23
2011
Let’s Not Go Overboard With Praising Alderson
An article by 
Let’s be careful not to go overboard in praising the Sandy Alderson regime for the sacking of Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez. Credit to Alderson goes in finally convincing the Wilpons eating $18 million in salary was the prudent option.
The actual decision itself was a no-brainer in that neither would be a viable contributor to the team, both were an emotional and psychological drains in the clubhouse, and to adequately change the culture of the Mets they must be purged.
There was no real thinking that had to be done and the key was in the timing. Alderson knew he couldn’t trade either in the off-season because of their salary, performance and injury histories. His only hope for Castillo was he could find his game and prove enough in spring training to warrant going north; for Perez was he could regain his fastball and hook on in a relief role.
Both were long shots, but Alderson had no choice to bring them to spring training and let it play itself out.
Since neither distinguished himself in the positive, it was time to make the move. With Opening Day rapidly approaching and the Mets playing at a .500 pace and little room for optimism, Alderson needed to make a spark and this was it.
This was a move the Mets needed to make so let’s not throw roses at Alderson for doing the obvious.
About the Author: John Delcos
I am an active member of the BBWAA and have covered Major League Baseball in several capacities for over 20 years, including ten in New York working the Mets' and Yankees' beat. I covered the Baltimore Orioles for eight years and the Cleveland Indians before that. I currently serve as an editor and senior staff writer for Mets Merized Online. Follow me on Twitter @jdelcos.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 41 | 28 | .594 | - |
| Nationals | 34 | 34 | .500 | 6.5 |
| Phillies | 33 | 37 | .471 | 8.5 |
| Mets | 25 | 39 | .391 | 13.5 |
| Marlins | 21 | 47 | .309 | 19.5 |
Last updated: 06/16/2013
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Luis Castillo would have had to become Chase Utley for us to even consider him staying with team. In Philadelphia, Chase Utley became Luis Castillo.
Ollie Perez was not going to turn into Sandy Koufax no matter how long and how much he tried.
He deserves those roses thrown at his feet.
The former regime allowed Perez to languish in the BP doing nothing more than taking up a roster spot. Wilpons were quoted as saying they were never approached about releasing any players. Whether that was true or not, Alderson doing just that to put a better product on the field (money be damned), points to him doing the job he was hired to do.
Additional roses being justified remains to be seen.
However lets throw roses for the wise decisions he has made this offseason. My prediction is that by May, most will realize that Pedro Feliciano, at 34 with all those innings, is no more than a lefty specialist that the Yankees threw 9 millions at and that Alderson was smarter enough to realize that.
You must be new to this site Mr Delcos or else you would know that it is a crime here to do anything but throw praise on Alderson. Intellectual discussion and criticsm of him are absolutely against the rules.
Sad but true. Haven’t seen you around here before, but the Alderson lovefest is a bit over the top around here from those who comment.
The “Mets are gonna be garbage/finish in last place” rants from you are far more over the top.
It’s not a lovefest – it’s people just countering the hatefest before the season even starts.
How DARE you criticize the almighty “Genius” Sandy Alderson. How DARE YOU! He’s a genius because he once won a world series in 1989 not only with the Bash Brothers but he had Tony LaRussa as manager, the greatest leadoff hitter of all time in Henderson and the “Mariano Rivera” of his time, Dennis Eckersley, oh and Dave Stewart too. But hey, he was GM when they won the WS in 1989 so he is now this intellectually famous genius now.
Mike Francesa had one of the best lines when he said when the Yankees get eliminated from the first round of a playoff it’s s disappointing season, when the A’s get eliminated in the first round, they call Billy Beane a genius. While other organizations have had great championship runs since1989 Sandy Alderson is the one that’s the genius.
I wonder how many people have used the word “genius” to describe Alderson around here in a way other than to knock him.
Hmmmmmm.
A few actually.
Like? Examples?
Because most of the time I’ve seen Alderson praised, its more along the lines of “he’s looked better than Omar so far”.
Anyone who is honest knows it is too early to say whether he has been a success or failure with the Mets. There seem to be a lot more calls for his firing so far around here than any over the top praise.
Calls for his firing? who is saying that?
