Where are the pitchers

I think it's fairly obvious that I kind of gave up on March. This month has been painfully long, and I'm just happy we get to change the calendars tomorrow. And guess what? The Mets haven't helped.

I wanted to be optimistic going into spring training, and I was for about 2 weeks. Here's the thing: what the hell is going on with our pitchers? Now, I know that spring training doesn't matter, and that ERAs and wins/losses in March are irrelevant. But it's not like a switch is going to get flipped on April 5th and change everything. I still have faith because Johan is nothing if not a gamer, but at the same time he was a notoriously slow starter with Minnesota. Last year was really an anomaly for him. I hate the fact that Perez, Pelfrey, and Maine have done nothing to ease the anxiety most Mets fans feel regarding their abilities to be successful. The difference is that I know Johan will work through it and figure it out himself.

And that's still only four pitchers. What about our fifth starter? I don't even think it's worth speculating on who Jerry and Omar are going to pick, because at different points this spring hasn't everyone been the front runner at one point or another? Why does it feel like we are scrambling around at the last minute, trying to throw together a legitimate pitching staff?

This is why I always felt pitching should have been a priority this off season. Yes, the lack of home run power in 2009 was disturbing, but there are other ways to score runs and win games. Are home runs REALLY the issue when your starters only last 5 or 6 innings (at best) and probably give up 5 runs during that time? I think it's a fair to say that for the Mets to be serious contenders, we need to get between 40-43 combined wins out of Perez, Pelfrey, and Maine. Can you see that happening at this point in time? If everything - and I mean everything - breaks right, they have the potential... but if I'm honest with myself, I don't think there is any way that happens. What's a suffering fan to do....