Regardless Of What You May Think, The New York Mets Have A Bright Future

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• Reese November 7, 2012 at 11:00 am

  If they were serious about building a contender then they would trade Wright, too, whose new contract would hamstring the organization a’la Jason Bay (but for more money and more years). Wilmer Flores is a year away. Better to trade someone a year too soon than a year too late. Get 2-3 prospects and an additional $16 million of salary relief. If the D’Backs started a deal with Adam Eaton, you’d have to listen, no?
• TX November 7, 2012 at 11:02 am

  Sign me up for some of this!
  • Willis November 7, 2012 at 11:15 am

    Plus 1
• Alex68 November 7, 2012 at 11:02 am

  Regardless Of What You May Think, The New York Mets Have A Bright Future”
  So does the marlins, washington, atlanta and the phillies, and all of those fore mention already having a better team and better front offices.. so.. Yeah..
  • TRS86 November 7, 2012 at 11:06 am

    Alex, the only thing I have issue with there is are you actually saying the Marlins have a better front office than ANYONE?
    • Just_Da_Damaja November 7, 2012 at 1:20 pm

      the same front office that drafted Stanton, Josh Johnston, Anibal Sanchez, Miguel Cabrera ?

      Yeah right now the Marlins are looking like the Braves compared to us
      • Even Flow November 7, 2012 at 3:08 pm

        Yes, and half of those guys you listed are gone…one of which dealt before he really hit his stride (MVP/Triple Crown winner) for crap. The other half will be gone in the next 2-3 years and blow things up AGAIN. Regardless of that, they have no idea of what the **** they’re doing nor do they care for their fanbase (not that the Wilpons do anyway).

        Miami a better team? What a joke. All those big names they put together and yet, last place material to show for it. Let’s see them win on the field rather than on paper, and MAYBE, they can be better.
        • Just_Da_Damaja November 7, 2012 at 11:34 pm

          Yes because Florida fans pack their stadium the way NY fans pack theirs.

          If Tampa Bay and Florida were able to sustain payrolls even at 90 mil, neither would’ve had to trade off the kids they drafted
  • Alex68 November 7, 2012 at 11:35 am

    Well, they failed on their FA acquisition, then went and reloaded their minor league affiliates with prospects and got stanton, reyes and johnson as their main core guys.. at least they try to win this year, and had a chance up until everything went crashing in june.. with that being said, we were in terms of market etc, the laughinstock of baseball.. A new york baseball team with a small market old ass GM who clearly is way in over his head and the game flew past him years and years ago…
    • TRS86 November 7, 2012 at 11:37 am

      OK Alex… LOL. Sorry but most of baseball just doesn’t see it that way. They might see the Mets as down and out but they see what happened in Miami last year and agree that was a circus that actually set them back years.
    • this is stupid November 7, 2012 at 7:03 pm

      They didn’t “reload their farm system”. It’s still in the bottom 10 at least.
• Joe D November 7, 2012 at 11:25 am

  Mitch, stop trying to make MMO look fair and balanced. How many times have I ordered all of you to keep pushing my anti-Alderson agenda here? Such insolence cannot and will not be tolerated.
  • Mitch Petanick November 7, 2012 at 11:30 am

    I’m starting a revolution and a new faction of fans called the OMFG (Optimistic Mets Fan Group)
    • TRS86 November 7, 2012 at 11:38 am

      LOL…. I am not using for grouping our middle school cliches but with a name like that, how could I resist?
    • Metsie November 7, 2012 at 11:39 am

