In just a little over 24 hours, the Mets will take the field against the Florida Marlins, to open the 2011 NY Mets season.
Many believe the Mets will win in the neighborhood of about 75 games, mainly because of the uncertainty of the status of Ace Johan Santana, as well as the health of Jason Bay, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Beltran.
Jason Bay injured a rib cage muscle on Tuesday, and the official announcement of his assignment to the DL says he will be available April 9th. The big question will be how long will Bay really be disabled.
Lucas Duda should be happy of Bay's injury, not that he wants the Mets leftfielder to be hurt, but because of his injury, Duda has made the Mets 25 man roster, and will most likely start games 2 and 3 in Florida.
With the announcement that Nick Evans cleared waivers, the Mets had actually held off announcing Evans' assignment to AAA Buffalo because they were originally unsure if Evans or Duda would be assigned to Buffalo. Evans lost out. Duda won.
This 2011 season should be an "interesting" one to say the least. As with any team, there are always questions entering a new season. As always with the Mets, there are always more questions facing them than other teams.
This year the Mets have to figure out how to handle getting by without Johan for a large portion of the season, much like they had to figure out how to get by without Pedro Martinez in 2007 and 2008. That makes the signings of Chris Young and Chris Capuano very important. The two veteran pitchers should offer stability and experience to a young pitching staff.
Will Josh Thole be able to handle the starting catcher's role? If Spring training is any indication, the young backstop should fare well. I am not yet sold on the young Mr. Thole being an any everyday catcher, but I must admit, he has shown much improvement over the last year.
Will Ronnie Paulino be OK? Now with health issues concerning his stomach and colon, we aren't as worried about him playing, but of his overall health. Paulino would be a second string catcher for the Mets, but Mike Nickeas will fill that role for the time being.
The new right fielder - Carlos Beltran. Will he be healthy for the entire year? Highly doubtful. But just as curious we are about his health, we are more curious about his ability to play a new position without much preparation.
Will 2011 be better than we expect? Who knows. What we do know is that the Mets will never leave us bored. There are always a million questions heading into any new Mets season.
Just a little over 24 hours...24 Hours From Suicide...A Day In The Life Of A Met Fan!
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