20
2012
Alderson & Co. Are In Unfamiliar Terrain
An article by 
TWO MEN, TWO VIEWS: Alderson said the Mets would be fun to watch, but Collins always believed his team was in the hunt for a Wild Card this season.
Of the 30 major league teams, only six are at least 10 games behind in the wild-card standings. The Mets are only 3.5 games behind, a position which should have them as prime buyers.
The problem of shopping in the bullpen aisle, say the Mets, is the cost. That translates into not expecting too much. Huston Street and Jonathan Broxton, while manageable in salary, extract a big prospect price the Mets aren’t willing to pay.
In weighing the present and future, the scales a tipping toward the latter, said assistant GM John Ricco: “We’re watching every day the same thing people are. But you also can’t fool yourself into thinking that there’s one guy that is going to be the be-all and end-all solution to all of our problems. You can fall into that trap and make some big mistakes.”
The problem for Sandy Alderson is his team isn’t one of the six teams that are 10+ games out, which is what the expectations of them were – probably even from Mets management. Alderson never thought he’d be a buyer.
Although their contracts are Jeremy Lin Ridiculous, Alderson was thinking maybe somebody would be desperate enough to take the Johan Santana and Jason Bay off his hands.
Despite their skid, the Mets are in it now. There’s no guarantee in the future Alderson is trying to protect that they’ll be close again anytime soon. That defines the pressure he is under.
Thoughts from Joe D.
I think it’s true that Alderson never once imagined his team would be buyers despite whatever was said leading up to the season. Honestly, I believe only Terry Collins believed in this team from the word “Go”. He spent a large part of Spring Training trying to convince his team that they were that good even without Jose Reyes. But the front office? No way they saw this coming and they are now operating in unfamiliar territory.
The longer they wait, the better the chances are that the Mets could just as easily become sellers. So why buy now if you’re them? Keep Waiting. I’m positively certain that is the game-plan for now. That is why all you hear about are whispers and murmurs, but no real advances toward making a significant move that can help improve this team’s chances. The Mets are interested in this player and that player, that’s all we hear and read. But it never gets to the nitty-gritty stage. What it does is keep the fans engaged though, and don’t underestimate the value in keeping the fans tuned in for as long as possible.
The one true sentiment coming from the front office these days is their constant moaning about the prices being too high.
Only a year ago, was Sandy Alderson’s price too high when they swapped Carlos Beltran who had no compensation picks for the Giants’ top pitching prospect? I’m sure he wasn’t complaining about high prices went that deal went down.
The fact is that the prices are not too high, they are what they’ve always been, and that is whatever the market will bear. That’s a historical fact.
The only thing at play here is that the front office finds themselves having to navigate through foreign waters and they would rather be anywhere else right now, but here.
They don’t believe in these players or in this team like many of the fans do or like Terry Collins, David Wright and R.A. Dickey do. This is sort of like a worst-case scenario where they’re concerned, and the Mets being this close to a wild card is like throwing a wrench into their system and a crinkle to their plans.
The Mets are winning. Somehow the players didn’t get the memo.
I look forward to seeing how this passion play turns out. But I’ve got a hunch that when all is said and done, the Mets will end up selling – for thirty pieces of silver.
About the Author: John Delcos
I am an active member of the BBWAA and have covered Major League Baseball in several capacities for over 20 years, including ten in New York working the Mets' and Yankees' beat. I covered the Baltimore Orioles for eight years and the Cleveland Indians before that. I currently serve as an editor and senior staff writer for Mets Merized Online. Follow me on Twitter @jdelcos.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 42 | 30 | .583 | - |
| Phillies | 35 | 37 | .486 | 7.0 |
| Nationals | 34 | 36 | .486 | 7.0 |
| Mets | 27 | 40 | .403 | 12.5 |
| Marlins | 22 | 48 | .314 | 19.0 |
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I disagree that a bullpen arm will cost a high prospect. I don’t think teams will be that unreasonable. An arm like Street or Broxton would be dumped due to salary.
