Many years ago I worked in an office that had a large staff. When the office manager found that something had been screwed up he would call everyone in and rant, “Who’s the ‘NOT ME’ responsible for this?”
I always found that funny – maybe because invariably the culprit was NOT ME.
But it brought home to me the point that it is human nature to want to blame someone or a bunch of someones when things are hitting the fan. And for Mets fans things have been hitting that fan (and we fans, excuse the pun) rather regularly since the Madoff scandal broke.
If you haven’t read it already I would echo Joe D’s recommendation of the Howard Megdal article which discussed the upcoming book about Sandy Alderson, “Baseball Maverick.” While I have not read the book it seems that it gives Alderson a platform from which he can proclaim that the last few years are not his fault.
There’s a pretty universal disdain for Jeff Wilpon, Fred Wilpon, and Saul Katz (OK, maybe not so much Saul) among the fans of the Mets. And certainly if we’re assigning blame they get the lion’s share of it.
Plenty of fans throw blame at the managerial prowess, or lack of same, of one Terry Collins. I doubt anyone thinks Terry has cost his team any playoff spots. Probably it’s just that he does things that do not maximize the meager talents he has had to work with.
And there’s Alderson.
Those who want to kill him for the recent misfortunes have to concede that he made great deals when he unloaded Carlos Beltran and sold high on R.A. Dickey. The farm system is dramatically improved from the Omar Minaya days. A legitimate pipeline has been created that should be funneling solid talent to the big club in each of the next few years.
It’s tough to kill a guy who has accomplished that.
But those who jump to his defense have to answer for why this on-the-brink-of-contention team didn’t address its glaring needs this past offseason. Their big signing was Michael Cuddyer, a veteran who can hit when he’s healthy. But will he be healthy? And what about defense? He’s considered a well below average fielder in the outfield and at 1B. And in addition to what his two year deal costs there’s that 1st round pick that was surrendered for him.
Even Alderson admitted that the team needed one more lefthanded reliever. During the offseason a bunch of them were signed by other teams while Alderson and company sat on the side lines. Even guys who were pretty marginal were getting swept up while Alderson seemed to think that Josh Edgin, pretty much unproven himself, and someone from a motley crew of Scott Rice, Sean Gilmartin, Jack Leathersich and Dario Alvarez would emerge as the #2 southpaw in the pen.
Now we learn that Edgin is hurt and who knows when or if he’ll be healthy for the 2015 season. For most teams this means the number 2 guy becomes the number 1 guy and someone becomes the new number 2. What exactly will the Mets be doing?
You know we have to discuss shortstop and up-the-middle defense. For a team that plans to live or die depending on its starting pitchers it sure would be nice if the second baseman and the shortstop had the range to turn potential hits into outs. Flores/Murphy? They figure to hit as well or better than most teams’ keystoners but oh-my that defense.
It’s hard to believe that between Dillon Gee, Jon Niese, and Bartolo Colon the GM was totally unable to address team needs at other positions.
Alderson defenders have a good many things to answer for.
So who’s the NOT ME to blame for this situation?
