12
2012
Don’t Expect Any “Quick Fixes” From This Front Office
An article by 
The upcoming weeks are probably the most stressful of the year for any general manager of a big league club. Year after year, they are faced with a tough decision- do you risk the future to try to win now?
The Mets, 32-29, are currently five games back of division-leading Washington, and three back of the red-hot Braves. The division is rapidly spreading out, and the Mets seem to be caught in the middle. Caught between fading along with the Marlins and Phillies and pushing ahead with Atlanta and Washington. It seems like the net logical step for a team like this is to make a few deals and attempt a Wild Card run, right? A few quick moves could put this team into contention now…
Maybe not for this team. That’s not Sandy Alderson’s style.
Sandy Alderson is not the GM that will ride the emotional roller coaster of a baseball season. He will stay calm, cool and collected and be very patient with this franchise. After all, he’s done this before with major, major success.
On this same date in 1987, the Oakland Athletics, a team under the control of Sandy Alderson, were in third place in the Americal League West, just two games behind the Minnesota Twins at 31-27. The team was eerily similar to the team the Mets have today. A roster full of young position players, a solid rotation, and a somewhat inconsistent bullpen. Sandy Alderson, instead of trying to catch the eventual world champion Twins, stayed put. And it paid off in the long run.
In 1988, with the young core intact, the Athletics blew away the rest of the American League, finishing with the best record by 13 games over the Twins and winning 104 games. Their core of youngsters developed and got better and better with time, eventually winning a world championship.
There is no doubt that the Mets have a pretty bright future ahead of them, a future that can certainly be blown by a few impulsive, quick-fix trades. I’ve never really thought of a guy as smart as Alderson as the type to make those deals, but there has been talk around the blogosphere that he could make a big trade. Part of that originated from the overreaction to the Mets contending this far into the season and I also think part of it is from the obvious resurgence of the farm system.
Sandy could take the easy way out, dealing say, Dillon Gee and Kirk Nieuwenhuis for a power bat or a veteran arm. But there is no reason to do that, at least not now.The young core of this team is only starting to take shape and all signs are pointing towards a positive future. Why mess with it? This team could be a lot better one day than a team composed of Josh Willinghams and Ryan Dempsters.
Sure, I’m all for dumping Andres Torres, or finally shipping off Jason Bay, but a franchise-altering move in which the bright future is put at risk? Not now. Let this team play together and develop.
Breaking this up now would be a huge mistake.
Hi everyone. I just want to introduce myself. My name is Connor O’Brien. I’m a 15 year-old Mets fan and a new contributor to Metsmerized Online. I hope to share my Mets experiences with all of you as I grow not only as a baseball fan, but as a writer as well. I’m thrilled to be a part of a site like MMO, and I hope you will enjoy what I have to say. LGM!
About the Author: Connor O'Brien
I am a very young, but passionate Mets fan who has blogged about the Mets for three years. I hope you all enjoy the unique perspective that a fan like me can bring to the table. More about me... favorite Met- Johan Santana... favorite food- Citi Field burgers and hot dogs!... favorite musician- Mos Def... favorite Mets moment- the no-hitter of course, but I also attended Game 1 of the 2006 NLDS as well as Johan's three-hit shutout in late September 2008. Follow me on Twitter @UpAlongFirst
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 23 | 18 | .561 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 19 | .548 | 0.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 23 | .465 | 4.0 |
| Mets | 16 | 24 | .400 | 6.5 |
| Marlins | 11 | 31 | .262 | 12.5 |
Last updated: 05/18/2013
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Way to go, kiddo. Good analysis
Alderson, after all, was a Marine. Trained to take calculated risks and not
Panic.
Nice job. If you hadn’t mentioned your age at the end I would have never guessed this was written by one so young. Very impressive.
How are we 5 games back of division leading Atlanta and 3 games back from the red hot Braves?
Small mistake in an otherwise excellent article by Connor. It was apparently made while transposing information from the standings. We are 5 games back of division leading Washington and 2 games back from the red hot Braves, who are in second place.
Fixed.
nice article , keep writing . LGM
Although I agree that they shouldn’t be trading away valuable prospects, maybe we can get a decent pen arm for a minor league outfielder, with the youngsters Duda and Kirk hopefully holding down two of the three spots for many years to come.
