Aggravating Calmness

I know, I know.  Spring training stats don’t mean anything.  R.A. Dickey gets bombed by Atlanta?  He’s working on a slower knuckleball so … don’t care.  Jon Niese gets bombed?  He’s had other good outings in the spring so … don’t care.  Chris Young and Chris Capuano pitch well?  Okay, I care.  But their arms can snap at any moment so I’m just always going to be nervous about them as a general practice.

But Mike Pelfrey gets bombed and I worry.  I worry because he’s the ace now and he needs to pitch like one.  If Chris Young fails, you throw Pat Misch in the rotation.  Same with Chris Capuano.  Those are the two we hope will do well.  Mike Pelfrey is the guy we expect to do well.  And if he doesn’t, the Mets are screwed once and for all.  Jon Niese?  He’s young.  R.A. Dickey?  He’s old.  Who is expecting Jon Niese to have a breakthrough season at this young age?  Who’s expecting R.A. Dickey to merely repeat his 2010 performance much less exceed it?  Not many.  There’s expectation with Pelfrey.  Even if the Mets started the season with a healthy Johan Santana there would be the expectation that a guy who was a first round pick would finally blossom at the age of 27.  Without Santana?  The Mets absolutely need that, and have every right to demand that.

That’s why I care about a good outing from Pelfrey which has followed some bad outings.  That’s the performance that justifies my thinking that the rotation isn’t what the Mets should be worried about.  I know the lineup is drastically different from the one that opened 2010.  You know, the one that included Alex Cora, Mike Jacobs, Jeff Francoeur, and Gary Matthews Jr.  But it’s also a lineup that, without a healthy Carlos Beltran, may struggle to score runs much like the 2010 version did (that opening day lineup did key a 7-1 win … hey, why are there tomatoes flying at me?)  It was the pitching that kept the Mets in the season, and although Santana started the season in that rotation, so did John Maine and Oliver Perez. So the pitching, as a whole, I’m strangely calm about.

But not about Pelfrey.  That’s why Saturday was big.  What’s bigger is that his next start will actually count.