April Fool's Mets Fans

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-Digger's Daily-

Mets fans should start considering enlisting the entire month of April, not just calendar day one, as April Fool's. Last year, their much anticipated brand new home (CitiField) was ripped to shreads by Mets enthusiasts and local pundits. Soon thereafter, all hopes of returning to playoff baseball crash landed when half of New York's key contributors were lost to injury.

Most New Yorker's were glad when the season ended. There was plenty of talk surrounding potential free agent and/or trade acquisitions. Jason Bay was much sought after in free agency. Mets got lucky when he decided to sign (most of us are still wondering why he chose a losing team over winners?). Not much else was done to fix huge gaping holes on this club. The front office under GM Moniya has been a complete embarrassment. Lack of trades and complete free agent washouts has dominated Moniya's tenure. Throw in an inter-organizational rift between major & minor league clubs to boot. It's amazing how this guy still has a top position.

Now here we are and deja vu sets in on April 1. Lost at least a month due to injury is starting 1B Murphy. Who, you ask? That's right, NY has settled on defenseless, powerless Murphy over free agents and potential trades. Starting SS Jose Reyes has been babied to the point of insanity. He's only started playing/practicing and will also begin 2010 on the DL. Starting CF Carlos Beltran will miss all of April and probably most of May. Even when he returns, it's doubtful he can contribute at full speed.

New York Mets ownership hasn't been smart of late. One might even suggest sending the top honcho's into a corner wearing nothing more than pointy hats until someone explains how to maintain a "respectable" franchise. Don't forget, they were 1 strike away from playing in the 2005 World Series. It's been a downhill spiral ever since. Mets failures have been systemic. One can argue until blue in the face over individual personnel moves from players to executives. This is not the subject of my point today.

April Fool's is here again as the Mets continue failing to field a team best suited for their new nearly $1,000,000,000.00 anything but a Mets themed home stadium. Look at playing dimensions and then take a peak and tell me which lefty hits for power? None. Pepsi Porch may look great on tv. Most likely the only players hitting long home runs to Pepsi will be opposing batters. Opposing pitchers might have an easy go hurling against an extremely low OBA oriented lineup. Mets will probably finish '10 dead last in OBA.

Now, most of us know the secret to success is having a serviceable starting rotation. Johan Santana has been one of baseball's best for nearly 10 years. He's New York's only potential bright spot. The rest are flat out awful. Perhaps the majors worst starting rotation? Spring training is rarely used as a barometer of things to come unless it relates directly to players recovering from injury. Plenty of Mets hurlers are trying to regain their old form. It hasn't worked out too well as NY has a collective 5.00+ team era. John Maine, Mike Pelfrey & Oliver Perez are starters 2-4. Not one of them has an era under 7. That's no typo. None under "seven". Even Santana's been getting lit up (6.75). Do the math. On paper, Mets have a one in five shot of victory per five games (Santana). How ugly is that?

Buy plenty of brown paper bags Mets fans. Better yet, break out those Yankee hats. 2010 Mets baseball already reminds me of their early 1960's losers. It's going to be an extremely long & comical year.