Is the Dream of 2011 Dead?

Per Metsblog, yesterday's loss formally eliminated the Mets from contention in the NL East. It's a matter of days before the same happens in the Wild Card race.

My expectations for the 2010 season were never particularly high. Sure, there was that moment in mid-June when the team was 11 games over .500 and I really believed in them, but as they slid back to mediocrity I accepted it. The team had played over its head and it was reverting to the mean. That's what 162 games will do to you.

But 162 games can do something else to you, too: they can sap your enthusiasm for the next 162 in one instant. For the Mets, that instant was when Johan Santana sustained a torn capsule in his shoulder.

I had hoped that 2010 would be a redux of 2005, a steppingstone type of season into a brighter tomorrow. But between Santana's injury, which could keep him sidelined throughout 2011, and the Wilpons' bizarrely unknowable financial situation, it seems incredibly unlikely that the Mets will have the motivation or resources to make the kind of high impact moves that would make them legitimate contenders for the division crown in 2011.

I hate to sound so defeatist, but it's not even worth trying. With Santana on the shelf and question marks around the diamond, there are too many holes to fill and too few dollars to fill them with.

What does that mean for 2011? It means it's another year like this one; a season of development and, hopefully, long-term growth.

It means the team shouldn't add a dime to its payroll in the offseason. What's the point? Let guys like Dillon Gee, Josh Thole, Jenrry Mejija, and on and on get a full year in the big leagues under their belts. Then try to make the high impact moves when the contracts of Beltran, K-Rod, Castillo, etc. finally come off the books after 2011.

Between guys like Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese, and Ike Davis (not to mention David Wright and Jose Reyes), the Mets might actually have a home-grown core of players to build something special around.

But they're not going to be world beaters overnight, and certainly not in 2011. There are still kinks those guys, especially Niese and Davis, will work through next season.

And that's OK. It's OK to be long-term greedy, and that's exactly what the Mets should be. The strategy from here on out should be to focus on 2012. If the Mets play their cards right and a few things break their way, there's no reason they can't be legitimate contenders that season.

And then, who knows, maybe they win the World Series and the world ends later that year because of some Mayan calendar thing. That sounds about right.

Enjoy your Sunday, everyone. First softball game of the season -- let's go!

- A.F.O.M.G.