(Image Credit: Ames Keivom/New York Daily News)
The Mets report to Port St. Lucie, Florida this week. There’s plenty of buzz around the team with new manager Mickey Callaway taking over.
Pitching is once again the projected strength of this team. Their ability to stay healthy, however, is a legitimate area of concern.
What doesn’t appear to be a concern is the communication skills of Callaway. That’s not a knock on his predecessor, Terry Collins, but how quickly Callaway can win over his new team will be intriguing.
In his press conference, with pitchers and catchers already reporting to camp, Callaway raved about his first extended look at his pitching staff.
“I got to sit there and watch bullpens in the last week and I’ve never seen anything like that,” Callaway said. “The amount of very good arms and quality stuff we have in this Mets organization, I promise you nobody else has that. I have been around some pretty good arms and this is the best group of arms and stuff that I’ve ever seen, from top to bottom. It’s really amazing.”
Callaway, along with first-year pitching coach Dave Eiland, have their hands full with a staff full of question marks. Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey, and Steven Matz missed significant time last season and highlighted the injury woes of the Mets in 2017.
Anthony’s Perspective
By praising his pitching staff, I thought new Mets manager Mickey Callaway made a great early impression in his first spring training.
There is great power in compliments. Client strategist Kathryn Christensen wrote compliments can increase productivity, performance, and morale.
The injuries to Syndergaard and Harvey helped put the Mets in an early hole they never recovered from. Of the five projected starters for 2017, only Jacob deGrom managed to avoid the major injury bug.
Harvey and Matz are still major question marks in the rotation, not far behind is Zach Wheeler.
The Mets are coming into camp this year excited and already talking about getting back to the playoffs. But this is a team which must crawl before they can walk again.
Every team coming into spring training gets excited for the fresh start a new season begins. But those early expectations lead to humbling realities really quick.
Callaway’s early praise of the pitching staff will help sustain the confidence of his players as the spring progresses.