If the price is too high, you can always say no.
I just wonder what adding one of them does to fix the fact that over 60% of the starting lineup is hitting under .240 combined. But apparently this concern is not that big of a deal because we’ll just expect Wright to carry the team for 2 more months and if he strikes out in the 9th inning we’ll call him unclutch and boo him.
Your 60% hitting under .240 is also the 10th best run scoring offense in the league and 3rd best in the NL!
If you got Torres and Bay out of the lineup we wouldn’t have 60% of our lineup under .240
The team as a whole has a team BA of .260! 13th in the league and 6th in the NL!
So yes getting bullpen help would do a lot for our team as they wouldn’t need to all hit .300 or score 10 runs a game just to give us a safe enough Margin for our Bullpen to avoid getting 42% of our losses!
Yes Metsie, if you assume DW can carry an entire lineup for 162 games then you’re right. As I mentioned though, that is an unfair expectation for any player.
Taking Torres/Bay out doesn’t make them much better. Good try though.
Sure it does if they are replaced with guys like Valdespin and Kirk!
The problem seems to be they are more concerned with lefty Righty splits than they are with actual BA and playing scrubs vs Lefties which is why our record vs them is so poor!
Everytime a Lefty faces us we trot out the B Team which leaves Wright the only hitter of production in the lineup.
Stop doing that and the problems go away!
But we know it’s not really a problem just some more fingerpointing hoping to get around the bitching about the good day Bullpen!
We aren’t losing games because we don’t score enough runs, we are losing them because we score enough just not enough to stop the Bullpen from blowing the lead!
And even when we save thier sorry ass they just go and give more runs away!
You’re right Metsie! They jump way up to .245!
By the way my total INCLUDED Kirk already.
I didn’t realize Valdespin was such a guarantee now… wow
Keep dancing around the fact the team BA is .260+
Your dancing is not working to distract people from that pen you loved in January!
Here some more to chew on….
43 games with 5 runs or more.
11 of them are losses (Guess who is at fault there?)
219 Runs scored from the 1st to 5th
204 Runs scored from the 6th inning on.
209 Runs Allowed from the 1st to the 5th
200 Runs Allowed from the 6th on.
Our worst innings in RA are the 5th (55RA) 7th (63RA), and 8th (54RA)
Our best scoring innings are 4th (56RS), 5th (56RS), 6th (71RS)
That seems to show we score more runs than we allow from innings 1-5 with a +10 in run differential.
But once the 6th inning hits our Bullpen gives almost as many runs in 3 innings as the Starters do in 5! And they do it in the 7th and 8th which is the inning where most of our starters other than Dickey and Santana for a two game stretch are gone!
Yeah but you keep pointing at the Lineup hoping reality of what has actually happened will be ignored and get you off the hook for supporting the Moneyballin we did in fixing the pen that you agreed with!
So because David Wright and Ruben Tejada are having great years, that means LF/CF/RF/1B/C don’t matter or count as weaknesses?
Nope not when your Bullpen gives up as many run in three innings as your starters do in 5!
Not when your lineup outscores the runs allowed no matter WHO is pitching!
Early runs are easy to overcome…
I did you a favor even I didn’t include the 7 runs given up by the pen in extra innings that have cost us games.
We are 37-10 when leading in the 7th inning.
40-4 when leading in the 8th
42-1 when leading in the 9th.
1-3 when tied in the 10th
1-1 when tied in the 11th
0-1 when tied in the 12th.
You can run and hide all you want…19 Losses are attributed to the pen and the only way to get a loss as a BP arm is to give up a lead!
We have 17 comeback wins
21 Blown leads
4 walk off wins
5 walk off losses!
Your attempt at a diversionary tactic isn’t working!
The team is in the top 10 of scoring top 3 in the NL
Our Bullpen is third worst in Runs Allowed!
There is the truth you know but are tryintg to hide with this diversionary bullshit!
