George Weiss deserves a pass since the national league gave him and his Houston counterpart not much a choice of players to select in 1962 (although Houston had more success going for youth that season and did win 26 games more than we did). But Weiss also hired the people that built the minor league system which got us the likes of Seaver, Koozman, Harrelson, Jones, Gentry, Ryan (until Sheffing traded him), etc. that gave us the 1969 miracle and a pitching staff that was the envy of the majors for many a season to follow.

As I also asked, does Sandy deserve a pass considering he did not pursue the younger and more credible relievers that were available for less money than spent on Francisco and Rauch? Why did the small market Kansas City Royals know that we didn’t?

You were listening to Mike Francesca as well!

If we could have purchased relievers of their caliber for a combined $5 million, why did we go after older pitchers Rauch and Francisco if not them, then why not others?

I agree with that, however, there is a difference with spending money and spending money wisely just as there is a difference with spending money poorly and not spending it at all. There has to be a middle ground.

As many have pointed out, a winning team will be bring out more fans, though I have differences of opinion as to how many that would produce – considering the costs associated with going to a game. But even if the Mets draw an average of just 3,000 more a game, that results (thinking in terms of a fan spending at least $100 in tickets and concessions plus maybe a third of them with parking) in $24 million more in revenue. Lets deduct from that 25% (random figure) to consider the extra unknown operating costs associated with acommodating these extra fans (cost to the club for each concession sold, extra security, visiting team’s share of ticket sales, etc) and that still leaves $18 million more to help the team better fill it’s weaker spots.

Now, I’m not a general manager so will not suggest which players to go after, however, we do know that $18 million could have be used to cover the combined annual salary Philly is paying to Jonathan Palelbon (RHP), , Kansas City for Jonathan Broxton and Jose Mijares (LHP)

I am glad people are starting to see this guy as the fraud he is…. He’s imo the worst GM i’ve seen run this franchise…

Hi Tommy,

You hit the hammer on the nail.

Unless ownership is so scrapped for capital that it won’t allow spending more on player personnel, the responsibility of the club not obtaining better players to compliment the fine young core it currently has is the result of the front office, And the list of those new acquistions who haven’t worked out is quite extensive indeed.

Except for Byrdak and Young, those who are pitching well were in the organization before our new front office took over. Other than Parnell, our poor bullpen has been the product of the new front office in terms of both, players obtained and players released (i.e, Takahashi and Isringhausen). Except for Young, all of our great starting pitching has not been of that product.

Hairston and Cedeno have been good additions to the bench but we can see that Scott is not an everyday player as his average has dropped 29 points in his past 16 games and he’s hitting .196 during the time he’s played regularly. Same with our center fielder – he should also be on the bench and not a regular.

It does not matter if these are the results of traditional thinking, computer analysis or a combination of both. It also doesn’t matter if the decisions were independent of financial restriction, money ball or something in-between. What matters is that these were the players that were selected. While we are all happy with the way our farm system appears, the Mets are not in the situation of “rebuilding”/

All we asking is for support from the front office and that is something that has been lacking. Perez, Castillo, Krod, Beltran and Reyes are all gone. Are we still that broke that this is all we can do?

Remember when we were mentioned as suitors for Ankiel?
At the time our starting lineup was:

LHB
Duda
Davis
Murphy
Thole

RHB
Wright
Tejada
Bay

Torres being the switch (light) hitting leadoff man.

They saw that lineup and concluded they needed a LH Bat to come off the bench not a RH bat to hit for guys like Bay and Torres?

You won the best comment of the day award. If there was such an award I’d certainly give it to you.

And I BLAME ALDERSON for this, NOT COLLINS.

Even against Byrdak, Cano has a .286 BA 2 Hits 1D and 2Ks

Only .013 points lower than his average BA So what really was Byrdak going to do to stop cano?

Not much!

And not for more than one AB!

As Hogwild said we can’t give up 5 runs or expect to beat a team who leads the league in HRs tied after the 8th!

And while Byrdak may have kept the game tied in the 8th you still would have had Rauch come up later to give up the HR anyway!

Maybe if Ike wasn’t sick we might have had a shot!

In the end the solution isn’t to make different decisions on who to put in there the solution is to give him better choices to make the decision with!

- How is it that we’ve allowed our team to be so laden with lefty hitter & so vulnerable to lefty pitchers, when we simultaneously do not have enough lefty pitchers in our bullpen to address other team’s lefty hitters?

Seriously, it’s a structural defect at the major league level that anyone with any experience at formulating a roster should know to avoid, and has probably cost us somewhere between 3-5 games.

Nice that they brought up Hampson, but does it take an injury to our closer and another game-changing blast by a lefty batter to add a 2nd lefty that was needed the first week of the season?

That’s what one gets when handed a menu from McDonald’s rather than the Acela Club.

They could use a power bat and relief pitching in the worst way.

Metsie, I like your menu analogy. What do you choose to eat when every option = food poisoning! You stay with the appetizer that has yet to cause you heartburn TODAY. haha

The real bullpen answer is to audition minor league guys, scrap heap dudes like Old Man Moyer, or somehow pulling off a trade.

me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCApuPQStoM

Who does he bring in to face hin in the 10th inning since we did not seem to score a run in the next two innings either?

The problem isn’t the decision it is the CHOICES!
The MENU so to speak!

Unfortunatly all terry has a choice of comes from Column F as in FAILURE!

We should not have been a pitcher short in the pen, Ramirez is not the guy they should have brought up considering all the LHBs the yankees kill you with!

Byrdak should not be the only lefthander in the pen!

Stop making excuses for bad construct by blaming the General contractor for being forced to use substandard parts management bought for him to use!

First, however, to answer your question: the Sunday NY Times had an interesting article on the Batista-Collins connection/history. Those who have read it, may have a bit more insight into why he leaned on Batista there.

Honestly, I am also a goat b/c I agreed and even applauded T.C.’s decision after the 1-2-3 seventh, thinking to myself (stupidly) that lightning would strike twice. It was a big gamble and we lost badly.

As the ESPN commentators mentioned, Batista made a good pitch selection, as that partic. pitch that Cano ripped to dead center was tailing away from him. Regrettably (sigh!), it didn’t tail enough, or tail away from Cano fast enough.

Yes, it sure is a decision and moment one wants to take back.

Like Bobby, maybe Girardi had someone stealing the signs and Robby knew what pitches to expect?

Just trying to help get you off the hook, Terry.