You can draft and develop whoever you want…

But if the owner is listening to the guy he knows from his childhood ( Bill Levesy was Jeff Wilpon’s childhood batting instructor )

and opts to trade that top prospect for Victor Zambrano…

the owner ( esp THIS owner ) can def take a dump on the GM’s work

You can go as far back as Kevin Mitchell…top prospect…not liked by Fred Wilpon…traded immediately

Then look at Gary Sheffield…who had a close relationship with the Wilpons dating back to his youth….

Since 2003, there were stories linking Gary with the Mets…

So in 2009, when the new humongous ball-park opens up…who did we have in RF? None other than a 74 year old Gary Sheffield…

who the Mets signed to basically draw in the 49 fans who cared about Gary cracking the 500 HR mark

they then proceeded to air highlights of this HR as if ANYONE on earth cared about it….

This is why they opted to ignore Pudge in 2004 instead of telling Piazza he is going to have to break that HR mark for catchers in another uniform or another lifetime…

Winning is rarely at the top of the list

It’s usually a circus act tailored to raising next week’s attendance

This video pretty much summarizes everything you need to know as to why we will suck forever with the Wilpons as owners

bit.ly/R8Jnuk

try 25

Which doesn´t preclude the current front office from trying to build this team the right way within the financial circumstances dealt to them. And it has nothing to do with “brilliance” or “incompetence” but rather realism.
Realistically, there won´t be any miracles happening.
Sure, once in a while you run into a bargain – say Chris Capuano or Scott Hairston. However, in general, you get what you pay for in free agency (though paying a lot in free agency usually isn´t the solution either).

If you want to have one very big reason why this team has struggled over the past 20+ years (3 playoff appearances since 1988 !), look no further than the utter inability to develop pitching over that time span. And I´m not even talking ace SP or # 3 starters, but rather depth in the bullpen or at the back-end of the rotation. If you want a valid reason for the number of collapses in recent history, one big reason has been the lack of pitching from within being available. Quick: Name 5 legit relievers that the Mets have gotten to the majors through their system between 2000 and 2012 ? Parnell, Joe Smith, Aaron Heilman, maybe (if you want to call him homegrown) Pedro Feliciano and…., err ? That´s 4 relievers – none of them dominating late inning forces – over a dozen years.

This is apparently changing. The depth in high to solid upside arms in the system is impressive – thanks BOTH to the latter half of the Omar Minaya era AND the job the current front office his done.

So instead of the Omar vs. Sandy BS (in a totally different financial landscape with a totally different task at hand), be happy both did well recently getting arms into the system. And those arms will decide about the longterm success of this franchise.
Not who the owners are or whether the 2015 payroll is 100 million or 150 million $.

Ok, some apparently seem to think keeping Beltran in July 2011 and letting KRod’s 17.5 million $ option vest being ” only” 6 games out of the WC race would have been the right call.
It’s tough to see a 2011 playoff appearance even by holding onto them – but maybe trading Matt Harvey for another frontline SP would have helped such an I’ll- fated run.

And with KRod on the 2012 books, I suppose David Wright then gets traded for Peter Bourjos last winter to still be able to pay 2012 salaries on time ?

In any case, yes Sandy Alderson so far has been C.R.O. first and GM second. Which doesn’t mean that the decisions made have been bad. They basically have all made sense (except for signing Jon Rauch maybe) even if some haven’t worked.

Did anyone expect Alderson to land a bunch of All Star searching through the winter free agent waste bins with about 10 to 15 million to spend per winter on 6 to 7 roster holes ???

The Mets, due to financial restrictions, have been in a rebuilding for the past couple of years. How many prospects have they traded and how many draft picks lost due to free agent signings in that span ? Bingo. ZERO.
And instead Zach Wheeler, Michael Fulmer, Kevin Plawecki, Matt Reynolds and Adrian Rosario are with the organizations in exchange for Carlos Beltran, Pedro Feliciano, José Reyes and Francisco Rodríguez, plus roughly 50 million $ in annual salary relief.
Yes, with those moves an expensive 85 win caliber non playoff team has been turned into a less expensive 75 Win caliber non playoff team. However, the odds for a playoff team between 2014 and 2016 are improved.

Though we both anticipate the worst (while hoping for the best) we do see the past differently.

Your thoughts are that Sandy Alderson is a professional baseball person with the talent to evaluate and make decisions, that he inherited a bad situation and now things are fiscally better for the Wilpons.

Many of us see Sandy as the corporate business person with the talent to evaulate and make fiscal decisions, that he inherited a not so bad situation as far as player personnel and that things are definitely not better for the Wilpons with their upcoming debt re-financed but not unchanged and not having replaced both the half billion capital investment they lost with Madoff and the high annual dividends they were receiving for more than two decades.

