The reasons for not seeing this is as transitional year for gradual development is because no further steps have been taken to aid in that development. It cannot be just kids coming up from the minors – there are too many holes to expect prospects to fill and – to then simply wait further till there are. Gradual development, without the necessary additional ingredients, becomes perpetual development.

Before the injuries (which will work themselves out) our infield was set, we had taken steps to resolve the catching problem by trading the Cy Young award winner for Buck and d’Arnaud. We have that young starting rotation. What we don’t have is an outfield – or, more precisely, what we did once have was an outfield – until it was dismantled. Duda/Hairston in left, Pagan in center would have raised the ante for us with the assets we already have going for us. Beltran? Well, the absence of his bat hurts the team more than the possible emergence of Wheeler – especially with the other good potential arms we seem to have amassed in our minor league system. And, thus the Mets would only have one outfield problem to consider because Duda could still be platooned with any of those other young but fourth outfielders we have now – it would be finding a replacement for an aging Beltran.

But our outfield problem exists because the Mets would not (or could not) spend the money on even a Hairston (no team guarantees in writing that he will have the chance to play every day, just a promise) and trade away Pagan to avoid arbitration and then having to deal with him as a free agent. Same with the departure of Beltran (if not prospects, then monetary consideration)

These players, who combined with our youthful pitching , as we know, were not kept not due to any visionary plan but because they were going to cost money. And to think the Mets were NOW serious about spending top dollar to improve their outfield is denial of the trump card they were holding to get off the hook – that CBA agreement.

And to improve our bullpen, look at all the minor league contracts with an invitation to spring training as the steps they took to resolve it.

This is not a team in a transition year looking to gradually develop – it is a franchise that is just trying to hang on due to the fiscal cliff they suddenly found themselves in. The steps they are taking are not those taken by other clubs to get themselves out of the below .500 club. Those franchises looked for within the organization while at the same time acquiring those from the outside deemed to be able to contribute as the young players were sewing their oats in the big leagues. The transition from bad to good was not as gradual as we see here. Nor was our situation as drastic as those for others (San Francisco, Washington, Detroit, Cincinnati) that necessitated such turn-over in order to “re-build”.

With SNY, the Wilpons (via Sterling Equities) are hoping they can absorb the fiscal losses and have the liquidity to pay back those loans – if they downsize the entire Met organization as the are now and spend as little as possible (as we saw with last summer’s amateur draft). It’s a business decision. They can’t even sell the team for what it is really worth because the debt and fiscal losses have driven it’s value down – and I think from reading in Forbes and other financial journals, the are only one of two teams to have their value decrease the past two years….. and those decreases in fiscal value have nothing to do with wins and losses on the field. And for that to happen in the biggest baseball market in the country – well, that is why the question is what is our development plan – gradual or perpetual?

But is this team going to lose 95 games as some to to be convinced it will ?
No – unless David Wright, Jon Niese and Matt Harvey spend most of the season on the DL.

Matt Harvey has replaced RA Dickey in the rotation. As much as I like Harvey, probably a shortterm dowgrade, albeit maybe not that big. Shawn Marcum has replaced Chris Young. That should be a wash or a marginal upgrade – with Zack Wheeler as a potential mid-season replacement at AAA. The rest remains unchanged – the Hefner & Santana combo being the most difficult one to project.

The bullpen is a lot deeper and should be better than the terrible 2012 version. Especially thanks to the depth.

The Infield returns and – collectively – should be able to perform at a similar level.
The C combo certainly can´t be worse than in 2012 but probably isn´t significantly better either – at least until d´Arnaud is ´ready to come up.
The outfield looks like one of the worst in Baseball on paper. However, it already was one of the worst in 2012, so barring breakouts from Duda, Cowgill or Valdespin – which aren´t totally impossible – what used to be bad, remains bad.

Overall, the Mets still look like a 75-win sort of team on paper – albeit with youth on their side and thus a higher likelihood for unexpected improving than unexpected regression. That actually makes 80 wins more likely than 70 wins.

