Updated Post 1:44 PM

MLB Trade Rumors just posted something that would add to the debate on Choo as a potential acquisition for the Mets in 2014. I also updated the original post to indicate that Choo’s best position is right-field.

Of course, as with most free agents, Choo’s next contract will cover post-prime years, perhaps age 31-35.  With Boras doing the negotiating, we can’t rule out a sixth year or a salary in the $18-20MM range, plus the loss of a draft pick.

Are you guys ready for another Winter of debating the loss of a pick, even if in the Mets case it’s a second round pick based on where this season is heading?

Original Post 12:44

Tyler Kepner of the New York Times, had an article this morning suggesting the Mets should make a strong attempt at signing Reds center fielder Shin-Soo Choo if they are serious about contending in 2014. Choo is a free agent at the end of this season.

Choo, 30, was acquired by the Reds in the offseason for highly regarded shortstop prospect Didi Gregorious and outfielder Drew Stubbs. According to Kepner, Cincinnati Choo was charged targeted Choo to fix their problems in the leadoff spot, which produced a .254 on-base percentage last season. So far, Choo has delivered in a big way, ranking second in the National League with a .455 on-base percentage.

The Scott Boras client has always been able to hit for average and get on base as his career .386 OBP would attest. Going into this season, he has averaged 38 doubles and 90 runs per season in his career. He also can give the Mets power and speed while providing solid range and defense in center field, though right field is his best position. The left-handed batter has averaged 15 home runs and 20 stolen bases in a typical season for him and is on a pace to smash both of those marks in his walk year with the Reds.

“He’s the big reason why we are where we are right now,” said Brandon Phillips of the Reds, who hold the second-best record in the National League. “Playing against him when he was with the Indians, I always told everybody he’s one of the best all-around players in baseball — underrated. Right now he’s just being himself. It’s a blessing to have him over here.”

Kepner also adds that the South Korean native, might be a sensation in New York, whose metropolitan area has the second-largest Korean population in the United States, behind Los Angeles.

Obviously, I love Choo and had wanted the Mets to go after him last offseason, and even though he’ll be a year older I would still have no problem bringing him on board for the 2014 season and beyond. I’m assuming it would require at least a four-year commitment and the bidding from other teams will be aggressive. That’s the part that frightens me – or should I say frightens Sandy Alderson. You see, I’ll maintain what I’ve been saying all along about him and that is that he doesn’t have the stomach for these types of negotiations. To quote myself from last October, “Alderson doesn’t have the ability to go after a desirable and marketable free-agent, it sin’t in his DNA.”

There will be other outfield options out there next offseason, assuming they are not re-signed. Jacoby Ellsbury and  Carlos Beltran are among them.

The problem is will Alderson be willing to spend and come out strong?

Or will it be another Winter of waiting for the market to settle to his liking, which of course never happens leaving him to scamper and pick the bones of whatever carcass he can find on the scrap heap?

A year ago today the Mets were 18-13 and tied for the lead in the second wild card spot, but by the All Star break they found themselves a half game out of the wild card hunt at 46-40.  By the time August 1st rolled around the Mets were descending further out of the playoff picture at 8.5 games back and would eventually end the season at 14 games out of a Wild Card berth. If you looked at the team you felt they never had a chance to gain any wild card spot.  But the opportunity was there if they just played hard enough, or had the talent to compete.

The Mets with all their pitching and hitting woes will keep them from even considering making the playoffs, but you have to wonder what is going through the minds of the Wilpons. I mean they play in NY, so why wouldn’t they want to provide a good product on the field? Why wouldn’t they want to have a winning team?  Winning baseball fills the stands, excites the fans.  In the hunt for one wild card spot gives hope, but now with two spots to grab, it should force a team to do whatever they need to, to reach the goal. Why settle for just mediocre baseball, don’t the fans deserve better? It just doesn’t make sense to me.  If a playoff run is not in the plans for 2013, is it in the plans for 2014? Will better moves be made or are the owners still recovering from bad investments? We the fans hold our end of the bargain, we buy tickets to the games, we buy merchandise and all we ask for is a team that will compete for the playoffs, a team that is exciting to watch and will continue to get better not worse.

