I wrote on this site a month or two ago that I had a bad feeling that Omar Minaya would not come away with any prize free agents or make any significant trades to improve the Mets heading into 2010. I am closer to realizing that after reading this article on Mets.com about Minaya moving at his own pace during the winter meetings next week.
Sure, the free agent pool is sort of thin this year, but anything less than an all-out effort to make this club better than the floundering one of 2009 will be flat-out unacceptable. Yet, I’m pretty sure that’s how it will shake out. This article mentioned that Matt Holliday or Jason Bay may not fit well in Citi Field’s outfield, but I sure as hell would rather one of them in the lineup than the other guy they mentioned—Mike Cameron. But we’ll probably wind up with Cameron roaming our outfield again.
They go on to discuss some of the free agent pitchers like John Lackey, who apparently is asking for too much money. Of course he is…. the man has put his time in with the Angels and he’s been a steadying force on that rotation for years. I would have no problem overpaying for a guy like that, and the fact that the same guy who overpaid Ollie Perez last year is possibly balking at what Lackey is asking for is ludicrous. This article goes on to mention other possibilities like Randy Wolf and Jason Marquis and Joel Pineiro. One of those guys would be a decent #3 or #4 guy, but I wouldn’t even feel great if the Mets signed all three of them.
Folks, this is going to be a bad off-season for our team. I’m not sure if Minaya is waiting for the stronger 2011 free agent class, or if he’s just a lousy GM. Considering he may not last as our GM until 2011, I’m going with the latter.
*Mets Merized Online Needs Your Help*
I expect the Mets to have a big offseason. They have more money than you think.
I’ve got a bad feeling about the offseason too.
The Mets may easily have more money than I think, because after the Uncle Bernie fiasco, I’ve thought they’ve likely had little or none.
UUUUHHH….no, Katz and wilpons lost about a billion bucks w/Manoff
No actaully, they took out more than they put in. They made money off Madoff. One of these days they may have to pay it back, but for now they have it hidden away and are trying hard to shuush up about it. Their ill-gotten gains were obtained from other fools who didn’t know when it was time to get out. It’s the “greater fool” theory of investing. The Wilpons saved their butts by finding greater fools to hold the bag for them.
Time for another vent. I am getting tired, tired, TIRED of the Mets and their cheap ass bullshyt. While the Yankees, damn them, rebuild their team right before our eyes and then go on to win the WS, the cheap ass ameteur hour Mets turn into a doormat then run right for the scrap heap, claiming that any player that the fans actually want and would pay money to see, is “asking for too much money”. While this is going on, they expect us fans to pay top dollar to watch re-retreads like Mike Cameron. I’ll tell you what, I was a season ticket holder last year and the way this off-season is going, I will not be renewing. The Mets will have to earn my hard earned $$$ going forward. 1986 was a long time ago and I think that we Met fans are in the category of long suffering fans now. To many Met fans this losing and front office incompetance is all they know. It is high time that this team does what it needs to do to give us a winner. I know Wilpon got ripped off by Madoff, but spend some money on some decent players. That’s all we ask for. We will pay you back with loyalty and attendance to the games. Give us a good team and we fans will sell out every home game. Omar is all talk and no action. Overall, he had been crap as a GM and the owners have been no better.
When have the Mets been cheap? Last year they got rodriguez and putz. The year before they got Santana. How is that cheap?
Feeling frustrated is fine – but cheap? Come on guy, stop, spending money is NOT the problem, maybe some of the purchases leave questions marks – but they are NOT cheap so that rant is just play silly.
No team has made any major moves yet, so sit back, relax and step away from the ledge.
Dude, the point is not being cheap, even though I think the Mets have been since the Madoff fiasco. The point is making good decisions. Omar has made some bad ones of late. You telling me that the Sox did not take the Mets to the cleaners on the Wagner deal? Even today, the team STILL has no depth. Yes, we still have the offseason, but after watching what the Yanks did, I am NOT giving the Mets the benefit of the doubt. Especially when I hear talk of guys like Cameron and other scrap heap club members coming in here. The team has a lot of holes to fill and 20 mil is just not going to do it. It has been too many years since we have won jack and I for one think that it’s time for us fans to get pissed or we will definitely end up with guys like Cameron starting for the Mets. They are already telegraphing that.
