Happy Mets Opening Day everyone. I woke up this morning to see a letter from Colactus in my good old electronic mailbox via the Flushing Flash.
April 1, 2011
Dear Mets Fans:
With our 2011 opener tonight in Florida, I want to make this pledge to Mets fans — our team will play the game the right way.
We will always hustle on the bases, run balls down in the outfield and never take anything for granted, no matter the score of the game.
We had a great Spring Training. From day one my message has been look ahead, not backward, and not to worry about what the people outside the clubhouse are saying. If we pitch and play defense like I know we can, we will surprise a lot of people, a lot of people.
I stack our lineup against anyone else’s in the league. Getting Carlos Beltran back and hitting cleanup is really big. The way Carlos handled his move to right field was one of the classiest things I have ever seen. Angel Pagan is coming off a great season. While we had a little setback this week with Jason Bay — who was swinging the bat well — going on the Disabled List, he shouldn’t be out too long. We believe with the three of them on the field, we have one of the top outfields in baseball.
Our infield is anchored by the two All-Stars on the left side: David Wright at third and Jose Reyes at short. I think David will add on to his numbers from last year and Jose is ready to have a tremendous season. He is one of the most dynamic players in the game. Ike Davis will continue to develop at first base and Jose Thole is one of the fine young catchers in the game. Brad Emaus, a Rule Five pick, got better and better as the spring went on and won the second base job.
On the mound, sure we are going to miss Johan Santana until he comes back, hopefully in mid-year. But this spring, I think we established a solid rotation with Mike Pelfrey, followed by R.A. Dickey and Jonathon Niese. Chris Young and Chris Capuano proved that they are healthy and they really strengthen us on the back end.
We remade our bullpen and we think we have quality arms who throw strikes to get to closer Francisco Rodriguez. K-Rod has just had a fantastic spring and I never have seen him throwing better. People like Bobby Parnell, D.J. Carrasco, Taylor Buchholz, Blaine Boyer, Tim Byrdak and Pedro Beato, another Rule V selection who is from Queens, will give us a solid pen.
I believe we have fortified our bench with the additions of Scott Hairston, Willie Harris, Ronny Paulino (who will begin the year on the Disabled List), and Chin-lung Hu along with Daniel Murphy.
It’s been 12 years since I have started a season as a major league manager. I can’t tell you how proud I am to be leading the New York Mets and am very excited about the season ahead.
Thanks for your support and see you at Citi Field.
Sincerely,
Terry Collins
Jose Thole is catching this year? At least we can still chant, Jose, Jose, Jose when they trade Reyes!
Nice Catch Eric. I didn’t even see that