      OMFG
      URFG
      WE all FGGed!
    • Joe D November 7, 2012 at 11:45 am

      LOL – I don’t have a good comeback for that… That’s hilarious…
    • Donal November 7, 2012 at 11:47 am

      well done, sir.
• Lifelongmetsfa November 7, 2012 at 11:34 am

  Every other major league team has a “Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler” The problem isn’t talent the problem is ownership. I don’t know why this concept seems so hard for people to follow. It’s almost as if people just ignore the rule ownership has in a major league’s team performance on the field.
  So here it is again for the umpteenth-time; the Mets will no be competitive until the Wilpon’s make fielding a competitive team a priority. The Wilpon’s just are not concerned with being competitive right now. I see it as simply as that. For example the Red Sox just signed David Ortiz who is turning 37 yrs old next month to a 3-yr 40+ million dollar incentive laden contract, Crazy. But Boston ownership wants to filed a competitive team.
  How much would the Wilpon’s have offered Ortiz? ……………… Exactly.
  Goodbye David Wright. R.A> DIckey unless your willing to take less than market value see you later. We are wating for the Wilpon’s to sort out their finances.
• taskmaster4450 November 7, 2012 at 12:15 pm

  I actually agree.

  The Mets seem to be stacked with pitching prospects. We all know from Generation K that can mean nothing until they turned into ML arms as opposed to prospect.s Yet with Harvey, Wheeler, Familia, Mejia, Tapia, and Fulmer, there seems to be a contingent which will be able to help. Of course, we all know that other than Flores, who doesnt seem to have a position, there is little everyday help. What the Mets need if they are ever going to compete soon is for either Duda, Kirk, or Den Dekker to turn into a solid big league player. If that happens, then you could use someone like Baxter as the second outfielder and use some of the pitching for a third. Obviously, the Mets need to get a RH bat with some pop out there and that is what would need to be targeted.

  A team built around pitching always has a chance to win.
  • Lifelongmetsfa November 7, 2012 at 12:27 pm

    Duda is suddenly not going to turn into a .276 30+ home runs 100+ rbi 100+ runs scored hitter..
    It just isn’t going to happen.
    Van Dekker is not going to be the next Andy Van Slyke or even Mookie Wilson…
    Kirk Newhouser would not even make the roster of most major league teams.

    We have to realistically look at what talent we HAVE not what we WISHED we have.
    • taskmaster4450 November 7, 2012 at 1:41 pm

      Impossible for you to make that statement. Jose Bautista was a 15 HR 50 RBI guys for 4 years until he was suddenly a 50 HR 120 RBI guys. David Ortiz best was 20/74 until he was moved to Boston.

      Your viewpoint is what is wrong with the moves the Mets made for years. The idea is to just through people aside because they wont produce. Duda has roughly 700 ABs. Kirk less than 300. Den Dekker hasnt even played one game. Now the three might wash out completely and be nothing. Or one of them might turn into a fine big league ballplayer.

      I guess the Pirates and Twins were realistic about what they had also.
• USMF November 7, 2012 at 12:16 pm

  I don’t see a bright future. I see a team with two decent young starters that may be part of a solid rotation in 2-3 years, plus you add Neise, and the top of the rotation looks good on paper, but it is too early to ink them in as a shutdown rotation…Also, who do we have on the back end?

  I don’t think the future of the rotation is as good as everyone is assuming.

  I have a bad feeling that whatever happens with Wright is going to end badly…either the overpay for him and he reverts back to his 150+K a year hitter or they let him leave and everyone freaks out.

  I’m not seeing enough from the farm to believe that there are any real game changers coming up. I like Ike, Murph and Tejada…but they are not going to carry a lineup. Tejada is an average SS, Murph is Wade Boggs without the Green Monster and Ike has huge holes in his swing.

  Sure, after next year Bay, Santana and Francisco will be off the books…big chunk of change….but we’ll still be in need of two OFers, catcher, Closer and at least one starter. When has any GM/Team successfully filled that many holes in one year and had it work out? What makes anyone think that that many holes can be filled in one or two seasons? What makes anyone think that all the money saved by cutting those salaries will be reinvested into payroll? We thought that with Castillo, Perez and Reyes…how did that work out? The team is still losing money, so Sandy will never add payroll that he can’t afford.

