New York Mets: 2008 Season Outlook

The start of the 2008 is just around the corner with Spring Training coming to a close in two weeks.  The New York Mets are going to be coming out of Spring Training with a lot of health concerns, but also with a lot of optimism.  Are they the team to beat in the NL East? Can the Mets survive the collapse last year to the Philadelphia Phillies? How will the players perform?

The best move the Mets made was getting Johan Santana. He's going into the 2008 regular season looking strong and healthy.  With the exception of one outing in Spring Training, Santana looked over powering and all of his pitches seemed to be effective.  Most importantly, Santana provides a big anchor to this pitching staff.  He takes a lot of pressure off of Pedro Martinez, allowing Pedro to relax knowing he's not the only go to guy when the Mets need a 'pick me up' win. 

The signing of Santana also put a bright spot on the collapse of the 2007 Mets.  What do the Mets do when they suffer a huge downfall? They go out and make a trade for the one of, if the the best pitcher in Major League Baseball.  I believe Santana will be worth every penny of his contract.  Plus Santana provides a second ace for the Mets.  Although it may be believed that Santana is the lone ace of the rotation, nothing can be taken away from Pedro with all he has accomplished through out his career, even with out his 95mph+ fastball. 

Pedro Martinez has turned into one of the smartest pitchers in Major League Baseball.  He saw a lot of his dominance disapear with his fastball, but he has made adjustments to his pitching style and it has worked perfectly for him.  After coming off of a mostly injured season in 2007 where when he returned looked very strong and effective posting a 2.57 ERA in 5 starts.  Don't expect Pedro to be going to deep into games, but a rested bullpen following a game that Santana should go deep into will help pick up Pedro.

Following Santana and Pedro int he rotation will be John Maine and Oliver Perez.  Both pitchers posting up 15 wins a piece in 2007 look to come back strong with their live arms.  Maine already showing he's ready for the regular season dominating Spring Training.  Maine looking very effective and should post up a repeat year, if not maybe even adding a couple of more wins in 2008.  Maine proved last year that he can eat up some inning, pitching in close to 200 innings.

One concern can be the 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' pitching performances by Oliver Perez.  Although this act did win him 15 games in 2007, it also lost him 10.  His ERA well under 4.00 is a bright spot to look forward to.  If Perez can eliminate some of his bad starts, and keep the Mets in some of those games, there's no reason why he shouldn't win another 15 games and maybe lower is loss total.  With Maine and Perez totaling over 350 strike outs, it looks as if the one through four starters for the Mets are strong and should have at least a total of 60 wins between the four of them.

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