What have the Yanks done? I haven’t heard ANY team making any major moves yet. So you’re on the ledge because of rumors you are hearing……
Dude, I’m not on the ledge, I’m just NOT giving the Mets the benefit of the doubt anymore. See, what you have here is a long time Met fan (since ‘69) who is starved for a winner. 1986 was a long time ago. I don’t know about you, but I am getting tired of Yank parade after Yank parade. Sure, they teased us in ‘06, but then came the chokes of ‘07 and ‘08. I still hung in there purchasing season tickets for ‘09 in the new stadium. Did not even use a lot of the games because the team was so bad. All I am saying here is that unless I SEE the Mets invest in themselves, I will not invest in them. Plain and simple. Ledges have nothing to do with it.
Can you provide a link showing that the Mets are going after Cameron? I may have missed it.
I’m totally with you MJ! Thanks for the comment
i expect a big off season as well. The Mets wouldn’t dare to NOT come through with a couple of big signings/trades. Otherwise, they’ll be dusting off scores of empty seats and freezing hundreds of boxes of $8 apiece hamburgers and hot dogs for all of 2010.
It’s not really a question of “cheap”–it’s a question of “dumb”. They are dumb in almost everything they do. Yes they spend money, but look at the slags they put on the field last year when some of their guys got hurt. Why? Because they refuse to pay draft picks, and they scour the garbage dumps in search of bench players AZnd relief pitchers. The “Man Without a Plan” will strike again at the hearts of met fans.
Omar really only made 2 bad contracts Casitllo and Perez. You can’t blame him for not having young players to come up and be great players. Every team would have slags playing the field if they had as much injuries as the Mets. Who was the Yankees 3rd baseman when rodriguez was hurt. Who would the Phillies call up if Utley gets hurt?
If, if, and if. Funny how the 2 teams you named were in the WS last year while our Mets have become roadkill. They are what their record says they are. As for the Phillies, they are becoming the dynasty that the Mets *should* have been. They are only making their team even better this off season while the Mets come at us talking about only having a 20 mil off season budget. Please, give me a break.
I used the Yankees and Phillies to show you that most teams even succesfull teams don’t have players in the minors that come up and are instant stars. There is no way the Mets have 20 million to spend.
The Mets won’t have to pay Delgado,Putz,schneider and Wagners’s contrcats this year wich is about 40 million. If they can afford it last year they can afford this year.
Yes, the shame of this all is that the Mets CAN afford it (Madoff notwithstanding), but choose not to spend it. When we hear in the media that the Mets only intend to spend $20 mil this offseason, it’s obvious that they are pocketing the Delgado, Putz, Schneider, and Wagner money but still expect us fans to shell out hard earned $$$ for a mediocre product. That is unacceptable and I for one will not do it. Again, perhaps the Mets will spend money in the end, but I have seen no indication of that so far. In fact, with this talk of bringing in Cameron and other retreads, we are seeing the opposite, if anything.
How do you know the Mets don’t want to spend the money? Just because there is a rumor about it doesn’t mean it is ture.
Cameron is a good player. Cameron.Laroche and two #3 starters and I’d be happy. Lackey or Halladay would be great but it doesn’t seem like that is going to happen.
Why do you think that the Mets won’t get Holiday or Lackey?
Mike Cameron has gone on record saying that he isn’t comfortable playing anything other than Center field, so I do not want him here! plus he is on the downswing of his career, the Mets can do better. And they had opportunity to upgrade the team last year and remained inactive while other teams filled holes; can you honestly say there was no one on the market last year who could’ve helped this team win some games? They made a conscious effort to hold onto their money rather than get guys like Derosa or Lee. Yes they have to show me too that they are willing to make smart decisions.
Mets haven’t spend a dime since the Madoff scandal.
Spent $500,000 on Sheffield
Saved $3,000,000 on Wagner
Spent $500,000 on Murphy
Spent $2,000,000 on Cora
Let’s be real this isn’t free-spending Omar’s fault.
