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Mets facing pressure from Day 1

BY DAVID LENNON | david.lennon@newsday.com

March 28, 2008

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PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - With a few stray clouds from last year's malaise still lingering overhead at Tradition Field, the Mets found some early inspiration from an unlikely source when Carlos Beltran labeled them "the team to beat" only a week into spring training.

Hey, it worked for Jimmy Rollins in Philadelphia in 2007. Why not the Mets this season?

Beltran may have put himself squarely in the crosshairs with that bold statement, but this entire franchise is under intense pressure to win -- the division, the National League, the World Series.

Failure is not an option. Not after blowing a seven-game lead in the NL East with 17 games to play last season. Not after trading four prospects for Johan Santana and then investing $137.5 million over the next six years to complete the deal. Not with a payroll in the $140-million range and a sparkling new Citi Field set to open in 2009.

"I think we all know that we wasted a golden opportunity and so they're really hell-bent on getting back," manager Willie Randolph said. "They know we had a situation in hand that we blew. They had time to absorb it and let it soak in and kind of flush it all out."

Based on what happened to the Mets during the final week of last September, that was an appropriate metaphor. When they arrived in Florida last month, Ran dolph and his players were peppered with questions about what will forever be known in Mets lore as "The Collapse." So in addition to preparing themselves physically for the demanding season ahead, the Mets had a few mental obstacles to get past.

"I know a lot of people still talk about it, but I think we've been able to put last year behind us and concentrate on playing ball," Carlos Delgado said. "We've had injuries and some things that needed to be worked out, so that's been our main priority.

"We've been focused on that and getting ready to play and forgetting about last year. Instead of crying or whining or complaining about what happened last year, I think we're ready to move forward."

Delgado should know. He was at the top of that voluminous injury list this spring. With the Mets already concerned about the double-knee operations performed on Beltran and Luis Castillo during the offseason, the club was rocked by plenty of new issues.

In the span of five days, during the first week of March, Delgado was diagnosed with a right hip impingement that required an anti-inflammatory shot and Moises Alou was sent back to New York for hernia surgery that could keep him out until early May.

With Beltran and Castillo crawling along in their rehab, the Mets didn't field anything resembling an Opening Day lineup until March 15, barely more than two weeks before the start of the season. That made for a nerve-wracking start to camp, but with few additional bumps, the Mets did have a sense of normalcy as they headed into the backstretch toward Monday's opener against the Marlins in Miami.

"Guys who were banged up in the beginning are healthy now," David Wright said. "It seems like everybody has come together at once so we can get that flow back to the team. Delgado looks great and Beltran, you know what you're going to get from him. When you're that good, you don't need that much time to get ready to begin with."

That's the hope, anyway. Wright and Jose Reyes were the only starting position players to avoid any medical problems, and given that they're the two most indispensable pieces of the lineup, the club was lucky in that sense. Pedro Martinez also reported no problems, and the young-gun duo of Oliver Perez and John Maine appear ready to pick up where they left off with last year's 15-win seasons. The Mets still don't have faith in their fifth starter, but that's not a fatal flaw.

"Yes we're old, yes we're experienced and yes we have talent," Billy Wagner said. "We're going to break down and we're going to have some things go wrong. That's just part of the game."