After asking one of my buddies at work, a long suffering Mets fan like myself, to read my post about Cespedes this morning, he remarked afterward, “well there’s a player Mets fans won’t be thankful for next Thanksgiving.” What a freaking genius – and from a 20-year Jarhead no less.

So let me get a one year head start and give you a few things the Mets won’t be thankful for next Thanksgiving…

  • Jason Bay – Sorry to break this to you Mets fans, but while the newly adjusted dimensions at Citi Field might account for 2-3 extra home runs for Jason Bay in 2012, it still won’t explain away his .243 batting average from last season. That’s the sign of typical decline and at 33 it could get worse, not better. Oh and by the way, he actually had no problems hitting in Citi anyway, it was his .215 average on the road that raised all the alarms. But hey, Bay gives it his all, although I’d rather have 75% of Jose Reyes than 125% of Jason Bay right now.
  • Mike Pelfrey – Mets want to tender Mike Pelfrey and fork over $5 million for his contributions? Big mistake. As I’ve said many times already, I couldn’t care less how many innings Pelfrey gives you a season, especially when those innings suck the life out of a Mets win. It was a year ago this month when I advocated the Mets go after Matt Garza and just forget about Mike Pelfrey. Can’t accuse me of hindsight on this one, which brings me to…
  • Matt Garza – Matt Garza, Huston Street, yada, yada, yada. Are you even listening to what I’ve been saying for the past year? Sorry MetsBlog, but we are not in “Accumulation Mode” we are in “The plane’s still too damn heavy, throw out all the seats and the luggage” mode. Reading about all these potential trades for quality players makes the offseason fun, but you need to understand that it’s just visions of sugar plums dancing in your head. The Mets want you to think we are “building” for the future, but the reality is that we are “slashing costs” for the future. Building up the minors and then building up the build-up is what the Pirates and Royals have been doing for years. New York City, meet Small Market.
  • Extra Wildcard – This might be the best thing the Mets will get this offseason, but it only means they’ll probably miss the post season by 15 games instead of 25 games. As I’ve also said countless times before, if the Mets lose Jose Reyes, this front office will most likely be looking at a 100-loss season in 2012. There’s nothing at all to be thankful about here, but it may ring nostalgic for some as we celebrate the 1962 Mets next season. Except for one minor detail… While the ’62 Mets were lovable losers, the ’12 Mets will be anything but…

These are just four things, let’s see what you can come up with so we can get it up to ten and then I might consider making one of those slideshow posts on Bleacher Report.

Listen people, the best way to cover-up the fact the team is broke is to conjure up the pretense we are building for a brighter future. I wish I could tell you that’s the number one priority, but it’s not. The person who was largely responsible for drafting Brandon Nimmo and Michael Fulmer, a fella named Chad MacDonald, already quit after ten months and left for the Padres when he saw what was going on. It’s not difficult to see beyond the smoke and mirrors if you try.