All that proves is how overrated “closers” are. The Mets, who have the worst bullpen in the history of sports, or so you’ll have us believe, are 40-4 when leading in the 8th? 42-1 when leading in the ninth? The Mets starters have five complete games, so what that means is that the bullpen was given the lead after 7 innings 39 times, and have won 35 of those games. Looks pretty good to me. Says to me that the late inning guys aren’t the real issue. Says to me that the Acostas, Carrasco’s and Parnell from before FF got hurt who was pitching in middle relief were the real culprits. Sprinkle in a bad month each from Rauch and Ramirez, who seem like they’re past it, and there might not be a real bullpen problem going forward, so long as Parnell is left on the side of the road somewhere on the next roadtrip.
LOL yeah you see it through your own warped prism…
Your forgetting all htose games where we lost the lead due to that Bullpen and cost us the lead in the 6th 7th 8th and 9th!
Not to mention the record in Extra Innings.
By the way they got 35 of 39…How many games behind in the standings are we again?
Blame it on Acosta and Carrasco if you want.
But they are just as much bullpen as the good day guys….
And who pray tell leads the team in Bullpen Losses?
Rauch 3-7
Francisco 1-3
Acosta and Carrasco have 2 and none.
So those guys combined still have fewer losses than even Francisco!
The GOOD DAY bullpen are responsible for 6 Wins and 11 Losses!
Parnell is 2-2 So can’t blame him especially since one of his losses is due to Errors by the Infield!
But you wont’;t see it because you yhave your Sandy Is Great Blinders on that makes what you see always skew to his favor in any situation!
Sorry, I didn’t realize the bullpen had to be absolutely perfect for you to be happy. Your agenda against Sandy is so blatant, you can’t see the forest through the trees. Try watching the Mets play and not looking at box scores from April to decide how the team will perform from here on out.
I am watching them play…I’m not the one making stupid fingerpointing in the name of diverting attention from the thing that lost us two games out of three vs Washington.
Who said they needed to be perfect?
If those guys were at least .500 or one game over .500 we would not be as far back from the division as we are!
If not for the LINEUP you so hope to indict who saved ramirez from a few losses he was on the hook for that record would be even worse!
If you don’t think this bullpen is not the worst part of this team and something else is then you should try tuning into SNY and catch a game or two instead of just following Jessup’s revisionist description of what happened!
Our Bullpen has give up as many run in 3 innings as out entire starting rotation has in 5!
And our lineup has outscored our opponents in ALL innngs….
But the 3rd worst RA Bullpen has cost us…
If you don’t believe that or have not seen that then My guess is your TV is broken, You have not gone to a single game or your really just blind as a bat!
“Who said they needed to be perfect?”
“By the way they got 35 of 39…How many games behind in the standings are we again?”
So……?
“If not for the LINEUP you so hope to indict…”
Care to prove that, or show any quote at all?
“If you don’t think this bullpen is not the worst part of this team and something else is…”
Care to prove that also? Do you have idea what you type as your fingers move? When did I ever say anything even remotely close to that?
Typical Metsie tirade, yelling at a wall and hoping it’s too stupid to yell back. Changes the subject to the lineup when he’s backed into a corner. Usually it takes 4-5 exchanges to make you chase your own tail, but this time it was only one.
I already did prove it!
Guess you missed it!
42% of our losses belong to the Bullpen!
And I showed you who led the team in those losses!
You do know that the entire league knows that Bullpens that have too many decisions are no good?
They are supposed to have hardly any decsions because the only way to get them is to come in tied or ahead and do something you shouldn’t have!
Again changing the subject. You’re backed so far into the coner, you’re in another room.
“If not for the LINEUP you so hope to indict…”
Care to prove that, or show any quote at all?
So to prove I indicted the lineup for something…….
“I already did prove it!
Guess you missed it!
42% of our losses belong to the Bullpen!”
Someone missed something all right, but it sure wasn’t me.
