7
2012
Maybe The Mets’ 2012 Season Wasn’t So Bad After All
An article by 
It was a weird moment when I sat down on Wednesday evening and started thinking. I have been watching baseball since about 2001. I aspire to be a storyteller years from now. Someone who is knowledgeable and respected. But no matter how good the storyteller, and I am not too good yet, one needs material to talk about, no?
This is the 2012 season. I was worried, at the beginning of the season, that the fiftieth season in the New York Mets existence would be one of a forgettable nature. One that would make me cringe - a season that would make me want to give up on the ownership and front office. Now, the season has not gone anything like what I expected at all…and I mean that in more than one way. I could sit here and express my disappointment in the front office and Sandy Alderson, as I have before. But that is not the aim of this piece.
I wanted to write about why I was happy. Happy, you say? Yes, while you all laugh and call me crazy. This season could have gone miles better but it has not. Today is September 7th, and no matter how hard I wish, I can not reverse time or change the ideologies in the front office. So I found reasons to smile. Reasons that give me stories to tell fifty years from today.
- A Glimpse Into The Future: Josh Edgin, Robert Carson, Jeurys Familia, Matt Harvey, Jeremy Hefner, Collin McHugh, Elvin Ramirez, Zach Lutz, Jordany Valdespin, and Kirk Nieuwenhuis all broke into the MLB this season. Can you believe it? Edgin, Carson, Lutz, and Ramirez have the potential to be successful. Jeurys Familia lit up the radar gun in his first appearance and made it look effortless. Jeremy Hefner was a definite feel good story. Valdespin has gained my respect and I have always backed up Captain Kirk. Of course, Matt Harvey and Collin McHugh both dazzled and dropped jaws in their debuts, in what was truly a glimpse into the future of the Mets rotation.
- Those Little Moments: The first hit for Lutz, Valdespin, and Kirk. That first strikeout for the group of young arms. Vinny Rottino’s first career home run in the MLB and Wright’s 200th. Scott Hairston, Justin Turner, and Mike Baxter being awesome off the bench and Kelly Shoppach launching monster home runs. Who can undermine those special feel-good moments? I hear Baxter made quite the catch, too…
- Growth:Yes, simply put, growth. Ike Davis, Lucas Duda, Dillon Gee, Daniel Murphy, Jon Niese, Ruben Tejada, and even Bobby Parnell at times. Do not hurt me for thinking Parnell is good in the seventh or eighth. He has a career ERA of 2.93 in the eighth inning with 83 strikeouts in 89 innings. I could have sworn that Dillon Gee kept us in almost every single game he pitched. Daniel Murphy has broken me into a slow clap showing me not only his improvement at second base, but the fact that he still has a pretty fluid swing. How about Ruben Tejada and his growth offensively and defensively? Duda is maturing and experiencing growing pains, but man, that power is there. Jon Niese, with the security of a long term deal, has settled down with consistency by winning 10 games for a second straight season while dropping his ERA almost a full run. And Ike Davis? Fighting through adversity, not giving up, and making adjustments. Ike is the man. Here’s a quote from Ceetar to exemplify what I’m saying: “Since the start of that streak on June 9th (through September first when I’m writing this), Ike Davis has been awesome. Specifically he’s been smashing the baseball as hard as anyone in the game. He’s hitting .270/.336/.573 in those 71 games. If he’d put up that slugging percentage for the entire year, he’d be 6th in all of baseball. Granted this is picking and choosing endpoints, but 71 games is nearly half a season and represents a sizable chunk of Davis’ major league career. He’s hit 20 home runs in those games, something that equates to 46 home runs over a full 162.”
