30
2010
The Promise Of A New Tomorrow
An article by 
What a wonderful Saturday morning. I feel totally invigorated as a Mets fan today, and I’m looking forward to what the coming days will bring.
Watching Sandy Alderson yesterday was like a breath of fresh air – fresh air I haven’t breathed in the last 2-3 years where the Mets are concerned.
I was captivated by the combination of his commanding personality and his warm and cordial approach. Alderson was like an old friend comforting us in our time of need.
I hung on every word he said and it made me feel like I was reborn in my fandom. He renewed my spirit and revitalized my passion for the team which had laid dormant for the better part of two years.
A lot was said yesterday, and it will take days and weeks to decipher it all and let it sink in, but I was confident in the end that the Mets had made a very profound and extraordinary choice in Sandy Alderson.
I wonder if the players felt that same sense of relief I had, while they tuned in and watched or listened from their homes? As much as we needed Alderson for our sake, I believe the players needed him even more.
Alderson inspired all of the Mets fans I spoke with yesterday. They were all genuinely impressed, but more importantly, they were all very hopeful and enthusiastic for what lied ahead.
It almost feels like the excitement in the days leading up to Christmas Day when I was a kid. All I could think of was going through all those presents and wondering what great things were lying under the tree for me. I had no idea what I was going to get, but I just knew it was all going to be good
Some may say that yesterday was no different than when the Mets announced Omar Minaya as GM in the fall of 2004, but I disagree completely.
Omar never connected with me the way Alderson did yesterday afternoon. Omar gave me a sense of relief in that we were turning the page from the doldrums of the 2003 and 2004 seasons. I was happy for the change, but I needed more convincing that things were going to get better. I needed to hear more than a message that things would get better in five years. I was relieved, but at the same time I kept thinking, wow, five years?
Alderson, on the other hand, spoke convincingly that 2011 was not going to be a throw-away season. When Alderson was asked about 2012 and beyond, he stopped everyone dead in their tracks and said he was completely focused on putting a contending team on the field for 2011. He backed that up with details and within minutes I was a believer. And more than that, he spoke of restoring excellence to the franchise and pride to the fanbase. What a wonderful thing to say… I really needed to hear that… What I want most as a Mets fan right now is to be proud of the New York Mets again.
There wasn’t one area of the franchise that Alderson failed to cover and convey a vision for. From the medical staff to the minor leagues to the overall organizational philosophy, not a stone was left unturned. Unlike Omar Minaya, with Alderson it was understood that he was a man who was firmly in command and that he was calling all the shots. He said he would surround himself with the best baseball personnel available and that he would strive to restore glory back to the New York Mets. He had me at hello.
He was realistic in conveying the plan ahead, and explained that he would have specific goals that he hoped to accomplish in the next 30, 60 and 90 days. He wasn’t just saying things will get better over and over like Omar Minaya did, instead Alderson consistently filled the air with specific actions he would take. He was honest with us.
The last time Omar Minaya spoke to reporters before he was fired, he said the Mets minor leagues was among the best in baseball and that all the other teams wanted what we had.
In stark contrast, Alderson called the Mets minor leagues ”middle of the pack”‘ He was brutally honest and said it was “unacceptable” and that a team with the resources of the New York Mets deserved much better than “middle of the pack”. He promised to change that. You know what? He will.
I can go on and on and on, but I think I’ll stop right here.
I just wanted to share some of my thoughts about Alderson with you and encourage all of you to be hopeful again because I do believe there are brighter days ahead, and we don’t have to wait five years to see them. The sun shined bright over Citi Field yesterday.
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
Went to my first Mets game, a Mayors Trophy game at Shea, in '73. We beat the Yankees 8-4 and I was hooked. I marched in two Banner Day parades, and before the Grand Slam single, there was the "Hendu Can Do" grand slam - I was there. I've collected Mets memorabilia all my life and started Mets Merized Online to feed my addiction.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 26 | 17 | .605 | - |
| Nationals | 25 | 17 | .595 | 0.5 |
| Marlins | 23 | 19 | .548 | 2.5 |
| Mets | 22 | 20 | .524 | 3.5 |
| Phillies | 21 | 22 | .488 | 5.0 |
Last updated: 05/22/2012
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Posts like this one reminds me of why I started following this site in the first place years ago. I was so inspired by our new GM’s message yesterday and both me and my husband felt the same was you did. Not to be offensive, but it was refreshing to actually hear someone communicate with such clarity and precision. He was composed the whole time, never stuttered like you know who, and didn’t sound canned. That’s what made him so easy to like and believe in. Communicating a vision is just as important as the vision itself. You said it best, it was a breath of fresh air. Great post.
I was impressed, he came off savy and yes a honestly that i appreciate especially when he spoke about the mets and spending money this offseason.
it seems disingenuous to be so in favor of alderson, who represents everything you have opposed so strongly in the past.
and also represnts many of the things I’ve championed in the past. Must you be so narrow minded in your focus?