I’m not backed into anything dude, certainly not by you!
You supported Jessup which means you agree with his assertion that the Lineup is the problem not the MLB and NL worst ranked Bullpen!
So your the one backed up into a hole not me!
You agreed with someone else who said those things and replied.
Metsie – I love how you use the Loss column for your agenda. You preach that people should not use box score or statistics to come up with decisions about players.
Yet, you act like in every game Rauch for example lost the Mets were winning 4-0, and here comes Jon Rauch blowing the game.
Rauch’s 7 Loss: The truth. Things you can’t see in a box score.
v. NYY June 23rd, he gave up ONE run after Chris Young gave up a 7th inning 3 run HR to TIE the game.
v. NYY June 10, Rauch came into the game AFTER a 3-2 lead was blown by PARNELL. He got the Mets out of a massive jam in the 8th and allowed a bloop HR in the 9th to Russell Martin. He gets the loss, so you blame him for the entire game and ignore the fact when he got handed the ball the Mets were losing 4-3.
v STL June 4th, came into a TIED 3-3 game, gave up a 2 run HR to Craig
v. PHI May 30: Rauch comes into a TIE 3-3 game in the 8th, gave up a Sac Fly to make it 4-3.
v Pit May 21, came into a TIE 4-4 game in the 8th gave up a sac fly to make it 5-4
v. Cin May 16th Came in with a 3-2 lead gave up tying run then was taken out. Carrasco and Byrdak gave up leading runs charged to Rauch
v Arizona May 4th 8th inning. Came into a 4-2 game with the two runners on base already. Gave up double to Goldschmidt and lead
“Your forgetting all htose games where we lost the lead due to that Bullpen and cost us the lead in the 6th 7th 8th and 9th!”
No you’re forgetting that when a pitcher gets a L it doesn’t mean he gives up a lead.
“No you’re forgetting that when a pitcher gets a L it doesn’t mean he gives up a lead.”
NO it just means he gave the other side the lead…
and Your Point is?
it’s the lineups fault that he gave up the lead?
I suppose those 16 Blown saves are a figment of our imagination?
I suppose our Lineup is at fault for them too?
Our ERA in games late and close is 5.15!
Every Metric you look at has us at the bottom of the league yet here you are trying to tell us it’s not them thats the problem it’s someone else!
Your just digging your rep as a liar and Sandy Psycho even further dude!
Your Good day truly SUCKS!
And this is the best excuse you could come up with to try and get out from under that!
Nice try. I never mentioned the lineup once. You mentioned it for me, then twisted it to say I think the lineup is the problem. That’s laughably ridiculous. I’ll back of once you quote me mentioning the lineup at all in my original post.
Metsie, Jon Rauch could easily have 7 wins just as easily as he has 7 losses. You said he gave up a lead. I proved you wrong.
In most of his losses he came into a tie game.
If Rauch has 7 wins there is absolutely no way you’d ever give him credit and act like its a big deal, nor would I. Because as you tell others all the time. There is more to a player than the box score.
“Jon Rauch could easily have 7 wins just as easily as he has 7 losses”
Yeah unfortunatly for you he doesn’t!
Kind of the point now isn’t it?
Metsie,
I don’t often agree with you, but on this one you are right on the money. I think we waste too many innings with our second-best players in the lineup! How is Kirk ever going to hit lefties if he never sees one? He’s already being typecast as a platoon player in just half a season. Duda in RF? He needs to be our bat off the bench and backup 1B. Maybe double-switch him in when we’re behind late in the game.
Bottom line – Win or lose, let’s do it with our best players on the field!
Well Steve I don’t understand why all the guys who claim to be about Building/Developing from within are not screaming thier heads off about not developing the kids that were forced into MLB service and teaching them to hit regardless of what arm the pitcher throws.
Granted they may struggle vs LHP but no way to solve that unless they see some.
A guy like Hairston who is murderous vs Lefties ok I get that. Jason Bay is not.
