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2013
Which Mets Must Resolve To Do Better? It Begins At The Top…
An article by 
With the beginning of the year for making plans for improvement, let’s take a look at some of the resolutions the Mets should be making today.
THE WILPONS: You are the proud owners of a major league baseball team worth close to a billion dollars – that includes Citi Field and SNY – so act like it. With attendance steadily declining along with the yearly win total, the Wilpons should resolve to start spending to upgrade their team or sell it. Enough is enough. Start writing checks to clean up this mess.
SANDY ALDERSON: You were brought in to straighten out the Mets’ financial problems. Now it is time to bring in the talent to make this team competitive. You did it in Oakland and San Diego, now comes your biggest challenge. Reportedly, Alderson has been given a bigger budget, now don’t treat it like it is your money.
TERRY COLLINS: You were brought in change the culture, but that hasn’t been the case. Collins has been a little spotty in the accountability department and that has to change. He must resolve to kick some butt when it comes to lapses in concentration, thrown-away at-bats and poor pitch selection from his pitchers. The culture can’t change if Collins doesn’t demand more from his players.
DAVID WRIGHT: OK, you’re getting your long term commitment and enough money to last 100 lifetimes. There have been too many times when Wright takes it upon himself to carry the Mets on his shoulders when the team slides. When things are going to hell for the Mets, Wright needs to resolve to shorten his swing, shrink his strike zone and go the opposite way. Wright must realize he’s little help to the Mets when he’s trying to hit a five-run homer.
IKE DAVIS: You are supposed to be, along with Wright, the team’s power and last year proved it with 32 homers, with most of them coming in the second half. Davis has the power and could hit even more if he stops giving away at-bats. Davis must resolve to stop chasing pitches low and away and trying to pull everything, and needs to start using the whole field.
JON NIESE: You are now the de facto ace with R.A. Dickey gone and Johan Santana in his last season with the Mets. There are times Niese loses hitters and doesn’t finish innings. For him to take the next step he must make the resolution to keep his focus for every pitch.
BOBBY PARNELL: You have loads of talent but for some reason you haven’t put it all together. There were signs of what you can be at the end of last season when you took over for Frank Francisco. Parnell can throw a 98 mph., fastball in a blink. However, he must resolve to realize it isn’t about velocity but command, and not just with his fastball. He needs to come up with another pitch he can throw in fastball counts.
There’s more, of course, but these are the key players having a resume that needs tweaking. We don’t know enough about the outfield or Matt Harvey to say how they must improve in their games.
About the Author: John Delcos
I am an active member of the BBWAA and have covered Major League Baseball in several capacities for over 20 years, including ten in New York working the Mets' and Yankees' beat. I covered the Baltimore Orioles for eight years and the Cleveland Indians before that. I currently serve as an editor and senior staff writer for Mets Merized Online. Follow me on Twitter @jdelcos.
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Sandy Alderson: “Now it is time to bring in the talent to make this team competitive. You did it in Oakland and San Diego”
He did??????
Pretty much agree on the rest of the article…
That’s what I was wondering…
“Now it is time to bring in the talent to make this team competitive”. Yes you are correct with that sentence. But is it 2013 or 2014? Yes incremental improvement helps.
Accountability and Honesty to the loyal fans is needed.
If 2013 is a punt year than level with us. Some but not all can accept one more year of mediocrity but definitely not beyond. If you go beyond there will be a loss interest even with the loyal fans.
Growing pains we can accept but not lack of honesty and accountability to us.
Mediocrity Id chew off my left Nutcracker for a mediocre team…We flat out stink these past few years and damn sure arent fun to watch
BBLB We were 46-40 at the ASB. Ike was not hitting. The BP was atrocious. For the entire 2012 campaign we led the majors with 101 Quality Starts. We faded badly. So we ended up as a terrible not mediocre team. But let’s not think we were the Astros, Cubs or Twins.
Well what difference does it make which year you get the help if the timeline is a short two years?
Isn’t it better to fill a hole in 2013 even if it is not eough to make 2013 a winner just for the sake that it means one less player you need to find for 2014?
I mean we need three OFers if the guys we have don’t improve….