What is funny is that before I started writing for MMO, I saw the glass as half full.  I would watch the Mets from my home in Florida and never really understood why things weren’t happening for us. But with the great followers that our site has and the knowledge of our writers, it has shown me a different side to the one and only team I have rooted for my whole life. Was I that blind to the reality of Mets baseball, could only a month of following and writing for MMO truly show me a different side of the game or the business part of it. I couldn’t be that naïve could I?

We all want a winner, we want an organization that will do whatever it takes to put a great product on the field, to have a team that will compete with just about anyone.  In my earlier post “The Youth Movement has Fully Begun at Citi Field”, I felt good about watching the young studs call Citi Field their home, it felt like the right thing to do.  Start from the bottom up and build a championship team, but that just doesn’t seem to be what is happening here.  I mean, I am not giving up on my team, I have seen the good times and a lot of bad times, but in the end, I am a fan, I bleed Orange and Blue, I suffer through the rough seasons with the hopes that they will finally get it together, but with how Jordany Valdespin has been treated, with how the pitching staff has just been patched together and the talent on the field nothing near what a fan would want to see, it just boggles my mind how the Mets wouldn’t do all it needs to do to try and put a team together worthy of a playoff run.

Back in the 80’s the team that finished second, went home, there weren’t any extra games for them to try and get in the playoffs.  If you won 90 games and finished second, you received nothing and the season was considered a failure, but now with the two wild card spots, more opportunities are there so are they willing to do what it takes to try and make the playoffs. I am really not sure these days.

Spending the money doesn’t guarantee anything, as the 2012 Miami Marlins and so far the Toronto Blue Jays have shown, but making an effort to put a talented and winning team on the field does make a difference in the mindset of the fans. We want a winning team and I just feel that as fans we deserve one.

Rafael Montero, rhp, Mets: The rules of the game allow for New York to put off a 40-man decision on the 22-year-old Montero until after the 2014 season. Necessity may dictate a callup this season, given the way that Montero has pitched at Double-A Binghamton. After dealing six shutout innings at New Hampshire on Saturday, Montero has allowed four runs in four starts, going 3-0, 1.59 with an incredible 27-1 K-BB ratio in 22 2/3 innings.

Domingo Tapia, rhp, Mets: The strong-armed Tapia started striking batters out last season in the South Atlantic League, and he apparently remembered to pack those whiffs for his assignment to high Class A St. Lucie this season. The 21-year-old ranks third in the Florida State League with 23 punchouts after recording 11 in 12 2/3 innings this week and allowing two earned runs in two starts.

Brandon Nimmo has gotten off to one of the hottest starts in the minor leagues this season. After another three hit performance on Tuesday, he woke up on Wednesday morning as the leading hitter in the South Atlantic league with a .447.

Nimmo has officially positioned himself to be the No. 2 prospect in the Mets organization once Zack Wheeler and Travis d’Arnaud are promoted to the big leagues. Noah Syndergaard still has the keys to the No. 1 spot on the Mets’ prospect list, but Nimmo is making a push.

Many fans thought Nimmo was a bust after 2012. They would look at his numbers and scoff at them. However, Nimmo spent 2012 adjusting to professional baseball. He grew up in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where his high school didn’t even have a baseball team. He grew up playing American Legion ball, and established himself as one of the top high school prospects in the nation moving into the 2011 draft. The thing with high school players is, they only face a good pitcher once per week…maybe. Sometimes, they find themselves playing professional baseball and have never faced a pitcher as good as they will see at that level. Now they see pitchers blowing 90+mph fastballs from the rubber every day of the week. The speed of the game changes drastically, and it takes the hitters time to adjust.

Young Brandon Nimmo has adjusted. 2012 was his adjustment year, 2013 is the result. Not only has he adjusted, he has transformed. He is now a professional hitter. He laces line drives back through the box, into center field consistently. When I look at Nimmo, I think tremendous upside. The risk of drafting this kid that never played high school baseball is starting to turn into reward for the Mets.