When it seemed Detroit might have a shot of breaking our record for futility, I was rooting so very hard for them to win so not to do so. Certain records need to be associated with just one source. Take that away from the 1962 Mets and one takes away some of the mystic that surrounds them.

Same if the 2013 team only won 39 games. It would be seen as just another bit of history, not a history all of it’s own.

If we insist on keep Marlon Byrd he’s a bench/clubhouse guy NOT a starting player!
We on earth would we be investing playing time and $$ into a career bench player rather than Van Deker? I know the arguments,”Van Deker needs to hit at AAA before…” That’s BS Van Deker will NEVER be Andy Van Slyke but he certainly can be better than Duda, Cowgill and Marlon Bryd! Makes Me crazy!!!

Remember Gary Brown…the cant miss prospect that the Giants refused to part with….he dropped from #38 to #100 on the top 100 list…

how about Dominic Brown…Phillies refused to let him go b/c he was their cant miss prospect…

as much as the Sandy crowd wants it to be true…more than likely Wheeler and Travis turn out to be serviceable players…not HOF players….not even All-Stars….

and its highly unlikely that Nimmo, Cecchini or Evans ever see MLB time….

the fact that Omar got MLB production while be ing handcuffed in the draft or IFA arena is simply amazing

lmao

As far as d’Arnaud, if I was to trade R.A. (and the picture of him wearing that Toronto Uniform is still too hard for me to see) I would have done exactly what Sandy’s people did.

Like many, I was also disappointed in Josh’s performance this year. Was rooting very hard for him to improve in his game for though not a power hitter, as a catcher he did carry his weight with the bat his prior two seasons. However, that was probably what kept him in the lineup as well for we experienced too many passed balls and an inability to block pitches in the dirt that were scored wild pitches. And unfortunately, after his concussion he was very timid with covering home plate.

I hope that does not become the case with Travis as the Mets talked about because with our lack of hitting, allowing a runner on a close play to score so to avoid injury is asking for trouble – not to mention that also extends an inning by giving the opposition another out to work with and thus could result in even more runs. And by announcing the Mets wanted Travis to be cautious, third base coaches are going to become more aggressive as they get to third…, sorry, got off track there.

Again, as far as Zack, it would again have to depend upon who else we could have gotten. If it was just a bunch of Cowgills, no, even if three or so. But if it was as I said, a nicely rated outfielder, even one-up, then I might have gone for it. I would not have made a final decision just going for the best prospect offered instead of maybe two others or one nicely rated one that would have been directed toward our needs. Who knows, it wasn’t specified what the other offers were but it would be interesting to see.

Also, there is one thing in the back of my mind – though Sandy is said to be pragmatic, would the fact that Wheeler was a top draft be better in terms of public relations and making more splash in the media? We know that’s a concern with the ones that Sandy works for…. Just a thought. But the actions of this front office does make me suspicious of their motivations as so many of us have pointed out.

For example take the Dickey trade this winter. If all reports are accurate then there were 3 treams with some type of interest in Dickey, the Jay’s, the Royals, and the Rangers. The best prospect for each of those three clubs were D’arnaud, Myers, and Profar respectively. Let’s assume that each team was willing to trade their top prospect, of the three Profar is the best followed closely by the other two. I wouldn’t want Profar and would go for Myers since OF is a position of weakness for the Mets.

Now lets assume there is only one team and they’re offering a package of either their top prospect who plays a position at which the Mets already are strong in (corner if, SP) or 3 B prospects 2 of which play a position which is a weakness. In that case I might take the second package.

I’d be interested in what you’d do.

Figueroa is starting for PR? Excuse me while I go throw up.

When did I say that? Don’t even start with me about my fanhood, especially with you.

Rumor has it that Pagan is the reason Brad is still in AAA, he is still shaking off Pagan’s negative moody cancerous dirty looks !!!