Great post Joe! What really got my interest was his comments about the minor league system, about it being “Middle of the pack” and how that should NOT be with the Mets “RESOURCES”. I can’t wait to see what he does with their 1st round pick in 2011 and just how aggressively he will draft as oppossed to the Minaya regime. Are the days of going for mere signability and proven, but unspectacular college players vs high ceiling talent gone? I think so, though I do think it will be a more evenly distributed ratio of high ceiling & proven NCAA talent. Minaya and co. rarely went after the toolsy, high ceiling types, both high school and college because they didn’t want to spend the money. I see that changing with Alderson in charge. I’m excited about the future of the Mets farm system now. It’s been a long time since I oculd say that.
I also think that they didn’t want to spend the TIME either. preferring to get less talented players up here quicker than more talented players later because of the top heavy payroll and the choking of prospect flow due to the giving up of high draft choices and the slower development rate of the IFA’s we signed.
Fantastic accounting of Alderson and what he conveyed to us yesterday. I admire your new optimism and only hope you can keep it going for at least two years. I know that as a blogger you’re going to be critical at times, but I sincerely hope you can lay off scare tactics and doom and gloom when doing so. Otherwise, I have no complaints.
Awesome post!
We should have hired Alderson years ago after the 2008 season, but better late than never!!! Say it loud and proud, lets go Mets!
I hope all the Mets fans who were resigned to another bad season in 2012 were listening. To all those that said we need to rebuild, Alderson clearly said no way, no how. We will move forward in 2012 and if I know Alderson he will be sure we become thorn in the Phillies side next season and that a wild card is not out of the question. The best part is that he will accomplish this while strengthening our minor leagues for a great future. Here’s to a great new beginning. Mets in 2011!
Hey Joe, out of curiosity do you know what is MMO’s record for most comments on a post?
MNJ, We had a post on Francoeur last offseason that got a little over 250 comments, but I don’t really track that info. In 06 and 07 we used to have game threads that would get 500-700 comments each night, but we stopped doing those because of bandwidth issues, and I don’t really consider those posts anyway. I think it’s safe to say it was that Francoeur post, I don’t recall another one like that.
Maybe Omar didn’t excite you but he was a very popular choice and he remained popular as a GM for several years. Virtually nobody criticised him in the early years and he was the hero after signing Santana. If he didn’t excite you were in a very samll group. It became the thing to do with the last two bad seasons. I hope this new guy does good but really, what does any new GM say thats different?
I agree Harry. I was very enthusiastic about yesterday, but I’m certain it was no more or less than it was for Omar. The only difference I see is that I think we were more desperate for change this time around. And maybe that’s becayse we tasted a little bit of sucess in 2006.
I thought Omar was going to be a great GM. Finally someone that would go out, find and develop young talent. I swallowed that whole “younger and more athletic” BS and then gradually became horrified that we were signing one older player after another, and always in a rottesrie like fashion of plugging in a solution to last years dilema’s this year with no vision toward tomorrow or the next day. I was more dissapointed with Omar than with any other GM we have ever had because I originally thought he was going to be great. The failure’s of every GM can be directly attributed to the neglect of the fully developed prospect flow and relying so totally on who happens to be a free agent in a particular year.
You might find this post I did for my blog a while back interesting.
http://realdirtymets.com/2010/09/23/where-did-minaya-go-wrong/
That’s a great post. Well researched and I love the information on all the transactions which clearly shows how he deviated from the original plan. Really good work.
FYI, I kept getting an error in my IE 8 browser and it wouldn’t load your page. But it worked fine in Google Chrome.
Thanks Alex for the compliment. I spent a better part of 5 hours gathering the info due to a bout of insomnia I had that night.
We have had issues with IE8 for some reason from time to time with some users and other than trying to update to the most recent version we have no other solution.
The two main points that sunk the Minaya ship was:
1. Bad contracts like the Benson, Castillo, Perez, Wagner, K-Rod (paying relievers $10M/year is never worth it), Bay (maybe too early to tell), Pedro, and Santana (if he can’t pitch as well after injury).
2. Problems with draft and player development: Not spending much on the draft and IFA. Giving away draft picks by signing type A FA like Moises Alou, K-Rod. Rushing prospects through the minors before they are ready (F-Mart, Tejada, Mejia).
T Agee used a gambling analogy earlier that I will try to use again and that is that you can make a case that Minaya gambled that backloading some of those contracts the way he did was OK because he figured if the Mets won before that no one would be complaining as much about the money.
Problem was Minaya gambled and lost and once that happen and those debts had to start to be paid he couldn’t dig himself out from under them.
That really is a great post. When you put so much effort into a great post like that shoot me an email and I’ll refer to it for you. That said, check it out people, it’s very informative.
