Oakland Athletics record in 2011 - 74-88
Oakland Athletics record in 2012 - 94-68

New York Mets record in 2012 - 74-88
New York Mets record in 2013 - ???

If Oakland went from being mediocre to contending, why can't we? What if Harvey, Wheeler, D'Arnaud, Cowgill, and Duda have good seasons? Also remember that Torres, Bay, and Thole are gone. Do we have a shot at at least the wild card in 2013?

you have to get lucky when you are a lower payroll team (which we are becoming) by having a bunch of young cheap players all contribute at the same time. That's what happened to them last year. In order for us to be competitive, we are going to need Harvey, Wheeler, D'Arnaud at MINIMUM become all stars around the same time before they start earning real money.

when we make decisions like taking in guys like cespedes we'll compete

Plus their bullpen was great. The mets bullpen is awful

+1

There was NO excuse for us NOT to sign Cespedes....NO EXCUSE. We were DESPERATE for a CFer. He was the best option available and didn't exactly command a "ridiculous" contract by any means...though by the wilpons' standards anything over the league minimum might be considered "ridiculous" at this point. If we had him over Torres last year, there is no doubt in my mind that we would have had at LEAST 5-7 more wins. Too bad he costed money....

If Oakland went from being mediocre to contending, why can't we? What if Harvey, Wheeler, D'Arnaud, Cowgill, and Duda have good seasons? Also remember that Torres, Bay, and Thole are gone. Do we have a shot at at least the wild card in 2013
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I agree we do have a better shot now they are gone

"I agree we do have a better shot now they are gone'

The Giants won a WS with Torres as their CF'er.

Just sayin'.

"though by the wilpons' standards anything over the league minimum might be considered "ridiculous" at this point."

...by a decent amount of posters on this board as well.

""I agree we do have a better shot now they are gone'

The Giants won a WS with Torres as their CF'er.

Just sayin'."

It makes sense since he had a good season.

but Beane made some great trades and signings. something Alderson hasn't done

I couldn't agree more that we're better without bay, Torres, and Thole! The back end of our lineup was a black hole! I can remember so many situations with runners on, the heart of the order getting on base with less than two out, then here comes 4 automatic outs.

One criticism I have for terry Collins, is his OCD, with tinkering with the lineup, winning streak or not... he just keeps doing it.

Our hitters really need to be more settled in their roles as hitters, and become better at what they do.

Yes, the lineup has to sometimes be shaken up, or aligned to hitter vs pitcher metrics, etc, etc, but Collins appears to be consumed with this.

I feel Torres would have been more productive overall, as a leadoff hitter and keep him there, and just work on pitch selection and getting on base. With a base stealing threat on, the pitcher has to work harder to get the next batter out. The bottom of the lineup would have been far better with Tejada in the #8 slot.

That point is moot with exception that Terry needs to learn from that.. Terry has to get a grip, and rely more on his hitters to fill more specific hitting roles. (right from Spring training to let them know what's expected) The only player who did, was David Wright as our #3.

Thoughts ??

What if Harvey, Wheeler, D'Arnaud, Cowgill, and Duda have good seasons? Also remember that Torres, Bay, and Thole are gone. Do we have a shot at at least the wild card in 2013?

Harvey and TDA may have good season. Wheeler won't be up til July. Cowgil and Duda are 4th outfielders at best.

Oakland added players for the 2012 season. Cespedes at the top of the list. Who have the Mets added?

Bullpen...

*I couldn't agree more that we're better without bay, Torres, and Thole! The back end of our lineup was a black hole*

Not defending those guys, but is the back of lineup any better. Replacing garbage with garbage does not mean improvement.