  Sadly, the only hope I have in the future is when the “clawback” money from Picard is awarded to the Wilopons, then they can get rid of a lot of debt…then we might see some spending to improve the team…
• TJ November 7, 2012 at 12:32 pm

  Bro,
  Put down the kool-aid, another sip and they may take you away in a straight jacket. I agree on the pen, and also agree that it looks like RA will be a goner. This 2014 mantra makes no sense. There are currently 3 teams better than the Mets in the NL east. Each has a better pitching staff than the Mets. Each has significantly more hitting. Yes, the Phillies are aging, but I expect them to get younger this winter. Off a disappointing year, and with over $130 million already committed to “older” players they will be taking out the checkbook and will be obtaining at least one OF the Mets wished they had. Just because the Mets will have $40 million to spend next winter doesn’t mean they are going to leapfrog 3 teams. Would they be the “team to beat” in 2013 if they had $40 million to spend this winter?
  • Mitch Petanick November 7, 2012 at 12:47 pm

    Kook-Aid? The baseball landscape can change at any moment so there is no reason to think that the Mets can’t be the cream of the crop in the nl east in 2014. There are more reasons to be optimistic at this point than pessimistic. Trading Dickey is the key this winter – that allows us to get immediate help for 2013 and allow us to spend the money coming off the books at the end of 2013. If they don’t trade Dickey, I retract my optimism
    • TRS86 November 7, 2012 at 12:49 pm

      I have come to agree. If they could trade Dickey for a guy like Trumbo then they are better in 2013 and have even more money to spend in 2014.
    • TJ November 7, 2012 at 2:28 pm

      There is nothing wrong with the optimism. And most of your suggestions are sound and agreeable. My point is this – no season should be surrendered before it begins (2013) and no season should be counted on as “our time”. The 2014 Koolaid irks me, as it is a given. Of the 30 MLB teams, 25+ have the same plan an very similar timetable as the Mets. The Mets were “shedding bad deals” and “building from within” several times before, as the Pirates have been doing unsuccessfully for 20 years and the Royals almost as long. Let’s be optimistic but keep the pressure on the administration to not surrender 2013 and at the same time not compromise the future. How about the Mets aim for the playoffs beginning in 2013, and sustaining it for as long as they can. This is possible, and I am optimistic that they actually demonstrate they are not waving the flag or crying poverty.
• Mets2012 November 7, 2012 at 12:51 pm

  I’d rather trade Wright than Dickey. Pitching wins. With his arsenal , Dickey is still very young.
  Dickey, Harvy,Niese and wheeler will be our generation K.
• Dan Valis November 7, 2012 at 12:59 pm

  Mitch, you want to the trade Dickey and his “Dancing Destroyer!” I can’t believe it!
  • Mitch Petanick November 7, 2012 at 1:10 pm

    Yes…would be crazy to keep him with how unpredictable knuckleballers’ performance can be.
• hotstreak November 7, 2012 at 1:21 pm

  Which NY Sports has the brightesr future? This is an open discussion. Don’t be surprised if the Islanders, Nets, and Mets are ranked ahead of the Yankees. Future means 2013-2016.
• Dick Young Lives November 7, 2012 at 3:36 pm

  After today’s big news, trading Dickey for a young and promising outfielder with power sounds so enticing. I’d hate to see Dickey go, but maybe we can get by until Wheeler is ready and sign a gap filler. I expect Niese and Harvey to step up, and anything from Johan and Gee will be a plus. Sell high on Dickey, but keep Wright.
  • Mitch November 7, 2012 at 3:43 pm

    Agree…
• ray sadecki November 7, 2012 at 5:09 pm

  why would anybody want to use dick young as his alter ego? the man most responsible for tom seaver leaving the mets?
• ray sadecki November 7, 2012 at 5:10 pm

  anyway the future just got a lot brighter today. maybe they can even keep dickey now.
• Joey D. November 7, 2012 at 6:04 pm

  Hi Mitch,

  You know I disagree with your optimism because the focus of this organization is on the Wilpons’ retention of ownership by working on a shoe-string budget due to having to pay off so much accumulated debt in which the re-financing only delayed but did not resolve.

