The 2006 Mets season was riddled with injuries to the starting rotation and pleasantly blessed with the most dominate lineup in the National League.  What didn’t go right for them last year? 

Jose Reyes finally learned how to get on base, and ended up stealing a base 25% of the time he reached safely. He’s always been one of the best in the league at creating havoc for pitchers, not to mention extra gray hairs for managers across the league. He had what many consider a big-time breakout year where he reached career highs in OBA, SLA, HR, RBI, SB, 2B, BB…well okay just about everything.  Who knows how much of an effect having Rickey Henderson in training camp did for him, but you really can’t argue with results like this.  Each one of his rate statistics has risen steadily over the last three seasons, and I’d guess at the age of 24, he’s only going to get better.

There were others aside from Reyes of course, because obviously one man can’t create the most dominate force in the league by himself.  This was THE year for Carlos Beltran, and what a year it  was.  Like Reyes, he set career highs in pretty much everything (SLA, HR, RBI, R, BB, OPS), and ended up stealing 18 of 21 bases safely.  He'll be 30 years old this year, and I would guess it’s safe to say that he won’t be repeating that kind of year again, but hey, he’s completely validated Omar Minaya for giving him that contract.  With that being said, he was still a tale of two Beltran’s.  On the road, he was a perennial MVP candidate, but his SLA dropped about 200 points when he came back to Shea and the fans that love him so dearly.

David Wright’s season was one of night and day.  He hit 20 homeruns in the first half, but only six afterwards.  It must have been the curse of the Home Run Derby as they say (no, I don’t know who the proverbial ‘they’ are).  With the exception of his SLA, his average and OBA stayed largely unchanged throughout the season, but his big drop in homerun production was noticeable down the stretch. Despite the drop-off, he still managed to hammer out just about as many homeruns as he had the year before, his RBI production increased, and he even managed to eclipse the 20 stolen base mark, giving him his first of Mets fans hope will be many 20-20 seasons.

Carlos Delgado regressed a bit, with his average the biggest sufferer, posting his lowest average since 1997.  Even with the drop in average, he still managed to hit 38 homeruns (his highest total since 2003), and proved to be very good protection for Beltran. 

The pitching staff was in shambles for much of the year, which turned out to be the only downfall for the team that finally dethroned the Braves after fourteen consecutive division titles.  They gave everyone a chance to start games…you know things are bad when Steve Trachsel (and his 79/78 K/BB ratio) starts 30 games.  Thirteen different pitchers made starts for the Mets, and I think that all Mets fans alike will pray they never see the clock strike Lima-Time ever again.

The bullpen was incredible all year long, but also amazingly taxed.  With the uncertainty of the starting rotation, ‘twas many a cold Shea Stadium night when Willie Randolph would bring relievers in to finish out games from the fifth inning on.  Things got even more tangled up when ace set-up man Duaner Sanchez went down around the All-Star break.  The guy threw 55 1/3 Innings before the end of July, so it’s no wonder why he needed shoulder surgery.  I don’t believe that car accident b.s. for one second.

Super-prospect Lastings Milledge was called up midway through the year, but didn't provide many fireworks, aside from rubbing everyone in the clubhouse the wrong way.  Michael Pelfrey even came along to make a few starts here and there. Without a breaking pitch, he went on to win his first two starts in the big leagues, but his unimpressive numbers sent him back on his horse to Norfolk, where he continued to not develop any sort of breaking pitch.  Carlos Gomez had a huge year in Double-A, and will most likely be headed to Triple-A New Orleans this year, as will Phil Humber.  And if you're looking for the next big young star, he's 18 years old, and will be sitting in Port St. Lucie. Fernando Martinez was the star of the AFL, and proved he could hang with Triple-A and Major League starters there.  It’s unbelievable to think about the progress he’s making at the same age that most of us were still in high school.

The Mets haven't really done much this offseason.  They added Moises Alou, made a minor trade for Jon Adkins and Ben Johnson. They signed Damion Easley as a backup infielder, and dealt for Jason Vargas, while ridding themselves of Heath Bell, Royce Ring, Henry Owens, and Matt Lindstrom in the process.