- R.A. Dickey:He deserves a full article, does he not? RA is pitching like an artist right now – when was the last time a pitcher was feared while his top speed was 84 MPH? He deserves all the praise he is currently getting and he deserves the Cy Young award. Some argue that his one-hitter against the Rays was the best Mets pitching performance all year. He was snubbed for the all-star start. Am I biased? Yes. But respect the man’s story and all he has done to be here. RA Dickey is a hero to some people now. I will tell you something though… There is not a day that goes by that I do not wish I could have seen Seaver, Gooden, Fernandez, Darling, or Orosco pitch in person. But there will never be a day where I am not grateful that I got to witness RA Dickey’s 2012 season.
- Johan Santana: Speaking of heroes… I forgot somebody. I forgot the man who brought us manly tears and eternal bliss while etching his name into the history books. And our hearts, of course. Johan Santana threw a no-hitter for the Mets. There was uproar after the game – it was a one-hitter… Yeah, no. Nobody can take this no-hitter from me. Hat tip to Mike Baxter’s now legendary catch. If I do not sound excited enough, it is because I literally can not describe what this no-hitter means. For a night, the stars were aligned and everything was perfect…
And that’s exactly it. Tomorrow morning, I will wake up and still be disappointed with the front office and GM. But at least for today, I will smile. I will give credit to the men who deserve it. I will sing their praises. Even if I know they’ll never hear of it.
About the Author: Satish Ram
I am a Senior Writer and Editor here at MetsMerized - where I specialize in Minor League coverage. I have been on the staff since 2007 and I am currently in my third semester of college in New York City. You can find me at www.facebook.com/SatishRam or @SilverHeatMMO. Feel free to message me - I love talking about the Mets or baseball overall with anybody.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 42 | 28 | .600 | - |
| Nationals | 34 | 35 | .493 | 7.5 |
| Phillies | 34 | 37 | .479 | 8.5 |
| Mets | 25 | 40 | .385 | 14.5 |
| Marlins | 22 | 47 | .319 | 19.5 |
Last updated: 06/18/2013
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good piece. No, the overall result (record) has not been great. But hell, still better than what many people were predicting. And it was just that one bad stretch around the ASB that took them out of the WC race (they were what, 6-19 or some such through there? make that 13-12 instead, and they are within a game or 2 of the 2nd WC).
first half, very entertaining. Since later august, much better. Just a bad stretch of slumps, injuries, and young guys getting up to speed.
and at least we finally got to see a Met No Hitter. Harvey making an impact is fantastic too.
take what you can out of it, or whine and complain. To each his own.
Not only did injuries to the awful pen and to the rotation get us but as we thought from the beginning when you are relying on a lot of unproven players you really don’t have any clue what direction they will take you in.
Example think of the highs and lows of Duda, Davis, Murphy, V-Spin, Kirk…
and edgin on the plus side of course.
NIce article.
If Met fans can’t appreciate the individual achievements in what will likely be a losing season, what’s the point of following the team?
We got to see the first no hitter, the incredible season of RA Dickey, the debut of Harvey, Wright’s resurgence, Ike’s better second half that gives us hope, Baxter’s catch, just to name a few.
Might not be going anywhere this season but it was far more entertaining than the last 3 season.
And has the latest Forbes article points out, we’re headed in the right direction.
My only issue with this year is that I had hoped it would be one of answering long term questions. However, what we are left with are more questions. I had hoped that the 2013 team would be lead by the NL East best 1B in Ike Davis, a slugging Duda and a kid like Kirk ready to take the CF reigns. At this point are we any more sure about those players now than we were at the beginning of the season?
Yes we are sure!
Ike missed almost an entire season and had to get used to pitching, Once he did look what happened!
Duda sufferred because he had another struggling LHB in front or behind him!
PH RH Bat stuck between them in the lineup cures both their problems.
But are we saying that those two guys struggles were expected to this degree? I had them pegged to taking the next step this year and now we have to hope that they do that next year.
In the case of Ike ABSOLUTLY!
You don’t miss almost an entire season of seeing MLB pitching and theh expect him to start hitting the way he did!
Carlos Beltran had the same issue in 2010! Came back in July and sucked through august and didn’t start getting his swing back till mid september!