Are we really banking on there being Three we can get in 2014 that we can pass on all the credible answers there was available for 2013?
Filling a hole now doesn’t mean it is only filling for a year unless your dumb and only sign him to a one year contract (which we have done every year since Sandy got here)
Fill one hole in 2013 and thats one less hole you need to find filler for the year you think we will be ready to fill holes.
Metsie that is why a I said: Yes incremental improvement helps. I said that because you make a lot of sense with that approach. But know what with 10-15M to spend for 2013 budget who will help us as a force for 2013 and beyond?. There are two guys Justin Upton and G. Stanton, there really were no FA. Those of that ilk will cost ALL our blue chip prospects and probably Ike and Niese too. So in reality I can’t name one guy to be “a piece of the puzzle” to turn 2013 into 1984 per the Cashen era. We do not want the band aid approach of the last regime.
Is the fact they only have 10-15 Mil to spend a decision forced on them?
Or is it merely the manifestation of the DECISION they didn’t want to spend more than 100Mil and at this point it appears they have decided not to spend even 90M which is where the 10 Mil of the 25 Mil of space they created went to…
Its akin to saying I can’t work because I smashed my hand with a Hammer and blaming the pain in the hand for the lack of work not your decision to slam your hand with a hammer….
Without one the other doesn’t exist.
And if the guy is available THIS year then he is likely not available whenever it is you decide to stop setting your budget too low to build with.
They are not FORCED to only spend 10-15 Mil they CHOSE to spend so little…
And by the time the decide they are ready to spend it there appears to be no one worth spending it on…Jason Bay all over again!
Yes I agree its the Wilpons’ fault. We should have at least a 130 M payroll.
Well I don’t blame the Wilpons for the lack f spending truth be told Hotstreak
Sandy said he HAS money to spend (meaning the WIlpons gave him the money to spend) and without thier limits he has REFUSED or DECIDED not to spend it….
You can’t blame the WIlpons for limiting him if they gave him money and he STILL decided not to spend it can you?
Unless there is some NEW Wilpon Edict that says he can’t spend more than a Million on any player you would like to note for us!
They have given 100M….He has decided to only spend 90 so far…
And thats assuming he spends that other 15 Mil you mentioned.
Metsie in another post I said the Wilpons picked the manager. The Wilpons extended DW. The Wilpons control the purse strings just as the Steinbrenner’s. I concede Alderson can resign Hairston if he wants to. He could have signed BJ Upton for a draft pick but did not. Remember the term opportunity cost.
Opportunity cost is the cost foregoing an opportunity to make another and possibly a better decision later.
Is Alderson shy of making more than a one year commitment except with FF? Yes he is.
He is playing poker and will only go after (bid) on players that are worth committing to for several years.
Metsie, I ask you what player on a 100 M budget set by the Wilpons should Alderson have committed to for probably at least three years. A 30 something 2nd generation contract (DW was not his doing). Or young stud pitches and a catcher.
In the tough NL East for 2013 do you think we can get the 2nd WC if he made different moves such as keeping Dickey and signing B.J. Upton.
“I ask you what player on a 100 M budget set by the Wilpons should Alderson have committed to for probably at least three years”
Victorino who at 3 years 13 Mil per would solve a significant gap in the OF by playing CF, (covering ground for Duda and his lack of speed), Provide a decent leadoff hitter, add a RHB to the vs Lefty lineup and some speed at the top of the order for a contract that would be due to expire right around the same time Nimmo (The next BA Listed GREAT HOPE) is due to be ready for promotion to take his place.
And if Nimmo moves through quickly could even be in time to let us trade Victorino for something else.
13 Mil is right in line with what you expect us to spend the rest of this year and from the looks of who they are going after in the pen will still have enough to add two pen arms to the myriad of Farm kids they seemingly seem happy to try there this year.
FF comes off the book as does Bay and Santana next year and there is your money to gix the remaining two OF spots (if Duda doesn’t hit and Den Dekker flops) or a decent closer and MIR to finish off the team in time for 2014….
As it stands they will not spend on any improvements this year just filler and leave themselves in position where they need Three OFers, Same amount of Bullpen that needs to be filled in a SINGLE year otherwise 2014 isn’t a winning season either….
