New York Mets

2009 was a disaster for the New York Mets. It seemed that if something could go wrong, it did. 2010 wasn’t much better for the Mets, but at least David Wright (.283-87-29-103-19) and Jose Reyes (.282-83-11-54-30) rebounded.

The 2011 baseball season is right around the corner, and people are beginning to make their predictions.  Predictions are fun to do, but they mean very little.  The San Francisco Giants won the World Series last season, and very little people had the Giants winning it all.

2011 is going to be an interesting year for the New York Mets. They definitely have talent in the lineup and potential on the mound, but who knows what's going to happen with this team. They seem to build us up every year only to let us down. But, unlike a lot of people that I'm seeing on this site, I'm going to keep having faith in this team. The grades in this article are not based on the players' 2010 seasons, but on the players themselves looking forward to 2011. Here's a look at the 2011 roster.

Earlier his offseason, I wrote that the New York Mets bullpen was a bigger question mark than the starting rotation.

The reason being that the Mets lost two huge bullpen arms in Pedro Feliciano and Hisanori Takahashi, but only one starting rotation piece in Johan Santana.

Johan Santana announced today that he may not pitch at all during the 2011 baseball season.

Santana was once one of the most sought-after pitchers in the entire Major Leagues and signed with the New York Mets as one of the most highly regarded players in all of baseball.

Drawing huge contract offers and loads of media praise, Santana looked destined to become one of the best left-handed pitchers of all time.

It is a rare injury among pitchers, and Johan Santana was one of the unlucky ones to be diagnosed with it. He suffered a torn capsule in his left shoulder and has been recovering from his surgery that took place on September 14th of last year.

So what does this mean for the southpaw next season?

Well, he certainly won't be on the mound at all for spring training—that's for sure. General manager Sandy Alderson said that he is expected to make a late June to early July return.

“If.”

A noun or conjunction: an uncertain possibility, a supposition, in case that, granting or supposing that.

The word “if” will hold much significance for the 2011 New York Mets.

Let’s start with the positives.

If Chris Young returns to his mid-2000's form and if R.A. Dickey pitches similarly to last year, the Mets will not be severely affected by the loss of Johan Santana.

Albert Pujols' contract negotiations with the St. Louis Cardinals have recently been put on hold until this offseason.  Pujols and the Cardinals had all offseason to work out a new contract and Pujols set a deadline for today and they have failed to reach an agreement on a contract extension. 

Day two of the pitchers and catchers portion of Spring Training saw the arrival of Francisco Rodriguez, or K-Rod, as he is commonly known. The first thing on K-Rod's agenda was to express his remorse over his assault incident last August.

When the New York Yankees signed pitcher CC Sabathia to a seven-year, $161 million contract, they included opt-out clauses in each of the first three years of the deal. Why? Because Sabathia wasn't sure he wanted to pitch in New York, so to lure the hefty left-hander into pinstripes, the Yankees gave him an out.

Yesterday, when asked whether he would opt out and become a free agent at the end of the upcoming season, Sabathia said, "I have no idea. [The opt-out clause] is still in my contract. Anything is possible."