10
2012
Mets 2012 Season Will Be A Near Total Loss
An article by 
Its hard to fathom now, but the Mets had a realistic shot at the playoffs only one month ago. Since then the team has taken a turn for the worst with a lot of poorly played baseball compounded by additional injuries. In the process, the current situation has re-highlighted some glaring issues that the team’s successful first half had given us the luxury of forgetting about.
First and foremost, the team’s pitching staff desperately needs another overhaul. To a certain point, that will come in the eventual promotion of the Harvey, Wheeler, Familia and Mejia contingent. That however won’t get it done in the long run. While RA Dickey has proven himself as one of the game’s elite (albeit awkward) pitchers, the rest of the starting staff has been disappointing. Jon Niese remains inconsistent and Johan Santana has been a mess since in June no-hitter. Then we get to the bullpen… The truth is bullpens are always in flux as its historically difficult for many relief pitchers to maintain a high level of play from year to year, but the Mets have had extremely poor luck. From the current crop, its realistic to think only Francisco, Edgin and possibly Rauch find themselves on the roster next season. That’s a great deal of turnover for a team supposedly headed in the right directly.
A look at the rest of the roster finds a variety of players who were being counted on to take a step forward, but ultimately failed miserably. Here is a look at just a few:
- Andres Torres, who was acquired last winter as a band-aid in center field, has been repeatedly hampered by injury and has struggled at the plate all season. For much of the season, he has found himself second fiddle to rookie, Kirk Nieuwenhuis. Definitely not the situation Mets’ brass hoped for when envisioning the 2012 season in their head.
- Lucas Duda was handed the spot in right field in an effort to find a place for his bat. His offense, unfortunately, has abandoned him. That, combined with his defensive liability and what has been described as a poor attitude has found him beached in Buffalo with his opportunity wasted and his value shattered.
- Jason Bay…oh where do we start. More inuries and more ineptitude at the plate have finally cost Bay his everyday spot in left. Batting well under .200 this season, Bay is likely on his way out despite what Sandy Alderson recently said about the $19 million he is still owed on his current contract.
- Josh Thole was the Mets best bet coming into the season behind the plate. As is the case with everyone else on this list, he hasn’t gotten it done. A team can stomach a singles hitter if they justify their spot on the roster with their defense. Thole has repeatedly struggled to keep the ball from going to the backstop and can’t throw anyone else on the base paths. He’s not an everyday major league player, no matter what way you try to cut it.
- Ike Davis has probably been the biggest surprise disappointment this year. Mired in a terrible slump for the first two months of the season, Ike has never really turned it on this year. The saving grace to his season will be his power numbers, which have not slumped nearly as much as his average and will ultimately salvage his spot for the time being as the Met’s first baseman of the future.
Much of this didn’t rear its ugly head until the team fell off the pace, but now it has become clear that the organization still has a great deal of work to do before they become a legitimate contender again. With that said, the resurgence of David Wright is most positive thing to come out of 2012. He has once again solidified himself amongst the best third baseman in baseball. Moving around the remainder of the infield, Ruben Tejada’s patient approach at the plate and stout defense have proven to be a quality replacement for the departed Jose Reyes and Daniel Murphy has come a loooong way at second base.
The issue remains that outside of those guys, and RA Dickey of course, the Mets as a whole haven’t improved much. It was fun to field fully home grown lineups, but its obvious the answer to the team’s woes aren’t within the organization right now. The 2012 season hasn’t yielded the results any of us had hoped. There is no reason to believe the Mets are only a few players away from success and an argument can now be made that the organization has actually gone backwards this year. Yes, despite the successful first half, the 2012 season has proven to be a costly one for the New York Mets.
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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Great post. Your entire premise mimics my own and I would even go as far as to say, that we now have more areas of concern than we did in October of 2010. That certainly doesn’t seem like forward progress to me.
I understand that it can be difficult to find things to write about but this post confonds me. Fans do have short memories so let us not forget the uncertainties of this year. Santana injured, may never be back. Wright looked to be slipping into an averge player. Pelfrey, started last seaon opener. Gee, small sample size bt looked average. Tejada, small sample size but could go either way. Murphy, can he even play second without making a fool of himself. Davis, DL almost all season will he ever be healthy again. Torres, terrible year last year cn he bounce back. Duda, small sample size looks to be improving. Alot of the questions have been answered and more. Some may not be the answers we hoped but now we know. This year has seen the reemergance of Wright and Santana. The awesome play of Tejada. The growth of Murph and Davis getting his baseball legs back. Being negative is not witty or clever it is often the biproduct of mental laziness. This team is way better off than they were two years ago.
Actually there has been some progress as stated but still pitching with rookies has growing pains. Also the recovery of Chris Young and Santana and Dillion Gee is uncertain. Niese and Thole have taken a step back. Murphy, Wright and Dickey pluses. Ike pluses and minuses but net ok. Progress rating a stong “C” overall. Pelfrey and Bay are non-factors.
