"My plan is definitely to win the World Series," answered Johan Santana after being questioned on the Mets expectations for the upcoming season. "That's what we want to do, and that's what we have in mind."
The day before it was David Wright telling a small contingency of reporters, "We feel like we're going to go out there and win the National League East and go deep in the playoffs and win the World Series."
It's good to see that the Mets can brush aside last year's injury-plagued 92 loss debacle. Especially since the front office has made zero upgrades to the starting staff and basically have no bridge to get to Francisco Rodriguez.
Maybe last year was an aberration when you consider the laundry list of players who comprised the Mets injury list. After all, the Mets were a favored team to win it all in some baseball circles and many experts looked forward to an intense Mets/Phillies rivalry down the stretch.
But the past is the past, right? Not according to David Wright, who claims the 2010 Mets are basically "the same core group of guys from 2006" who got to within one pitch of the World Series.
Nevermind the fact that they aren't since all that's left of that group is Wright, Carlos Beltran, and Jose Reyes and even if so, wouldn't that be the same core group that faded two straight Septembers afterwards?
For the Mets to be successful they are going to have to rely on many what ifs and plain old luck. They will need Mike Pelfrey and Oliver Perez to prove that they are sound between the ears and John Maine to be healthy again. They'll need Jose Reyes to be the force that he was previously on the basepaths. They'll need Daniel Murphy to become half of what Keith Hernandez was during his career.
Oh, and they'll need to play defense and find a way to put runs on the board.
On top of that, the Phillies have grown into one of the most feared teams in the game after their back to back World Series appearances and are arguably better since adding Roy Halladay and Placido Polanco. The Marlins are always a wildcard and the Nationals have been much more active than the Mets this offseason.
No one can blame Wright and Santana for believing in the Mets. Someone has to believe.
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