Ronnie cedeno is not a suitable replacement for Murphy I don’t care how much glove he has.
As for Nickeas and Thole I get that he might be better played when WE pitch certain pitchers but not based on who they throw at us.
And in almost every case it has turned out to be a low scoring game that the regular starters come into eventually to get us into the game later on.
Take that game vs Washington. We played the B Team and once the regulars came is we scored a ton of runs.
I say pick a team and stick with it!
Put Valdespin into LF and let Hairston and Duda platoon in RF.
Stop sitting Ike and Murphy vs lefties and make their own sense of pride overcome that!
Or go and get a RH power hitter who can hit both lefties and righties to replace Bay, add more L/R balance to the lineup so we are not forced to put the RH weak hitters into one game of every series because they have a lefthander to throw at us.
The key to beating lefthanders is to have enough regularly dangerous RH bats in your everyday lineup to make it easier for LHH’s to hit them because they see better pitches.
We have Wright who is dangerous and Tejada who is a great BA slap hitter but thats is on the RH side of the everyday team.
And taking out two or three core players just because they hit lefthanded isn’t helping, especially when the RH batter don’t hit lefties all that mucyh better than the lefties who you sat!
Again jessup … Good job on continuing your streak of horribly incorrect posts. and showing how little you know about anything. Street, the pads would be reasonable.. wHY Jessupo since they are trying to sign him long term. Maybe once you should get some facts before you spew out the decades old manure from the Alderson gang.
I’m sorry Amazin, are you now blaming me for the Huston Street reports?
Obviously jessup you cannot understand English. I don’t blame you for anything. Obviously, its not your fault you know absolutely nothing but make false commentary on everything. Obviously, the fault lies with Omar Minaya and Willie Randollph, and not with you.
Ok? Yeah I am blaming, Willie Randolph?
You’re lost. You should spend less time worrying about how you can spew hate toward me and more time discussing mets baseball. It would do wonders for the site and your rep as a commentator
I see the same thing, whispers, comments that keep fans and even media wanting to come back for more whispers and typical “price too high or prospect demand hurts future”, how many other teams in playoff hunt are also having this same conversation, it is not limited to Mets.
The problem,as you stated JoeD, is that this team far exceeded expectations, thanks in large part to TC and David stepping up early in season, and they are just going to continue to just whisper and make excuses.
Taking on money just for this season shouldn’t be a problem as some of the interested teams are looking to dump salary for this year but at what cost is always the question for them.
My opinion is that if a dependable reliever, one who throws strikes, induces ground balls and/or is consistent in not allowing the long ball we should try and get one unless they demand the farm, no pun intended, but I think that as you get closer to trade deadline you could find teams desperate to move a veteran for a younger player plus move the salary OR since there are still quite a few still involved in WC you could find yourself in bidding war with other interested teams.
Lastly something I heard or read the other day; how much is this team willing to trade for a rental for this “stretch run” for just a “one game playoff?”
Really I think that some teams will consider this as the trade deadline approaches whether trading a prospect or two plus taking on salary for the “chance” to play a road game in a one and done situation might not look good to this FO.
When and if this does happen and we play in that one and done, lose, then we’ll start looking for whom to blame or complain that trade was awful and not thought out, just something worth considering.
Joe D was on target. Call it luck or wisdom, Sandy’s lack of moves has let the farm work for him. Sandy’s Free Agent signings and Trades have been terriable. Does anyone think potential veteran players brought in now would be any better?
If Sandy raises the white flag, we have a dozen players that will be free to walk after this season. So sell them. Good luck dumping Bay’s contract, but Santana would be a valued addition to a team that wants to win the playoffs, not just make them.
We have alot of AAAA type talent. Guys who may draw alot of Rule 5 attention this winter. We need roster room. We need a catcher. We need a reality check.
