No Bread, So How About Some Circuses?

I don’t think the 2012 Mets will be as bad as most people seem to think … but that’s not the same thing as thinking the 2012 Mets will actually be good. I’ll think they’ll be mediocre, with a relatively robust offense but too many No. 4 starters in the rotation and too many improved teams in the National League East. And like a lot of mediocre teams, I think we’ll only be able to take their measure a few years further down the road. Looking back from the vantage point of, say, 2015, the 2012 Mets might strike us as a team that was beginning to benefit from the sounder foundation built by Sandy Alderson and Co. in preparation for the Wilpons’ return to financial health and the blossoming of the farm system. Or they might strike us as a pointless way station before the last of Omar Minaya’s contracts ran out, Alderson and his team escaped and the Mets took up residence in the cellar as the Pirates East, with fans pleading for Bud Selig t...