MLB Opening Weekend: Mets Jump Out To Surprising Start

Perhaps the biggest surprise during baseball’s opening weekend of 2012 was the New York Mets who have begun the season with a sweep of the Atlanta Braves at Citi Field. Prior to the team’s first loss on Tuesday night the Mets started the season 4-0 for the first time since 2007 and only the 5th time in franchise history. Picked by most MLB analysts to finish in the basement of the NL East and perhaps in all of baseball, the Mets appear to have entered the season with a chip on their shoulders lead by fiery 2^nd year manager Terry Collins.

Now obviously it’s far, far too early in the season to start predicting the Mets to be a playoff contender (because barring a miracle a la 1973, they're most certainly not) but they are definitely proving that they’re going to go out and compete every day. Right now this has the look of a team that can win at least 80 games. Of course an 80-win season would be considered a serious failure for a lot of other teams out there but the Mets are unlike any other team in Major League Baseball. This is a team whose ownership enacted the largest payroll, cutback in Major League history during the offseason, slashing nearly $50 Million off their books. Despite the terrible, terrible ownership of the Wilpon Family (whom I cannot berate enough in a single blog post) the Mets have responded to all the offseason adversity.

The key to the Mets having any modicum of success this year is going to rely firmly upon the shoulders of Johan Santana (literally) and David Wright who both are looking for bounce back seasons. Santana missed the entirety of the 2011 season after having surgery to repair a torn anterior capsule in his shoulder at the end of 2010, a surgery that in the past has ended careers (remember Mark Prior? Me neither). Being the tremendous athlete that Santana is, the 2-time Cy Young Award winner has made the long comeback trek that culminated with an Opening Day start last Thursday. Working on a fairly strict pitch count, Santana turned in a sterling performance over the course of 5 innings and 84 pitches against the Braves in a 1-0 Mets victory. Santana notched 5 Ks and will look to build upon that start Wednesday afternoon when he faces off against Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals. Wright also missed time due to injury last year while turning in some of the most dismal numbers of his career. Wright’s swing has been as mess ever since the Mets started playing in Citi Field in 2009 because the park’s cavernous dimensions forced the former All-Star to attempt to become a singles-hitter. The Wilpons moved the outfield fences in during the offseason which will likely be most beneficial to the Mets because of the psychological affect it will have on the Mets hitters. On Saturday Wright crushed a HR to right-center field with the type of swing he wouldn’t have even attempted in recent years. If Santana and Wright can continue their hot starts (Wright may have trouble as he fractured a finger on Monday night) and return to the form that saw them start All-Star games then the fortunes of the Mets might continue to surprise.

Final Note: Jason Bay may be the worst player in baseball this season. Period. It takes a special kind of terrible to get blown away by 89 MPH fastballs down the pipe.