I know you agree somewhat with the why put off tomorrow what can be done today…
And yes the WIlpons Hired Sandy and made the 100Mil budget but it’s all on Sandy for not spending it even when he has it and merely blowing what money he has replacing MiL OFers to take the place of the guys we took from there to fill the MLB holes…
Jessup said no because he had a bad year last year….
Yet we are signing guys instead who hit .220 and have NEVER had a good one….
And I think you will agree it’s not the Wilpons picking who he signs under this budget.
” Start writing checks to clean up this mess.”
While I agree that soon will be the time to start to spend again, you can’t and could not fix this mess with checks.
Also:
“The culture can’t change if Collins doesn’t demand more from his players.”
How might we know how much Collins demands from his players?
Well if Ruben Tejada and David Wright dont run out grounders and popouts, wouldn’t that suggest he’s done nothing to address it? If Josh Thole keeps calling for 0-2 and 1-2 fast balls down the middle, doesn’t that mean he’s not addressing it? If Ike Davis keeps jawing with umpires, doesnt that mean he’s not addressing it? If Mike Baxter is on first and doesnt run on balls not hit in front of him, doesn’t that mean he’s not addressing it? If Lucas Duda keeps playing too shallow and everything sails over his head, doesn’t it mean he’s not addressing it?
I don’t know unless I am in the clubhouse how he is addressing those things. Just because they aren’t doing it doesn’t mean he isn’t addressing it.
Maybe not fix it this year but he could have taken a big bite out ot what he would need to fix to make next year competitive….
I think some here forget that you CAN sign someone to more than a 1 year MiL contact so what you sign doesn’t just have to be about THIS year….
TRS86: Please forgive me for using a reply to your post to infact reply to Metsie. I am for some reason locked when I hit rerply to his post.
Metsie: SV is 32 and got a 2nd generation contract. That by itself going from 9.5 M to 13 M for three years is against Alderson’s way of doing things. SV has a recent trend of a low OBP for a leadoff type guy. His K’s seem to be increasing. 13M is alot for this type of player. Can SV help? Yes he can with defense and stolen basis and spit and fire approach which I believe in very much. I do not dismiss your suggestion but like it or not its against SA’s philosophy and there is the line we were looking for why you dislike Alderson because he did not help the team in 2013 and beyond. Your post did cover when is Nimmo is ready. I am glad to see you dismiss Kirk as I do not like him for the future.
Bottom line I do not agree with you but think you defined and defended your position very well.
Is it possible that what he is against is giving 3 years and a lot of money to a 33 YO guy in serious decline, that was really dismal last year, and whos power had been inflated by his home park in previous years? Plus a guy that has thrown his body around a lot (one reason speedy CFs don’t often age well).
Just because a guy is marginally better than Torres does not mean it is a smart idea to make him the 2nd highest paid guy on the team, and lock up a position for 3 years on him.
and if you really just need spit and fire, Kirk should be able to give you plenty of that.
Basically I am against BOTH Kirk and Shane Victorino. However, Victorino who I would not have signed would have helped us but the commitment is too long which I agree with you.
By the way Kirk has to prove himself in ST and should NOT by default win the job. However right now our options for CF are not only slim but they are non-existent.
And yet as bad as Victorino was he is still MILES better than the OFers we signed recently isnt he?
Yes I agree Metsie. As I said this issue with Victorino and Alderson’s saber metric fascination is the heart of the reason why you do not like Alderson. He definitely would have helped. I respect your opinion but I also would not blame Alderson for taking a pass on him. If we were in a very weak division such as AL Central I might think differently. The competition does matter.
Well lets be clear since we do seem to agee in principle…
It’s not that he passed on Victorino as a player…
It’s that he passed on EVERY player when even ONE could have filled a hole for two or three years until such time as he could draft, trade for or develop one of the kids we have to take over making that FA tradeable for something or not a burden because the contract would be expiring….
I certainly haven’t done a ton of research on who would be the best guy to get because I knew we were not going to get him EVEN if he was the PERFECT fit….
This is my main problem with Alderson…..
