Countdown to Opening Day 2012: #28 New York Mets

By Andrew Marcus

Sportswriter for Montgomery Media

Follow me on Twitter @amarcus515

To help pass the time between now and the start of the 2012 Major League Baseball season I am going to be examining a different team every day. Starting with the Astros, working toward the Phillies. I will give you my projected starters, breakout and bust players, each team's X-Factor and top prospect.

PROJECTED LINEUP

CF Andres Torres
2B Daniel Murphy
3B David Wright
1B Ike Davis
LF Jason Bay
RF Lucas Duda
SS Ruben Tejeda
C Josh Thole

P Johan Santana

PROJECTED ROTATION
Johan Santana
Jon Niese
Dillon Gee
Mike Pelfrey
R.A. Dickey

PROJECTED BULLPEN
Closer - Frank Francisco
Set-up - Jon Rauch

Top Prospect - Zack Wheeler (RHP)

Breakout

Ike Davis - The Mets first basemen missed 126 games last season after severely injuring his ankle in a collision with David Wright. Clearly a fluke injury, Davis returns with a smaller home park to play in. The new Citi Field dimensions should only help out the lefty, who does have power to all fields. New York is bringing int the wall as much as 17 feet in the deepest parts of the park. At age 24 the Arizona State product has a chance to flirt with 30 homers and 100 RBIs hitting in the middle of the Mets' order. 

Bust

Frank Francisco - The Mets used the off-season to restructure their bullpen and while they brought in three quality arms, I'm not sure they have one guy that can be counted on as the closer. Francisco, who closed in Texas for a season and a half will get the first shot. Jon Rauch and Ramon Ramirez are lurking. My feeling is is no one in the pen will reach 20 saves and they will be atop the majors in blown saves. They should cross their fingers that Bobby Parnell figures it out and steals the ninth inning from the trio of newcomers. 

X-FACTOR
Johan Santana -The National League, especially the N.L. East, is being built around starting picthing. It's fair to say playoffs are out of reach if your team does not consist of a workhorse ace. Workhorse may be out of the picture for the injury-plagued Santana, but there is still some hope Santana can return to his Cy-Young form and make 30 starts. I'd say if the Mets get 25 solid starts out of Santana, the Terry Collins-led bunch will be much better than most expect. But if his comeback bid fails, the pitching depth gets exploited and Queens goes searching for those paper-bag masks once again. 

LAST YEAR'S RECORD: 77-85

Jason Bay is one of many Mets who needs to rebound

PROJECTED FINISH: 5th in the National League East

***THANKS FOR READING MY TEAM BY TEAM OUTLOOKS TO HELP PASS THE TIME
 

Check back tomorrow for the Seattle Mariners