I haven't missed that little tidbit at all.

BP has a lot more depth. And would be hard to believe they can't cut BP losses by 1/3 (from 29 BP losses to 20 BP losses). Right there Mets are over .500 if they do just THAT!!

Add in Bay & Torres being major causes last yr for Mets having below avg OF. Even if Duda doesn't improve -- if the other 2 OF spots do (platoons?) that'll probably raise output enough to at least average OF offense. Which is all Mets need to generate at least 50 more runs to get to MLB avg # of runs (about 700 RS).

WS Champ Giants scored 718 runs in 2012. Braves scored 700 runs. Baltimore scored 712 runs. Oakland score 713 runs. Reds only scored 669 runs. That's 5 of 10 playoff teams (1/2) that scored just 19 - 58 more runs than Mets. In 162 gm season that can be made up w/ avg OF vs below avg OF!!

And practically nobody believes Ike Davis will hit .230 again. Plus once d'Arnaud comes up catcher will produce more than Thole/ Nickeas did (maybe Buck will do a little better also). So that's more offense too.

Whole thing hinges on Mets pitching though. As it always does in baseball.

The Mets are putting together a TEAM not 3 superstars and 6 other guys. >>>>

hopefully it works out in a couple years.

strength in numbers and they are piling up on pitchers

>>> There's strength in numbers if you're going to a gang fight in an alley. In regards to the bullpen, there's strength in TALENT, of which we've stockpiled precious little. One thing you seem to be missing is that - in an admission of just how FAIL this signing really was - Sandy is actively looking for someone else to be able to step in and close, because fat Frank stinks on ice. You can stockpile all the mediocre arms you want and call it "strength" but good luck getting those last three outs pal.

Mets should've signed Heath Bell when he was a FA last yr.

I don't think Heath would want anything to do with the Mets after the what he said about them when he left. And he was as bad or worse than Frankie last year in Florida.

It was meant to be sarcastic. :)

I see what you're trying to do there but at least Bell was a guy who wouldn't have been second-guessed signing at the time. Many here (including myself) knew when they signed that fat Frank and Rauch were wastes of money.

The difference is Bell was an unexpected bust, Frank was an expected one.

Agreed.

Thing is relievers are often unpredictable.

Bell was supposedly at the top of his game. And then he wasn't. And cost a ton of $$$.

Nobody was expecting Francisco to be lights out. Before coming to Mets FF had 3.72 career ERA. Not great. Not horrible. OK. Most expected him to be serviceable. No one expected him to have a 5.53 ERA!!

Moral of the story is -- Except for Mariano Rivera there's no such thing as a "sure thing" with relievers.

Rauch had a great year last year, so if you though he was going to be a bust you were wrong.

Now adding Lyons . I suppose he is another no talent pitcher in your opinion. You know like Feliciano and the others right.lol

>>> Feliciano who missed how long with a bad arm? But you're counting on him. What's wrong with you? And yes, Lyon blows.

Quantity does not beat quality.

"The difference is Bell was an unexpected bust"

You mean like Ramirez for us?

>>>> That's fine. Fat Frank and Rauch were still awful and it was called at the time. So I'm not sure what you think you proved.....but you didn't.

How many losses did he have in his "great" season again?

Ooops

"How many losses did he have in his "great" season again?

Ooops"

Yea because that is a great way to measure BP arms, how about his WHIP of under 1.00, or the fact that opposing batters had a .250 OBP against him, which was 12th best amongst all pitchers in baseball.

BP losses are a fine measure of effectiveness actually.

So if he comes in in a tie game strikes out two lets up a seeing eye single and the next pitcher comes in and lets up a HR he pitched worse than the pitcher who let up the 2 run HR, since he is the one that got the loss?

Frank Francisco must have had a better season than Aroldis Chapman since he only had 3 losses and Chapman had 5...