When he first got hired there was people saying a lot of things like: He’s a Genius, he’s brilliant, ect. And Amazin Avenue became “Alderson Avenue”. It has died down a lot now. But when he was first hired, yes people did say things like that.
and your right it’s too early to say if he’s a success or failure.
Bayonne has called for his firing. K Maxx, Harry C and his sock puppet iz, the usual trolls.
Yes, AA, changed their header to Alderson Avenue because they are a sabermetrics focused sight. But a lot of that was done in fun.
You still haven’t named anyone here who seriously called Alderson a genius.
I have NOT called for Sandy Alderson’s firing. Never have. Sorry.
Really? Are you sure?
I don’t remember them saying they wanted him fired.
Who cares anyway? I’m not saying that he should be fired and you’re not saying he is a genius. – So this is pointless.
Back to baseball.
Yes I’m sure. FInd it. You TOLD the entire site here that I said Sandy Alderson should be fired.
I want you to FIND IT. FIND THE PROOF that I ever said such a thing.
Find it and post it out here.
So, you never posted on your twitter page that you’d start using Pomes’ hash tag?
Just show people where I said Alderson is a genius and don’t take it out of context
I mean show people where I said Alderson should be FIRED and don’t take it out of context. Now i have the word genius in my head.
Actually Donal a LOT of people have put Genius and Alderson together.
ALL of them are guys who HATE alderson, I have yet to see anyone who thinks Sandy will be a good GM use it to date!
That was my point. The people throwing around “genius” are doing so in a derisive manner.
To be fair I recall some of the decisions he made referred to as “genius moves.” At the time of the announcement of a decision it could be described as a good move, good thought process, smart move ect but genius move is a little over the top. I think those sorts of comments rubbed people the wrong way.
Love the sarcasm.
Maybe some are just REASONABLE enough to give the guy a chance before deeming him awful before we’ve seen what he can do for a year or so.
The guy was left with a mess – despite what you think because you played the game.
Quoting Francesca – now there’s credibility!
Bayonne, you never told us you were once in the movies.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1MHO_3PJY2U/SeqdJ5Pg_zI/AAAAAAAACh4/0DGe2_zHshw/s1600-h/Randy+Rides+Alone2.jpg
That is idiotic or YOU must be new.
It’s a fan site, anyone is entitled to say stupid things.
No one is making the guy a saint, but bashing a guy before the season even starts is just ignornance at its best.
I DO praise him! Because he did what the other a-hole didn’t do!! KUDOS to Alderson and the WIlpons. Minaya was terrible wasteful and added insult to injury by not recommending those players be released last season.
Let’s say that the average ticket buyer spends $100 a game on ticket, concessions, etc. $18M divided by 100 is 180000, divided by 81 is 2222. That means you have to sell an extra 2222 seats per game to offset the cost of buying them out. I think its entirely realistic to think that 2000+ extra people will now buy tickets to watch the Mets now that those two cancerous pieces of garbage are off of the roster. Mets may even make money off of this deal.
When Mcilvaine started getting rid of the guys who made up “the worst team money could buy” he wasn’t able to get much for them but the mere subtraction of those guys immediately changed the atmosphere and the Mets went on a very good run even with a mediocre team. Turns out they were being “held back” by people who’s prioroties were more about themselves than the team.
Well thought out decisions not just reactive one’s appear to be the norm of this FO. They mixed and matched and seemingly addressed everything but 2B, now their going to see what they have up here, and in the minors, come up with a plan and then execute the plan.
If some of the minor league talent Omar brought in here provides some answers we could be back in business for good by 2013. By that time only one of Omar’s free agents will still be here and presumably the beginning of a well conceived roster will have already begun to show progress.
Save the roses until then, remember we’ve been disappointed before.
As for the NYY and Feliciano, it was a move that had to be made. At some point you have to look at the big picture. Feliciano’s not going to last forever, he’ll almost certainly never again be leaving behind a draft choice. Getting an extra pick in this deep draft is a big help. Maybe we can finally find a 2B or RFer.
A little more patience without more bad luck again is needed at 2B. We just may have our guy, a particularly high ceiling guy, in Reese Havens. His overall minor league career shows one home run per 25.6 PA. This is outstanding.