Omar was ok in his first two years as Mets GM. That’s how they became a contending team again. But starting with his third off season at the helm, he began doing all the wrong things. He signed a a gazillion old, washed up players, even as he talked about getting younger. Look at 2007, he signed Aaron Sele, Moises Alou, Orlando Hernandez, Damion Easley, Jose Valentin, Billy Wagner, while the team was already depending on old timers like Pedro and Delgado. Is that getting younger and more athletic? Also, look at the drafting strategy during his regime, and it just boggles the mind how many great talents they passed on, and refusing to go out of slot for players with resources like the Mets have, is the kiss of death for trying to build a good farm system. In fairness to Omar, he took a farm system that was a complete zero up to five on a scale of one to ten, but during those six years we could have come so much farther is he had been competent.
Your “facts” about singings is incorrect. Omar signed Wagner in ’06. How could he be good in ’06 then? Omar got Hernandez in ’06. How could he be good in ’06 then? Omar got Valenitn in ’06. How could he be good in ’06? So getting old was ok until getting old guys wasn’t ok? He couldn’t have been good and then not good doing the same thing.
I was trying to illustrate his penchant for adding older expensive free agent talent, as opposed to truly getting younger like he said he was. He traded away much of his young talent instead. He was the hippocrate, not me, “Harry” why are you such a belligerent a hole?
Listening to his interview with the fat man, I was saying to myself, what is he doing with the Mets, he should be running GM, Ford or Microsoft.
We Mets fans got lucky this time. The fat man –rabid Yankees fan- realized that the wheel was turning. He became defensive.
I am so happy this morning, my morning coffee never tasted better, the air smell so good outside.
LGM!!!!
Very nice compilation and synopsis of the Minaya era North Jersey. My feeling about his reign was one of almost too much good fortune in the early years. (irrational exuberance) Even some of the things that didn’t pan out from a purely production standpoint were necessary to air out the boarded up old house but at some point everyone became seduced by the fantasy that we were only a player or two away and while I’m not saying it couldn’t have happened, I am saying that even if it did, it couldn’t be sustained. I for one would much rather be in it for a decade and get a few World Championships then get one and crash. The first crack in the plan to me was voluntarily surrendering a #1 draft choice to SF for a 40 year old LFer (younger and more athletic?) and from there on out, the bets just kept getting bigger and bigger and more chips got moved to the middle of the table and Omar started doubling down more and more recklessly and before you knew it we wound up with 7 players who should have been out of baseball on our 2010 opening day roster. In baseball terms, young fully developed rookies are the equivalent of cash flow. Even a poorly managed business can survive if they have cash flow. We didn’t. We had un maturated bonds that we had to cash in early and antiquated investments that had long ago stopped paying dividends. Added to those we had big investments that underperformed due to poorly thought out long term strategies. Basically we just ran out of cash. I appreciate the insight and the time and effort North Jersey. I look forward to more posts from you in the future and like all Met fans I hope that we will have more good moves to discuss than bad. Thanks again.
Thanks T Agee I appreciate the complimet.
*compliment
I’m on board. I loved all the things that Alderson has said. Seems smart, realistic, and has the proper goal of building a great franchise.
I loved that he admitted the Mets would not be aggressive shoppers in the FA market.
As long as we have a plan and make some progress, I’m happy.
It’s going to be weird watching a smart, competent GM who isn’t a traveling circus.
Lordy, you gave me a chuckle. Our freak show included the Tony Barnyard clubhouse antics. LOL
Thanks, Joe.
It’s a great story about a story that will be great if it happens. Being a fan since the years when the old Brooklyn Dodgers would routinely disappoint us, I’ve developed into a bit of a baseball agnostic. I want good things to happen, but until they do, a sliver of skepticism remains in my head.
Omar typically sold us a bill of goods. It was eaten up by many of our fans. His selling point was that he had professional expertise and he knew best. I didn’t buy it ever, and our mediocre, middle of the pack (at best) farm system is my proof.
Best of luck to Sandy and continued good writing, Joe.
Joe–I think you hit the nail on the head. Definitely a breath of fresh air and definitely comforting and reassuring.
I feel that he is a calming, soothing voice in the storm. I was impressed with his entire demeanor–calm, reassuring.
I did like Omar and I honestly think he did more good then bad. But his time was up. Hopefully, Mr. Alderson will lead us in the right direction.
After listening to him yesterday, I feel like a got a transfusion of orange and blue blood. LOL
LGM
Thanks for the positive feedback everyone. I appreciate it.
Joe can you unban me from the chat room ? I promise i’ll behave …….
* fingers crossed *
Hey Brooklyn, I never intentionally banned you. Sometimes I get a real bad one who keeps changing his IP and I have to use the atom bomb which blocks an entire zipcode. You must have been in that zip code. I have no problem with you ever. You’re good to go now.
Sanndy Alderson provides Mets fans with the hope of a future. He gives us a genuine baseball exec who can lead, reason properly, compete effectively with his peers, determine strategy and policy, have a commanding presence, and communicate clearly. What a refreshing breath of air after the Minaya years!
[...] D used words like invigorated and renewed spirit over at Mets Merized Online. He also brought up a great point about the players…. I wonder if the players felt that same [...]