The only problem i have with that is with the way Ike is playing is he really the first baseman of the future? A season long slump on this and you have to start hedging some bets. Duda may be first base bound. At which point yes we have Kirk, and two corner spots needing to be filled. Hopefully Ike can right the ship and this will be a non issue, but you it’s at the point where that’s not a sure thing to me.
Nice work Connor.
I don’t think the Mets are looking to trade any of the young pieces under team control for years. You mentioned “…Dillon Gee and Kirk Nieuwenhuis.” However I think they’ll do due diligence to see what’s out there and if they can get prospects back for guys who don’t have a long-term future here.
If you want quick fix, just look at the move of Mejia to the bullpen. That reeks of panicking and shortsightedness. Pitchers have more value as starters. Moving Mejia now stunts his development as an SP, and at best puts pressure on him to be the savior for what looks like an 80-85 win team.
Toby Hyde explained it well on his blog today. It’s all about the innings for Mejia. He said the Mets as an organization have gotten very conservative with innings and Mejia hasn’t thrown more than like 75 innings in any year. He will be a starter in the long run.
Yeah, here is the link to the story… http://www.metsminorleagueblog.com/thoughts-about-jenrry-mejia-to-the-bullpen/
How do you figure? You got Wheeler & McHugh knocking on the door to AAA and they need to make space in the rotation. Did a move to the pen stunt Neftali Feliz and Adam Wainwright’s development? I don’t think so.
Exactly EvenFlow. I don’t know why people think you stunt a pitchers developement by putting him in the bullpen if it helps the team. Ever hear of Nolan Ryan? He helped the Mets win a title coming out of the pen and made the adjustment to being a starter just fine. If Mejia doesn’t make it as a starter it won’t be because they put him in the pen first, it will be cause he’s not good enough to be a starter.
Connor, I made the same comments on Toby’s blog as well; you can read it (I’m BigBank). Basically, I don’t think trying to save the big league bullpen is reason enough to stunt his development.
Even Flow, as for Wainwright, he had twice as much innings in the minors before they moved him to the MLB pen. So my point is still legit. The kid needs more innings starting. As for Feliz, he excelled in the pen yes…but as a starter his development was stunted. This is why he’s still on an innings limit now.
I wasn’t saying a guy can’t help coming from the pen. I’m just saying when a guy is 22 and could be a starter, it makes more sense to keep him as an SP as long as you can.
Canseco was a 40-40 player and we all know what Mark McGwire did.I don’t see anybody approaching those kinds of players on this roster.Keep up the good work Connor.As long as you have a keyboard and your fingers can hit the keys you qualify to write for a Mets blog
Yeah, I don’t see anyone reaching that level of production but the point is that Sandy took it slow with them, and he will do the same with this team now.
Hi everyone and thanks for the compliments.
Mr. North Jersey brought up an interesting quote from Sandy (NY Post0
“It’s not a matter of allowing [emotions] to control the decision completely, or blocking them out of any consideration completely,” Alderson said. “It’s really about giving them the appropriate weight against our probability of success.
“And that’s the hard part. Of course we want to win. We all want to win. It would be important for the fan base. It would be important for ownership. But at the same time, we have to sort of take everything into account.”
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/mets/alderson_not_one_house_buy_or_sell_npWWhdi9yTMpBbCYhyhaLI
Well done! I look forward to your future posts. So you feel that Sandy is not buying….Do you think he will sell off veteren players that don’t fit into the long term plan?
Oh yeah, if he has the opportunity to get rid of Torres, Bay, etc, he will.
well, to be fair, trading bay for some used sunflower seeds would still qualify as a “win now”
Hey… is this blogwars? You moonlighting now?
by the way give job.
LOL. Hope its not a prob though. Ill try to do diff stuff for rdmb and mmo during summer
Lol nah it’s fine. Link to the story on TRDM if you want.
Oh my bad you already did. I missed it last night. Great job anyway.
Good Job!
Hey someone call Fonzie he has another link he can use as proof Sandy ran everything before 1991! LOL
I wish Mr Cool Calm And Collected would coolect those losers he acquired in the offseason to be our Bullpen and shuffle them off to Buffalo!
Dunno, Metsie, but Rauch, Byrdak, and FF didn’t look so bad tonight.
Yep thats the problem with guys who are 50/50….
Would you have been comfortable with them in there if there was only a one run lead to protect?
Connor – very impressed – keep it up!
Are you kidding me? Great job Connor! I wish I could write this well and I’m ten years older than you.
You should be proud of yourself to be part of such a well known and established site like this one! Lets Go Mets!