I agree that Pelfrey is now a nonfactor but that is due to his injury. Bay wa and emains useless and I doubt anyone xpected mch from him. Ike has been all pluses for me. I expected him to havea hard time coming back. Hehadso little time as a ML player then to go on the DL for pratically a year I am more than pleased at is growth over th year. The BP is stll a wreck but to me that is a grab bag. I don’t e Niese as having regressed. He looks to be an up an down kinda guy that may have a real good year here and there. His health was also a concern oming into this year. To put it bluntly we need an outfield and some BParms to be truely competitive. Last year we had no idea what we needed.
There was a reason we were predicted to finish under .500 and in last place this year.
First half was definitely fun, despite the god-awful BP. Second half so far, not so much….
We saw Johan pitch the first no hitter in franchise history.
We’re seeing RA Dickey pitching to what might be a CY winner season.
We’ve seen DWright playing more like the Wright of old, despite his struggles in the month of July.
We’ve seen Tejada take over SS with a more than credible effort, despite big shoes to fill when Reyes left.
I’m just going to enjoy the rest of the season, no matter how it plays out. I had them winning about 74 games and finishing in last coming into the season. Looks like we might be spared from last place but there’s too much left to play to know for sure.
Winter and no baseball will be coming all too soon.
LGM!
Basically I agree. Duda and Kirk to be kind have hit a speed bump. Will they be the solution or should we write them off. We need Niese to be a #2 which he is capable of becoming. Lefties develop late. Parnell is a 7th inning pitcher and lets be resigned to that.
This team is five years away from relevancy and maybe longer than that. Beltran will never be replaced and neither will Reyes. Tejada is a good consolation prize, but he’s all alone like a needle in a haystack. There’s a lot to be concerned about from the top on down.
The Mets are doing everything in their power to make sure I never see a world championship in my life. They must not like me.
Yeesh, so fatalist. Weren’t we supposed to lose 100 games this year?
Some of our young talent took strides forward:
1) Tejada looked very much like a major league short stop. I, and many others, were wrong about him.
2) Our young gun pitchers showed a lot of promise. Harvey made his debut and so far has looked good. I also think Niese has looked better this year. A little prone to the long ball when the curve isn’t working, but that will settle.
3) We know we need at least 1 real starting OF for the immediate future.
4) We know we need a catcher.
5) Daniel Murphy looks like a competent 2B
Did all of our problems magically disappear? No. Not even close. But, at least we know what they are and also when we seem to be getting stronger.
To look at the entirety of the season and decide what it will be before it has fully played out I don’t get. This I am going to speculate is a reaction to the bad play overall in the 2nd half and that is all fair and good but we are really talking about a poor/horrid 12 game stretch where they went 1-11 start to the 2nd half. To me at least the Mets play is not like that 1 good month the Marlins had and every other month has been sub par. The Mets played 86 games of .534 ball more than half a season and they won despite many of the discussed issues.
Since that 1-11 stretch the Mets are 7-8 still not good but much more representative of where the team is at this time with it’s struggles.
This year may end up not being Ike’s best season but going through this season now how he did and coming out the other end still here may pay off for years to come for the Mets.
There are now words to express how well Tejada has played this season. Will he be a career .300 hitter? Can’t say but if he can be a steady glove at SS and a .280 hitter on top of that I think we will be good with that.
Wright has at least shown that his best years were not behind him and that last year was but a fluke with his play this season. I went into the season with a wait and see approach to see if indeed I felt the Mets should resign him and I have seen enough to hope the Mets can resign him but by the same token I can see the merits in trading him in certain scenarios or even not signing him if a contract exceeds certain levels. I like I did last year with Reyes feel that at this time a deal will eventually get done keeping Wright here but like last year it may turn out that he ends up in Detroit when all is said and done.
Like what I see from Harvey and Edgin and still believe that Niese can develop into a good starter. Add that to the coming out party of R.A. Dickey that is not too bad a group of pitchers there.
Murphy has proven 1 thing this 2012 season. He can play 2b everyday without being a huge liability and he may not hit for power but he can just flat out hit. The Mets could do a lot worse at 2b.
I still think Capt Kirk will be back playing OF and will be part of the starting OF in 2013 before all is said and done.
Are there still alot of holes? Hell yea like Swiss cheese but there is still a lot of games to be played and to for me to say at this time the year is a total loss would be getting ahead of myself.
I said it before the season, too many ifs. Then I got sucked in when they played well above average during most of the first half (despite the shoddy pen). Again, injuries seem to hit the Mets harder than other teams at the wrong time. So “bam” the second half starts and the July swoon comes on like a freight train and all the questions that were feared before the season, surfaced. No consistency! Some key role players got lost in the numbers game, Rottino & Quintanilla Baxter got hurt saving a no no. Duda & Kirk had trouble making adjustments but I still believe they are big leaguers. Pelfrey & Gee injuries were major setbacks, Young has yet to gain any velocity and I think he was rushed back. I don’t know what the rest of the season holds but I wish TC would go with a set line up, if they are writing off the season, let more of the youngsters come up and play to what they have (rather that than Bay, Cedeno, & Torres getting time) and please sell the team for the rest of our sakes.
Great post Rob. Big things were expected from Davis, Duda and Thole this season. With Pujols and Fielder going to the AL many of us expected he and Votto were locks for the ASG. So much for wishful thinking. Thole needs to go. Great kid, but enough is enough. Duda? I dont think I can go into 2013 counting on him as an everyday outfielder at this point.