After the hot start this year, some are calling for a promotion. Bad move. Leave the kid where he is and let him taste success over the course of the season. Let him dominate, then skip him to Double-A in 2014. There wouldn’t be much of an adjustment skipping from Low-A to High-A ball, but why put undue pressure on a kid if the talent level isn’t much different?

There will still be doubters when it comes to Nimmo. There will still be naysayers. But Nimmo is going to keep producing — his swing and his approach to the game tells us that.

To date, the Mets front office has not even discussed the subject internally, according to one team executive. They probably will not do so before next winter. The team wants a bigger sample size on which to base projections on Harvey’s future performance and health. For as dominant as Harvey has been—posting a 2.33 ERA and striking out 10.9 batters per nine innings in 12 career starts—it is still only 12 starts.

Costa conducted his own study and polled a group of students from Pepperdine University who were recently honored by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and this was what they concluded after examining all the comps, history, injury risk and evidence.

To mitigate any injury risk, the Pepperdine team suggested the Mets wait until after the 2014 season before offering Harvey an extension. They then looked at the contracts of not only the five pitchers listed above but also other starting pitchers who signed extensions after their first or second professional seasons.

Weighing all this, they recommended that the Mets offer Harvey a four- or five-year extension worth $30 to $35 million after 2014, assuming he remains on roughly the same performance trajectory.

Makes logical sense to me, and while it’s too premature to be discussing a longterm deal after only 12 starts, this does show how high;y regarded Matt Harvey has become in so short a time.

The Mets right-hander owns a 2.33 ERA in those 12 starts, allowing just 46 hits and 30 walks in 73.1 innings while striking out 89 batters.

I am not a big fan of predictions probably because they never come true. Why waste your time guessing how the team will do?  It’s hard enough to hear all the so-called “experts” around baseball tell you that the Mets will be horrible this year. They don’t even mention that the Mets are even in the NL East – that really gets me mad!

So, instead of predictions, let’s look at what we hope for. I hope for our young pitchers to gain the experience necessary to make them credible pitchers in the near future, like in 2014. I am looking forward to watching Matt Harvey, Dillon Gee and eventually Zack Wheeler pitch, knowing that we can say we saw them when they first started. They all have great potential so let’s see what they can do.

I hope for our outfield situation to work itself out. Everyone is in love with Collin Cowgill after his Opening Day slam and I  think he played well this spring. Let’s see what he can do. I know that Lucas Duda and Marlon Byrd are starting for now and we’ll have to see what happens, especially in Duda’s case. We all know he’s not the greatest of fielders and hopefully his bat can make up for the defensive hole that he causes.

I hope that Ruben Tejada and Daniel Murphy keep improving and working on their defensive craft. We all know Murph can hit and we will have to see if Tejada can improve on last year’s totals. Tejada played shortstop well last year – yes, we still miss Jose – but Tejada did an acceptable job.

I hope that Ike and David will continue to be the cornerstones of this franchise. We all know what David means to this team and the fans and Ike is turning into a fine defensive first baseman. Now let’s hope that he doesn’t suffer through a miserable first half like last year.

And how about the bullpen? Can Bobby Parnell turn into the closer we need? He has the stuff to do it; does he have the mentality?  Scott Rice is a great story and I loved what Josh Edgin did last year. Could LaTroy Hawkins be a surprise coming out of the bullpen?

Yes, there are many questions that need to be answered but I refuse to believe that we can’t improve on our 74 win season in 2012. I just don’t think we are that bad. If we do the hard work this year, 2014 and 2015 can be very special seasons for the Mets. I have seen many bad seasons over my 45 years of following the Mets but this year can be the start of a promising run.

Mets fans are a hearty bunch – we are loyal and in it for the long haul. I will be watching every game and looking to see a brighter future for our ballclub. My one prediction for 2013 – the Mets will be competitive and fun to watch. I’ll say we finish at 80-82.

