The New York Mets have just swept their opening week 3-game series against the Atlanta Braves.

Say what?!

All through the offseason and spring training many “experts” and fans everywhere were discounting the Mets and claiming their season to-be unsuccessful before the first pitch of the 2012 season even began. The most irritating thing about hearing the Mets were going to lose 100 games, or finish last in the NL East, was that any true baseball fan knows that in this game, anything is possible. Anything.

This team is nowhere near as terrible as a 100-loss team would have to be. They have a Cy Young award winner coming back in Johan Santana, a knuckleballer whose had nothing but success since mastering the pitch a few seasons back in RA Dickey, a young up and coming left hander that had peripheral stats that matched up amongst the top pitchers in the game in Jon Niese, and a solid #5 in Dillon Gee. Our weakest spot in the rotation would be Mike Pelfrey, who on any given day can look terrible or he can look like garbage – but let’s be honest, if he doesn’t produce he’ll be gone once either Chris Young or any of our top pitching prospects are ready. Matt Harvey, Jeurys Familia, and even Jenrry mejia could all be possible replacements should Pelfrey falter.

The Mets rotation is FAR form the worst in baseball as long as everyone stays healthy – and they are most definitely not going to lose 100 games.

What about the offense? David Wright, Lucas Duda, and Ike Davis are all power hitters. Ruben Tejada and Josh Thole can very well hit between .280 and .300 in the majors and Tejada can also get on base with a good consistency. Daniel Murphy has the ability to win a batting title any year now – he was on pace to win last season had he not gotten injured.

If Jason Bay can manage to become even a small piece of what he used to be he can also contribute 10 or so homeruns and help the team.

The bullpen in the opening series has looked tremendous. Bobby Parnell looks like he has finally learned how to pitch – watch out for him guys, he’s going to be lights out this season if he continues to pitch as he did all spring and so far in opening series.

Last year the Mets had flashes in which they showed a spark that if they were going to go down, they’d go down swinging. This spring they have come together as a close unit that believes in what they can do and believe that they CAN compete.

Sure, they’re not full of proven talent like the other teams, but they have a good mix of veterans with Cy Young and All Star track records to lead the way and show the young guys with immense talent how to get the job done.

While most people join the Met-bashing bandwagon and automatically tout them as last place finishers, real baseball fans and most importantly, real Mets fans know that they have what it takes to compete if they execute and they believe in themselves.

Am I saying the Mets are going to win the World Series? No. But I am saying that it’s possible that they compete and if everything goes right, they can make it as far as they put the effort into making it.

This is baseball – if a team works hard enough and keeps focus and the chips fall in their favor, anything can happen. Ya’ just gotta believe.

Don’t count any team out, especially not the Mets.