This is very similar to what happened in Minaya’s second season in 2006. You may remember when he first became GM he talked about being a championship caliber team in five years just like this new GM. Then 2006 happened, unexpectedly. He shifted gears into a win now mode. Was it the right thing to do regardless of the results? In hindsight it was wrong, but you dont have the benefit of knowing what will happen in the future when you are a GM and need to make decision today. My guess is that they will do nothing and stick to their guns and everyone will just have to accept it and move on.
LA Mets Fan:
You may get ripped by some but you make a very valid and logical point.
This is partially why I do not agree with the knocks on David Wright based solely on the 2006 playoffs. In 2006, Wright was a 23 year old kid. As was Jose Reyes.
I wouldn’t call 2006 a fluke or anything, but I will say that the overall team was not ready for that big stage yet. But what happened was, you, me and everybody else got caught up in the cigar smokin picture. The idea that maybe we’re on a path to take over NY again, and the team switched gears. They thought they were inches away, so they spent like crazy, ignored the original game plan and wound up helping to dig a gigantic hole.
Your job as GM is not to get caught up in the moment at the risk of your franchise’s future health. People want Broxton or Street… if KC or SD says “you can have him, but give us Familia.”
Do you do it? I personally don’t think they will ask that much, but what if they do? At what point do you say “Relying solely on Wright and Dickey to have amazing years and carry us for 162 is not worth throwing away our future.”
These guys in the FO ain’t gonna do SH**… No matter how we see it, they’ll come up with some bogus excuse as to why they sat on their hand, have their legion of fans believe what they’re saying and roll with whatever crappy bullpen they put together..
Let’s check back on 31 July.
I haven’t seen any other deals going on with other teams yet either, be it buyers or sellers.
The Astros and Blue Jays have completed a ten-player trade, the teams announced. The Astros obtain seven players from Toronto: Major Leaguers Francisco Cordero and Ben Francisco, minor leaguers Joe Musgrove, Asher Wojciechowski, David Rollins and Carlos Perez, and a player to be named. The Astros send Brandon Lyon, J.A. Happ and David Carpenter to Toronto in the trade.
The Rockies and Royals have agreed to a trade that will send left-hander Jonathan Sanchez to Colorado for right-hander Jeremy Guthrie, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports reports (on Twitter). Both players have struggled in 2012 and are on track to hit free agency after the season.
srt, there is a site devoted to trades go to mlbtr.com. Those are just from this morning.
I just read that big deal… I don’t really get it to be honest.
But there have been 3 big deals. The last 2 involve teams out of the race. The only 1 based on a playoff push is Youk to CWS.
Even still, teams are being very patient and the new comp rules and wildcard is why
I guess the jessup has a reading problem, Tell us jessup if the blue jays a team 3.5 games out, are out of the wild card are out of it according to your last pathetic post, what are the Mets, who happen to also be 3.5 out of wild card?????? I guess Sandy and his cronies told you start spewing the out of it so you can celebrate his failures again this month. Good for you. It must be so nice to be a puppet.
Amazin: There is more to knowing if you’re in it than the games back.
How many teams does the under .500 Blue Jays need to catch to make the playoffs?
To make the playoffs they must jump 2 of the following: Yankees, Angels, Texas, Detroit, White Sox.
Oh and Baltimore, Boston, Oakland, Tampa and Cleveland.
That’s all, they just need to jump maybe 2 of the 4 best teams in baseball in the Angels and Tigers.
While also jumping 6 other teams.
“How many teams does the under .500 Blue Jays need to catch to make the playoffs?”
Irelevant since you don’t have to play those teams everyday for the rest of the season!
All you have to do is win the games you play and win more of your games than they do!
And when those teams do come into town just beat them directly gaining a game or three per series!
Everyone thought Atlanta was strong the last two years and both times choked thier way out of the playoffs!
Mets did it two years in a row in 2007 and 2008!
If there are 4 even 6 teams ahead of you in the wildcard race your pretty sure to face all of them or most of them in the second half!
Thats where you make up ground wholesale and when your not playing them just win the games you play while the guys ahead of you face each other and gain more on them!
