New York Mets: Possible joy they can bring to fans in 2012 Major League season - MLB Feature
No way in contention, the New York Mets will enter the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season as an underdog. As a side with their great performances resembling a few scattered dots on a graph, Mets have a history of rejoicing fans with unexpected flare-ups.
Even if those are not more than closely missing play-offs, hardly were they in the fans' pre-season imaginations.
Throughout 90s, Mets disappointed the fans one season after another and in 1997 expectations floored with everyone laughing at the idea of Mets winning the Division, as they narrowly missed the playoffs that year.
Then, in the following year, solaced with their last year unexpectedly better performance and thus not daring to think on post-season qualifying, they surprised again with another great season and inhibited only by one game defeat from their journey to the
playoffs.
Pundits are predicting somewhat similar this year for the Mets irrespective of their unimpressive preparations. One can imagine how ordinary the Mets are from the factors discussed below.
Deprived of their veteran shortstop Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran, Mets are pinning their hopes on youth, unambiguously an irrational expectation in light of established hitters most teams in the League possess.
To make matters worse, extreme financial crisis looms over them and reports are suggesting that their opening day cuts will reflect more money savings attempts than quest to strike right combination of expertise.
With Michael Pelfrey already facing the probability of release as part of Mets' desire to cut down expenses on players, experts are even talking of complete nonchalance of management this year with results. Perception seems to go like this: “what if club
reel for one more year, after all it will just be an addition to their pathetic last three seasons”.
Result of club’s disarray as a whole is the pinnacle of hopelessness fans have resorted to. They know, they have nobody to look forward to, even with Johan Santana, their starter, expecting him to take them to the playoffs will just be downright madness.
Their offense holds much in prospect, unfortunately not enough to lift them with something like Reyes style of run manufacturing techniques.
Right fielder Lucas Duda, is a bright prospect for the Mets, but he is more a slugger than a cheeky run manufacturer. Skills for stealing bases and gaining extra bases barely fall in his repertoire. First baseman is another in this category, boasting an
impressive .271 batting average, 26 home-runs and 96 RBIs, but lacking in conventional runs accumulating techniques.
While odds are bleak, Mets’ broadcaster Gary Cohen expresses his views about characteristics the club as a unit possesses. Casting a glance on an era of the 80s and explaining how the club stuttered from one season to another and then all of a sudden transpiring,
much to the surprise of everyone. He believes the Mets will fetch something for the fans this year as well, even if they do not have anything apparently to suggest so.
“Mets fans always talk about ’84. They had gone through seven straight horrible seasons and then all of a sudden there was a great young infusion of talent — (broadcast partners) Ronnie (Darling) and Keith (Hernandez) were a part of that — and they won 90
games out of nowhere and that led up to the World Series a few years later. Those are the years the Mets fans tend to relish and what they are waiting for,” He said of the Mets.
As they take on Atlanta Braves on Thursday and kick off their regular season at Citi Field, fans will be hoping that what Gary Cohen envisages of the club will actually be true.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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