That’s odd. I was expecting Ryan (the wild one we had before he became THE Nolan Ryan).

You praise ownership for what they’ve spend in the 90′s and 2000′s, but this team is hurting NOW!!! NOW!!!

The reason that blockbuster trade involving all of Boston’s huge contracts worked was because the Dodgers wanted Gonzalez and Boston wanted rid of him. Who wants Bay? Who wants Santana? Please, tell me who? It’s as if you are afraid to publicly call out ownership Mr. D. I have no problem calling out Sandy when its due; he totally screwed up the bullpen and wasted all of the few millions the Mets did have to spend last offseason, but make no mistake, this team isn’t competing because half the payroll is being eaten up by two untradable players and the owners have refused to open the piggy bank to fix the rest of the team.

Look around, that’s the consensus of most of your readers and pretty darn obvious.

Donal: perfectly said; especially about trading Niese to get out from Bay. It just doesn’t make sense. A progressive GM or any other one could have easily traded away all the bad contracts, but the good players would’ve had to go too. That means a complete rebuild which OWNERSHIP wouldn’t ever agree to. How do I know that?

It’s simple…because once you cut 1/3 of your payroll and another 1/3 is tied to two unproductive players, a complete rebuild is the best option and the Mets didn’t do it. That tells you right there that the Mets were trying to sell the fans a belief that they still had a chance. Because ownership needs that revenue to continue to roll in so they could pay debts and keep the team.

I wonder how many still believe the best path the Mets could take two years ago was dismantling the team and rebuilding it from the ground up in lieu of working with the tools at hand and building upon it instead. And I also wonder how many more now see it as the smokescreen for what it was.

We’re in this mess not because the tools Sandy inherited were ready for the junk heap but because the Wilpons were on the verge of losing the club and forced to take such drastic cost-cutting action and re-financing which required a man of Alderson’s talents. Sandy certainly was not hired for his baseball ingenuity and we’ve had two years now to be able to separate the myth from the man. He is no architect.

Now, he’s a relic.

Sure, he can trade away Bay and Santana. He just has to throw in Adrian Gonzalez to get a team like the Dodgers to accept. Of course, the Dodgers are a house of cards that missed the playoffs and the only people who don’t see that are the checkbook baseball advocates, but let’s not bother with that.

So, you’re OK with dumping Niese to get out of the last year of Bay’s contract? Because that is the caliber of deal it would take.

” When Omar Minaya was introduced to New Yorkers, he promised that the Mets would be back in the post season in five years. ”

He also promised a younger team built on speed and defense. How did that work out?

” The point is we had results at the major league level, and we suddenly had a farm that was churning out baseball players (and still is).”

By suddenly, you must mean 5 years later. Or are you still trying to sell us Mike Pelfrey as a success story?

“How dare they take all the risks, get none of the rewards in good times, and get hung out to dry by their big toes when calamity strikes.”

None of the rewards? I agree that some of the attacks on the Wilpons are over the top and not factually, based, but don’t pretend they weren’t cashing in or hold a lot of the responsibility for the current problem.

Sandy its your job to find them.

Harvey the new Seaver
Niese the new Kooseman
Wheeler the new Matlock
Ike the new Don Clendenon
Tejeda the new Bud Harrelson
Wright the new Ed Charles
Duda the new Ron Swaboda
Murph the new Ken Boswell