6
2011
Oh, How The Mighty Have Fallen
An article by 
It is both incredible and disheartening to me how such a solid, promising ballclub has fallen to such a lowly state. A mere five seasons ago right now we all spoke of how bright the future is for the Mets; how we could be looking at a dynasty. Unfortunately, fast forward to the present, and we see a dynasty that never happened.
Following their defeat in one the most exciting postseason series ever, the Mets appeared to be back. With a young core centered around David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes and a promising future 1-2-3 punch of Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez, John Maine; the Amazin’s seemed to be destined for greatness, many tasting a world championship.
Then we all know what happens next; unfathomable implosions back-to-back and an injury crippled 2009, leaving Mets fans realing over a gutwrenching past three years. The dynasty that we were so certain would make the Mets a perennial playoff franchise, has now buckled underneath its own weight.
Eventually it became clear that Perez, Maine and Pelfrey were busts, and even with the acquistion of Johan Santana, it wasn’t enough. After players such as Carlos Delgado, Pedro Martinez, Jose Valentin, Cliff Floyd and Billy Wagner grew older and eventually retired, it be came clear this strong run that was supposed to be the latter half of the 2000′s for the Mets had become just one gigantic disappointment. Despite trying to fix a growing hole in a sinking ship with guys like K-Rod, Jason Bay and Luis Castillo, the team fell apart.
This past year represented just about the end of any hope for this central core of players, who would never reach the expectations we had for them. We have seen Pedro Feliciano, K-Rod, Carlos Beltran and now Jose Reyes depart one-by-one. The only true pillar of this franchise remaining from the 2006 team is David Wright.
Hopefully this next team that is in transition will reach its full potential, will get the Mets back to becoming a respected name in baseball. With a young central group of bats headed by Ike Davis, Lucas Duda and Ruben Tejada, coupled with a batch of homegrown arms including Jon Niese, Dillon Gee and soon to be Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler, the future may verywell be bright should everything go in the Mets favor.
But as for now, we can only watch the bitter end of a wasted, extremely talented core of players that was the late 2000′s New York Mets.
About the Author: Clayton Collier
Clayton, a Long Island native and die-hard Mets fan, started writing online about three years ago. He is currently a Journalism major with a minor in Broadcasting at Seton Hall University. Although very disappointed with the current state of the team, Clayton remains hopeful that the young prospects in the farm system will bring the Mets back to a respected franchise in baseball once again. Besides writing for MMO, Clayton is also a staff member at 89.5 WSOU, Seton Hall's modern active rock radio station. You can contact Clayton by following him on Twitter: @Clayton_Collier or E-mailing him at MaybeNextYearMets@yahoo.com
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Wow–I never equated those three pitchers with greatness. Ollie was a renowned head case and Maine had failed in the Orioles system. We also had LoDuca, who was old and out of shape, and Delgado, who was old. When we did not do it in 2006 a d 2007, I was pretty sure we were going nowhere for a while.
Right, after winning 97 games in 2006 you said to yourself “gee, we will choke in 2007 and in 2008, then we will have ravishing and devastating injuries to the WHOLE team in 2009 and in 2010″.. hindsight in always 20/20….
Thank you alex68.
Izzy, the CORE salutes You!!!! is good to see there’s few of us who see things the right way..
Do you ever comprehend what you read? I felt after 2007 that this team was no long term dynasty in the making. That is the subject of the thread. I was responding to that. I certainly did not agree that the “mighty had fallen”. I did not think they were “mighty”. I was actually surprised this team contended in 2008. Did you think that a team with the likes of Maine and Perez was going to be a force for YEARS TO COME? I am telling you what I thought in 2007. You are giving me 100% HINDSIGHT,
In fact, I was on blogs in 2008 asking that Omar be replaced. Would I have done that if I thought we were a juggernaut?
