New York Mets (74-88)
– 4th Place NL East
The Mets struggled to find their footing in 2012. Struggles in the bullpen and injuries to the
starting rotation definitely contributed to the Mets below par year. Expectations were down slightly down after
losing All-Star shortstop Jose Reyes to the division rival Marlins, but winning
is always the expectation in New York, no matter what the situation may be.
Pitchers-
Injuries to starters Johan Santana, Mike Pelfrey, and Dillon Gee definitely
limited what the Mets could accomplish this past year. Despite the injuries, the rotation was still
quite strong with good performances from Jon Niese, Chris Young, and rookie
Matt Harvey. The cream of the crop
however was 37 year-old knuckleballer R.A. Dickey. Dickey led the team in innings with over 230
and struck out 230 batters while walking only 54. Dickey had a sparkling 2.73 ERA and an
insanely low 1.05 WHIP. Dickey is one of
the good guys in baseball, and this blogger hopes that he will take home the CY
Young Award, as it is well deserved. The
bullpen was the exact opposite of the starting rotation, struggling throughout
the year and managing to blow many of the wins for its starters. Frank Francisco started the season as the
closer, and managed to convert 23 of his 26 save opportunities before getting
injured, despite an ERA in the mid 5’s.
Jon Rauch and Bobby Parnell, who were both quite successful in middle
relief and setup roles, could not translate that success into the 9th
inning. The two combined to convert only
11 of their 20 save opportunities.
R.A. Dickey led the Mets' starters in 2012, and is among the
finalists for the CY Young Award
(image courtesy of metsmerizedonline.com)
Infield- David
Wright, the absolute star in the infield, had a great 2012 season, bouncing
back from his rough 2011. Wright led the
team with a .306 batting average, while hitting 21 home runs and driving in
93. Perhaps the most impressive stat for
Wright was his .391 on base percentage.
It was a rough first half for first baseman Ike Davis, but he turned it
around in the 2nd half. Davis
finished the season with 32 home runs, which was best on the team, and his 90
RBIs were 2nd to only Wright.
Up the middle, the Mets mainly went with Ruben Tejada and David
Murphy. Both hit for a high average,
.289 and .291 respectively, but neither was able to do much else.
Outfield- The
Mets outfield was a revolving door of sorts this past year. Seven players collected at least 150 at
bats. The highest paid of the group,
Jason Bay, was also by far the worst of the bunch. In just under 200 at bats, Bay batted only
.165, which is a huge part of the reason that he was released this past week
with the Mets agreeing to pay all of his contract. Scott Hairston, Andres Torres, Kirk
Nieuwenhuis, and Lucas Duda collected most of the at bats in the outfield, and
none of them were particularly good.
Hairston led that group not only in games played, but also in home runs
with 20, RBIs with 57, and batting average, at .263. The numbers for the Mets outfield will have to
get much better in 2013, especially for Lucas Duda, who was predicted to have a
big 2012 season, but fell way short of expectations.
Don’t forget to follow R.A. Dickey on Twitter @RADickey43
and as always, for all our uncensored opinions, follow Wade and I, @WadeCArthur and @TommyM44.
Also, don’t forget to check back in tonight for out Hot
Stove Daily Wrap-up, with all the big news from the day. We continue our season reviews on Monday with Wade's take on the Kansas City Royals.
Lastly, a Full Count logo is in the works, courtesy of Zack Scafuri and Scafuri Designs, so be on the lookout for this in the coming weeks. Be sure to check out Zack's other designs, by following him on twitter @SCAFURIDESIGNS, on facebook at facebook.com/scafuridesigns or on his website, scafuridesigns.com
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