In 2010 Havens played at St. Lucie and Binghamton. At his last stop in Binghamton, he was hitting .338/.400/.662 with 6 homers in 75 PA. The he had his oblique issue and was shut down. Against the pretty good competition at Binghamton, Reese had one homer every 12.5 PA. Overall last year, he averaged one homer per 15.6 PA.
Just how good are Havens numbers? His overall minor league PA/HR ratio is better than those of Utley (32.0), Uggla (37.2) and Cano (51.4). Utley had more than 1800 minor league PAs, Uggla had almost 2400, and Cano about 2100 PAs. Reese has had just 667 minor league PAs. Havens sample size is small. But we may already have our man for the next 6-10 years.
We might Des. And if we resigned Reyes, could have Tejada backing up both and providing some late inning D for Havens if needed. That would be great usage of 3 roster spots.
The danger though is those additional 1200-1800 AB’s ARE a big deal. Bringing guys up before they’ve learned to think along with professional pitchers at different levels along the way up puts them in a tough position when they get up here. That’s what leads to prolonged slumps and long periods of adjustments that better prepared prospects don’t have to overcome.
It’s also dangerous to count on just one guy for every position. Reece wouldn’t have been ready until this year at best without injuries. Davis came up out of need a year early and struggled with his adjustments but made it through. Fern never did. Thole was worked in carefully but was also able to play winter ball to accelerate his learning curve. Tejada despite not looking overmatched clearly needed more AB’s to get his talent to translate. Murphy looked lost for a couple of months, Gomez and Milledge would have been far better served to have 1,000 more AB’s. Even Reyes could have benefited from another year to develop his pitch recognition skills. Another guy who didn’t get enough time was Keppinger who got rushed up when Reyes got hurt. Sometimes when guys don’t get enough AB’s they never are all they could have been.
I can’t wait to see Havens up here but I want him ready to stay when he arrives.
Agreed, tag. What’s interesting to me is that all four guys mentioned (Havens, Utley, Uggla, Cano)have accelerated their HR productivity with additional PAs. When we look back in the rear view mirror of the future,it will all be clear. Right now it’s not for me. Thanks for you insight.
You know, Alderson had only five winning seasons as A’s GM. Nine losing seasons, and one .500 season. He also had Three last place finishes.
I have no idea why he gets so much praise in the first place. I know he won a WS, but I’m SURE if he wasn’t into sabermetrics he only would be viewd as a GOOD GM, not a genius. If he was a genius, he would have more than 5 winning seasons in 15 years.
The five winning seasons came from notorious roiders the bash brothers. Without them on roids, they would have been all losing seasons for Alderson who was never even a baseball guy to begin with, just a business man with a harvard degree.
Yes, Peter, the Bash Brothers, known far and wide as the ONLY TWO BASEBALL PLAYERS ON STEROIDS. EVER.
That argument is horrible, and a favorite of people who are for some reason afraid of Sandy. And let’s all please remember how Omar came in here all blustery about how “paperwork” as he called it (advanced stats) are “false hustle.” And then proceeded to torpedo the franchise.
Sandy Alderson had 5 winning seasons in 15 years, Omar had 4 winning seasons in SIX years.
Just sayin.
Good catch Vinny.
How many WS appearances did Omar have, Vinny? You wanna talk about the 9 losing seasons….you do know the A’s were garbage when Sandy came in, right? That team was a real work in progress before they finally became relevant again in ’87.
Peter, spare me the “Bash Brothers were roiders” argument. EVERY WS team over the past 2 decades had steroid users on them. Try again.
None. I just wanted to point out that Omar had almost the same amount of winning seasons as Sandy did in a lot less time. And if you want to use the A’s were garbage before Sandy came in (they actually made the ALCS in 1981)the Mets were also garbage when Omar came in too.
Oh and why don’t you explain why the A’s had five losing seasons from 93-97 with Sandy Alderson as GM?
You mean after their 4 out of 5 years in the postseason and salary slashing started? C’mon Vinny.
We had 6 losing seasons following our 2 out of 5 years in the post season with no budget slashing just bonehead slashing.