Have hope, fellow Mets fans and look at 2013 as  the year when all the future pieces start to fall into place. Watch out in 2014!

Let’s Go Mets!!

“Positive thinking breeds positive results.” ~ Tug McGraw

Howie is a tremendous resource of Mets information and nobody knows the history better than he does. Here is what he had to say on some hot Mets topics and again let me thank Vinny and Tim for participating and winning our Ask Howie contest last week.

Tim asks: Howie, you are a Mets immortal. It looks like Terry Collins won’t be back as a manager in 2014, but I’m sure they will keep him in the organization. Who would you like to see manage the Mets if it’s not Terry?

Thanks, Tim, but you’ve got the wrong guy. Chris Majkowski is the immortal one. I’m not so sure that if the Mets show some progress this year that Terry won’t be back. I hope he returns. He is a fabulous baseball man, so if he’s not back, I hope the Mets find a significant role for him in player development.

For the sake of your scenario, I’m not certain that Sandy Alderson sees Wally Backman as the Mets next manager, but that could change depending on how things go in Las Vegas.

I know this much, most of the guys who have played for Wally at any level really like him and consider him bonafide big league managing material. If it was up to me, I would right a wrong from 40 years ago and hire Whitey Herzog. Somehow, though, considering that he is 81 years old, I have a feeling that ship has sailed.

Vinny asks: If it were your decision, what other numbers should be on that blue wall at Citi Field next to 14, 37, 41 and 42? Thanks, Howie! You’re the best!

Thanks Vinny. I hear you’re pretty good, too. I have always felt that Keith Hernandez should have had his number 17 retired, and many of his former teammates feel the same way. There are  a variety of opinions, though, about whether he should be the first of the 1986 team to be so honored, and whether Dwight Gooden’s number 16 should go first, and then what about Darryl Strawberry’s number 18 and Gary Carter’s number 8? It is not as simple a project as it might seem, but then I have always thought that Jerry Koosman’s number 36 should receive strong consideration. Sooner or later, we might well see number 31 retired for Mike Piazza, but I have been on record since the 1990s supporting this honor for Keith.

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Can you tell us about 2-3 of your most memorable All-Time Mets calls or Mets Moments from your illustrious Mets broadcasting career?

Hi, bro. (I feel like Joe Benigno). Although I have had some memorable (at least to me) calls on television, whenever I think back  to personal broadcast highlights they invariably are from radio. On television you simply punctuate, embellish or narrate. Radio is where you describe and your creative and reportorial skills mesh. The night the Mets clinched the division in 2006 was fun because it was the Mets first division title in 18 years, and when Cliff Floyd caught the fly ball which ended the game, my mind immediately flashed back to Lindsey Nelson and Bob Murphy making their calls on TV and radio when the Mets clinched first place in 1969.

It’s really not perceptible to the listener, but my voice caught for a split second as the thought of Lindsey and Bob entered my mind and I realized that I had just enjoyed a similarly significant, and for me, emotional moment. Calling the final out of the NLDS against the Dodgers was similarly enjoyable and special, but for me, the final out of Johan Santana’s no hitter is among the small handful of all time personal broadcast highlights. Given the history, I never thought it was going to happen until strike three was securely nestled in Josh Thole’s glove. It will probably be topped by nothing less than a Mets pennant and World Series winning call when and if I am lucky enough to make them.

I always love your stories and was wondering about when you were working with with Bob Murphy. Do you have a memorable Bob Murphy moment that you can share with us?

I have several, a couple of which are outlined in the book. Here are two. In spring training, 1987, I was in a car going from St. Petersburg to Kissimmee during spring training and Bob was driving. I wasn’t paying much attention to the road, but suddenly a car came from the left lane, cut right in front of Murph who was driving in the center lane, and darted into the right lane. I was probably half asleep at the time, but all of a sudden Bob blurted out, “WHOOOAH, HO HO HO!” I half expected the next thing he said to be, “Oh, what a play by Buddy Harrelson.” That was  a surreal moment, considering I had heard him sound like that on the air for 25 years, but this was in his car!