And he was a way more accomplished and experienced hitter than a guy who had yet to complete even his first year of service by the time this season started!
Duda and Davis were batted back to back a lot early in the season. Davis having his problems and not getting on gave the Pitcher the opportunity to play around with Duda more because he usually had an open base to work with and a crappy batter behind him!
This was also Dudas first full season in the MLB you have to expect sophmore slumps and running out of gas in the second half! Jason Heyward sucked his second year but no one was ready to say he was worth getting rid of!
If you put a guy like Beltran between Davis and Duda your going to get that better average along with the power because they can’t just throw a ton of breaking balls and risk walking them!
But Metsie he had to completely change his batting stance to get out of the slump.
Because his timing was off! Timing he had with his old stance until he missed a year of seeing MLB pitching!
But for some reason he never could get that timing back with the old stance and had to resort to what no batter really wants to do… trash his old stance and do something completely different.
Well when the mechanics are hampering your ability to time the pitches thats whatb you have to do!
He always had messy mechanics. A high leg kick that if not timed right would throw his timing way off and eithe rlunge or be late to the pitch.
He reduced the timing of his swing that forced him to commit and quieted it down so that he is better able to react to what the eyes see without the mechanics getting in the way…Thats all he did!
His hands still drop, He still swings the way he always did the only thing his new stance does is squat so he can’t possibly lift his leg without falling over and causing him to be out of balance when the pitch arrives!
We already know why he changed his stance. The point was that we still need to see Duda and Davis put together a full season and make all the adjustments needed.
Funny how you need to see it with them but you don’t to know the Wheeler for Beltran trade was a great success…..
You have two different CONVINCE clocks don’t you?
And what happened to your “I’m a MET FAN and will be optimistic that every thing Mets is going to be just fine!” Routine?
Again, I had Ike as hopefully taking the throne as the NL East best 1B this year so maybe it’s just I was burned this year.
As for the trade, why in the hell are we discussing that again? It has nothing to do with this at all.
Too bad i’d still take IKE ahead of freeman and anybody else you wanna mention!
I too still like Ike’s potential over the rest of the NL East but I need to see it over a full season next year.
TRS this would make a great opinion piece…
TRS this would make a great opinion piece”
So you are coming to another site to steal ideas to create articles? You guys are amazing… Joe D should ban both of you if an article like that comes up in the desert!
Yeah, possibly. I might take on that challenge… maybe. What I had thought about doing was taking a look back at those rankings and see where they are now but I usually do those when the season ends.
Alex, are you off your rocker?
So I make a comment about Ike and where he ranks in the NL East and Salty wants me to write an opinion piece on it and we are suddenly stealing from MMO? Are you crazy all of the time or just some of the time?
I understand the desert is hard place to be, but guys, have some respect for a blog that it’s not your own… Disrespectful if you ask me.. You have your own blog to go and discuss things, don’t disrespect MMO like that
Alex, come on back down man. Where did anyone disrespect MMO? Because Salty said I should write an opinion piece on Ike Davis? Seriously?
Alex,
If you were so concerned about respecting MMO then I imagine you wouldn’t be getting banned around here.
And it was merely a jab at TRS who says that he has no ideas about anything to write yet he spends all day badgering you guys. So, mind your own business.
Ike still needs to prove he can be a complete hitter, not just an all or nothing HR guy. That is the question that will determine if he becomes mike jocobs or a perennial All Star.
Gary Carter wasn’t a complete hitter and he made the HALL!
If you hit HRs they don’t care about the average!
Don’t you think that had more to do with the position he played as well? But yeah, HR are nice and are desperately needed by the team.
Nope…Carter was very much like Piazza in that regard.
Piazza wasn’t really a catcher he was a 1B but the dodgers said you got a great bat but unless you can play Catcher you will never make it.
So he became a catcher!
