The countdown continues ...
In the meantime, I thought I'd cut and paste five questions about the Mets that ran in Newsday's 2008 preview section. Check 'em out:
Just who is the leftfielder for this team, anyway?
Ideally, the plan is for Moises Alou to return from hernia surgery and reclaim his job by early May. But this is likely to be an area that's in flux for most of 2008. Alou played only 87 games last season because of a severe quadriceps strain that cost him 2½ months, and given that he's 42, it's a good guess that the hernia will not be his only injury this year. The Mets do have insurance there, with reliable backup Endy Chavez and spring standout Angel Pagan, and they can always make a move at the trade deadline if Alou is on the shelf at that time.
Can Pedro Martinez be relied on from here to October?
Martinez says he can, and there's no reason to suspect otherwise after watching him in spring training. Sure he's old (36), has logged more than 2,600 innings and is only 18 months removed from rotator-cuff surgery. But Martinez is smart enough to realize he has a finite supply of bullets left and is pitching accordingly. If handled conservatively, he could make it.
Is it possible that manager Willie Randolph could be in the hot seat?
Um, yeah. I'd consider Randolph already there. The temperature is not to the point that the manager is sweating, but after last season's unprecedented collapse, Randolph knows he's a poor start away from things really getting uncomfortable. He's entering the second season of his three-year, $5.65-million deal, which is dangerous territory when it comes to job security.
Will Carlos Delgado's hip be a problem?
I'm no doctor, but from what I've seen and heard from Delgado himself, I'd have to say yes. Anything involving a body part as major as a hip joint is worrisome, and his condition, diagnosed as an "impingement," often is the precursor of arthritis. He appeared to be in great shape when he arrived for spring training. But the amount of stress that hip is going to absorb from hitting and the grind of playing every day suggests he's going to need more anti-inflammatory injections than the one he received at the beginning of March.
Is this the year David Wright wins the MVP?
I'm always a big proponent of Jose Reyes for this award because he's a shortstop, a leadoff hitter and the best base-stealer in the game. But Wright, the team's best hitter, has the ability to carry the Mets from the No. 3 hole. He tried to put the entire team on his shoulders at the end of last September, when he batted more than .400 during the slide, but couldn't do it alone. Wright could have a career year numbers-wise, and if the Mets get to the playoffs, he might be the biggest reason.
Comments (1)
Randolph appears to be a very nice man. Perhaps he can get a booth at the farmers market, because that is the limit I trust him to manage. He would be scrubbing toilets at Yangee stadium with that collapse,not managing a contending team. His freeze up in the ninth inning of the NLCS says all you need to know about his managerial skills. During that stretch beginning in middle september, he looked like someone had spiked his gatorade, his eyes rolling around, getting the confused look of a captured weasel on DMT. He should have been put out on a barge off montauk point,left to teach in the intricacies of turning a double play to Icelandics or Greenlanders. Instead,he will fill out the mets lineup,standing proudly like Custer at little big horn.Sigh. Whither Jerry Manuel?