Michael Baron, MetsBlog.com:

Despite the lack of power from San Francisco, they were better in many ways than the Mets were offensively last year. For instance, their team average and OPS were both about 20 points higher, they tripled 36 more times, they collectively stole 39 more bases, struck out 153 times less, and scored 68 more runs.

Now, I think the Mets’ plan is pretty clear and I do believe a championship caliber team begins and ends with starting pitching. Sandy Alderson has drafted a ton of pitchers over the last two years, and the trades of both Carlos Beltran and R.A. Dickey have netted some exciting young arms. The Mets are now theoretically positioned to be very successful on the mound for many years to come. But if the Mets intend to spend less on external talent (which I get, based on how inflated the markets have become and the overall quality of talent available) and have a solid organization, they need to do a better job of developing more everyday position players so to rely less on the external markets to fill their roster.

The Mets can have all the pitching they want, but it will be hard to be successful with a roster filled with mostly singles and one-dimensional hitters…