I stumbled across a great piece on the Wall Street Journal Online that did a nice job of tackling the sad state of affairs of the New York Sports scene. Their solid team of beat writers all contributed their assessments of the Giants, Jets, Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Nets, Knicks, Yankees and of course the Mets.
Jared Diamond’s take on the Amazins’ was quite to the point…
If the Mets have proven anything, it’s this: Size doesn’t matter. Big payroll, small payroll—what’s the difference? The Mets are awful either way.
No franchise has a longer current streak of consecutive losing seasons than the Mets, who have averaged fewer than 75 wins a year since this run of futility began in 2009. They couldn’t win with a bloated payroll that approached $150 million back in 2011, and they can’t win now with a payroll that is $50 million smaller.
At this point, the Mets still have obvious holes in the outfield, at shortstop, in the starting rotation and in the bullpen. What’s worse, they don’t appear to have the financial wherewithal to fill them.
Unfortunately, it is hard to imagine the Mets improving much, at least in the near future. Matt Harvey, their best pitcher, will miss all of 2014 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. The Mets’ farm system, while stocked with promising pitching, is nearly devoid of what the Mets need most: position players.
Of course, being a New York team, one would think the Mets could solve that problem from outside the organization. But for now, the Mets have been unwilling to pay for the top free agents.
Ultimately, their patience and commitment to fiscal responsibility might pay off. It just doesn’t seem likely to happen soon.
Diamond obviously has an excellent grasp of the situation and has a more intimate knowledge of the landscape than either you or I.
It’s sad to see this team where it is now, and sadder still to not be able to envision a point in time where the winning will begin again. My opinion is that as long as you have the same people in charge doing that same exact things year after year, the results will continue to be the same.
So until one of either the front office or ownership is replaced, or until they start doing things differently, don’t expect the Mets to be anything but a 70-something win team anytime soon. And I assure you, that present ownership is not planning to go anywhere.
What is that thing they always say about the definition of insanity? Yes, that…