  Otherwise they would have done something to improve a team that the past two seasons was holding it’s own despite a two-year run of bad acquisitions and dismantling of it’s better players. They would not have let go of players they said they were pleased with like Hairston and Capuano. They would not have gone after the “inexpensive” players that Sandy admitted a team cannot win with. They would have been building up the farm system instead of cutting back as we saw with this year’s draft.

  If it was just a matter of the payroll then none of the above would have occurred for even the large sum of money focused on just a few players would still be just a drop in the bucket financially. We could have possibly still had two thirds of a formidable outfield and less of a problem with the third component (instead of three-thirds of a poor one) had the front office attempted to keep Beltran, Pagan and Hairston. IF THEY ATTEMPTED TO DO SO but couldn’t work out agreements then we would at least know we had a front office that was indeed working to MAKE THE TEAM BETTER and would not have any doubt about where it’s main concern is.

  The financial problem of the ownership that has already undermined a team in legit contention for two straight seasons (with not having faith in them being hard to take followed by feeling as if it was kicked in the teeth) is why I have little optimism that they won’t continue doing so in the future.
• hotstreak November 7, 2012 at 6:30 pm

  Hi Joey,

  I totally agree. But please explain why you blame SA for being an agent of cutting payroll to . the majority owners who requested him to do just that. SA as any good agent is carrying out the wishes of his principal. If you think about it in that respect to the unfortunate and to the utter detriment of the team, he is fulfilling his assignment which what he was hired to do.

  Here is where Sandy should be criticized: Not rebuilding the team; as letting Reyes go for next to nothing. Reyes should have been traded at ST 2011 at the season start for good young prospects. He was also derelect in duty not fortifying the roster before the 2012 trade deadline at the AS break. He kept Hairston at the 2012 trading deadline. Either fortify or trade for a prospect. Also letting the vicious leaks get out on Ike will come to bite the Mets.
  • Joey D. November 7, 2012 at 7:08 pm

    Hi Hotstreak,

    I’ve stated all the time that Sandy is not a baseball person and that he was hired to downsize and keep the owner’s afloat. Now, it is granted that nobody could come out and be so honest as to say we don’t have money because the owners got caught in a scam and lost a huge chunk of their financial assets creating a near billion dollars in debt and that in order for them to keep that ownership we have to operate at a bare bones minimum until things get better. But at the same time, how could one not resent one who can literally look at fans straight in the eye and both lie and speak in terms of manipulative legal double talk with a straight face? That speaks a lot about a lack of integrity.

    Nobody forced Sandy to take the job that was going to place him in such an undesirable position – even Bud Selig couldn’t put a gun to his head. But he did and perhaps had he been a little bit more open with the fans – like saying that the Madoff situation did have an adverse effect on the franchise after originally insisting it had no impact on his operation, or not that the money saved by being freed of long-term expensive contracts would give him payroll flexibility, or that signing Reyes was his top priority even though he never sat down with his agent, etc. perhaps many of us would give him more slack.

    But of course he couldn’t and yet Sandy knew what he was stepping into – he was privy to so much confidential information within the commissioner’s office and is too savvy a legal mind and business expert to have not had a comprehension of how severe the Wilpon situation really was that he has nobody else to blame for being caught in the middle but himself.

    I wonder if he finds the $3 million a year he’s been getting worth the sacrifice of his public integrity.
• hotstreak November 7, 2012 at 7:47 pm

  Hi Joey,

  All you said was true. Where we disagree is Wilpons wanted to lie to the fans.Think of the box office preseason sales if SA said we are over leveraged and broke, we are liquidating our assets, we may go bankrupt, have loans to repay, have the Picard lawsuit. SA took the job at the request of Bud Selig who is a majors co-culprit in this mess along with the majority owners.