He builds a Minor Leagues and forsakes the MLB until such time something HAPPENS (and he will wait until it does) with those kids to win so he can then continue nto do nothing or trade them away for more kids in the name of 4 years from now…
I’m fine with rebuilding the Farm but the MLB team doesn’t HAVE to suffer to do that….
You can do both…And my biggest issue in his time so far is he has decimated the MLB team of performers to build this farm….
I dont really have to worry about that anymore they are all gone now unless Niese wins a Cy Young and Ike wins the HR title….
Hi Metsie,
That’s all many of us had been saying. Including R.A. when last summer he said the Mets could do both at the same time. And the year before when he said the team believed in itself.
The reply from some was that as a player, R.A. was too emotionally involved to see the team’s shortcomings as clearly as the front office.
Truth is Joey there is only ONE way to rebuild a farm effectively and that is THE DRAFT!
Now the argument could be made that signing a Type A guy might cost you a pick…Thats true THIS year but was not true the last TWO years….
Our Picks in 2011 and 2012 were protected.
Perfect time to get a Type A when it won’t cost…
But thats the ONLY interelation between what you do on the MLB side has on your ability to rebuild the farm via the draft.
Listen to those supporting what has been done….
Ask them WHY it is important to have this vast reserves on the Farm…
They will tell you to create a CORE (Which all the names they mention are already here save Wheeler and d’Arnaud who will be before September) and then they will let it slip that the remaining will all be TRADED FOR MLB PIECES to fill around them….
Well then why did we trade the MLB pieces to get Kids in the first place?
As I said yesterday what I have seen so far is the GRANT phase of the Cashen rebuild….
Sell off anyone worth having, put not ready for prime time kids and AAAA players on the field….
Lose a ton and GET the draft picks they need to have a dearth of talent in the farm and in 5 years you will have enough kids to make a run at something….
Well thats a 7 year plan not a 5…And it will take till 2018 for it to work….
There were good pices available this year and last….
And there is no guarantee they will be there whenever Sandy decides to get off his duff and make the effort….
It didn’t have to be!
But we seem to have a GM who can chew gum and spit at the same time….
Which shows just how UNQUALIFIED he will be whenever this farm is made, and the team starts winning to be able to maintain it….
So no Decade of Domination for the Sand People….
Sandy will be gone long before 2018 so my participation in this debate really is about trying to pull the WIlpon/Sandy woll from over thier eyes.
The resistance and opinions I am seeing seems to be more about thier own Mental Well being than anything logical because they dismiss logic at every turn…
Hi Metsie,
A point well taken – trading for prospects is a way to supplement the farm system, it’s not the farm system supplementing obtained prospects. For a farm system to produce a good crop for the future it cannot depend upon trading for them.
No individual pitching prospect no matter how successful is going to make and break a team in the long run. The trading of a Cy Young Award winner should be an indication for even Toronto would not be considered a sudden contender if it just got R.A. – it’s because R.A. is one of three new starters they hope will formulate a top notch rotation. And it’s also because not just getting Reyes but the return of a healthy Jose Bautista (whom I do have my suspicions about performing enhancing drugs) and a bounce back year from Ricky Romero.
And another point – so many on MMO are now looking at the Blue Jays as a top team to make it to the playoffs – yet, last season they won 73 games (one few than we did), the year before 81 (four games more than us) and 85 in 2010 (six more than us). In 2009 they won only 75 (five more than us) after several seasons of playing above .500. That seems like a team that peaked at times but never enough to be a factor in post-season races going downhill, right? Yet, instead of dismantling a team that lost 89 games last season, they’re taking steps to in order to surpass their high water mark of 2010.
The average age of the Blue Jays last season was 27, the year before it was 28 and in 2010 it was 29. During that same time, the average age of a Met was the same as Toronto’s, then 29 and 28.
The Jays situation was similiar to the Mets in many ways. In 2011 they scored runs but their pitching was close to the bottom. They had only one starter of note. Their fielding was slightly below average. In 2012 their run production went down a bit and their pitching showed no improvement. They could have punted and started re-building with new prospects as well. But they didn’t.
Maybe the Jays will still flop in 2013, there is no guarantee. But at this point nobody can find fault with the steps they are taking. Why is it that our “vision” was to re-build from scratch and get rid of our star players? It’s not like Toronto did not sacrifice it’s future for a one shot deal, either.
