Clay Davenport Says 2014 Mets Will Win 78 Games

As we get closer and closer to the start of Spring Training and real baseball, many people will be making projections about how a team will do in the upcoming season.

One of those projections came from Clay Davenport, a veteran sabermetrician and the co-creator of Baseball Prospectus, as he released an early version of his projected standings for the 2014 season.

As you can see, he has the Mets improving four games from last season and bringing in another Bronze Medal for finishing in third place in the NL East.

His projections are pretty interesting beyond just the one he has for the Mets.

No matter all the money spent by the Yankees and the championship pedigree of the Red Sox, he has the Rays winning the division. The Yankees actually miss the playoffs altogether for the second year in a row according to Clay.

He also has the Phillies finishing in last behind the Marlins and the Cubs, not the Astros, finishing with the worst record in baseball.

The playoff teams would be:

AL East: Rays, AL Central: Tigers, AL West: Athletics, AL wild cards: Rangers, Red Sox

NL East: Nationals, NL Central: Cardinals, NL West: Dodgers, NL wild cards: Giants, Braves

Of course the focus for you reading this is about where the early projection has the Mets finishing this season and I have to say that I think 78 wins sounds about right.

Even though things can change between now and when the teams break for the regular season in about two months, you have to wonder how much the predictions for this team will change from now till then.

Their is some solid talent in the lineup, led by David Wright and Curtis Granderson, a young bullpen that will have its ups and downs and to me a pitching staff that can be one of the best in the National League.

The problem being is that while having a very talented pitching staff, in my opinion, it is still young enough to make mistakes and then there are holes that still exist in the lineup in certain spots, first base and shortstop being the most glaring.

Then we will have questions about how many ups compared to downs that young bullpen will have and if Bobby Parnell can comeback 100% from his neck injury that might still linger.

A sobering reality that the pluses this team has, come with the same amount, if not more minuses.

Unfortunately for all of us, it looks like Clay has us waiting another year to finally break the playoff-less and under .500 streak.