Mets were connected with dozens of accounts that profited serious money. To add insult to injury, the reality is that the Mets seemed to have been pushing the envelope too much when it comes to the money needed to run the team.

There is real pressure for the owners to sell the majority share of the team, though they contend to want to only sell a minority stake in order to raise money.

In a day and age when the New Jersey Nets owner is a billionaire and Donald Trump is rumored to be interested in owning the team, it seems that real money needed to compete against our cross-town rivals for championships this century is out there in someone’s bank account.

Thank you Wilpon’s for guiding our team for many decades. But please, sell the Mets to new ownership that can uplift this storied franchise and once again make Mets fans proud.

Terry Collins has major league managing experience, which was back in the 1990′s.
Terry Collins has Japanese managing experience -Orix Buffaloes in 2007 and 2008-, which I am not sure is overly relevant but it does add a worldly flair.
Terry Collins has been on the Mets radar for awhile, interviewing and being a finalist for the manager job when Minaya chose Will Randolph.

Terry Collins has a lot of work to do. The Mets faded after the All Star break last year and finished below .500 with a 79-83 record. The ace Johan Santana had off season surgery and isn’t gonna be the same Johan for awhile, and certainly won’t be ready to pitch at the beginning of the season. The $130 million dollar payroll for next year you would think would buy you a great team, but unfortunately a lot of bad contracts leftover from the Minaya management regime has left the team with a lot of over-payed under-performing players who just aren’t that good.

Anyway, the truth is we all do not know that much about Terry Collins, but we all hope he is the right choice and the right man for this difficult job. The Mets need to be competing in the National League and hopefully he can get this club turned around soon.

Terry Collins, the absolute Best of Luck from all New York Mets fans everywhere.

One of the highest payrolls in the Major Leagues, the New York Mets managed to win 79 games and lose 83 games this season. What is really hard to digest as a Mets fan was the early promise this season showed, with the Mets clearly in the hunt until the dreadful play following the All Star Break. At the end of the season, the Mets had way more questions than answers.

What do you do with Carlos Beltran? He only has one more year left on his contract.
What do you do with the pitching staff? Johan Santana is getting surgery, and pretty much everyone else is just not that good, though I really like R.A. Dickey knuckleball style that embarrasses hitter after hitter.
K-Rod is obviously not stable, and messing up his pitching hand punching his girlfriend’s father is just plain stupid. Equally stupid is violating a court order to not communicate with her and then go and send her 50 something text messages.
Who is this Jason Bay guy? Did we really spend all that money on a power hitter who couldn’t even come close to hitting 10 home runs this season.
There are dozens, literally dozens of other questions about the product the Mets are putting on the field.

Can Bobby Valentine fix all this? That seems to be the popular pick amongst fans as the next General Manager. But don’t count on the popular pick being the one chosen by an organization who has failed time and again at bringing in the right coach, general manager or player.

Already a half dozen games behind Atlanta in the East, the Mets are now trailing the Phillies in the division and have fallen behind a handful of teams for the one wild card spot.

Bats have been inept lately, and the Mets continue to lose close games especially on the road. The latest road trip has been a total disaster getting pelted by the L.A. Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants and the lowly Arizona Diamondbacks.

We need another 9 out of 10 streak where the Mets can pull off a string of victories and claw our way back into the thick of things.

Maybe Oswalt or one of the other big time arms could join us if we pull a much needed trade before the deadline. A shot in the arm would certainly help.