As Alan, SRT and others have pointed out, Sandy is here because the Wilpons were on the brink of bankruptcy. Selig took steps on behalf of the Wilpons which were extraordinary for one in his capacity, including that Fred hire Sandy. Don’t forget that shortly before Sandy was hired they needed a $25 million loan from MLB just to meet their expenses for the end of the month so even if the public was unaware of how deep the Wilpons’ financial trouble was, Selig was very much on top of the situation. And they couldn’t pay it back on time and got number of extensions. Still, they then needed another bridge loan to meet end of the month expenses once again. That loan could not have been obtained unless approved by the Commissioner.

Sandy Alderson has an executive level background in law and business. He was hired not to save the Mets but to save the Mets for the Wilpons for the organization was in so much debt and so short in capital that drastic and unpopular moves had to be made. His concern is for the well being of the owners and if that means having to sacrifice fielding a competitive team to achieve that, so be it.

It now seems quite reasonable to conclude that we took the extreme measures of getting rid of KRod and Beltran when the Mets were in the wildcard because of what we now know (as many of us at the time had speculated) about the Wilpon’s desperate need to reduce costs immediately in order to meet their monthly obligations due to operational money being extremely tight (remember it came to the point that they needed that second bridge loan). It could be said that over the remaining course of the season with the Mets POSSIBLY still in the wildcard hunt that could have POSSIBLY resulted in more fans in the stands and more revenue – enough to compensate for what was owed to those two players and then some. However, the revenue was both not guaranteed and would have been compensated over a period of time and as we know, the Mets were having trouble just meeting their end of the month obligations.

Rebuilding was the least expensive option Sandy had because that rebuilding meant no costly players and nothing else. Rebuilding also sounds much better than dismantling and downsizing which is all Sandy was really doing.

It’s seems the only way the Mets can resolve their problems on the field is with people in the owner’s box. The Wilpons are not going to be able to field a competitive team with the fiscal resources they currently have open to them. Years down the road when some of the debt is paid off and more financial institutions are willing to give them loans to again re-invest in the team, yes, but not right now. They might be able to weather that financial storm in the long-term which is what Sandy is trying to do for them and in the meantime all we as fans can hope for is that the holes in the outfield and bullpen can be filled by the kids coming up from the minors and quickly succeeding all at once A tall order – how often does an Oakland or Tampa Bay come along?

As it is, the selling of their minority shares (which came mostly from SNY) has been used up completely and Sandy has talked about the Mets projected to being able to meet their financial obligations only through next year.

Ike, Duda, and to a much lesser degree Niese are not cornerstones or deal breakers (again, it would take much more for Niese) for the right player. I like Ike but I think he could be replaced and the jury is still somewhat out on him. I think a replacing a slow footed, terrible defensive (either in the OF or 1b) that may(a big MAY) some day reach 30 ish hr power but is over passive and may hit 270 ish at best is very replacable. As you can tell I am not a big fan of Duda’s, I hope I’m wrong but he reminds me of Kevin Maas.

That said, this franchise is undergoing the equivalent of Baseball chemo therapy right now. After 25 years or so of mostly shortterm thinking, paying for today with tomorrow’s money ( or even tomorrow’s fake money as Bernie Madoff business partners),

Besides needing a functional farm system and organizational philosophy, it’ s important to look ahead 3 years when determining today’s action ( or inactivity for that matter). That wasn’t really the case here over the past 25 years. Is it now ? Well, that’s debatable. At least not a single move made so far by this front office has had a measurable negative impact on 2014 and beyond so far.

Instead of continueing to chase that ” one ( or three) missing piece(s)”, the Mets have finally been force to stop an ill-fated chase without a real foundation.
With all due respect, this team wasn’t making the 2011 or 2012 playoffs by keeping Carlos Beltran or Francisco Rodriguez in 2011 or – even worse – trading significant prospects to supplement such a run in both years.

There’s a ton of nice upside pitching depth up & down the farm system. And that will ultimatelyu be the the key in getting things turned around here eventually, probably by 2014 or 2015.
Not dramatic trades of the teams ‘ s best players for prospects or signing BJ and trading for Justin Upton.

And while the current OF is terrible, it doesn’t take the Upton brothers to fix this – just getting a couple of average players instead of he replacement level dreck that was playing for most of 2012 ( and no, Beltran & Pagan weren’t options financially). Whether this works remains to be seen but the odds seem pretty good leaving rhetoric aside for a moment.

Lenny Dykstra was a big reason for the success of the 1986/1988 Mets. He was home grown.

Mookie Wilson may not fit the criteria for the saber goons but their take on it is really insignificant. It does not take away from the fact that Mookie Wilson is one of the most important home grown Mets of all time.