Embarrased to say this but until that time, my wife and I hadn’t even heard of Snookie – but we got caught up on her quite fast after that!

Those guys, with some better bullpen could very well indeed have provided us maybe 15 wins or so.

Though we were all counting on Duda to give us a good performance this year, had Beltran and Pagan stayed on, it would have still been Bay in left and we would have then thought of Duda in terms of bench strength and spelling both Bay and Beltran. As the season went on and Bay didn’t due to bat and injuries, we would have still had an option of a lefty/righty platoon in left between Duda and Hairston. If we had wanted to re-sign Jose and sought to do so and it worked out – would one not feel comfortable with something like this lineup going into the second half:

Reyes
Pagan
Wright
Beltran
Davis
Hairston/Duda
Murphy
Thole or whoever?

A bench including:

Tejada
Turner
Bay
Hairston or Duda
Valdespin
Cedeno
Shoppach (eventually)

And that better bullpen?

No matter how one looks we were screwed because there was no money to spend and re-building was the spin to cover that up.

they also did not have Ike the whole year…and David sucked gorilla donkey d*ck almost all year…

2011 was totally different than 2012…

we had absolutely NO OF this year…tejada hurt = no ss half the year….

Why? It isn’t like they were last year. They were mediocre then to. So the broke Mets decided they could be mediocre and save 50M when they were at the time facing possibly having to sell the team.

The point I was making was getting rid of good players and not replacing them or adding to them. If all three were here and we got some additional support, no doubt the Mets would have been way more than just three wins better.

As it was, if the Wilpons were not going to add anything, then having these three would have kept us competitive but nothing else – and then the team would have still felt like they were kicked in the teeth nevertheless.

The front office is thinking it terms of cost control so they couldn’t go for it even though they might have wanted to. I think the Wilpons would have wanted to and Sandy said that’s no way to pay off debt.

Put Lucas Duda in LF….where his lack of range hurts u a bit less. ( Duda was ranked the WORST RF in all of MLB ) …and he still has his 2011 mentor to guide him through his slumps ( beltran )

Put Pagan…who also was mentored by Beltran…back in CF…he goes back to his 2010 self…as he did this year….

and as for Reyes…put him at SS…Tejada at 2B…and our infield defense improves exponentially…Murphy was ranked the 2nd worst 2B in baseball…

ur gonna tell me that our OF ( which was ranked one of the worst in baseball ) and IF would not have been better?

our offense would not have been better?

That’s what happens when one gets rid of good players and doesn’t replace them, etc.

As R.A. Dickey said, a team can both rebuiid and be competitive at the same time. Betran and Pagan would slowly give way to the youth which is the way competitive teams do it. And with Reyes, well we did have Tejada in the background but instead of using the money not being paid to Jose on others it went off to lessen the debt.

And as that Sports Illustrated article posted last week said, the Mets can’t expect to be competitive with the Wilpons as owners over the next few years. Probably under Sandy the Wilpons did the math and figured a competitive team would not bring in enough revenue to offset the extra spending since in order to get fans into the seats they had to drastically lower ticket prices which is a revenue loss to begin with.

Don’t be surprised to see Murphy and Davis moved a’la the Marlins and A’s and the old Expos who only keep the players they develop until they start to move into their first big payday. What they’ll want in return is someone’s top AAA prospect who will play for minimum wage.

(a) the fact that they continue to play Jason Bay despite his sub .200 average is a DIRECT reflection of the front office…

(b) the fact that they have announced that everyone on the staff is returning next year….even before they can find out who is available this winter….If Dave Duncan were to become available…well we have ALREADY made up our minds about Dan Warthen…

(c) the fact that Sandy Alderson has already begun to lie about the 2013 payroll numbers. Despite the fact that Johan Santana has 5 million deferred…and 5 mil in a buyout that can be avoided if he is traded…ditto Jason Bay….Sandy has already allocated 50 million dollars to the effective 2013 roster…even though only 37 mil will really be the only amount that Johan and Jason will be paid from Feb-October…5 mil = deferred and 8.5 mil “can” be paid in 2014…if at all…if those guys are traded…its possible we dont even pay that 8.5 buyout..( ala K-Rod..who came off the books in 2011 and was magically allocated for in 2012 )

(d) The fact that the Mets spin cycle has continued to trash everyone not named David Wright…Ike Davis goes to the movies and eats popcorn with his left hand ( an unnamed source ) …Ruben Tejada dives into empty swimming pools ( metsblog ) …Jordany Valdespin aka Thug-Money aka I’m the Man is a overconfident arrogant free-swinger who thanks his mother after every late-inning HR he hit this year ( keith/cerrone ) …RA Dickey is an old ingrate who should be thankful the mets took a chance on him and should stop complaining about his 2013 option ( bobby o ) …im sure there were more…but i stopped watching the games a long time ago

I think an honorable mention of disappointments has to go to Ike Davis. He hit a buck nothing in the first half of the year and only began hitting after the Mets were out of it.

His .308 On base % along with 141 k’s created a huge hole in the middle of the line-up.

Add that to him batting .228 in September – all proves the only thing consistent with Ike is his inconsistencies.

Takes a bit of the shine off 32 dingers and 90 rbi.

At last year’s home opener, Snookie was sitting one section away from me in the Champions Club seats. Plenty of photographers for the publicity and she stood for a while with fans to have their shots taken with her.