And Barajas is a very bad example to use. He was third choice at best! Molina was the guy he wanted but couldn’t get him and since Thole hadn’t shown he was ready yet he needed a catcher to start the season. Someone who could help the pitching staff that was the ONLY question mark aside from Beltran going into the season.

But lets look at that for a second.

he lost Beltran but had Pagan to take over. Gotta say that was good!
He lost Murphy to Injury but Ike proved he was even better than Murphy both in glove and bat! Another good in my book.
He lost castillo to injury and only had Tejada to fill, Wasn’t awful as Tejada hit about as well as Castillo but had a better glove. We will call this a wash, Castillo hit slightly better Tejada fielded slightly (understatement) better.
Maine was bad, Takahashi came in and did fine! Another GOOD!
Perez was awful, Dickey came in…REALLY GOOD!

Barajas was gone as soon as Thole proved he could play.

Was our bench weak? Well only because it was not bench anymore it was our starters with all the injuries.

As for the indifference, many were indifferent to what Sandy has done (I included) That doesn’t mean I don’t have reservation nor does it mean I think they were all great moves.

Truth is all the guys Sandy signed were not expected to do much. And who knows right now that they will?
Young and Capuano still have to last the season for those moves to be good ones and what does Sandy do if they last just long enough to resign to market rate and then they get hurt again (Much like Beltran and Delgado) or Start to stink it up (like castillo and Perez).
Well those contracts will be just as bad as anything Omar did.

The problem isn’t so much what and who the GM signs people to it is a problem with the CBA that makes every contract guaranteed regardless of performance.

Every team in baseball save the few moneyball small market teams have guys they are paying more than they deserve based on the results.
And since the CBA and current FA market is such that you have to give more than is WORTH giving to get a player unless your a perrenial WS winner and can sell them on a ring there is no way to avoid those types of signings and still WIN in the Major Leagues! You will have to eat bad contracts or live with them!
Sure you can fill a statdium with the false hope of being a playoff team that never gets to the WS but you won’t sustain that unless you win a WS every now and then.
Especially in NY!
Torre after winning multiple WS’ got the boot for missing ONE!
We are a fickle fandom in NY and we tend to use Hindsight as a weapon to get rid of those who haven’t done anything lately even if they have a history of winning baseball!

And usually the first affect is on the digestive tract as the whole digestive system is nothing more than a series of chemical reactions and processes.

Diet Pill Ok…Stimulant. they STIMULATE all actions of the body which includes higher stomach acid content, Leading to Ulcers and lower intestinal and other disorders related to the Colon!

I am sure if it was JUST a diet pill he wouldn’t have had the issues getting his Visa he did! Diet Pills are after all legal in the US!

That he was signed at all or that he will miss more than the 8 games now due to being sick?

If he ever plays for the Mets and sucks I am sure people will say what a bad signing he was.

But you want people to say now he was a bad sign cause he now got sick?

Cmon dude I mean really.

Notice how the only people ever to use words like “mr perfect” are the ones using to bash?

Alderson is far from perfect the fact that you categorize him as such begs the question why you feel the need to do so when the only people using words like mr perfect to describe Alderson are the ones using to bash him?

Church, Schneider, Wagner, Sosa, Livan, C. Vargas, Putz, Redding, Alou, Castillo, Broadway, Green, Ayala, Muniz, Armas, Schowenweiss, Moto, Williams, Sele, Lawrence, and a million other guys who flew under the radar until after the season crashed and they were gone or the stadium was empty.

Don’t forget He upped the payroll bringing in Putz (who between salary and buyout cost about 4.5% of the teams budget) and had been hurt the year before, had a high ERA and walked more than 3 times the number of batters he normally did because of his injury.

He also brought in Barajas to catch who other than a few HR’s did nothing with the bat, left us with Cancel, Casanova, Schneider and Santos as backstops and got rid of Castro.

No one really said anything much about these moves at all until afterward when most of them were gone. The only one’s left (Castillo and Perez) then took all the heat for the bad play and injuries of them all.

Omar was declared the winner of the off season a few times here in NY. No criticism was heard about most of it until July.

Paulino was a good acquisition in that he did very well the one thing that our current catcher doesn’t. He wasn’t expected to play a big role but if healthy, in condition and baseball ready could have definitely helped for a year or two.

This team had a great starting catcher in place for 7.5 years. You would think that during that time frame we could have developed a few good candidates. Failing that we could done what the Nationals did. Trade someone for a catching prospect. They traded Matt Capps for Wilson Ramos a good defensive catcher, promising bat even though they still have Pudge and one of the best catching prospects in baseball (Derrick Norris) going to AA this year.

We have to go outside the organization for a catcher every year and really just lucked out with Thole. He was drafted as a catcher but didn’t project there so was moved to 1B, where his bat didn’t project. Moved back to catcher the 13th pick looks like he’ll do a good job and help us get something offensively that we didn’t with Schneider, Santos, Barajas, Blanco, Cancel and Casanova if we find a guy to pair him with.

That’s the problem. With our primary source of player procurement curtailed we have to go a different route now. We might make some mistakes with low budget guys. This mistake can be corrected in the future by requiring testing before signing someone but there are bound to be others. The best way to prevent this is to provide more of your needs in house.

Money is the root of ALL evil!

All of organized sports have got to keep emphasizing exercise, diet, nutrients, and rest. Yes, hardly original, but so, so important for our era.

Paulino is a decent backstop, and it’s a shame that his delay to the roster will now be perhaps indefinitely extended.

Here’s hoping whatever the problem is, it’s not serious and can be corrected in short time.

Get well soon, Paulino.