Rey Pierantoni - Why Patience is (Once Again) a Mets Virtue

Time is on my side, yes it is 
Time is on my side, yes it is...


Remember, I'll always be around 
And I know, I know 
Like I told you so many times before 
You're gonna come back, baby 
'Cause I know 
You're gonna come back knocking Yeah, knocking right on my door....


Sandman... ya done good!  Looks like R.A. and Thole for highly touted additional "foundation" players is a doctor's signature away from being completed.  

"Anything is possible," Sandman is fond of saying in response to... well... pretty much anything having to do with Mets'.  

But Sandman now has the last laugh, while imparting the wisdom of Job to us all.  

So, to all the panicked fans and frenzied bloggers who wrung their hands over the Winter Meetings about how Sandman is "clueless," "asleep at the wheel," "overrated" and "boring"-- even as recently as today with the sympathetic, but somewhat shortsighted, piece written by Michael Powell of the NY Times (R.A. Dickey Climbs Mountains; The Mets Dig Holes).  

That's not to say there isn't a time and place to move quick and decisively on things.  There clearly is.  And, in fairness to Sandman, he HAS shown that aggressive side to him.  Anybody remember Beltran for Wheeler?  Came pretty much out of nowhere... barely a whiff of it until the trade hit the airwaves.  

But from how this trade with the Bluejays played out, this one needed time.  Let's recall that the Bluejays had informed all teams that d'Arnaud (and, in some circles, even Syndergaard) was off the table... not even open for discussion.  However, the Mets, not getting any offers of interest for Dickey at the Winter Meetings, realized that there was still more time left in the Hot Stove season to make a deal.  Is there some rule I am unaware of that mandates all trades be pulled at the Winter Meetings anyway?   In fact, I recently heard Alex Anthopoulos on MLB Radio say that his preference is to work out deals either BEFORE or AFTER the Winter Meetings, not during, because of all the other work and issues that GMs needed to address.  And from experience, I can tell you he is 100% correct.  Anyone going to those meetings will tell you there are almost non-stop staff meetings, conferences, interviews, administrative sessions, follow-up to GM meeting ca-ca, etc.; so much so that it's frankly amazing deals get done at all during that time.  

One more thing:  this nonsense that the Mets somehow ripped off the Bluejays is exactly that: nonsense.  The stuff I've read of late criticizing (anonymously) Anthopoulos for dealing their two top prospects for the standard "38 year old" BS line all the while ignores the fact that:

1.  a TINY percentage of all top prospects, no less prospects, duplicate in the majors the same level of success they've had in the minors;

2.  R.A. Dickey's numbers are excellent not just for 2012, but for 2011 and 2010 as well;

3.  The Bluejays are built for winning NOW, not next year, or 2014, when their prospects MAY flourish on the major league level;

4.  The Mets are focusing on putting together a solid foundation for the long run, no different than teams like the Orioles, Royals,... let's go back in time... the 1996 Yankees, and... now I'm going ancient here, the 1986 Mets.

So, yes... time is exactly what the Mets needed here to help right the ship towards contention.  

Rome wasn't built in a day... 

and today may have been the Mets' march across the Rubicon.