How Good Will the Mets Pitching Staff Be This Year?
Heading the rotation is Cy Young winner Pedro Martinez. Martinez had a lot of misfortune last year getting only 15 wins because the bullpen blew most of the wins. With Billy Wagner closing games, Pedro should win 21 games and could win the CY Young award again. He has electric stuff and can strikeout a lot of batters. He has good velocity on his fast ball and his ERA last year was close to 2. He is the anchor of their staff. The only question will be will his injuries hold up. If Pedro is able to avoid the IR list this year, he will be a dominating pitcher.
Second comes Tom Glavine. Glavine has had a long an prosperous career. Last year he posted a very low ERA despite getting low run support for his lineup. Fans can expect his win total to go up but I don’t think his ERA will be as low. He has never been a strikeout pitcher and he will have difficulty at times getting hitters out.
3rd is Victor Zambrano. Zambrano is still young but his knock on him has always been he is inconsistent and it is true. At times he looked unhittable and other times he walked entirely too many batters. The walks would catch up with him as the runners would usually come around to score. I don’t see a big change this year and he wil have a high ERA, relying the hitters to bail him out of a loss.
4th is Steve Trachsel. Trachsel throughout his career has never seemed to fully put it together. He always has a .500 won loss record. He has pitched shutouts occasionally and he has also had starts where he has given up a lot of runs. However last year he seemed to put it together posting an overall low ERA despite getting low run production from the lineup.
5th is Aaron Heilman. The Mets made a bold move by trading pitcher Jae Seo who was good in starting for injured pitcher. Seo had a low ERA and the Mets are hoping that Heilman can finally be the starter they have envisioned him to be. Heilman has good stuff but it nowhere near being the ace of any staff. However I do see him putting together some wins and he has the makeup of a 3rd starter on a staff.
Finally, there is Billy Wagner the closer. The Mets signed wagner to a huge 4 year contract. Wagner is one of the best closers in baseball. He throws 100 mph and can strikeout opposing hitters. I have no doubt he will have more thna 40 saves this year and be a great addition to their bullpen.
This year, I finally see the Mets dethroning the Braves as division champs and making the playoffs this year.