  Think how Omar fired Willie. That was the Wilpons way to do it not Omar’s. Omar was close to Willie and was told to get on the airplane. Fred Wilpon said Reyes and Wright were not superstars. There was a smear campaign against Beltran. A smear capaign against Ike. In conclusions SA is a puppet not as you say a baseball person. However, don’t shoot the messenger. Jerry Manuel’s “gangstar” is appropriate as SA is the hitman and the Wilpons are the bosses.
  • Joey D. November 7, 2012 at 9:27 pm

    Hi Hotstreak,

    We really don’t disagree much on this issue. I too believe the Wilpons are liars and have little concern for anyone outsides themselves not only by your example of how shameful and thoughtlessly they handled the Willie Randolph situation but also by their long-term planning with the elimination of approximately 20 percent of the seats believing people would therefore pay through the nose due to the scarcity of tickets making it quite rough for the average fan to financially afford going to a game (not to mention the obstructed view of left field for everybody in the promenade from third base on to provide a more direct view of the field for those in the expensive luxury restaurant below).

    But as I said, Sandy did not go into this blind and therefore is less the messenger than he is a an accomplice, albeit not for personal reasons like his bosses.
    • hotstreak November 7, 2012 at 11:24 pm

      Hi Joy,

      Yes. Getting back to the “gangstar” the hitman is doing his job rubbing out good fans and then facing the press sayiing “we need flexibility” stictly business don’t take it personally. Next time I’ll buy you a box of chocolates. “)
    • Just-Da-Damaja November 8, 2012 at 8:40 am

      Blind? no

      but i think Bud forced him to come here…

      Bud is the boss of everybody
• Fonzie13 November 7, 2012 at 8:20 pm

  Good post Mitch and I totally agree with you despite what most people here think. The future is bright. There are now a lot of high upside power arms in the system which has made pitching a strength of the organization. That hasn’t been the case around here for a long time.

  We do still need to add some quality position players via the trade route as most of the better position players are in the lower levels of the minor leagues. I still believe Sandy is moving the team towards a better future and not making any ill advised moves to please the lunatic fringe that doesn’t seem to comprehend just how bad a situation this team was in.

  As much as I loved Beltran as a player I make that move every day of the week. K-Rod proved he was not worth the 8 million he made in 2012 with the Brewers let alone the 17.5 he would’ve made had he remained a Met which some people still complain about. I had no problem letting Reyes walk but would’ve rather have traded him and Pagan after 2010 when Sandy took over rather than trying to fool the fanbase that this team had any realistic chance of competing for a wildcard the last 2 years.

  When you think about it we got rid of Beltran, Reyes, Pagan and K-Rod and only lost 3 games in the standings yet all people do here is complain about the players we lost as if we had a perennial 90 win team with that group.

  The team is not looking too promising right now but with a couple of good moves and the emergence of some of the arms from the minors, we’ll be a team to reckon with and will hopefully sustain it instead of a “One and done” make the playoffs one year, fall short and then have 4-5 losing seasons in a row which some people applaud ex GM’s for here.
  • XtreemIcon November 7, 2012 at 8:26 pm

    +1
    • hotstreak November 7, 2012 at 8:52 pm

      +1 for giving a +1 where it was appropriate.
      • XtreemIcon November 7, 2012 at 9:26 pm

        Thanks. I’ve never been complimented for complimenting. Feels good. Strong.
        • Joe D November 7, 2012 at 9:53 pm

          +1 Okay I’m getting all misty reading this, but what would really impress me is if the Core saluted this too.
          • Mitch November 7, 2012 at 11:02 pm

            The OMFG salutes it
            • XtreemIcon November 7, 2012 at 11:04 pm

              Yessssss! Can I pledge membership?
              • Mitch November 8, 2012 at 2:35 am

                Of course lol
                • XtreemIcon November 8, 2012 at 2:56 am

                  Then I hereby declare myself a member of the OMFG!