Point remains though if you can hit 30-40 HRs no one cares about your BA or OBP and your OBP is actually helped because of all the intentionals you will get to avoid the HR!
Look at Howard for an example of that!
Now thats fine for Ike and not so much the case for Duda. So you would rather have a better average RH Power bat in the same vein as Wright or Beltran to complement them.
RH Power bat is not the same as RH HR hitter.
We don’t need anymore HR hitters truth be told.
Well ideally you could have had Wright to split up those two LH but then you would be missing a 3 hitter as Davis nor Duda are 3 hitters either. Perhaps that guy can be Flores, one can only hope.
Duda Circa 2011 could be a #3 hitter!
And I proposed earlier this year to put Wright as the Cleanup hitter and first put Davis in front of him to see more fastballs and then when Ike started showing some success to flip him with Duda and leave them that way until a real RH power bat came around.
The RH power bat is key for us though beyond just them two.
All our other OFers are LHB as well. You never want to have two lefties batting together in a lineup.
Lefties are approached by a pitcher differently than righties who they face the majority of the time.
They have to throw different pitches to different locations facing a lefty than a righty.
By putting two lefties together (even vs RHP) your giving the pitcher an entire batter to work on his feel for location vs lefties.
Break it up with a RHB and they can’t ever get into a groove. Same reason why you never want two RHBs vs LHP. balance in the lineup both R and L is the key to keeping a pitcher working and having to make adjustments on every batter!
Which is why I don’t support Terry stacking the lineup the way he has based on LHP or RHP.
Oh I completely agree that they should have adjusted the lineup and Wright while not a #4 hitter should have been that this year with Duda or Davis infront. Problem is that neither Duda nor Davis were having a good enough year to hit 3rd. If Murphy had a little more pop you could have went
Murphy, Davis, Wright, Duda as your 3-6 and I would have been fine with that as well.
Of course they were because when you put two struggng guys in the lineup together there is no protection.
Just saying if they had a little better protection they might not have struggled as much as they did.
My problems with Duda are not bat related it’s all about his plodding speed in RF where LF is at least better as they will not take third on him as often there as they will in RF.
The problem will be if they do get a RHPB that plays OF more likely Duda will be part of that trade and Kirk or Valde will wind up taking his spot, we will lose some of his power and niehter of them are decent #3 hitters either.
I am not so sure they trade Duda for an OF honestly.
If they trade a power hitter they are going to want SOME power hitter back. One who HAS played the OF but could also play 1B!
Duda is not going to be the key piece in that deal but a large chunk of the value when combined with a Flores or Familia and Mejia.
Stick,We all know he’s a power hitter, the rest will come in time.. again, he’d be a 270 to 300 type hitter with 30-50 HR capability and 100+ RBI every year. I don’t think he needs to prove anything else. Since june 12 he’s hitting 274 with 21 HR and 58 RBI. 909 OPS
It’s funny you mention June 12th because while I agree that Ike has done well since that time when I say the same thing about how well Rauch has done since June 12th I get responses akin to too little too late the season was lost already.
Of course the season was not lost on June 12th but that is apparently a matter of opinion.
True enough Alex and you can go back and read my article from the desert to start the year where I had him ready to be the best 1b in the NL East and 2nd to only Votto in the NL. However, he has clearly made an adjustment to his stance and the pitchers will now make an adjustment to that stance and he will have to yet again make an adjustment. Baseball is a game full of that and until he puts together a full season he is still a question mark unfortunately.
MNJ, difference is, Ike needed to get back to baseball activities after being hurt for a whole year, it took beltran exactly 2 months in 2010 to come back to baseball form and shape when he came back from his injured knees. Difference with rauch is, he started hot, then flamed out in the month of may and most of june where he alone had 7 LOSSES!!! i said ike will be fine in about 2 months, that is why I keep bringing June 12 as a gap date.