If it’s economic differences, then fine. But the moves made by Sandy and his people cannot be justified as sound ones on a baseball level.
It’s one thing to trade Vets for kids once you already have a strong farm that can replace the guys you traded away to get a few more kids to fill holes later on.
Example Trading Mazzilli when we had Mookie and Strawberry already in the pipeline.
OR
Trading Brooks when you already had HoJo in the pipeline
But trading to stock an already (at least deemed by the trade supporters) barren Farm all your doing is getting kids to fill one spot while creating a hole somewhere else you have no kid to fill.
It’s Whack a Mole…
You make those trades when the Vet Performer has a young replacement that you need to make room for that will fill the hole you might create by losing the vet and allow you to fill ANOTHER hole someplace else….
Until you are at that point your just playing Whack a Mole and taking a big risk that not only did you create a hole but you could bust on what you got and not fill ANY hole leaving you worse off than you were.
ALl moves that can be made have thier proper place and time…
Unfortunatly do a good move at the wrong time and you pretty much screwed yourself.
Hi Metsie,
As said, there is a time and a place for everything. Like with the polarization we have reflected in Washington – one has to go beyond preferred philosophy and deal with the situation at hand, using that philolophy as a guide but not a but not someting that has to be written in stone.
Well I’m the one Blaming Alderson for “HIS WAY OF DOING THINGS”
You seemingly prefer to blame WIlpon as if he is forcing Sandy of doing things the way Sandy does things…..
As for all the stats you cited….
Are any of them worse than a guy who hit.224 last year?
NOPE! So it’s really moot to mention performance when it comes dow to what Victorino did LAST year in a down year than what we have instead who has NEVER had a GOOD year EVER!
Yes SA should follow the model of the Braves. Build a farm and be competitive year after year. The Braves let Michael Bourn go BUT replaced him with B.J. Upton. I agree SA could have done a better job with the ML parent club the Mets.
However, I still firmly believe the major culprit and source of our frustration is the Wilpons.
Hi Hotstreak,,
Glad we agree both could have been done at the same time.
But who to blame the most? Selig for saving the Wilpons? Madoff for fleecing the Wilpons? Alderson for his concern to balance the Wilpons’ ledger books for them?
I guess the only ones not to blame are Fred and Jeff. If it wasn’t for Madoff and those huge returns secured over decades, they might not have had the ability to purchase the Mets. If it wasn’t for Selig, the Wilpons would have gone bankrupt. And if it wasn’t for Sandy, Fred and Jeff would have sent Jose chocolates.
You did it in Oakland and San Diego, now comes your biggest challenge.
What did he do in San Diego?
Sorry John, but the only thing worse than that comment was going back to work today.
Hi Maniac,
Yes, I was wondering what the reference to San Diego was for, since Sandy was not hired to become involved in daily baseball matters but to instead decrease expenditures in which he did.
I really believe that the NY market is completely different than any other market out there. If your team is successful, you can make a ton of cash and go crazy….but unlike other markets, if you struggle then fans get bored and frustrated and you get thrown into a pit that can be very hard to dig out of.
Most markets are lucky if they have teams in all four major sports (Football, Baseball, Basketball and Hockey). I think it’s like 16 markets have all four…it’s hard for me to say for sure because hockey and basketball teams move around so much and tend to fall into some smaller markets and honestly, I really don’t give a damn about either sport…
But there is no market that has at least two teams in all of the major sports the way NY has. Let’s pick another market, like Minnesota. Minnesota has the Vikings, Twins, Wild and Timberwolves. If the Twins are bad, then fans still will be fans but they’ll spend more money on the Vikings…when the Vikings are bad they’ll cheer for the Wild or Timberwolves…Once the Twins or Vikings are good again, they come roaring back in full support of either team. And having a couple of down years is expected and even slightly excepted because fans know that they can’t compete with the NY’s and Miami’s and Boston’s of the world.
