New Mets Formula: More Pitching, Less Choking

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It is impossible to overstate the magnitude of the collapse suffered by the Mets at the end of the 2007 season. Seven games up with 17 to go, New York finished 5-12 to land one game behind the Phillies. It was a choke to top all chokes.

And yet, to judge by the lack of radical restructuring over the off-season, the team decided that while the embarrassment was huge, the actual personnel problems that needed fixing were small.

Here’s why they’re not all wrong: The offense, even during the collapse, averaged nearly six runs per game. The back end of the bullpen was a strength for most of the season. And the rotation included a pair of young starters, Oliver Perez and John Maine, who established themselves as top-tier pitchers.

What the Mets needed to provide for this season was, at minimum, a guarantee of some extra innings, either from the starting rotation or in middle relief, to keep the back of the bullpen from burning out.

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