Another was memorable for a different reason. I was never Bob’s regular partner, so I didn’t do all that many games with him. Murph had a tough veneer to crack. He was old school; a marine. You did your job, and you went home, and words of praise were rarely offered. One year, probably just a season or two before he retired, I was doing primarily TV with a sprinkling of radio games. Radio is a completely different art than television, and I was just not comfortable with my ability to do baseball well on the radio at that time. (It’s still very much a work in progress.) Between innings of a game on this day, however, I mumbled something about how unsatisfied I was with the job I was doing, and Murph, who was seated next to me, patted me on the leg and said with a reassuring smile, “You should feel good about your radio (work).”

Now that might not sound like much, but from someone who I had grown up watching and listening to, and who was not often given to complements, that meant the world to me. Those simple words gave me the confidence that I was on the right track.

Howie, you get to see this team day in and day out and never miss a game. You’ve seen the ups and downs over your amazing career. What are you most excited to see in 2013?

I am most excited to see the various components to this organization that will be the foundation of a team that grows into perennial contention. The fastest way to get there, is by developing pitching, and this is where the Mets have their greatest organizational strength.

We’re not just talking about Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler, but Rafael Montero could be up before long, and Cory Mazzoni might not be far off, and there’s Domingo Tapia and Jeurys Familia, and behind them Noah Syndergaard and others. Then of course, there’s catcher Travis d’Arnaud, with Wilmer Flores on the way to help offensively. They won’t all be here this year, but as a group, that’s something to feel good about.

Put It In The Book is a treasure trove, packed with all the richness of a half century of Mets baseball as told by the one who chronicled so much of it. When putting this book together, was there a particular recollection that made you smile and warmed your heart as you wrote about it? 

I’m sure it comes across, but anything which recalls 1969  gives me goosebumps to this day. The season was so magical, so unexpected, and to a 15 year old such a tremendous gift, that, as I explain in the book, it’s shaped my career and my life simultaneously. The Mets owned not only New York back then, but the entire baseball world. They were as beloved a champion as any team in any sport at any time. I can’t wait for the time when we can say that again about the New York Mets. The sooner, the better.

Joe D. – Thank you so much for your precious time, and I can’t wait to tune in and listen to you on April 1st.

Howie - My pleasure. I hope you enjoy the book.

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Yesterday, I faulted Santana for not keeping the Mets in the loop this Winter about his questionable shoulder and how he was progressing, but shouldn’t there be some accountability on the Mets’ part as well?

Wasn’t there an obligation to track Santana down and schedule at least one follow-up examination of Santana’s shoulder which was 18 months removed from capsular surgery?

Or what about checking up on his sore back or his bum ankle that was the apparent reason for shutting him down last season in the first place?

If you were a first-year GM and just a mere greenhorn, wouldn’t checking up on Johan Santana be the first thing you do before pursuing offers for R.A. Dickey?

So how did a 35-year seasoned MLB executive like Sandy Alderson fail to do his due diligence as he admitted on his conference call on Thursday?

No general exam. No X-rays. No MRI. No poking and prodding. No follow-ups on any of the three major areas of concern. Nothing.

Maybe he didn’t want to know?

Maybe he was so dead-set on trading Dickey all along – even when he was saying publicly that the reigning National League Cy Young was not being shopped?

“I’m not actively shopping Dickey our priority is to sign him to an extension, but like any player we’ll listen to any offers,” Alderson said before taking off for the Winter Meetings in Nashville.  ”But we won’t trade him unless we get a difference maker in return.”

I believe in being fair, and in the last two days I’ve given Johan Santana a few good knocks to the side of his head for the way he handled himself in these last three months and how he let his pride and ego get the best of him.

But make no mistake that there were errors of omission and commission made on both sides. It took two sides to created this fiasco – not one.