But in NY, if one team is bad, then eight other teams (including the Devils) to go cheer for…and odds are one of those teams are completive. NY’s are even worse because they expect a winner and there are no excuses for losing. We may forgive one or two bad years, but we tend to get very disgruntled and disenchanted as the losing continues. There will always be us die hard never go away fans, and despite are the bickering and trolling here, odds are you are a diehard if you’re still passionate to be reading articles on the Mets after all the crap they’ve done recently. But a large part of any fan base is the fair weather and/or bandwagon fans. As much as those fans annoy me (as I’m sure they annoy you) they are important to a team being profitable and eventually being successful. Let’s not forget that every year the Mets are bad is another year a kid going to buy his first baseball hat is picking the Yanks over the Mets.
This brings me to my point. I understand the whole Alderson argument…yes things were a mess and there was no money and rebuilding yadda yadda yadda…yes, some of it had to be done…and we can’t assume how any move to non-move may have effected any season. But we are in year three of the Alderson rebuild plan and sadly it looks like it’ll be another one to two years (at best) before we can hope to be completive again, and that’s assuming that Wright doesn’t bust out and all these young AA pitchers turn out as good as we hope and we can find an outfielder somewhere…All the while the team is losing, getting mixed signals and misdirection from the FO and the division from the fan base is getting bigger and more hostile and stadium is getting emptier.
In this town, you gotta spend a little to make a little. You need to give the fans something to hope for every year. Sure keeping Wright is a good PR move and should help, but Wright doesn’t fill the seats. Signing Wright, keeping RAD and getting a Real OF’er and catcher would fill the seats and only if they don’t flop out in April. The team is still losing money no matter how much gets cut from payroll. You can’t run a large market team the way you run a small market team…it doesn’t work. You first need to show the fans you are trying to, then you actually need to win. Omar and crew tried to win and that filled the stadium. Unfortunately, success didn’t happen and the Madoff thing blew up in their faces.
I’m not saying that Sandy should spend like Omar, or the Yanks, or even Philly…but you gotta invest in new star players…you gotta show progress…I understand rebuilding…but if it had to be done, I wish he pulled the Band-Aid off like Boston does and do it all in one year instead of dragging it out for three plus years the way it’s being done. We thought Sandy was going to spend money, but do it the smart way and not on risky players….what happened to “money ball with money?” There is no reason why it takes this long to “figure out” what players you have and what to expect from them.
USMF,
ONE WORD….KNICKS!!!!!
Knicks sucked since 99′…they were a laughing stock….Last year fans booed the crap out of them loved Melo when he was first traded for but booed him when they were losing….Que Jeremy Lin…Knicks start winning….Linsanity…got bumped from the playoffs fans calling Melo Overrated….2012 season arrives Everyone doubting them and calling them old gezzers they start winning and winning….The garden is alive again you dont hear anyone calling for Dolans head…
New York Fans Just want you to WIN!!! And they will support you…But no one is going to support this team….for crying out loud noone wants to hear Wilpon cry broke after the Ponzi scheme….
No one has sympathy for that family…No one…Just poll Mets fans and you’ll see at least 99% want them out of town…
Winning cures all Pro sports ill’s
“Start writing checks to clean up this mess.”
Writing checks GOT them into this mess.
Hmm Where would Sandy be if we didn’t write some of those checks….
There would be no Wheeler without one of those check being cut and truth is he also had Reyes and K-Rod’s checks to get something for but failed both times….
The mess we are in now has to do with NOT cutting checks and trading away the only real OFers we had to get Wheeler, Ramirez and Torres….
Sure we got a Catcher due to not wanting to pay a Cy Young winner 10 Mil per year for the next three years….
Lets hope d’Arnaud wins us 20 games by himself or that deal becomes a classic case of Spending for PERFORMERS is better than cheaping out on Maybes.
You know what? You would probably be a lot happier rooting for the Dodgers.
Nope because tey won’t be half as much fun to watch as all you WIlpon Bank Account fans running for holes to hide in once Sandy gets the boot!
I don’t even go to games, so not so much on the bank account. I just don’t stomach whiny Mets fans anymore. They are rebuilding. If you like teams that spend big money on ridiculous contracts, go root for one.
LOL so those Whiny fans that DO go to games and don’t like what they are paying for make your stomach turn….
Since you don’t go to games why not don’t go to Oakland and root for them!
They seem to be doing what you like with all the success that method brings….
