Spring Training Previews

The Mets start Spring Training on Friday, so that means that every paper in the city printed the exact same stories and previews yesterday. Pick your poison:

• Newsday
• The Post
• The Daily News
• The Bergen Record
• The Newark Star-Ledger
• The Journal News
• The Hartford Courant

Congratulations are due to the Times for being the only paper not to put out the easy story. The one thing you definitely notice scouring the media's sports coverage everyday is exactly how formulaic newspapers really are. Spring Training is probably  the single day where this is most obvious.

For a slightly less formulaic spin on the Mets' rotation, Tim Marchman of the New York Sun notices that the Mets have brought in a ton of pitchers:

What's impressive, though, is that this group, while perhaps not representing a sure improvement on last year's in terms of quality, represents a great improvement in terms of potential. If Maine, Perez, and Pelfrey all harness their stuff and master the intricacies of the game to their best abilities, the Mets will have a trio of cheap young starters to match any in the league, and a potent young core. That's likely not going to happen, but giving the ball to pitchers who won't pitch any worse than a Trachsel-type, but might pitch much better, is a very good idea. Is the potential for disaster there? Of course, it always is. In the Mets' case, they have the right pitchers showing up to camp tomorrow, they're not asking too much of them, and they have some backup plans. You can't ask for much more.

Marchman is dead on here. The Mets grabbed a bunch of guys with a high upside -- Oliver Perez, John Maine, Mike Pelfrey, Phil Humber -- and they're hedging their bets by stockpiling veteran arms like Aaron Sele, Chan Ho Park, and Jorge Sosa. One of the things that great teams are able to do, is to anticipate problems by having solutions ready in advance, the ability to turn an "F" into a "C." It's what the Braves have been doing for years.