We’ll never know the real truth and as usual we’ll be left to our own suspicions and speculations. But what does it say about the 2013 season when you traded your ace for no MLB ready pitching in return, replaced him with a late Winter scrapheap signing who came to camp with a sore shoulder and needing a cortisone shot, and didn’t know the condition of your would-be ace until he showed up on reporting date lobbing 69 mph fastballs?

The answers to those questions can all be found in the 2013 Mets Opening Day rotation. We have already moved the timetable for an apparent Mets dynasty from 2014 to 2015. We may have to move it again from 2015 to 2016.

The fact is that the starting rotation in 2013, may be as underwhelming as the outfield. Year three of the Alderson Era is looking pretty alarming on paper thus far. But baseball isn’t played on paper, so I’m willing to see the season play out before completely unleashing my own version of hell.

At one point, Hale brought up the possibility of signing Ike Davis to an extension and buying out his arbitration years, similar to the extension the Mets completed last spring with left-hander Jonathon Niese.

“We’re always looking at our young players to see if it makes sense, both from their standpoint and ours, to do complete something on a longterm basis,” Alderson said.

“Ike Davis is coming off a big second half last year, showed up to camp in great shape and in great spirits, and we see him taking on a bigger leadership role in the clubhouse right behind Captain America – David Wright.”

“Any kind of an extension has to fit for us and it has to fit for the player. So it’s something we’ll keep an eye on. Sometimes the player is not interested, and sometimes the agent is not interested. It’s one of those things that has to work for both sides.”

We’ve discussed this topic a few times already this offseason, and back on January 22, I wrote the following regarding Ike Davis and the possibility of extending him:

Now that the Mets have avoided arbitration with Davis and both sides have agreed on a one-year deal worth $3.2 million dollars, the plot thickens somewhat.

Davis gets a hefty raise from the $500K he earned last season. It’s the first step to a four year process that will take his salary to the $15 million dollar a year range by 2016.

Even the $7-8 million dollars he most likely will earn in 2014 sounds like a tough nut to crack for a team who hasn’t doled out that much cash annually in a new contract to a player in many years, not counting their franchise player David Wright who just cashed in for $142 million through 2020. In fact, Jason Bay was the last of the Mohicans.

So will the Mets open their wallets and pay Ike Davis at a level commensurate with what other first basemen of his caliber get paid?

That’s tough to say and I remain skeptical. I don’t think it will happen. Niese signed a deal that averaged about $5 million a season for the next five years. It will take a lot more than that to get Davis to sign any extension.

As I’ve said before, I have yet to see any evidence that this front office will ever pay any player not named Wright at current market value levels. It’s simply not in their DNA.

I could be off base here, but I challenge the front office to go ahead and prove me wrong. In fact, I’d welcome it in Ike’s case.

Wearing my Ike Davis shirt the last morning, I was approached by an individual asking if I was an Ike Davis’ fan. We immediately struck up a conversation and realized we were both diehard Mets’ fans. He was a 15-game season ticket holder and we would both be attending Opening Day this year.

Suddenly whisked back to the baseball world, we started discussing the Mets and the upcoming season. As the conversation wore on, we both agreed the tide needed to start turning for this franchise soon. After returning home, I continued to think about the discussion and noticed Joel Sherman’s column in the NY Post, in which he calls this season Sandy Alderson’s final mulligan. The conversation I had with the fan in Hawaii was directly related.

He agreed that things needed to change soon for the Mets but didn’t feel that would occur with the Wilpons still owning the team. I found myself taking a more positive approach – that with the likes of Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler, the future was bright. However, I added that the direction of this team did need to start turning this season, leading to an offseason where Alderson finally opens up the wallets, all en route to at least a semi-competitive team in 2014. Later on, I realized that in essence I was saying this is Alderson’s final mulligan.

And the 2013 season should be Alderson’s final mulligan. However, take it a step further. Since Alderson took over in 2010, the debate regarding the direction and quality of his approach has raged at Citi Field, sports bars and on sports radio. This is the year when we can finally at least start to answer that question Do the young pitchers and prospects continue to develop? Does Alderson add a couple players for the outfield? Does he begin spending some money at the Winter Meetings this offseason?