no matter how you sugar coated to me, that sounds like second guessing… i too was not in favor of omar and the moves he made and continue to make after the 2008 season, he seemed to be more loyal to his guys than what he should’ve been, but don’t tell me that after the 2006 season you were saying ohhh we’re doomed, had delgado, beltran and reyes not gotten hurt in 2009 and putz would’ve been putz, do you honestly think the mets were not gonna be WS favorites along with the yankees? come on man!!!!
if CC sabathia goes down during the season, then arod, jeter and teixiera, what do you think will happen to the yankees!?!? again, nothing BUT SECOND GUESSING from you…
See—you just proved what I said. Read what I wrote. I said that I felt this way after 2007. Not 2006. Read. Two straight flops were all I needed. I accepted the loss in 2006. But when they did not bounce back and avenge their defeat, when they choked like a dog with a pork chop bone stuck in its throat, I gave up on the group. I also hated Maine and Ollie. So I saw no light at the end of the tunnel. Don’t forget-Omar brought in Pedro, Duque, LoDuca and Delgado, and later Alou. There was no thought of the long term.
Santana’s been very solid ‘when’ healthy, but frankly, that’s been an issue. Seems to me, it’s both economic and prudent, albeit an uneven process, to develop pitching talent from within the system. And we finally have a cluster of intriguing pitching prospects in the system: Harvey, Wheeler, Familia, Mejia (injury!), Gorski…to name a few well-along in the process.
Excellent article Clayton. However, I would never put the term “bat” and Reuben Tejeda in the same sentence. Tejeda’s 2011 season was a total fluke. He is this generation’s Dick Schofield. For those who didn’t endure a season of Schofield in Flushing here are his career stats: .230/.308/.316 in 14 ML seasons in which he generally was an EVERYDAY SS (including his ’92 Mets campaign of .205/.311/.286). Why you might ask was he an everyday player with those stats? Defense. Ditto for Reuben Tejeda. His minor league numbers do not suggest that he’ll be anywhere as good as his 2011 stats suggest. I would say he’ll perform closer to Schofield with maybe a bit higher OBP (how could help but NOT have a better one). We’ll be lucky if Tejeda maintains a .250/.320/.340 line in the Majors. Schofield might have played a couple of years longer in his day with those numbers, but in today’s game even bench players don’t hang around long at those numbers.
While we’ll never confuse Ruben Tejada with Miguel Tejada I don’t think last year was a fluke at all.He improved leaps and bounds from 2010 last year and remember he’s still only 21 years old and is already a pretty instinctive player.I don’t see why Ruben can’t be a 270-290 hitter and getting on base 360-370 playing solid defense.You can with with that as long as you put a team around him and get offense from positions you’re supposed to get it from the 4 corner positions.
Good idea, Joe. Let’s make sure we are strong at four positions to compensate for one marginally productive position. It’s the way to build a team if you don’t have the holes the Mets have.
Nice read, I often wonder what would have happened had Beltran just punches that Wainwright curveball to left and the Mets win it by scoring two runs. I don’t blame Beltran, just a recurring dream I have had since 2006. Mets 20 year anniversary championship. Oh but wait, 2007 they repeat after Delgado recruits Halladay and the Mets & Jays make a trade sending them Ollie, Maine, & Pelfrey. Then there’s more, 2008 brings a down to the wire battle between the Phillthies & Mets. Mets swipe the division with 1 game to go, then cruise through the play-offs, then win their 3rd consecutive WS championship! 2009 comes Mets win 118 games in route to their record setting 4th WS title in a row against you know who! 2010 is a blur and I wake up to find that it’s the end of the 2011 season, no championships, no Reyes, and the Wilpon’s still own the team. For Mets fans: “It’s a Hard Knock life for us”!
Clayton, nice piece. To me, the turning point for this franchise was ownership’s unwillingness to fire Willie, his coaches and Omar after the 2007 collapse. When they brought WIllie back in 2008, they waited way to long to terminate him, and in some people’s opinions handled the firing badly. What needed to happen after 2007 was a complete overhaul of management, from Omar on down the line. The failure to do that, created an atomsphere of zero accountabilty, they lasted until last season. (Sorry for me rant).