Looking forward gets you where you want to go.

Today’s settlement news has led to quite a few readers who emailed me and disagree with some or all of the points in my last post. And of course that is perfectly fine. I started this site to encourage debate and conversely, I view criticism of what I post on this site as a badge of honor. I enjoy it, and I enjoy responding to it.

Most of what I’m getting is stuff that sounds like this:

1. Well, if the Wilpon’s are not broke than why didn’t they re-sign Jose Reyes?

2. So how come they haven’t spent anything in the last two offseasons?

Let me tackle these two seemingly recurrent sentiments…

Regarding Reyes, was not offering him a similar $106 million deal to the one he received from the Marlins an indication of the Mets’ financial woes or simply put – a good baseball decision by Sandy Alderson?

Did you want Wilpon to signoff on a longterm deal to Reyes? If not then why bring it up, because doing so only means that you believe Sandy Alderson to be on a leash and incapable of making his own decisions with regard to building the team.

Furthermore, if not Reyes, which free agent did you want the Mets to sign if your goal was to spend for the sake of spending? Prince Fielder? Albert Pujols? Jonathon Papelbon? Would any of those players made a difference on the 2012 Mets’ fortunes?

Do you think the Wilpons have learned nothing from the contracts to Johan Santana, Oliver Perez or Jason Bay?

Is it that difficult to accept the fact that Sandy Alderson would not have brought back Reyes at $100 million under any circumstances regardless of Madoff?

Do you still need another year to understand what type of GM Alderson is? Perhaps so.

From the day Alderson first took the job, he made it quite clear he was not cut out of the same fabric as Omar Minaya.  If you expected the same old $100 million dollar band-aid approach to every offseason, you clearly haven’t grasped that that approach has not worked and is largely why the Mets now find themselves in their current quandary.

The days of dominating the back pages of the newspapers in November and December are at an end, and the race to start dominating the division by a sound approach to team-building is on. It may take a few years as it did with Frank Cashen back in the early eighties, but make no mistake that the similarities in how these two men approach achieving sustainable success is not all that dissimilar.

Their blueprint is quite simple: Build a good core of players through solid drafting, scouting the international free agent market, and making productive trades for good young talent. Once you have achieved that and have constructed a solid foundation at the major league level, fill-in those remaining one or two pieces like the Mets did with Donn Clendenon in 1969, Gary Carter in 1985, and Mike Piazza in 1998.

To spend for the sake of spending only tells me you’ve learned nothing from the past.

It’s obvious that the Wilpons have learned and you’re seeing that new plan take shape in the hiring of good baseball people who are paid to make good baseball decisions. If you have a problem with that, than I don’t know what else to tell you because nothing I say will convince you otherwise.

People change. It might have taken longer than any of us would have liked, but the Wilpons today are different than the ones who gave Omar Minaya the reins in 2005. They have evolved, and you should too.

Everyone should stop worrying about who the owner is and start focusing their attention between the foul lines. We’re heading in a new direction. You can sit on your pot and stew over something you have no control over, or you can look forward to the better days ahead and enjoy the ride.

The choice is yours.