What if the Mets really did nothing this offseason, and couldn’t sign Jason Bay or Bengie Molina or Joel Pineiro or whoever else? How bad off would they be? Let’s take a (completely theoretical) look:
Catcher: Josh Thole (L), Henry Blanco (R)
First base: Daniel Murphy (L), Nick Evans (R)
Second base: Luis Castillo (B)
Third base: David Wright (R)
Shortstop: Jose Reyes (B)
Left field: Angel Pagan (B)
Center field: Carlos Beltran (B)
Right field: Jeff Francoeur (R)
Bench: Alex Cora (INF), Chris Carter (OF/1B), Anderson Hernandez (INF), Omir Santos (C)
Starting pitchers: Johan Santana (LHP), Mike Pelfrey (RHP), Oliver Perez (LHP), John Maine (RHP), Jon Niese (LHP)
Bullpen: Francisco Rodriguez (RHP), Kelvim Escobar (RHP), Ryota Igarashi (RHP), Pedro Feliciano (LHP), Bobby Parnell (RHP), Sean Green (RHP), Brian Stokes (RHP)
That’s assuming a lot of things, of course. Health is the main one. Obviously Reyes, Beltran, Santana, Escobar, Perez, Niese and Francoeur all have some major to minor question marks attached to them, injury-wise.
And it’s assuming the Mets would give Thole the opportunity to start the season in a platoon, which I doubt, plus carry three catchers, which I also doubt. But it’s an arbitrary and theoretical exercise anyway.
But that said, does the team look downright terrible? It would be counting on a whole lot of things to fall the right way, of course.
One minor positive to the 2009 season might be that it forced Omar Minaya to pick up a good deal of pitching depth to handcuff the current crop of injury-prone starters. This club wouldn’t include Nelson Figueroa, Pat Misch, Fernando Nieve and Tobi Stoner, all of whom could be stashed in Buffalo for when one of the “mainstays” inevitably goes down.
Is the team, on paper, good enough to compete with the Roy Halladay-bolstered, reigning-champion Phillies? Not by a long shot. But it would give Thole, Murphy, Evans, Pagan and Francoeur opportunities to show whether they deserve to be parts of the Mets’ long-term plans while allowing more impressive prospects deeper in the system to develop at higher levels.
Which is not to say it’s a plan I’m advocating. But I also don’t think it would be the worst idea in the world.
Tedquarters 
Thole needs to be starting everyday in AAA to start. I can live with a Santos/Blanco combo behind the plate.
I’d still really like them to sign Bay. He would be a much better fit than the grossly overrated Holiday.
I’d love to see Garland and Bedard thrown into the rotation, too.
but seeing how weak and overpaid this years FA’s are, a year to reload and recharge may be what’s best for the team.
For what they will overpay for Pinero (man he sucks) I rather them give incentive ladden deals to Garland, Bedard, and pay Sheets a half of his 12 million a year and the other half after the allstar break provided he’s still healthy.
Johan Santana
Ben Sheets
Erik Bedard
Jon Garland
John Maine
Jonathan Niese
Mike Pelfrey
Mr. Head Case Oliver Perez
Bullpen
Kelvin Escobar
Robert Parnell
Ryoto Igashi
Elmer Dessens
Pedro Feliciano
Francisco Rodriguez
of course some mentioned starters above in bullpen.
You write: “This club wouldn’t include Nelson Figueroa…”
WHY?
Because, on August 5th, after being bombed two days earlier in 2 innings, he relieved in the second inning against the 2009 NL Central champion St. Louis Cardinals when Niese got hurt and pitched 4.1 innings of shut out ball?
Because, in that game, with the Mets ahead 2-0, he hit a 2-run triple?
Or maybe it’s because of his performance after taking Santana’s spot in the rotation in mid-August?
+ In his 8 starts, Figueroa’s ERA was 3.38
+ If you take away one bad start, in 7 of the 8 games Figueroa had a 2.23 ERA
+ Even his season 4.09 ERA is lower than half of the other 2009 starters in the National League
+ Figueroa averaged 6+ innings per start
+ Figueroa averaged over 105 pitches per start
Because he was 2-6? but in his 6 losses, the Mets scored a total of 11 runs, that’s less than 2 runs per game.
The Mets were never out of a game he started once he became part of the rotation. Never.
Figueroa was the only Mets pitcher to throw a complete game shut out at Citi Field.
Figueroa had more September strikeouts than any Mets pitcher.
Figueroa can start and pitch short relief and long relief.
He’s proven that. And he wants to play for the Mets. He’s on the 40-man roster, so, Jeff Wilpon, sign him to a one year contract with performance bonuses and a 2011 option and let’s see what happens.
We all like Figgy, and he’s good enough to be a 5th starter on some teams, but we’re lucky enough to have him as an inevitably necessary, at some point, spare.
I think in a full season in the majors, he’d end up getting hit pretty hard. I would not be happy planning on him as our 5. That would be a shallow, shallow plan for a rotation. (I’d rather have seen him take Redding’s spot last year, but that’s mostly an indication of how much I hate Redding.)
You’ll get few arguments out of me; I’m as big a fan as Figueroa has, I think. I’ll write a post on this today.
There’s nothing in Nelson Figueroa’s career ML stats that point to him being hit pretty hard in a full season. He shined once he was in the rotation, pitching every 5th game. On the 2009 Mets, he averaged 3.1 walks per game and 7.5 strikeouts per game, both career bests. Why not let him battle it out in Spring Training for a spot in the rotation?