It is painfully obvious that the wallet is sealed shut.
What were the Mets going to spend money on during the season? They could have traded for players but it wouldn’t have made much of a difference.
Cameron stinks. We have been down hils strikeout road before. oo many a bas where the ba never leaves his shoulder. No need to revisit Cameron. What do they take us for?
The Mets are not getting Cameron. It’s just a rumor. 90 percent of the time the are false.
The Mets ARE spending money. Starting in 2011, they owe Bobby Bonilla 1.2 million per year until 2035. How’s that for good financial management. Mr. Bonilla made Bernie Madoff look like an amateur.
Cameron is a decent, hard, player but he’s not our answer to our LF vacancy. He turns 37 in January and appears to be slowing down. i highly doubt Omar would dare put a band-aid in LF when the partisans on this site are clamoring for Holliday, Crawford, at least a Pierre for LF.
And, as a couple of people, say above, it’s not that the Mets are ‘cheap’ per se, it’s that they’ve made some clunkers over the years and also, they do not seem to ‘dare to be great’ in their FA signings. Remember Guererro’s ‘bad back’?
Reading these comments day after day, reassures me that the Mets will ‘dare to be great’ this one off season or they risk a major fall-off in revenues in 2010. Speaking of wallets, the Wilpons know this…
And the Wagner deal is a further irritant in our eyes. Omar was ‘taken’ by Theo, big time, on that one…and i think that’s unacceptable.
Bottom line: the mets brought back a guy who made a laughing stock of their franchise this summer, because they were too cheap to eat 3 million. This from the second highest payroll in baseball.
All this talk of Cameron – I can’t find a thing on it – is this just internet talk getting carried away? Show me a link – if its out there, I can’t find it.
Yes it is just internet talk getting carried away.
actually just click on the Mets.com link in my original post, that should take you to the article that mentions them possibly going after Cameron
here is the text about Cameron from the article:
A power hitter, preferably one who would fill the vacancy in left field, to tame Citi Field and provide more protection for David Wright. The Mets’ public is demanding one of two expensive free agents — Matt Holliday or Jason Bay. Neither is an ideal defensive fit for spacious Citi Field. So we’ll see. Mike Cameron, also a free agent, had some appeal to the club. Whether playing left field rather than his customary center field has appeal to Cameron is an issue the Mets have discussed.
How do they know that the Mets perfer Cameron? It’s just one persons opinon
That one person is Buster Olney, who is a reputable a baseball reporter as they come. He did not just pull this story out of his a$$. At the very least someone in the Mets hierarchy is floating this out as a trial balloon to gage reaction.
So we go from “Cameron has SOME appeal”, to basically you think the Mets have drawn up the paperwork.
I don’t care who they are, at this point of the season EVERY WRITER is going on speculation, not gospel.
Last year Jon Heymen reported that the Mets would NOT sign a closer at the winter meetings and yet less then 12 hours later they signed TWO.
Speculation at this point…………..so the Cameron talk can calm down unless there is nothing else out there to bitch over…..
exaclty it is just speculation.
so the phillies sign polanco and we sign blanco. in a nutshell…
So friggen what? You sound like a friggen 12 year old – wah wah -they overpaid for a 35 year old, and we got nuttin – wah.
Its December 3, not July 31 people.
I know I know – two collapses, debacle of last year, whatever.
You all make Met fans sound like friggen whiney babies – if its that bad jump on some other bandwagon.
It is obvious they are going to try to make a splash. The fact that they are bringing in these nickel and dimers tells me they are going to make a splash of some kind. It will not get them out of third place, no matter what it is. They do not know what they are doing. If you don’t understand the concept of free speech, maybe you should not post. Don’t tell fans how to be fans.
I understand free speech just well, hence I’m posting, and I am a fan and I know how to act – been a fan since the beginning……..
same here. 1962. I have seen a lot of crap, but I really hate the wilpons.
it could be worse………….does the name Dolan mean anything? lol
I’m fine with Cameron if we trade for Adrian Gonzalez!
I’ll change my ‘I LIKE IKE’ shirts to San Diego colors!!