This whole theory on how many teams are ahead of you is just defeatist claptrap!
Win games and beat the teams ahead of you directly and you can make the playoffs even if there are 20 teams ahead of you…
Like the 69 and 73 mets did! Without a Wildcard to help them either!
Correct “all they have to do” is win more games than over half the American League’s best teams.
That’s all they have to do. No sweat.
Yep its not really all that difficult!
Any team an win a game at anytime…
Cubs swept us didn’t they?
Cards Swept Atlanta last year!
You are not competing against teams in the standings more than one or two three games series…So all you have to do is beat them when you play them and keep pace vs everyone else!
Your 6 games behind the Braves with 6 to play then beat them at least 4 out of 6 and make the rest up when they lose to someone else!
You can’t base your chances at a playoffs based on who else is ahead of you. Only how much you need to make up on the top team and how much time is left to make that up!
Anything under 10 games can be made up with two months to go!
Phillies in 2010 had 5 teams ahead of them on this date back then and were 7 Games out of the division and 4 games out of the Wildcard.
How did they do?
If you were running the Mets back in 69 and 73 you would have traded Seaver back then and given up on those seasons with your poor attitude and defeatist quitter mentality!
“You can’t base your chances at a playoffs based on who else is ahead of you”
Actually that’s exactly how you base your chance at the playoffs.
By your explanation, why would anybody trade anybody? The Cubs are 13.5 out! Keep hope alive Cubby faithful!
No only quitters like you base your chances on someone else and not your own team!
You give up at the drop of a hat!
If you were in charge 69 and 73 never happen!
You would have thrown in your towel because you don’t have the fortitude to stick with what you see and maybe get something to make it better, Just fold up tent and pray for next year!
Just like any Fantasy Baseball GM does!
So then no team should ever trade away players until they are mathematically eliminated. Got it.
Missing or twisting the oint as usual….
No team should GIVE UP until Mathematically eliminated and no team should go out of thei way to make thier team WORSE no matter where you are in the standings!
This is the problem with your whole line of thinking…
You play this Fantasy Baseball GM where players are just cards who if they fail get rid of them for some other guy on the roster instead of fixing them so they can win games for you in the future!
You trade these guys like they are baseball cards and consider any deal for one baseball card where you get two a good deal regardless of the total worth of those cards!
You worry about Money as if there is some Fantasy Baseball Salary cap that doesn’t exist in the REAL world!
And you consider being out of a race one year means it’s time to have a sell off for something 4 years from now.
Well where would we be if we did not sell off last year when you appluaded the purges in the bname of Wilpon’s gourmet dinner budget?
Where would we be right now with k-Rod closing? Where would we be if we resigned Beltran?
Where would we be right now if we had gone after another Big Bat to play LF in a buy instead of selling last year?
You make these claims about the long term future plan…
Then play everything like this is the only year there is!
Oh and they only need to do this without Jose Bautista.
Piece of cake.
Really??? July 31st is the ONLY day when deals are made???? amazing…
You know that is not at all what was meant.
there are still 11 days until the trade deadline. So logically you need to see what happens by then, inclusive, not just deals made that day.
Exactly. Thought that was self explanatory but apparently not for all.
You know, I like Alex. He reminds me of a friend that I refer to as an OBB. Opportunistic Ball Buster.
Agreed. He actually invented the word “slurpiness,” which is tremendous. I congratulated him for it. It turned my morning around.
On that note I’ll say some people have entirely too much time on their hands…..
From my perspective I don’t see many teams trading for any of the rumored relievers believed to be on the market coming into today so I take that as maybe the asking price right now possibly is too high for said relievers. As far as speculating if the FO believes in the players the way fans or Wright & Dickey do I can’t say. I think players will always believe in themselves no matter what and fans well the name says it all.
