On Friday night, Sandy Alderson told reporters he was optimistic about his team’s chances in the second half which began with a win against the Padres in San Diego.
“Sometimes you gotta believe, right?” Alderson asked before the game. “This is a time.”
With 66 games remaining in the season and the team in third place and gaining traction, Sandy likes our odds.
“Somebody says we have a 3 percent chance. You ask the guys on the field they probably think we have a little bit better chance than that,” Alderson said. “We’ve got 67 games. I know the math. We’ve got to play well and play well starting this road trip and pretty much straight through.”
So will Sandy do anything to increase the Mets chances at the deadline, or will it be stand pat and watch the team sink or swim?
David Wright seems to have his own opinion on what his general manager should do, after lamenting last week that he still believed in “the plan” but never expected it to take this long.
After five straight losing seasons and the realization that his prime years are closing in on him pretty fast, the Mets captain wants to see the front office stand up and deliver.
“When you get to the point you feel like you’re close, which I think we’re very close, then you go out and you add a piece here, you add a piece there, whether it’s through free agency, whether it’s through trades. And I think we are at the point.”
Wright said he could have jumped ship when things weren’t going so good rather than sign a longterm deal with the Mets, but Jeff Wilpon and Sandy Alderson convinced him the team was at a transition point and about to improve. He was so taken in by the vision painted by Wilpon and Alderson, that he even gave them an interest-free $15 million dollar loan to help expedite the process.
The former All Star third baseman admitted that his agents cautioned him about remaining with the Mets rather than exploring other opportunities. “If they had it their way, I would have probably tested the market, no question, because their job is obviously the financial terms,” Wright said.
Still, Wright says he misses what it was like when the Mets were playing winning baseball and said his favorite memories are still reserved for the 2006-2008 seasons.
“There are just so many things,” Wright said. “Obviously you have the clinching game where we broke the Braves’ streak. The celebration on the field. The flight from L.A. after we swept L.A. (in the NLDS). And even the next series against the Cardinals, when we fell short. And, as much as it sucks in 2007 and 2008, being right in the thick of things down to the wire, it’s just tough to explain the feeling of coming to the ballpark every day knowing the importance of the game.”
I’m not so sure that Wright will get his wish. On Thursday Forbes reported that Mets home attendance was down for the fifth straight season and while Alderson keeps saying he has the capacity to add payroll, nobody really believes he can.
I feel bad for Wright who has given and done so much for this franchise. It’s now ten years in the major leagues for him and that’s when your body starts to remind you that you’re not 24 years old anymore. You feel every ache and pain, every bump and bruise. He’s probably assessing his situation and realizes the clock is ticking. But if Wright wants to get back to 2006, he needs to pick up the pace and do some of the heavy lifting. My guess is that no help is on the way.
