To Mediocrity, and Beyond!

No use sugarcoating it: there's a lot of pessimism surrounding the Metsies this year.

Let's face it, 2009 was about as depressing a season as you could ever possibly have. The team came in with a ton of hype and heady expectations and produced a 70-win season that was as depressing and unbearable as any since the early part of the last decade.

The situation called for drastic action. Surely the Mets would go on a spending spree like the Yankees did after missing the playoffs in 2008. We had to have Jon Lester, Jason Bay/Matt Holliday, and Joel Pineiro or Randy Wolf. Anything less would be a failure.

All offseason the fans waited for deliverance via free agency or a trade that would land a marquee name. In the end we had to live with adding only one necessary piece, Jason Bay. It was an important stride but not enough to mask all of the team's deficiencies.

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So where do we go from here? What do we possibly have to hope for?

The truth is, I actually think there's a good amount to hope for in 2010, it just depends on your perspective.

If you're somebody who defines success solely as a season where you make the playoffs, this season probably won't satisfy you (moreover, you should probably start following the other team in town).

But if you're somebody who can take the long view, somebody who can appreciate a team on the up and up, this season might end up being our most satisfying since 2005.

It's a line I've been repeating a lot lately, but if the Mets can have the kind of season where they keep things interesting from start to finish, giving you reason to believe one day and ripping your heart out the next, and produce an 80-84 win season (preferably 83 or 84 wins; better to be on the right side of .500), well, I'll take that.

I'll take that because I honestly don't believe the pitching is anywhere near good enough to ask for much more.

I'll take that because 80-84 wins would be a substantial improvement over last year's 70.

But most of all I'll take that because there's a light at the end of the tunnel. With youngsters like Ike Davis, Fernando Martinez, and Josh Thole knocking on the door, and with Jenrry Mejia having already knocked it down, it's clear that the future of this club doesn't belong to guys named Carlos anymore.

A new crop of stars will have to help David Wright and Jose Reyes win a championship; some of them will come from without (and that will be a big part of next offseason), but thankfully we have reason to hope that some of them will actually come from within, too.

In the course of an 80-84 win season, I expect we'll hear plenty of boos for Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo (sorry, Little Miss Citi), and at least one of our new Japanese relievers (probably both). But we'll also have a chance to break in our youngsters and have reason to be excited about our future.

And that's fitting. As I sit here on the verge of another Opening Day with Sip, I realize this season, our present, is as much about the future as anything else. With Bay in the lineup and healthy years from some of our established stars, we figure to be pretty mediocre this year (mediocre is a BIG step up from dreadful, which we were last year).

But this year isn't only about 2010, it's about 2011, 2012 and all the rest from there. You've gotta start somewhere. For a team that looked awful in 2009, 2010 should be a heck of a lot better, with the best yet to come in 2011 and beyond.

So chin up, Mets fans. We probably won't dominate this year, it's probably overstating it to say the excitement is back in Queens, but it's probably not an overstatement that this year hope will return. For a diehard fan like me, some seasons, hope is enough. 

And with that, I'm off to Citi Field. Let's go Mets!

- A.F.O.M.G.