We then followed that up with 82, 75, 66 and 71 wins after making the postseason for the only consecutive years in our history while increasing payroll.
I remember reading that they slashed payroll in 95. They had losing seasons in 93 and 94.
Again Vinny. After going to the post season 4 years out of 5 they started a run of 6 straight losing season. Same as we did after our run of 2 post seasons in 5 years.
Not that uncommon. Happens to many teams.
Perhaps the additional $60 or $70 million/year on the payroll had a teensy bit to do with it?
Payroll doesn’t matter. You see teams do good all the time with small payrolls, and you see teams do bad with big payrolls.
I don’t think it had anything to do with it.
Most teams payrolls go up after expierencing success, we jack ours up in anticipation of success. Maybe that’s part of the problem.
Payroll doesn’t matter.
So the Yankees have 27 World Championships because they’re really really really lucky then?
Okay, why did we have two losing seasons with a high payroll? why did the Marlins won the WS with a very low payroll in 2003? The Twins always do good with a low payroll and so do the Rays – if payroll mattered then why are they doing good?
High payroll is an advantage, but its a wasted advantage if you don’t use it right. Like a good minor league system.
Can you imagine a team that can draft and develop like the Royals or the Rays but have a top 5 payroll?
Payroll isn’t the be-all end-all, I will happily admit that. But it does matter. That’s all I’m sayin.
The Bash Brothers spearheaded the steroids era as Canseco said in Juiced. He was called a liar on almost a hundred of his claims, all of which turned out to be true. As he said it spilled over from his love of wrestling and body building and he did the spilling over.
As for Omar torpedoing the franchise, if you mean bad contracts in Perez and Castillo yes, but he left the Mets with a young core that would make any GM including Alderson salivate in Ike, Niese, Wright, Reyes, Pagan, Harvey, Flores, Puello, Rodriguez, Nieuwihuis, Parnell, Mejia, etc.
Mickey Mantle used roids.
Willie Mays admits to having no idea what he put in his body.
Anabolic steroids were first synthesized in the 1930s, when guys were pumping themselves with animal testosterone to get a competitive advantage.
If you honestly want to tell me the Bash Borthers were the guys who brought ‘roids into MLB, then I got a bridge to sell you.
Every team has quite a few prospects, not just us.
To Omar’s credit he has built up the farm system from zero. He has added depth where their was none as well as top shelf (but raw) talent in the lower minors but other teams have better talent, more of it and it’s more well rounded, including and especially our biggest competitor, Atlanta.
The Phillies run will take it’s course, the staff will age in 2-3 years. The position players will need to be replaced. Victorinno has no replacement as of yet, nor does Rollins or Utley. Howards contract and platoon splits are going to weigh down the team. Brown may not up hold RF, Francisco may not be an average LFer. They’ve got 2 years to extend their run.
Atlanta on the other hand has Heyward in RF (we’re talking Duda), Freeman at 1B (we’ve got Ike), FOUR candidates for SS/2B and SEVEN A-B starting pitching prospects (Minor, Teheran, Delgado, Vizcaino, Perez, Beachy and Hoover to add to Hanson and Jurjens PLUS a closer (Kimbrel) and set up man (Venters)
They have young veterans at C (McCann) and CF (McClouth, backed by Shafer) and Prado in LF.
The only thing they lack in the minors is OF depth and a replacement for Chipper. With Lowe’s, Hudson’s, and Chipper’s contracts ending this year they’ll have the money to resign McCann and address 3B and CF and with all the young pitching in the rotation, pen, and RF and 1B making the minimum be able to afford whatever they want.
Serious questions remain about parts of our best prospects games. Niewhinhaus’ ability to play CF or hit enough to play RF. I have to say defensively he looked very good to me this spring but the question has consistently been raised. Not a sure thing by any means.
Parnell still only has one pitch. The list of guys who can get away with that is extremely small.
Mejia is our best hope for a dominant ace in the next few years. Failing that he should be a shut down set up man in a dominant pen or a closer in a good one.
Rodriguez, Armondo – Long, long way to go. Played in the App rookie league last year, miles away.
Rodriguez, Aderlain – Massive power, great arm, slow feet, won’t be able to stay at 3B so where then? Catcher needs quick feet but still….