Last WS appearance was 1989
I suggest you go post on a blog and root for a team that does what you want that you also won’t go to see….
And those of us who DO pay vent over the product we are given for our money!
Fans like you make me laugh. Its good entertainment during the rebuilding process. Your kind is why they say “you can’t rebuild in NY”.
And your kind is why a Major Market team is forced to be run like it plays in the Peoria market!
Hi Matt,
Why can’t both be done simultaneously if possible – maintain a good farm system and gradually replace players as necessary?
What a lot of us are professing is that November, 2010 was not the necessary time to call for a rebuilding as it was more a time for adding the few missing pieces to the puzzle. . As mentioned a few days back, in 2010 we were sixth in the league in pitching (note that a pitcher’s park will not turn a bad pitcher into a good one) and fifth in fielding. It was reasonable to expect our run production to increase with the return of Beltran, Jose not hampered by injuries to the extent that he had been before and Thole showing signs that he could hit major league pitching for a good average. In fact, that is exactly what happened – and without Ike Davis in the line up and David Wright out for more than two months.
If Sandy went out and tweaked the team with acquisitions he would not later refer to as “inexpensive” we might still have had a disappointing 2011 followed by another disappointing 2012 being unable to sustain neither after the all-star break.
Over the course of these few years, the players that were no longer producing could make way for the new kids of promise. That’s how it is done. Again, it all depends upon one’s perception of where the team stood in November of 2010. Nobody should ever sacrifice a prospect for the remote chance that a team could turn things around being so far behind (like we did with Kazmir in 2004) but at the same time nobody should ever sacrifice a season when in the middle of the pack just to get a prospect, either.
It goes both ways. Let us say this was back after the all-star break and the Mets were beginning to lose ground in the wild card but still in a good position to get themselves right back into it. Then, for some weird reason Toronto was willing to make the Dickey trade in return for d’Arnaud, etc. at that time. Not knowing what the rest of the season held, would one go for it – literally sacrificing the season to get those kids? That’s what a lot of us mean about 2011 and Beltran. Was it worth sacrificing 2011 – and putting us in a hole for 2012 – for one prospect?
That is where the anger lays for many of us. The team could have been much better if left alone and all it would have meant was not adding Wheeler to our list of minor league hopefuls. Was our team so bad (.575 ball over more than half the season) and our minor league system so barren of talent that the move was necessary?
Again, it comes down to one’s perception of how the team was. But one thing we do know – no other team traded it’s top players in the position that the Mets were in at the time.
Happy New Year John,
The Jets kind of started that move the other day by firing their own general manager.
The move puzzled Mike Francesa since he said Tannenbaum was only a “consensus guy” relying on Ryan to make the talent evaluation. That puzzles me too, for I thought that was what all general managers are supposed to.
I do think as the years went by Sandy indeed starting to begin making those evaluations and decisions for no professional would have ever made them!
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1463444-new-york-jets-fire-general-manager-mike-tannenbaum
Wright, Davis, Niese, Parnell…..those improvements you suggest all sound good on paper. I’m sure some of them have been discussed at length. Too bad it’s just not as easy as it sounds on paper. Either the talent level is there to accomplish these improvements or it’s not.
TC…..I have no idea what’s being said and what goes on between him and the players behind closed doors. Don’t know what his agenda is, don’t know how he’s approached it. I haven’t heard many comments from the players on him – one way or the other. That makes me a little nervous.
SA: If not for the financial mess the team was/is in, he wouldn’t be the GM.
The Wilpons: What can be said that hasn’t already? They either are unable or unwilling to write those ‘checks’. Fred’s goal is apparently to hold onto the team at all costs (which was accomplished so far with help from his buddy Selig) and preserve the legacy for Jeff. How low can the payroll go – and how long can you operate without investing in the team – before the bills coming due far exceed the revenue coming in? We might find out sooner rather than later….
SRT: When you wrote the simple phrase “how long can you operate without investing in the team” it reminded me of the term the “roach motel”. If you do not pay to fumigate the only customers are roaches.
Roach motel can mean per Wikipedia:
A low-priced motel or comparable lodging facility, usually a considerably older property in disrepair, not affiliated with a major chain, and located in a decaying area of town.