Wright hasn´t been traded. Neither has Niese. And for good reason in both cases – because unlike Beltran or Dickey, these two have a pretty good chance to remain productive for the next 5+ years (with all due respect for Beltran & Dickey, two tremendous players & role models for sure that come with far higher risk given their age & injury history).

And again, the Mets are REBUILDING !!! Whether you agree with it or not.
Rebuilding teams at times trade key veteran players close to free agency. And that´s exactly what happened. Sandy certainly isn´t Saint Sandy, of course. He botched the Reyes situation – whether with or without an assist from his owners and has shown a surprising lack of creativity, at least until this off-season, in terms of patching shortterm holes on the major league roster.

So, let´s see how he does when the Mets are close to contention again and whether he also trades every player over age 28 and isn´t willing to trade any of his top 25 prospects. If that´s the case, then sure, blast him for that. However, why keep players in their mid 30s longterm or trade prospects for veterans right now when you´re in the middle of building something ?
It´s like being upset that someone has failed to buy curtains or a bed for the 5th floor appartment when the building is being built – currently the 4th floor.
Or be upset that the nice bed from the old building was sold at a high price right before the old building with the leaking roof was demolished.

D´Arnaud (maybe backed up by Centeno going forward !) hopefully will give the Mets an at least average, if not well above average to elite young C to build around soon.

That leaves the outfield as the major area to improve. Getting one middle of the order OF bat and two averagish outfielders, preferably at least one strong defender should suffice.
Now, one of those spots can also be a platoon. But it´s highly unlikely that two thirds of the next Mets playoff outfield are already on the 40-man roster. So, while I believe there´s a good chance the bullpen could pretty much take care of itself. Maybe even the rotation with all the young pitching on the rise, the OF will need to be adressed over the next 15 to 20 months. Be it via trade(s), free agency or unforeseen development from within or a surprise scrap-heap pickup.

When was the last time we saw a team like the 1969 Miracle Mets? Even Oakland and Baltimore from last season can’t compare to that one – we both lived through it and knew what it was like.

Yes speed, pitching, defense and a lack of hitting won in for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1965 and 1966 as it did the Giants in 2010. But most clubs with strong pitching also had decent hitting to get into the post-season.

The Mets are almost there.

There is one other thing to consider. The Dodger pitching was as good as the Nats (3.34 ERA as opposed to 3.33 and just three more total runs allowed) and they pitched is a more hitter friendly ball park, yet the Nationals won 12 more games than Los Angeles because they scored nearly 100 runs more than Fred Wilpon’s favorite team.

The Nats were fifth in the league in scoring, producing just 45 less runs than the league leader. The Giants were right behind them, scoring just 58 less than Milwaukee.

So it was more than pitching. Washington outscored their opponents by 137 runs. The Giants scored only 13 runs less than Washington and gave up 54 more so they outscored their opponents by just 67 runs – the sign of a great team which can win the close ones.

So the plan has to include hitting – like with the Nationals and to a lesser extent, the Giants – both finished in the top six in run production. The Mets need to add the bats to go along with the pitching hopefuls and we are not about to do that with the outfield we have.

And the plan also has to include a better bullpen too.

Also, the Giants came up with other guys like Bumgarner, Vogelsong. Do you believe Alderson has the talent to find these other type of caliber players?

And the Giants, while focusing on pitching, also produced Buster Posey (ROY in 10, MVP in 12), Pablo Sandoval (batting champ in 09) and other good players. Do you see us having a guy like Posey and Sandoval? I dont.

(then again, even if we did, Alderson wouldnt pay them anyway)

Not really so much a plan as it is just another PHILOSOPHY isn’t it?

I guess thier first best destiny is as Philosophers who rarely work, just sit around THINKING while toehrs around them ACT on their musings….

It does explain the lack of moves so far this offseason.

Duhhhh….

BAD…VERY BAD!

Especially considering most of the Pitching we have is not due to anything this FO has done….
Maybe they will get credit for Wheeler when he gets here….
But the real problem with thinking THIS is the plan is we just traded away our BEST pitcher to get a catcher which is totally against what the stated plan is isn’t it?

A little difficult to say your going to build a team around pitching only to lose it to fix something else….

It’s a classic Mis-direction to say this is our plan….
It’s our marketing and an attempt to sell the one thing we have HAD even before Sandy got here!
Because he has failed to get anything he says is the goal of the plan…

Truth it that would appear more like OMAR’s plan since he is the one who got all the pitching we are relying on.

But the Mets have more prospect depth among higher end pitching prospects in the minors right now. And over the past two seasons, the development of pitching has been pretty steady with strong results in the minors numbers-wise and a very low injury total.

Time will tell, but if there´s one strength in the entire organization right now, it´s a plethora of very promising RH pitching.