Played in the App rookie league last year. Miles away.
Urbina – Very high ceiling live arm. Great sign by Omar. This is exactly what a big market team should be doing. Played in the App rookie league miles away.
Puello – looks great. 5 tools if power develops. Could have 10 years of Tommie Agee’s best year in CF. Probably going to Low A in 2011.
Vaughn – Big power, big questions. Probably going to Low A in 2011.
Flores – Great bat speed, very good hitter, great arm but too big and too slow for SS. 3B is his most likely position so that in and of itself is a big question as is when will he begin to learn it? When he gets up here? ETA 2013.
Harvey (Matz too) – yet to even throw a single professional pitch. Nice to be optimistic but let’s see.
Pagan is 30 this year and it is more likely than not that he will never share a clubhouse with more than one or two of these guys.
Reyes, the best position player we have ever developed could very easily be lost this off season mostly due to the wheelbarrows full of cash we have lavished on so many mutants through the years.
Wright could wind up at 1B to make room for Flores but then what about Ike? or Flores could go to LF but what about Bay? Duda? or could Flores hold down RF? If he can he better start playing there, it’s a whole different ball game.
Niese – great 5th round pick. Could be a solid #2 for years to come.
Ike – Can be a good Major League 1B for a decade but one of Wright, Duda or Flores and Aderlain if he makes it this far, would have to go for it to be with us.
There is also Tejada and Havens with their accompanying questions and Catcher and SS and pitching remain lite.
Dealing from our minor league OF depth for prospects would be a smart move. I’d keep for sure Puello and Den Dekker, back Pagan with Niuwenhaus and see what Vaughn or Ceccilini could bring back in A/B prospects at SP, C and middle infield.
Atlanta has many of their young pieces already here and well rounded. They have plenty more poised to break in and time to work on where they are lite (other than Chipper) We are no where even close to that situation.
Vinny, to be fair he took over a team that had just lost all their young starting pitchers through over use in 1980 and 1981. Losing Norris, McCatty, Kingman, Langford and Keough effected that team for a while, as it would any team.
When the payroll got slashed in 1995, He had to trade away major parts of the team but in 14 years he did go the playoffs 4 times while playing a balanced AL schedule and lost 90+ games only twice. Once at the end of his 4 out of 5 years in the post season and once after slashing his payroll the last year. He also won 4 division titles, winning 103, 104, 99 and 96 games.
We’ve lost 90+ games six times in 20 years with the largest payroll and been to the post season only 7 times with 5 Division titles in 49 years.
Four post seasons in 14 years is quite a bit better than 7 in 49.
Using the word genius for ANYONE in baseball is as dumb as someone using the word CANCER in baseball.
Overly misused words.
In the same vain, why people are bashing Alderson this soon is as dumb as anyone calling him a genius.
There is a reason why we are giving opinions on the internet and not actually part of Baseball Operations.
The interesting thing is that at last count the word Genius shows up 21 times in this post (including the use of it just now) and the 1st time it is said is by Bayonne in fact Bayonne seems to say it more than anyone else using the word 7 times. The most of anyone here.
It seems that the one’s that most like using that word to describe Alderson are not the one’s that use it as a positive but quite the opposite the one’s that like to use it as a negative. Almost as if they are threatened by it so they use it to mock him instead.
I would bet that if you made it a point to see who uses that word most on this blog alone you will find that it is used more to mock Alderson than by those using it to somehow praise him.
I don’t know what constitutes going overboard in your opinion Delcos but if it is what I think then I agree that this move that if not done would have had many fans blame Alderson for not having made it by the same token people should not treat this move any more than what it was.
A move that was overdue that signified an end of an era.
I don’t know how many are going overboard but I know just like there are those going overboard in praising Alderson there are also those that go overboard to do the opposite and not give Alderson any recognition whatsoever.
You see it all the time. Sometimes they use words like cult,genius, all knowing, or God to name a few to make fun of the man or those that may appreciate him.
So yes while people should not go overboard in praising Alderson for this or any of the moves he has made the opposite holds just as true as well.
Can we please stop creating headline posts that are better positioned as comments on something else? This posting is pointless, as usual for Delcos.