It’s also true that some of their older free agents (Huff, Renteria and Uribe) played a huge part as well as did a waiver wire acquisition (Ross) but without Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, Wilson, Posey they don’t sniff the playoffs.

Developing your own All Stars, ROY candidates and Cy young award winners, and filling in behind them is far and away a better plan than signing someone else’s former All Stars, ROY candidates and Cy Young winners.

How does pointing out good work done by a rival GM equate into “dissing the Mets?”

Does this mean that you think we should ignore pujols cause he’s a Cardinal? Lincecum cause he’s a Giant? Ted Williams because he was a Red Sox?

See this what people mean when they say you never address the substance of what anyone writes, you only complain that they write it. You can’t dispute it so you complain about it.

No discussion of whether or not drafting Rollins in the 2nd round was a good move, Hamels in the 1st round, Victorino in the rule 5, Werth as a non tender, Ruiz as an IFA or Utley as a first rounder or how a perennial doormat has now had an eleven year run with just one sub .500 year.

Can’t address the topic so you discuss the fact that I responded to someone else’s post with a different point of view.

Not what I said, just the fact that I said it.

All your posts are the same just with different characters depending on the flavor of the day. Earlier it was SF who was the model and the Mets should be so lucky, then most of the year it was the Braves who the Mets should emulate but we suck, now Ed Wade makes a move and now you’re reviewing his past history. I guess you can do the same for any succussful GM in baseball and there’s plenty. So why don’t you do that? Oh wait, you already do.

We all know what’s next in line if St. Louis wins it. It will be the next few weeks about how the Mets should do things like the Cardinals.

Philadelphia has had winning seasons in 10 of the last 11 years. The only exception was 2002 at 80-81.

Since 2001 Philly has won 86, 80, 86, 86, 88, 85, 89, 92, 93, 97 and 101. A huge part of why they’ve done this is because of the work Ed Wade did in Philly when he was the GM. They missed the playoffs in 2005 by just one game. Wade was fired after that game and Gillick took over.

Wade’s the guy though that acquired Rollins, Utley, Hamels, Howard, Victorino and Ruiz along with a lot of guys Gillick used to upgrade in other areas. Gillick reshaped things mostly by subtracting guys off the Major League roster like Thome, Rowand and Abreu and did a tremendous job himself but the heart of the team is still guys that Wade acquired even years later. Amaro Jr. has basically been able to tinker with the roster and take on salary because of the success they’ve had.

I don’t know that Wade ever gets the Phillies over the top but he certainly had a big hand in getting them close and some of his deals with Philly have reeked a bit but the Pence one is potentially a huge win for Houston and his mandate there isn’t even to win. It’s to get the payroll down so the team can be sold.

Even Philly fans who hated Wade have to admit years later he laid the groundwork. Who knows, maybe everyone will someday be saying the same things about Minaya. Wade built up the Philly farm but also took away from it with numerous free agent signings. The similarities are there.

Eleven years now with only one season under .500 and that one was 80-81. Five Division titles, three World Series and a World Championship and their “extremely lucky.”

We should be so lucky.

During the build up to hopefully winning we gave up three #1 picks, two 2nd rounders and a third rounder. Prospects for Delgado, La Duca, El-Duque, Church, Schneider and Santana. We didn’t get burned in any of those deals either but we didn’t have those prospects in the farm to get us over the hump. We had already spent them.

Philly also got two everyday players that cost neither a prospect or even an average salary in Werth and Victorinno and got great seasons out of them. Werth was let go for two high draft choices and Victorinno may be too and the biggest thing of all was that Philly didn’t trade their ace to be away for a mediocre starting pitcher. If they had Hamels wouldn’t have led them to their World Series championship. Kazmir’s run was all too short but if he had the kinds of seasons in 2006, 2007 and 2008 for us that he did for Tampa things could have been different. Trading away a young ace out of your farm is just such a stupid incredibly naive thing to do.

Relying on salary dumps and free agents for every need on your 25 just inorder to GET competitive only guarantees you a very short window. If you develop the nucleus first you can add to it and keep it going for a period of time but if the farm can’t replace what you need eventually your going to run out of players. That’s what happened to us. We ran out of players every year.

I can’t see it. Loria is just too cheap.

It’s not about the free wheeling spending. It’s how you spend any and all dollars – how smart you are with your investments – that determines a contending team.

Agreed.

Life is not fair and the state of Mets fans is very sad. We have a pitchers park without the benefit of a pitching staff that can utilize it. We have a left field wall and spacious outfield to frustrate our own right handed hitters. We can’t afford to sign quality players. Ownership doesn’t understand that seats fill when there is a quality team on the field. The Mets have given up their birthright in the New York market because of mgmt and ownership incompetence. The Phillies are the dynasty in the division while we are fighting for rights to the cellar. It takes real dedication to be a Mets fan these days.