12
2012
Mets Face Second Half Uncertainty
An article by 
I know there are Mets fans out there who, like me, are still operating under the constant state of cautious optimism. The first half if the season saw the Mets surpass most of our wildest expectations. They won early and often, not spending a single day under .500 this season. On Friday when the second half of the season gets underway, the Mets will embark on the pursuit of a playoff berth. However, they will do so with much uncertainty about what lies ahead.
While most players were enjoying their brief all star hiatus, the Mets fifth starter spent his break in the hospital with a serious ailment. Numbness in the fingers of Dillon Gee’s right fingers led doctors to a blood clot in the pitcher’s shoulder. While it appears Gee will ultimately be fine, original reports that he would miss only two starts have evolved into potentially season ending surgery this morning. As a result, it’s a fairly safe bet that the Mets will eventually turn to the unproven Matt Harvey who’s arrival at the big league level is as anticipated as they come. The issue remains that there is no guarantee that Harvey will excel at the highest level, and could very well struggle, leaving the the back end of the rotation in its worse state of the season, while further taxing an already questionable bullpen.
Questions in the rotation can be added to other, much larger concerns, which loom with regards to the aforementioned bullpen and the bench. The end of July will be an illustration of exactly how committed the front office is to the 2012 campaign. The Mets have a legitimate opportunity to play in October, but aren’t without faults. If Sandy Alderson doesn’t address these needs, the team will suffer as the year drags on. The reality of the situation is that mid-season trades usually include prospects, which are an extremely hot commodity in Alderson’s world. While I do not under any circumstance think the team should/would trade their top guys, personnel moves are necessary. Just how hesitant Sandy is to make those moves could determine this particular teams fate.
The final issue I’ll discuss is that the team simply needs to be better in the second half if they’re going to play October baseball this fall. That may be a tough order considering how well everyone thinks the first half of the season went. It’s easy to point our fingers at the bullpen, as it is the worst in the majors, but the team’s defense and over all decision making will have to be better over the next few months. With any luck, the rest that most players got these past new days will cure what ails them, but it’s obvious that the next few weeks leading up to the trade deadline will as important as any other three week stretch this season.
When the Mets take the field tomorrow night, they should do so refreshed and refocused. Their mission is clear, but the route to that goal got a bit cloudy in recent days. Will they rise up in the face of adversity as they have done all season, or will this be the injury that finally fractures the limits of the roster’s very limited depth? The team must take a step forward in the next few weeks, lurch themselves to the forefront of the playoff race and prove to their general manager that 2012 is worth the leap of faith that will be required to fill this roster’s holes. With half the season in the rear view mirror, there are still numerous questions in what lies ahead. Tomorrow night we begin to get our answers.. tomorrow night we’ll start to find out once and for all exactly how much fight the 2012 Mets have left.
Follow me on Twitter at @RobPatterson83
About the Author: Rob Patterson
Ultimately, I owe nearly thirty years of Mets related torture to my mother, who is the reason I became a fan. I was too young to remember the 86 run, but hope to see one I'll be able to recall much sooner than later. I enjoy writing about the team and welcome your feedback on my posts. Oh..and I am not with 28!
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I know making the playoffs was a tall order anyway, even with the wildcard play in game and the weak league, but this is a serious blow.
Gee was having such a good and vastly underrated season and this is a monumental loss. The rotation has been the team’s biggest strength and unless Harvey is called up and pitches just as good, the playoffs wont happen.
It’s a real shame since they were doing so well, but given the other issues they can’t afford to fix all those aspects without giving up top prospects, which we all (well we all should) know won’t and shouldn’t happen.
Unless they address the BP, plus have Ike and Duda stop sucking against LHP and get at least last year’s production from Jason Bay, all while having the same MVP caliber performances from Dickey and Wright then I don’t see how we make the playoffs.
Gee wasn’t even that good. He is easily replaceable.
I don’t mean to come off as arrogant, but this comment makes me seriously question your knowledge of the game as I can’t fathom how anyone who has watched him pitch this season can call him easily replaceable…
The way I see it is that year two under Alderson will produce an 85-90 win season. Plus we are moving in the right direction. If we miss the post season that’s okay. The goal isn’t to ditch the plan that got us here because we underestimated how good we were. That was Minaya’s mistake. 2006 was the worst thing that happened to him. We must stay the course because the goal is to create a long run of sustainable championship caliber baseball.
We really need to tone down the panic over Gee…
First off think of what you thought this season was going to be and tell me what his loss might cost you from what you expected starting the year? Hardly anything truth be told.
He has pitched better than his record but he is still the only rotation arm who has an under .500 record. It’s not like we lost RA Dickey here folks!
We still have a few options to cover that in Harvey, Hefner and Bautista.
The doubts about using Harvey are not without Merit but I just feel there is nothing to lose by giving him his MLB taste now and seeing if he has what it takes to be a rotation arm next season. While it might cost you this season the bigger issues is the rotation for the next two years. If Harvey isn’t a good starter we have much bigger issues than missing a 2012 playoff! MUCH MUCH BIGGER!
I know a lot of folks are down on Bautista but most of what your basing your opinion on is from seeing him as a late inning reliever not a starter. And if you look at just the games he has started you see he hasn’t been bad for a 5th Reliever at all.
There was the emergency start he made in a double header after being in the pen that he lost. gave up 6 runs in 4 Innings. But his next three starts were actually pretty good till he got hurt!
Vs the Phillies (we win he gets ND) Gave up 4 runs in 5.1 Innings. They got to him in the 1st and 2nd and then he settled down and shut them down.
Vs Mil, Pitched 7 innings, shut them out and got the win.
Vs Toronto he got hurt (ankle) and only pitched 2 Innings, gave up no runs.
If Gee would be back in September we COULD get through it with Bautista but we do have that Harvey option.
The real uncertainty is will Santana and Young last the whole season. Just about all of Santana’s past injuries have come in late August/September.
He has missed a lot of time and may not have the stamina to go all the way. Even if he stays healthy will he stay as effective as everyone thinks he has been?
Same for Young, We already see he gets tired and gets the ball down after the 5th and through the 3rd time in the order. He needs to start getting to the 7th without giving up the game before we can rely on him and he can get hurt at the snap of a pitch. Hell its a wonder he is pitching at all right now!
Thats the uncertainty we face not so much the Gee injury but that fragile rotation.
Hell we can’t even be certain Dickey will keep on winnig the King batters the way he has. We have already seen two starts where he was not the same Dickey who threw 1 Hitters back to back.One bad august could put us out of the playoffs. (Dickey himself says spring and fall are his best conditions for success!)
In the end we should not fret so much about our possible playoffs. The 85 Mets didn’t get there either but that season was the one that showed them they could beat anyone and then led them to beat EVERYONE in 86!
SO I’m not worried about this year at all!
If they go back to being the old Mets next year then I would know this year was a fluke and if they are just as good and better next year, one more year of waiting won’t kill me!
It’s the journey I enjoy not just the last game they play in a season!
Enjoy what your seeing and stop worrying!
Just hope it shows our GM that maybe if he stopped shopping at K-Mart for bandaids and made a few deals to cure the paitent we wouldn’t have to worry about what will happen in August and September because one injury won’t kill us!