Joel Sherman of the New York Post continues the media onslaught against the Mets this winter with an article claiming the Mets can still salvage the off season. Can someone please point me to the page with the off season standings. I can’t find it. I didn’t realize baseball is being played now. I thought it didn’t start till April.

Okay, I’ll put the sarcasm aside. I understand the fans’ frustration and the media’s insatiable appetite to sell newspapers by writing negative stories (the Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch you know).  And the perception is the Mets will be just as bad as last year. 

Let’s be realistic and put our emotions in check for a couple of minutes.

If the Mets return to New York healthy they will be better than last season. With basically the same cast of players in 2007 and 2008, the Mets won 88 and 89 games respectively.  In ’07, there were eleven teams with worse records and in ’08 there were twelve teams worse.  Take away the star players and last year is what you get. So if the star players come back healthy and there is every reason to believe they will (even though Beltran will be late to the dance), the Mets should play at least as well as those two winning seasons. I understand ’07 and ’08 get overlooked because of the horrible way in which those seasons ended. You will get no argument from me in regards to that. However, at least with a healthy club, the Mets should be able to play to a winning record again.

Now of course the question remains, can this team make the playoffs? Yes they can and no they can’t.  If the talent comes through, the Mets can and should make the post season. But if the question marks, and there are many of them, prove to be answered in the negative, than they will not make the playoffs further frustrating Mets fans. By the way, the Mets are not alone in this category. Most teams have question marks, some more than others.

The Yankees have question marks too. Their outfield situation may prove to be problematic but winning the World Series does a lot to ignore that and other questions. Now don’t get excited, I am by no means comparing the Mets situation to the Yankees. I’m merely trying to prove a rational point that the Mets have a lot of company when you consider question marks this early in the year.

Do I wish the Mets could have improved the team more than acquiring Jason Bay? Of course I do but except for not obtaining John Lackey, who could they have gotten that would have made a huge difference?

Are Mets fans actually upset they were not able to sign Bengie Molina? Are you kidding me? Did you see that clip they kept showing over and over of Molina rounding the bases carrying an extra half person with him? Please, the Mets would have had to overpay for Molina then we would be complaining how the Mets don’t spend wisely.

We can argue the merits of not signing Joel Piniero or Randy Wolf or Ben Sheets but signing any one of these pitchers does not reduce the number of questions, it only increases them.

I’m not trying to defend Omar Minaya. Frankly I have become to believe the Mets have a lot of issues in the front office and they may all start with Jeff Wilpon. And if that’s the case where do you go from there? However, I am actually hopeful for this season and here is why.

Accept for the acquisition of Bay and some bench players, this is the same team from the last three seasons. Now it is up to them to prove something as it always has been. We can blame Wilpon and Minaya all we want but neither of these two suits gets a single at bat or throws a single pitch. Imagine you are a player on the Mets hearing the ranting of Mets fans, sports talk show hosts, bloggers, and newspaper writers. I would hope all that negativity inspires Mike Pelfrey, John Maine, Oliver Perez, David Wright, Jose Reyes, Daniel Murphy and all the others to have great years. These guys have the talent. Now it’s a matter of proving something. With gritty Jason Bay in the midst of these Mets players, I expect big things this year.

It’s hard to predict what will happen. At the beginning of 2006, every Mets fan would have signed on the dotted line to have the Mets eliminated in game seven of the NLCS. Last year at this time, no one could have predicted what would unfold due to the massive injuries.  So rant and rave if that’s what you want and need to do. I am taking a more positive approach because you just never know.