What the 2009 Mets could've been

Seeing as Omar and Jerry are staying, I wanted another good reason to have them fired. So, I decided to project the Mets win total in 2009 if no one was injured. I used Wins Above Replacement, which can be found at www.fangraphs.com. There were a couple of rules: Players who had had injuries last year that forced them miss significant time (10 games+ in one stretch) could get injured this year. Thus, Carlos Delgado, John Maine, Oliver Perez and JJ Putz all get injured in this year's version along with Ryan Church and Angel Pagan. Also, if a player was called up due to injury, and would not get called up unless in September does not appear. (Sucks for you, Argenis Reyes). Also, I am going by 4.5 PA/G for starters. wOBA stays the same for hitters, as does UZR.
For pitchers, I used the guide that fangraphs has. So, a pitcher's FIP (fielding Independent Pitching) is divided by .92 to convert it to a scale with Run Average. It is then divided by the Park Factor to normalize it (I think...). I used ESPN's Park Factors, which was .94 for Citi Field. Also, for the league RA FIP, I used 4.53, the NL RA.
So, the 2009 New York Mets, who do not lose Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, David Wright and Johan Santana finish 82-80. Feeling proud, Omar and Jerry?
Carlos Beltran has an awesome year, with a 6.5 WAR. David Wright has a 4 WAR. Because Fernando Nieve doesn't start, he gets 15 appearences out of the pen, 30 innings (2 per G) and has a war of 3.5. I know, it's fantasy, but I was just going by what I got, so bear with me.
Billy Wagner does not get traded for Chris Carter, and appears in 15 games. Ramon Castro still gets traded, Angel Pagan doesn't play in as many games, and Cory Sullivan doesn't play at all. Johan Santana and Mike Pelfrey each have 33 starts, Tim Redding gets 20, Nelson Figueroa gets 19 starts.
I know this isn't the most accurate way of figuring out what the Mets could've been, but it wasn't extremely hard, and still paints the main picture: The Mets are a .500 team, and Omar Minaya did not give this team enough starting pitching depth, and the starting pitching wasn't good enough. It also shows that this team needs a good offensive outfielder and first baseman, as we knew about. What I'm mainly trying to say here is that the Mets bad season this year was not just due to injury; it was also due to lack of good starting pitching, starting pitching depth, and the need for an outfielder who is good offensively.
Update: The spreadsheet

Did I Not Say Figgy was Pretty Good

If only he could've done this in 2007. Or 2008. Oh well, congrats to Nelson as he pitches the second complete game shut out of the season for the Mets. The other one was Pat Misch. That sums up the season.
Adieu, 2009.

The Possible Trade

Trevor D is a new writer for the Blog. Not as much as a stat guy as me, he is our Citi Field correspondent, so on those Omar press conferences, he should be there. ---Aidan G.

Because the Mets have finally lost a game, I have been asked to write a short post about the possible trade between the Mets, Rays, and Indians. If this trade goes through the Rays would get Victor Martinez from the Indians, the Indians would get prospects from the Mets, but the Mets could keep their big prospects. The Mets are the overall winners for this possible trades. Although it is not definite, the Mets would recieve Carlos Pena and Scott Kazmir. Pena is a first baseman who has an average OBP of .346. He also has the third most home runs in the American League with 25. His batting average though could improve as it is .215. Kazmir hasn't had a good a year as hoped with a 5-6 record and a 6.22 ERA. Over his 5 full year career he has had 52 wins with a career ERA of 3.87. Also Scott was in the Mets system before he was sent to the Rays with another prospect for Victor Zambrano and another pitcher. This trade turned out to be horrible and Mets fans have seen Kazmir's recent success as something that should be ours. If this trade goes through the Mets would get a home run hitter and a bonafide young ace.