I don’t know how one comes to the conclusion that the organization actually wants their team to not compete for a playoff spot or agree with this notion but to each his own. How things will unfold remains to be seen but the understanding is the Mets for now are unwilling to overpay for a reliever. Ricco pretty much outlined why one can take his comments however they wish but that’s pretty much their stance.
having som many teams bunched up (so still “in” the race) certainly muddies the water. Plenty of teams are likely still (internally) on the fence about which way to go.
and not all teams that are 10 back are conceding, or necessarily looking to gut (the Phils being a prime example). Plus of course, most of the truly bad teams are that way because their talent sucks, so just because they want to sell, there may not be anything worth buying!
all that combines most likely to push the real pennant stretch type deals to the very last minute.
and as to ‘cost”, the trade market, especially the deadline, is all about gamesmanship, posturing, smoke blowing, etc. And a lot of what gets reported is misinformation, put out there for a reason.
Oh, and the RP market keeps shrinking, now that Capps is out.
Stick here is the issue with all the buyers that exist.
It’s only a problem if all your going to target and ask for is one of thier main players.
Those guys are going to cost you top prospects because those teams are less likely to want to give up on the main guy that drives them.
But we don’t need that type except in the case of a RH power bat and the focus should be on finding teams who have a depth need who match up with us positionally to have what we need while we have what they need.
Find a team who needs a decent SS that we can trade Quintanilla to for a Bullpen Pitcher as one example.
Find a team who needs a 2B that we can trade cedeno for to get some MR.
Find a team who has an OF (or CF) who has a decent slug but isn’t an all star type or starter, for Flores, Havens, Torres and Duda in some package combination. Find the right guy and team you might even swing a 5 or 6 player deal to get Bullpen with it as well!
We are too focused on getting back some famous player in return and the truth is if they are famous and known as big players in the league THOSE guys cost you prospects. But there is a lot of good players playing in depth roles on those teams that they would be very willing to trade for depth or starters in other positions.
And they won’t cost you Wheeler or Harvey to get!
The only question I have with that is does this GM know a good depth player from a hole in the head? And do they have the moindset to make some deal that is actually fair for both sides or will refuse to deal unless they get the steal.
If the latter is true then forget making any deals and forget about this team going forward from this point.
We will fall out of it and keep playing moneyball until Sandy gets fired and someone else comes in who isn’t afraid to make trades for fear of getting burned.
Well Kudos as this article nailed it!
Sandy thought we might be fun to watch but thats it!
Never once expected to be a buyer and even less expected to be this in the game at this point!
I believe he thought he was going to be able to pare down more salary with trades of Santana and he was hoping Bay would too which is why he was rushed up this time in hopes he got so hot coming back he would fool someone…Only one who got fooled here was Sandy!
And while I agree that we should not trade Wheeler, Harvey and Valdesin (I have come off the fence about him). There is still plenty of talent down at the farm that could be used to get players.
Not the usual Fantasy Baseball driven trades for guys like Street or Upton, But most definitly can get you top Middle Relief. And before anyone says it will cost too much think back to what we got back for K-Rod after paying all but 5 Mil of his salary!
People think Sandy had a plan…Well if he did it was to Moneyball his way through this season again and hope to dump more Salary.
But the team has gotten in his way!
Guess he forgot to tell them they had to play horrible so he could sell off more contracts for 3 or 4 years from now!
Best laid plans of Mice and Moneyballers!
Sandy Alderson, the GM who roots against his own team.
He does? But he’s wearing a Mets cap in the picture… which to believe? hmmm
Yeah, what a cap; autographed by the man who made his career, Jose Canseco.
ha yea that’s a …. good one?
Does that mean Omar’s cap would be signed by Sammy Sosa?
Haha jessup… you are improving. Tell us jessup if the Mets O were 16th out of 16 in runs scored would you tell us how good itis like your post about the great 16th in league bullpen????? I know it sucks being 4th. Oh well, maybe they can take lessons from the pen and get real good as they fall to last.
Reminds me of that baseball documentry “Major League.” LOL