Misperception from the Media

Why does everyone keep saying the Mets are pinning their hopes on the return of Pedro Martinez? I heard this on Mike & Mike, I heard Michael Kay talking about this with Peter Gammons, and I read it in an article in the paper last week. I’m not so sure they’re getting this right and it’s a little annoying they keep harping on it.

Does the Mets orgnaization hope Pedro returns? Of course they do. Are they putting all of their eggs in one basket as someone said recently? No, they are not. It’s not like Omar and company are sitting there so totally confident he’s going to return and be dominating again. No one has said anything remotely like that, but you can bet they’re praying for it.

Just because the Mets aren’t out there in the trade market dealing guys foolishly for mediocre pitchers doesn’t mean they think Pedro is their savior. Quite the contrary, as Omar has inquired about Oswalt and most likely Willis (although he has dropped off dramatically in the last year and a half). So what do these people expect? Do they want the Mets to trade Lastings Milledge for Jose Contreras? Will that mean they’re not relying on Pedro? Of course not, it just means they won’t make a dumb deal. Do they want Omar to come out and say "We're not confident Pedro will return this season..."?

The reality is, Omar is playing this perfectly, much like he did in the off season when he didn’t panic and throw big bucks at the Jeff Suppan’s and Jeff Weaver’s of the world. Probably the best move was the one he didn’t make and that was not signing Barry Zito to an albatross of a contract. In case anyone missed it, the Mets starting rotation is pretty darn good and if you strip away that 5^th spot come post season (if we’re fortunate to make it), they have as good a rotation as anyone – even without Pedro. Keep in mind; we didn’t lose the NLCS last year because of our pitching, we lost because we didn’t hit.