Bill Madden of the Daily News with the sobering reality most Met fans probably don’t want to hear:
There were 21,747 gluttons for punishment at Citi Field Sunday for the conclusion of another Mets-Marlins series, which now qualify for the worst baseball on the planet. Not satisfied with having tortured their fans for 20 innings of record-tying ineptitude the day before, the Mets lost in similar fashion — just not so long in doing it — and when it was over, when they had gone another 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position, on top of the 0-for-19 the day before that equaled the worst performance of clutch hitting by a team in the last 50 years, and gotten one infield hit after David Wright’s two-run double in the third inning, it was as if Alderson and Collins couldn’t wait another minute to start shipping the bums out of here.
I was asked what I thought about the moves and as I asserted in my report on it yesterday this won’t change anything in Flushing.
This is not the cavalry coming and it’s more like bringing in a few pallbearers to put the 2013 season to rest. None of the players coming in can be classified as upgrades.
As Madden also pointed out in his article, the problem is, the changes made Sunday are all internal changes and, internally, the Mets don’t have any players at Triple-A who are much better than the ones they’re sending out.
Since the end of last season I’ve been harping on the Mets needing to bring in at least one position player from the outside for the rebuild process to work. The Mets have no outfielders that are close or that you would call a keeper. Even top pick Brandon Nimmo is still in A-Ball since being drafted in 2011 and the word is that’s exactly where he will stay for the rest of this season. Gavin Cecchini is still in extended spring training and awaiting short season baseball to begin. The Mets took another position player in last week’s draft in Dominic Smith and he’ll be at least 4-5 years away – with all due respect to his mother who has much higher aspirations. Such is the love of a mother.
Anyone who thinks we can be a playoff contender on the strength of pitching alone and a purely homegrown roster is misguided, misinformed and are clueless as to the dearth of position players in our system even after three Sandy Alderson drafts.
The San Francisco Giants wouldn’t have won a World Series without Angel Pagan and Hunter Pence. The St. Louis Cardinals wouldn’t have a 2011 World Series banner without Matt Holliday‘s seven year mega-deal and wouldn’t be the best team in baseball today without giving Carlos Beltran $13 million a season. No need for me to mention the 2009 Yankees, the 2008 Phillies, and the 2007 Red Sox, and how all three won their World Series, right?
It takes quality to get quality. We don’t get Zack Wheeler if lets say a player like Collin Cowgill or Andres Torres was the return. It took an all star caliber talent like Carlos Beltran to land him. It took a reigning Cy Young winner to bring in Travis d’Arnaud. You don’t get something for nothing…
It’s going to take a Zack Wheeler or someone like him to bring back the legitimate bat in the outfield that this team so desperately needs. Get that into your heads.
(Photo Credit: Ron Antonelli)