That question will definitely be answered in 2014 and beyond. However, by this time next season, I think we’ll have a much better idea of whether the Alderson is plan is working or not. And the question at that time will be, “Can you see this team being competitive this season (2014)?

As GM, Alderson’s job description entails building for the future, and while Collins has nothing guaranteed to him beyond this season, it doesn’t mean the two perspectives can’t co-exist.Collins’ extension will be assured if the Mets have a winning season, but even if they don’t – very possible considering their holes – he could be back in the dugout in 2014, when the spending is supposed to begin.

“Well I think there are two things upon which a manager is evaluated,’’ Alderson said. “One is wins and losses, and the other is the improvement of the players on the team. And regardless of whether you have a veteran-dominated team or a younger team, players have to improve.

“And more importantly, they have to be motivated to improve, and that’s really partly where the manager comes in. I think that Terry will be evaluated on both of those bases, with the understanding that the wins and losses are not an absolute – to some extent they are relative to the talent that we have.’’

And, that talent level is thin, with a patchwork bullpen, questions at all three outfield spots, a new catcher and questions throughout the rotation, including a heavy dependence on Matt Harvey, who has but ten starts in his career.

A lot has to happen for the Mets to surpass last year’s 74 victories. Several times Alderson has spoken on changing the Mets’ culture and it has evolved since the dark days of the Jerry Manuel-Omar Minaya era.

At one point last season the Mets were eight games over .500, but Alderson did nothing to upgrade the franchise at the trade deadline and the summer spiraled out of control as the offense collapsed in the second half.

Collins deserved some responsibility, but in fairness he had little to work with to turn the team around. Alderson takes some of the blame for that, and admits he waited too long.

Even so, Collins can’t afford to lose things this year. He has to maintain the teaching along with motivation.

“So part of this whole analysis is having a good feel for the talent level that we have and the success that we have and how those two correlate, as well as some of the other less tangible aspects of leading a team over 162 games,’’ Alderson said.

Those tangible aspects include keeping the Mets focused and motivated, regardless of how much they skid. If he does that, we’ll see Collins again next year.

On a side note, not too many GM’s are as open and forthcoming with the media as this one is. After our conference call, Joe D. said something to some of us who participated that nobody disagreed with.

“Say what you want about, Sandy,” Joe said. “But one thing I respect him for is that he always gives us a thoughtful, well-detailed and analytic response to our questions.”

Thinking back to the last three general managers the Mets have had before Alderson, Joe is right.

The Mets were the only team in the game to have not signed a Major League free agent before the Marcum deal.

Of course, the Mets are going through a rebuilding phase, but the team didn’t even sign a bench player or relief pitcher to a pro deal.

What this means is that the team will be relying on youngsters to get them through this season.

“Get them through” can be interpreted in one of two ways.

First, these young guys can burst onto the scene and form a competitive team. Maybe we’re not talking about going all the way to the World Series, but the team could have the potential to play exciting baseball.

Look at the Oakland A’s last year. A team of young no-names went on a run and won the AL West division over the likes of the powerhouse Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

The Mets will be trying to unseat the Washington Nationals, Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies atop the NL East, but it might take more than just an extended late season run to do this.

But the more likely scenario is that the young players will be under constant scrutiny to see if they belong in the Majors. “Get them through” in this case would apply to just getting through this season – no matter what their record winds up being – in anticipation to be a competitive team in 2014, when superstar prospects like Zack Wheeler and Travis d’Arnaud are ready to contribute to the big club.

This year will be telling for guys like Lucas Duda, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Mike Baxter, Josh Edgin and others. They’ll be given every chance to succeed to see if they fit into the mix in 2014.

Players like Daniel Murphy, Ruben Tejada, Dillon Gee and Bobby Parnell are not off the hook. They too have to prove that they can have sustained Major League success.

Marcum is a nice stopgap who can eat innings if he’s healthy, but the future of this team lies far from the hands of Shaun Marcum.