FanPost

It's Probably Not Our Year, and That's Okay

Following tonight's completed sweep by the Nationals, social media and talk radio are going to blow up with negativity towards the 2016 Mets. Huge trades will be proposed, fans will flail with anger and spit venom with frustration.

So, here's the thing: they're right, and this team is not performing up to expectations. However, those expectations are not in the right place. Let's get back down to earth a bit, take inventory of where we are, and look to the future with the right perspective.

Remember when the Phillies were good? They won a World Series in 2008 thanks in part to Cole Hamels. That season, at the age of 24, he pitched 227 innings to the tune of a 3.09 ERA during the regular season, and was the ace of the team as they went through all of the playoffs and to a championship (35 more innings pitched on the way to MVP accolades in the NLCS and World Series).

But, the success came with a price. It was a huge innings increase for Hamels, and the following season showed the effects: a 4.32 ERA, well outside the lofty expectations he had set for himself the prior year.

Thor, The Dark Knight and the deGrominator might be awesome superhero nicknames, but these are still human beings. Throwing a baseball at 97 mph is the most unnatural act in professional sports. There is no way we can expect these guys and Matz (no superhero nickname there . . . yet) to perform at the same level at this young age with the innings increase they experienced. This is the cost of getting to a World Series with a young pitching staff.

Keeping this is mind, the way Matt Harvey has been treated by fans and the media this season has been completely unfair. Is it really a mystery why he's underperforming? There are mountains of evidence showing that if you take a young pitcher and drastically increase their innings relative to the previous season, there is a high probability they will underperform the following season, and possibly even get injured. This is even ignoring recovery from Tommy John surgery. To ignore this reality and expect the same production is to either be ignorant, or foolishly hopeful. Adding insult to injury is that Harvey understood the risks of going deep into the postseason, did it anyway, and is still being raked over the coals when the obvious aftermath came.

There are differing scenarios with the other pitchers: the bone spurs affecting Matz and Thor, deGrom's battle with diminished velocity. Despite all this, remarkably, the Mets are second in the league at runs scored against. But it seems the wheels are starting to fall off the young horses to varying degrees following last season.

Maybe I'm wrong, and Syndergaard and Matz will continue to pitch well despite their bone spurs. Maybe their recent poor starts were outliers. Even if that's the case, can anyone look at this rotation and realistically say the pitchers are going to be able to shoulder a full season of innings, and still be dominant in the postseason as they were last year? Understandably, the offense is the major point of contention and frustration. But if the rotation isn't charged and ready to go full throttle into October, fixing the offense is not going to get this team a championship in 2016.

However, there is good news. In 2010, Cole Hamels picked right back up where he left off in 2008, and continued to be an ace caliber pitcher (including his excellent 2016 so far at age 32). I fully expect that Syndergaard, Harvey, deGrom and Matz will see similar results in 2017 and onward. None of these pitchers has yet to get the experience and conditioning needed to be like a Verlander, Sabathia, Kershaw or Greinke in their prime: able to consistently throw 200 quality innings in a season, maintain that performance in the postseason, and pick right back up the following year. But some of them should grow into this role with time.

This is not to say I'm writing off the season completely. It's baseball, and there are so many variables that go into a long season. Maybe the hitting picks up. Maybe the pitching maintains and performs deep into the year despite the red flags. We've seen teams hobble into a Wild Card and then get hot at just the right time in October. But, I'm not expecting it to happen. I'm not a Yankees fan, I don't demand a championship as a birthright.

Let's also maintain some perspective. David Price and Zack Greinke were the gems of this past winter's free agent market, they each got paid over $200m+, and they're both drastically underperforming. Imagine you're a Red Sox or Diamondbacks fan looking at all that money tied up, and count your blessings for a moment. We have a huge advantage over the rest of the league for many seasons to come. Yet, Joe from Hoboken is going to call WFAN all week and tell you it's imperative we win now. But that's just silly and shortsighted.

We're not owed a championship. We're not owed anything. Sometimes, the cards aren't dealt the way you were hoping for, and so you fold and wait for the next hand. The Red Sox and Giants have had massive down years between great ones. The current Yankees roster is in poor shape thanks to their 2009 championship, which required massive, long term investments in aging players. We took our shot in the championship series and missed, and now we're paying the price. But the future is still bright, and there are many successful seasons ahead of us.

This FanPost was contributed by a member of the community and was not subject to any vetting or approval process.