LoL, I can’t say I am surprised by this response. Just remember Alex he had a horrid 15 game stretch that’s it. He has pitched well before and since that stretch. By the way is it OK if I use some of your comments as talking points in a post over at RDM from time to time? Your comments are very popular. You’d be doing me a favor.
When you can cite 7 games Ike davis was the reason we lost the game we can talk about this!
Or even 10 Games where Rauch was the reason we won it
Point is Ike had a semi-decent excuse for his poor start!
Rauch just sucked and if you want to use Injury then he should not have been in the game and on IR instead!
Metsie, only 7???? Probably you find that the first 3 weeks of the season… Lol.. I love ike metsie, but come on. You don’t wanna go ahead and ask that!
Ike has done very well indeed. To think Ike is putting up the numbers he has in what can be labeled as a bad season. Imagine what he may do in a good season? We are talking Silver Slugger 1st baseman possibly.
Well you do realize that the shortfall of hitting .100 compared to a respectable .300 is about two hits every 10 ABs.
Ikes lowest performance in BA was about .154 making him 1.5 hits per 10 Abs lower than respectable!
Hard to say that one hit and a half cost us many games considering that no one gets 10 Abs per game!
So for every three games where Ike didn’t hit above .150 at best you can say he cost us one game and thats a MAYBE at that!
April/March he hit .185, Horrible but only 1.2 Hits every 10 AB
May I talked about already
June he hit .264 which isn’t bad BA for a power hitter
and during that entire time he drove in 45 RBI.
Can’t really say he cost us many games there!
He had played 65 games from March till June…SO maybe he didn’t help us in 21 games but he sure wasn’t the entire reason we lost either.
Satish, i share your enthusiasm and excitements for years ti come. But, a losing season is a losing season. I am sorry but baseball is a team sport, if you get too caught up in indiviuals stats and accomplishments, then no team would ever had disappointment. The NY METS fracnhise is in a sad and pathetic state. plain and simple.
RE: Dickey I recently watched the rebroadcast of the All Time Met inductions and when Seaver got on the stage he said something that had Dickey Written all over it!
He said “Pitching is a Mental AND Physical artform”
The Physical being the ability to control your pitches and the Mental in knowing where to throw them to trip up a batter and set him up to get him out.
Johan has the Mental (always did) his issues have been the physical lately
Dickey has the Mental in spades and despite having one pitch it’s the MENTAL ARTIST in him that makes that one pitch so effective.
Niese and Gee have the physical, Gee may not be overpowering but he has the variety of pitches to use. If both figure out the mental art aspect they could both be very special pitchers in the MLB!
And Satish there is nothing wrong with admitting there are good things going on around here. What IS foolish is to (as some do here) ignore the fact that there is NOT good as well. And truth is most of the arguments around here are about the moves that brought that NOT GOOD and hurt all that good that we do see but can’t overcome the problems without some real help!
Thats why I have been saying power RH bat is the cure here. Won’t gurantee us a WS title but it will get us into playoff contention and if our Pitching holds, that pitching is what DOES win championships!
your comment about the RH bat goes right back to the huge problem The team DID get a premium (and premium) priced RH power bat to to anchor the middle of the lineup, protect the lefties, and drive in a bunch of runs. He just turned into the worst position player in MLB.
wave your magic fairly dust and turn him back into what they bought, and your problems are solved.
The doesn’t mean the RH Power Bat being needed is wrong just that you failed to get a RH power bat!
Kind of like knowing you want to make Apple Pie and need apples but bought Pears instead!
Doesn’t mean you didn’t need apples or making apple pie was the wrong thing to do, Buying Pears was the mistake!
Yes if you fix Bay you solve that problem but I think we are clear out of Pixie Dust!
Truth is Bay was never really a RH power bat! Marginal power at best! Wright is a better HR hitter than Bay ever was! And Wright isn’t really a HR hitter either!
I agree the RH hole is still there and they desperately need to fill it. However, that does show you why reckless spending can cost you for years to come.