Week One: What's Changed?

By Jaap Stijl
Posted Tuesday, April 14, 2009

"The fact is, it seems, that the most you can hope is to be a little less, in the end, the creature you were in the beginning, and the middle."
Samuel Beckett, "Molloy", 1951

On the morning of the Grand Opening of Citi Field, the Seaver to Piazza historical opening toss, although you will be reading this the morning after, with six games under their belts, is it too early to assess where the Mets stand?

If your answer is "yes", read no further. Trying to read the future from the tea leaves of a mere six games is probably not unlike trying to swing at a fastball before it's even left the pitcher's hand. Bound to end up making you look foolish.

But this isn't an attempt to glean the course of the season from six games, it is merely, in the blink of an eye, the rendering of certain, momentary truths about the direction of the Mets as they embark on their new stadium with new hopes and new dreams.

First of all, the bullpen does not appear to be as revitalised as advertised. Yes, the closer is no longer by committee, a discernible improvement. K-Rod or Frankie, however you want to call him, appears to be the goods. He will no doubt continue to balance a high wire act between disaster and spectacular success provided that Jerry doesn't get that Luis Sojo Disease, using that closing card for every occasion. Jerry has already used his closer in non-save situations - identifying wins and losses rather than saves which is manager-speak for I'm not so sure about the rest of my bullpen. Is he justified? It's obviously too early to tell but what it does say about Jerry is that he isn't waiting for a dip in performance and for the media to start calling for his head before he treats every game with dire urgency. Given the Mets' recent history, this isn't a bad idea as not even a 20 game lead would be considered safe. That is, if the winning is even there for the taking. A 3-3 start to the season against the likes of clearly inferior Reds and Marlins teams does not bode well.

But the rest of the pen, particularly Darren O'Day, who a variety of batters have combined to hit .500 against and Sean Green, has been less than thrilling. O'Day appears to prefer the crutch of his former teammate's death to dealing with whatever fundamental issue has seen him flounder so badly early on. Even in his relatively clean debut against the Reds there were hard hit balls that on any other day, might have been hits. In fact, not just O'Day and Green, but Parnell and Feliciano as well make one wonder just how very different the meat of the bullpen has become with the changes.

The starting pitching is rounding out better than expected. The two biggest question marks; John Maine's ability to come back from surgery and Livan's ability to come back from near-career-death experience, appear to have been answered. Both pitched admirably against the Marlins and both look set for double digit win seasons. Livan of course, is the unexpected bonus, perhaps the best 5th starter in baseball.

Big Pelf will get his chance to prove himself on the big stage of the Opening of Citi Field and the expectation, against a meagre lineup like that of the Padres, is that he will give a good account of himself and any doubts about him on the back of his first start this season, will vanish. As for Ollie the Terrible, did any one doubt the ugly step brother would appear often and early this season with the big contract secured and no important early games? I expect he too will fare better against the Padres than he did in his first start. The pressure of decreasing the humiliation will be on and given his one start on, one start off sort of rotation, like a drunk passing his days between hangovers, Ollie will likely look better his second time out this season. So the starting rotation looks if anything, in better shape than we might have expected.

As for the batting order, Jerry seems to have gotten it right, knocking Castillo down to 8th and leaving Daniel Murphy in the two hole. Castillo started off so slow he required special attention but after extra batting practice, he appears back in his groove and is quite an asset with his bat and speed, both unusual that far down in the order. And overall, this batting order is formidable. Yes, Reyes' over anxiousness at the plate appears to have translated to the base path as well, given he's been caught stealing more than he's stolen, but the meat of the order is one of the best in baseball and with Church burning at both ends in an effort to stave off the Gary Sheffield Experiment as long as possible, it's shocking any time the Mets don't score a half dozen runs.

12 of their next 15 games will be in this new stadium so whatever happened last night, victory or loss, the first week is over, the seal is broken and now the season can begin in earnest.