Countdown to Opening Day: 5
March 27th, 2011 by slangon
5 more days until baseball. Glorious baseball. Or at least the Mets version of baseball.
Starting at third for the 1986 Mets, position #5 on your scorecard, was Ray Knight.
I always kind of forget that 1986 was close to the end of the road for Ray Knight. I guess because I didn’t pay much attention to what was happening outside of my own little world when I was kid, I tended not to know too much about non-Mets players. Hell all these years later I’m still kind of guilty of that, but hopefully to a much lesser degree. Regardless, Ray Knight joined the Mets midway through the 1984 season after several good seasons with the Reds and Astros. He struggled a bit the first season or so in Queens but seems to have put it together in ’86. He hit .298 that year with 11 homers and 76 RBI. He didn’t fare to well in the epic NLCS against Houston that year, but caught fire during the World Series, winning the Series MVP.
Not surpeisingly, in 2011, 3rd base will be played by this guy.
Wright is one of the few things that I worry about as a Mets fan. Of course I would like to see him cut down his strikeouts, but otherwise he’s been the one rock in the Mets line up. I also think that if Reyes, Beltran and Bay can remain healthy and in the line-up and Ike Davis continues to progress as a hitter, that will tremendously help Wright. First, he won’t feel as though he need to carry the team as much, and second, I’m sure that would lead to him seeing better pitches to hit. I think Wright is going to just keep on doing what he’s been doing, hitting around 25-30 dingers and driving in somewhere around 100.
Sorry Ray, but advantage 2011.
RF – 1986
CF – 2011
LF – 2011
SS – 2011
3B – 2011
2B – ????
1B – ????
C – ????
P – ????
I’m a little surprised that 2011 is kicking so much ass. Maybe the Mets aren’t in as much trouble as I thought. We’ll see.
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