After winter’s thaw, permafrost in Queens?

With less than a week remaining before the end of Spring Training, hindsight remains 20/20. It’s easy to look at your favorite team and spew the shoulda, woulda, coulda’s that might have left you thinking they were better, stronger, deeper, faster and just all-around more worthy of your undying fandom than they were last year. Or the year before. Or the year before that.
So with regular season games hours away we’re pretty much in “what you see is what you get” territory. For some fan’s that’s just fine. If you’re a Yankee fan, your minus a Godzilla and a pinch-hitting outfielder who’s probably trying to figure out if it’s okay for him to grow facial hair again. Aside from that, the Bronx still sports much of what brought home a championship last season. If you’re a Phillies fan you’re welcoming one of the best arms in baseball. Braves or Nats fan? You’ve got some new life on your upcoming rosters, too.

Mets fan? Uh…

After the dust of a winter of rumors and speculation finally settled, the Mets have Jason Bay and a cornucopia of catchers to show for it. Bay’s no slouch by any means, but for a team with so many holes to fill, logic is defied by management’s decision to do little other than wait for the healing powers of nature to propel their team through a threshold of pain players and fans have felt for 3 seasons.

Looking at the team that will apparently open the season, it seems as though the Mets might be better served if uniform numbers were replaced with question marks. Not just who will be #5 in the rotation, but who can be counted on as #2, 3 and 4? When might Beltran return to center field to replace the Angel in the outfield? Can Reyes come back and remain healthy? Who will prove to be more of a head case – Ollie, Maine or Pelfrey? How long before Ike Davis shows up for the Murphy bon voyage party? How many losses will it take before Omar uses his last lifeline by firing Jerry Manuel?

The biggest question marks for opening day will surround Beltran and Reyes, two must-have lynchpins for this team if it’s to reach any level of success. Fortunately, that first day makes up only .6% of the season. There’s plenty of time for pieces to fit into the puzzle. But if some very important questions aren’t answered, if some players don’t step up to show what they can do, if some people on the mound don’t prove that they can be pitchers and not just throwers, Mets fans are in for more of the same.

If that's the case, it's going to be another cold, cold summer in Queens.