Mets need to keep their players healthy

The Mets continue to struggle with how best to maintain their players' health. Last season, the Mets mismanaged the treatment of Ryan Church's concussions. This Spring Training, new addition Tim Redding had to stop pitching because of a shoulder problem that developed because of the training procedure he was following during Spring Training. Then, Johan Santana developed elbow problems.

If the Mets are to compete this coming season for the pennant, the team has to do a better job of keeping their players healthy.

Don't take Spring Training games too seriously

Spring training is like summer camp. For fans, it's the fun time of year, a time when a fan enjoy baseball without having to take it seriously. It's really irrelevant whether the Mets win or lose any particular game. And it really doesn't matter that much if the team finishes Spring Training with a losing record. It more important that the team leaves Spring Training with its key players healthy.

The purpose of Spring Training is for the players to get themselves into playing shape without overdoing it so that they don't burn out prematurely midsummer. Let's see how well the Mets accomplish that.

Mets unimpressive

After a few weeks of spring training, though a few players, such as Pagan, have played better than expected and the Mets have won a bunch of games, I've been unimpressed. The addition of Santana is a plus; however, I wouldn't have traded Mulvey, and Randolph continues to fail to do something that will boost my confidence in his ability. He couldn't get the job done last season, and I doubt he'll get it done again. Delgado is past his prime, as is Hernandez and Alou, and the Mets farm system at the upper levels is the weakest it's been in years. Other than that, I'm looking forward to opening day.