Expectations Kool Aid Style: Could it happen? Why not? In fact, Count on it!

It's so good to be back after the long winter without baseball.  Every year for the past few years, I talk myself into not putting high expectations on the boys in blue and orange.  Then something happens - I smell Spring break through the winter cold, put my winter coat in the closet, catch those Spring Training games on the radio randomly in the car or flipping through the channels on television, and next thing you know I'm telling myself that this is the year.

Well this off-season was a little different...sort of different.  First off, there was a huge regime change which had me pulling out my copy of Money Ball to see if these were actually names I was recognizing.  For the first time in a long time, we didn't sign any big time free agents as the team showed some restraint in making a move that could handicap us for seasons to come (no matter if it was just because there was no money to spend).  Then, the Phillies made moves early on in the off-season to give them potentially one of the best rotations of all time to add to their already dangerous team (NOTE: It's Spring Training and we're all working off the rust - you can expect much more negative things about the Phillies from this blog as the season begins.) Finally, no one else was talking up the Mets as a contender as in years past - not even the Mets.  There was nothing to raise my expectations irrationally.

Now here we are.  Spring is starting to creep in, I didn't wear my winter coat today, yesterday I heard Steve Sommers talking about "Meet the Debts,"  I've been checking Spring Training box scores, I pulled out an old copy of MLB: The Show as I wait for the new edition to be available, and I'm starting to feel the Kool Aid start flowing through my veins.  My expectations are growing and I'm trying to keep them in check, but in the words of Harry Doyle of Major League (I and II), "Look who we've got coming back!"

At the top of the list, you've got David Wright, Ike Davis, and Angel Pagan coming back to hopefully perform as well as they did last year if not better.  They helped us see that Citi Field is not as cavernous and impossible to hit home runs out of as we may have originally thought.  If the other guys in the lineup can do their part, it should help these guys even more and we could see big production.

Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, and Jason Bay seem like they are finally healthy to start a season and are ready to play to their potential.  Reyes and Beltran are in contract years and they have more motivation than usual to have good seasons to secure a nice contract for the future.  If these guys, especially Reyes, can get back to their form, people's eyes will open pretty quickly on what this team can be.  With Jason Bay, you have to hope that he has a 2nd year with the Mets like Beltran did in '06 and that he's over the pressures of playing in the big city and the big Citi for that matter.  Do I expect this to happen? Why shouldn't I?

Pitching is the big question mark it seems for this team.  We've got a number of new-comers, some young guys that will hopefully break out, and a superstar ace on the shelf with no real timetable for return.  KRod seems like he's got his head straight a bit.  All I hear is how great Chris Young is as a leader, a hard worker, and someone who's going to thrive in Citi Field as he did in Petco Park for a number of years.  Pelfrey has to take the next step and become a top pitcher in the NL like he did for part of last season.  Niese needs to take the step that Pelfrey took last year from young hopeful to someone we need to rely on.  RA Dickey needs to play like he did last season...period.  New guys in the pen will have to step up to fill the shoes of guys like Pedro Feliciano from last year.  Do I expect all these things to go right?  Could Pelf become an ace, KRod get back to shutdown closer, and could Johan be back before the all-star break?  Why not?

It's easy to have the reflex after so many seasons of let down to say, this team is going to be terrible.  We didn't do anything this offseason, the Phillies are so great and in our division, we don't have Santana, wah wah wah.  These are the people who want to start the season believing this so that when June rolls around and the Mets may be out of it already, they can just try to ignore baseball and look towards football season already.  Where is the fun in that though?

There is potential here. This team could perform very well.  There could be guys with no expectations that break out this season.  On March 2nd last year, did we even hear the name RA Dickey anywhere?  Who's to say Mejia and FMart won't actually be here.  We're so used to everything so bad happening we don't think the same thing can happen in the other direction.  My advice to you is take that wiff of Spring, put your winter coat away, and put some stock in this team.  Because if you don't, when June rolls around and we're doing great and Johan is about to come back, I'm going to tell you, "I told you so."

I mean, why wouldn't you believe me.  I'm the one that predicted successful seasons last year for Mike Jacobs and Gary Matthews Jr..  If I didn't, would we be in a different place now?  Of course not, so take a sip of the Kool Aid and get positive folks.  We've got a long season ahead.  Drink it up!