The Pitching rotation

I preface this with I have been a HUGE Omar fan. Hang on to Millege, get Beltran, get Wagner, get Delgado, get LaDuca. The guy is golden. I didn’t panic when the Benson trade happened like most of the other Mets fans I hear on MLB radio. I wore a smirk when people would ask me what I thought about the Benson deal and gave a knowing nod and answered with "just wait… you’re not gonna believe what Omar has planned next." That all changed today as I returned from the weekend and spent the better part of my free time combing the blogs for the wonderful "sources inside the organization report the Zito trade is expected to be announced later today/this week" story. I found nothing. Not even the unreliable blogs even touched the idea. For the first time the possibility dawned on me that Zito may not be coming. Say it ain’t so! I turn to you and ask with desperation, "Will the Mets make us a top notch contender by bringing in another top notch starter (Zito) or will they go with the Pedro, Glavine, Trax, Zambrano, Heilman rotation? Is there a blockbuster trade around the corner?" How is New York dealing with this situation? Does Omar really think that there will be no injuries and that the Braves are going to lay down while we win the East in a Padres fashion? Please tell me Omar is not a Phillips\Duke clone that will go into a season as ill prepared as this. Instead of the papers with headlines asking the ridiculous question "Is Omar a racist?" can we see the reasonable "Has Omar a lost his mind?" Tell me he knows what he is doing and I won’t have to sit through July with Pedro and Glavine on the DL, one of them out for the season. Tell me we won’t start the second half of the season with Trax as our number one and Ishii clones in the 4 and 5 spot that guarantees me reading "the Mets limp into the All-Star break after getting swept by PIT and FLA at home by a combined score of 84 to 36."
Look, I live in Arlington, Texas- 3 minutes from The Ball Park in Arlington, so I have seen it first hand year after year after year. You can’t expect to compete for the pennant with a bunch of bashers and no pitching. Having Batting champions, MVPs and homerun leaders is exciting and all but with no pitching it means last place. Ask any Ranger fan. (By the way a Ranger fan is someone who is passing time waiting for Cowboys training camp to start)
Think Cowboys are to Red Sox as Rangers are to Patriots.
They get all excited if the Rangers have a good season, but nobody really cares if they don’t. I wear my Mets colors to the park, even when the Mets came for inter-league play (Reyes’ first start), and the only people who seemed to even notice were other Met fans. Apathy is the worst thing fans can have. Living here is probably like being a Brave fan with out all the NL East titles. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all of Texas. Houston is a great baseball city. A fan wearing Mets colors to Minute Maid Park/ the Astrodome has never been safe. That’s another story. Anywho…
…back to the Mets. Tell me the contingency plan for injuries is not to call up Pelfry a season too early and ruin his promising future in a David Clyde-esque-Gregg Jeffries manner? (sorry for the Clyde reference but I couldn’t think of a Met pitcher that was as promising and brought up to early- excluding Gen K. as they were overworked- and hey, I do live in Arlington, Texas) Will I see Zito in spring training; will I see the rotation of a contender? Was that light at the end of turnaround tunnel of 05 really the return of Mets baseball or was it the headlight of the fright train that ran me over in 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 02, 03, and 04? Is the move of Heilman to starter as doomed as Juan Samuel to center? Will I be able to come to work without being taunted by my Braves loving boss? Ya know, I ignored football and basketball the day they announced the Wagner deal as I couldn’t get the image of Wagner, Delgado, Beltran, Jose, Wright, Pedro, Benson, Glavine and Seo and Co. smiling as they rode down Canyon of Heroes. "Hell, even Randolph cant F-this up" I thought. I was actually worrying that I wouldn’t have enough vacation time to enjoy the playoffs. (I work funny hours). Then the world champs of my November imagination trade a reliable starter and a promising one for… who? Wait, wait Omar will make a deal by Wednesday …OK Friday…well maybe they want to wait until after the weekend for the Monday news cycle. Here I am to day and Gulp. No way can the current rotation win the East or even the wild card. Is Omar a sadist? Did I upset the baseball gods? Did I just wake up and have the feeling of misplaced trust in Omar like the feeling of learning you left the kids with an pyromaniac axe-murdering babysitter for the weekend?.
He made the Benson trade to be in a position to trade for Zito…right? Omar and Beane have a gentlemen’s agreement already in place…right? I mean Beane is probably negotiating an extension with Zito as a condition of the trade…right? Everybody knows it but nobody is reporting it…right? Julio, Heilman, Maine, and Bannister for Zito,done deal…right? Omar has a better plan for the rotation then Petey, Glav, Trax, Zam and Heil… right? Tell me its so. Please! So I can get on with the rest of my life!