New York Mets: In-Depth Analysis

Mr. Met, introduced in 1963, is possibly the
first baseball mascot to appear in human form.

The recent discovery of some new case logs from the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder (wherein they chronicle their newest adventures inside Arkham City) has drawn my attention somewhat from the world of Major League Baseball.  But now that I'm back on track, it seems perfectly logical (for reasons known only to myself and my college roommates) to follow the Minnesota Twins with the New York Mets.  The Mets, like the Twins, were expected to finish in the bottom of their division, but profoundly unlike the Twins, they have surprised everyone with a record above .500 as we speed towards the halfway point of 2012, the Mets' 50th Anniversary season.  This is a welcome change in the wake of two historic September collapses, followed by two losing seasons, capped off with a $1 billion lawsuit related to the Bernie Madoff scandal.

Arguably baseball's most successful expansion team, the Mets came into existence in 1962 to replace the recently-departed Dodgers and Giants - from which they take their team colors, blue and orange.  Their two World Championships (the 1969 Tom Seaver-led "Miracle Mets" and the 1986 Bill Buckner-aided "Curse of the Bambino" series) equal both the Blue Jays and Marlins, but their four World Series appearances (including losses to the A's in 1973 and the Yankees in 2000) are the most for an expansion team.  But enough talk about the past, it's time to MEET THE METS!

Highest Scorers (2011)

This is not a pretty category, so I might as well get it out of the way first.  R.A. Dickey led the team last year with just shy of 1,500 points, and while he's doing a nice job reinventing his career at age 37 (still relatively young for a knuckleball pitcher), an 8-13 record is not necessarily the poster boy you want for your team.  Dickey would have certainly been overtaken by David Wright had he not missed 58 games in 2011 with a stress fracture in his lower back - at his 13.0 points per game clip, Wright would have made up the 169 point deficit between them in just... 13.0 games.  Jason Bay comes next, who missed significant time in 2010 with a concussion, but couldn't blame injuries for his abysmal performance in 509 plate appearances last year.  Infielder Daniel Murphy (who made the full-time transition to 2B in 2012) was the only other Met to break 1,100 points in 2011.

Highest Scorers (2012)

R.A Dickey and David Wright once again find themselves atop this list, but this time with very respectable numbers.  Dickey is the 2nd ranked pitcher overall leading the league in Wins, W-L%, CG and SHO - maybe the release of his autobiography just prior to Opening Day gave him the confidence he needed to succeed.  David Wright is no. 7 among all batters, thanks to a .357 AVG and a 1.040 OPS.  Johan Santana is next up, his stats having been padded by his recent no-hitter, the first ever in Mets history.  As we leave the top 50 batters behind, we find 1B-turned-RF Lucas Duda and rookie CF Kirk Nieuwenhuis (don't ask me how to pronounce this) putting up middle-of-the-road numbers, hovering at around 10 points per game.  New closer Frank Francisco has amassed 600 points even, despite an ERA above 5.00, thanks to the grossly-overrated SV stat.

Newest Acquisitions

The above-mentioned financial problems through which the Mets owners are suffering prevented them from going after a glut of big-name free agents in the off-season.  The only major league deals they made involved shoring up their bullpen with Toronto's old closer-setup combo from 2011 (Frank Francisco and John Rauch) and picking up some infield depth (Ronny Cedeno).  They got a couple of players from the Giants in a trade for Angel Pagan: CF Andres Torres, who had a big year in 2010 but has yet to follow it up, and RP Ramon Ramirez, who strained his hamstring while celebrating Johan Santana's above-mentioned no-hitter.

In transactions that would only appear in mlbtraderumors.com's "Minor Moves" column, waiver claim Jeremy Hefner is helping out as an all-important swingman in the pitching staff.  The decision to bring in Rob Johnson to provide depth behind the plate looked awful good when starting C Josh Thole missed most of May with a concussion.  Omar Quintanilla is currently manning SS due to injuries to both Ruben Tejada (quad) and Ronny Cedeño (calf).  And Vinny Rottino is also on the team.

Highest Paid Players

Johan Santana leads the pack with a staggering $24mm owed to him in 2012, which increases to a slightly more staggering $25mm in 2013.  And if they want to cut ties with him in 2014 (provided he doesn't meet the criteria to gain control of his option), they'll have to cough up another $5.5mm, or the salary of their fifth-highest paid player in 2012 (free agent signee Frank Francisco).  Tough-Luck Jason Bay will get $16mm for a 2012 that has already featured DL stints for a fractured rib and yet another concussion (which just occurred yesterday, too late-breaking to appear on my roster graphic).  David Wright is earning his $15mm in the last guaranteed year of his contract, and while the team would like to sign him to a long-term deal rather than exercising their $16mm option for 2013, he won't talk contracts during the season.  Rounding out the top 5 is SP Mike Pelfrey, who will be spending his Make or Break Year recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Outlook

Baseball's eastern divisions are notoriously tough this year: at one point all 10 eastern teams across both leagues were over .500 - now only Boston and Philly are below the mark.  New York's starting pitching has performed remarkably, but none of their new bullpen acquisitions has an ERA below 4.60.  On the offensive side, David Wright's potential contract year can only carry this team so far without some help from his fellow big boppers in the lineup (Jason Bay had a .187 AVG before his latest injury and Ike Davis is sitting at .191) or anything better than a replacement level shortstop.  I didn't expect them to finish above 4th place before the season started, and I see no reason to change my prediction now.