Once in a while, I like to sit down, relax, and escape into the world of Mets baseball. It’s a beautiful time to do that right now as Spring Training is heating up, and there’s already so much swirling around Mets camp to consider and debate.
I love all the excitement that is being generated by our young Met prospects; Ike Davis, Jenrry Mejia, and Fernando Martinez. As for them, the position battles, and some of the other off the field stuff, here’s my take on all of it.
FBI Investigation: Way too much is being made of this. Reyes and Beltran did not take HGH, they just happened to be treated by a doctor who was being investigated for it. I strongly believe that Reyes and Beltran are clean, and I’m glad this is beginning to blow over.
Jose Reyes’ Health: So this is starting to bother me just a little bit. I understand Jose Reyes isn’t Cal Ripken Jr., but the guy isn’t Nick Johnson either. He was injured last year, and I understand that. However, once the news was out that he was going back for a check on the thyroid imbalance, people started freaking out even more. The condition is treatable. I understand that I might be minimizing the situation, but it seems as if the fan base is always looking for something to get on Mets brass about.
Ike Davis, Fernando Martinez, and Jenrry Mejia: So I will admit that I am happy to see the three of them looking sharp to begin spring training. Davis has shown nice XBH power, Martinez has 2 HRs and Mejia looks really sharp. However, we really can’t get carried away here. Davis looks lost fielding at 1B. Martinez has yet to prove he can stay healthy for a full year. Mejia has not pitched an inning in AAA. I like these guys, and I think the future looks bright because of them, and I’ll be the first one to cheer for them when they put on a show this spring. However, I strongly believe they all need some minor league seasoning before we get our hopes up too much. The Mets rush prospects and I don’t want these guys to lose it because they were rushed.
The Mood Of The Team: Jerry Manuel is not, and will not be, a no nonsense type of guy, and the mood of the manager does tend to reflect on the players. That said, according to Matthew Cerrone, the team seems to be more serious and at the same time a lot more relaxed. Wait…what? My standpoint on all this, is that you take all the speculation you hear with a grain of salt, because even if Cerrone is the Metsblog man, he’s still not a player, and nobody can tell it like a player does.
Simply put, I may be glossing over some of the on and off the field concerns right now, I guess that’s just the way I want to react after waiting so long for Spring Training to get here. I just want to enjoy the feeling and take it all in from start to finish in April. Look, we may take apart our Mets in different ways, with sabermetrics or with what we observe on our own…but we’re still all Met fans. It’s time to act like that. I understand we all have the right to criticize, because you couldn’t call yourself a Met fan unless you thought you could do Minaya’s job better than he does. I know the team has its shortcomings, and we could sit here and whine about how Omar didn’t sign LaRoche or Sheets or Lackey… or we could start believing again. The latter sounds much better to me.
