Sandy Alderson was a guest of Mike Francesa on WFAN on Monday afternoon and had a lot to say on a variety of topics which I summarized for you below. Before that, check out what John Harper of the Daily News had to say about Sandy’s latest version of “Cry Me A River”.
It was hard to tell if Sandy Alderson was baring his soul or throwing himself at the mercy of Mets fans during his WFAN interview with Mike Francesa on Monday…Alderson went so far as to describe his reaction to the 20-inning debacle on Saturday as “near-suicidal,” which made him sound more like a fan than a GM, but I doubt if it bought him much sympathy from the suffering masses. It’s tempting to say that a man who measures his every word so carefully would only admit to such an extreme emotion for PR purposes, but then again…
By the time the GM was finished assessing the current lack of talent on the roster, the task of turning the Mets into contenders by next year, in keeping with the Alderson blueprint, suddenly seemed like some fantasy.
It all sounded rather odd. I just hope it’s not a ploy to buy more time for this regime because whatever honeymoon Alderson has enjoyed, as the man hired to clean up the mess the Mets were in by the fall of 2010, is over this winter.
Yeah… Harper read my mind again… I didn’t buy Sandy’s last violin solo before the Winter Meetings when he told Francesa he was going to transform the roster, particularly the outfield, and put a contender on the field in 2013. He showed up with Duda, Cowgill and Byrd… Ahem…
I’m certainly not buying this latest concerto… His words are never met with action. They never have any real bite to them. Say what you want about Omar Minaya, but when he said he was committed to winning, he meant it. When he needed a center fielder he got Carlos Beltran, when he needed an ace he went after Johan, when he needed a righty bat he got Bay, etc. His choices didn’t always work out, but when he said he’d do something he went out and did it. I can respect that.
Sandy is different.
Everything always sounds staged and delivered with an impassioned plea for acceptance. He never makes me feel like things are getting better. Instead I’m always reminded of how bad things are and how he wishes they could be better… How awful the team is playing and how the players have all disappointed him… I mean give us some good news for once for crying out loud… Stop telling me how much my team sucks every six months… Most of all, stop running to Francesa and using his soapbox twice a year, only to give us the same old sombering state of the team address.
Sandy’s a great guy… I think he’s personable, intelligent and I even enjoy his deadpan sense of humor… He’s a good guy… I’m just not buying what he’s selling and now it’s really getting old…
Sandy Alderson on WFAN with Mike Francesa
Winning vs Developing: Wins never become secondary and the reason is that none of us can stomach losses. We want to win games while we are developing players. The Players we need to evaluate will get some playing time and that’s evident with move we made on cutting Rick Ankiel. We felt that Kirk Nieuwenhuis needed to play here in the majors. And we also have to consider Wilmer Flores who we also want to see here at some point this season.
Josh Satin: Satin is a performer who has done everything we have asked of him. He’s a little older but definitely a solid player and he has earned this promotion. Whether he’s part of the future or not we will we’ll all find out because he is going to get that chance… And I hope he gets a good chance at first base.
When On Wheeler: Zack Wheeler will start on June 18. You could speculate and be fairly comfortable that you will see him pitch that day.
Montero and Leathersich: Yes we have considered having them skip Triple-A. Rafael Montero pitched very well in his spot start with Vegas and is in the middle of an impressive run. Very soon we’ll decide to either leave him at Double-A or promote him to Triple-A. If we opt to leave him at AA you can infer that we will skip Vegas and bring him straight to the majors when the time comes. Jack Leathersich doesn’t throw any harder than Edgin does, but he has more movement and deception. That said, he does walk people and that’s a big concern at this point. But there’s no reason either one can’t come straight to the majors from Double-A. Those are two guys we are very high on, but there’s a little bit of caution because we remember Edgin came straight from Double-A.
Puello and Suspension: Cesar Puello has a little bit of a history and while very young ranked as high of 4-5 among our top prospects. He has always been a five tool guy and this year he has put it all together. We put him on our 40 man roster to protect him and those 5 tools of his. He is definitely someone we have our eye on, but we’re not gonna bring him up based on a month of great performance. If we thought there was something imminent we’d be concerned (about a possible suspension), but at this point it’s not a consideration.
Is Terry Safe: Anytime you hit a rough patch people speculate about players and staff, but this is about player performance and I don’t believe our staff performance has been bad. If its a player issue, then thats on me. I’ve been in situations where we change hitting coaches every year but I honestly dont think thats our problem. Terry is working his butt off and we are not considering changing anything.
Offensive Approach: We have too many players who don’t approach our hitting philosophy the way they should be. What I mean by that is putting yourself into hitting counts. When you have a preponderance of players who don’t follow that approach it becomes infectious. Right now we have too many players like that.
Having Hands Tied: It simply is not accurate. Not at all. I have said it time and time again. There has always been a willingness by ownership to spend money to help improve the team… If I chose to.
On Ike Davis: With respect to Ike Davis, we went about it as long as we could. In retrospect we should have done it sooner. He needs to get away from the voices in his ear. Hopefully the hitting environment in Las Vegas will be the right environment to turn it around, and that goes for Mike Baxter too.
First Base: Terry will have three options. Daniel Murphy can move to first base and we can play Jordany Valdespin everyday at second base. A second option will be to play Josh Satin at first base and leave Murphy where he is. Third but not likely would be playing Lucas Duda at first. We’ve told Murphy about first base and he understands that if we do move him, we’re not looking to shift him to first base permanently. But basically if we move Murph it gives us a chance to evaluate Valdespin who we need to look at closely. We also thought about Wilmer Flores and maybe that’s a move that will come later. But we need to get a longer look at Valdy.
Wilmer Flores: Flores is absolutely a prospect but what is his position? He’s got limited range, but we can live with that at second base because he does everything else at second base well. He has a good arm, is a good fielder and can turn the double play. He’s only 22. I wouldn’t preclude him from getting promoted sometime this season.
Outfield Plan: Short term we have to admit that Marlon Byrd is one of the few players we have producing. Cutting his playing time doesn’t make a whole lot of sense right now. In center field expect to see a somewhat even distribution of playing time between Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Juan Lagares. We need to find out about both of them We will see a more balanced allocation of playing time. We’ll also see what role Collin Cowgill will serve with his versatility to pinch run, bat off bench, etc.
Losing To Marlins: Losing to the Marlins was deeply frustrating… Watching your team go 0-for-19 with runners in scoring position can make you feel suicidal. We have to move forward, make whatever changes we feel are important, and keep our eye on what we’re trying to achieve. Losing to the Marlins was tough for us to take though, it was tough for the fans to take…
Patience is running thin with everyone from fans to players to Terry Collins. As I said when this whole dog and pony show first started in the fall of 2010, “I hope Alderson realizes this is New York and he better have something to show the fan base by the end of 2013. He’s got three years.” Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick,….
