You’ve all been to the circus and seen the tiny car when
an inordinate number of interchangeable and anonymous clowns comes stumbling
out? This past week the clown car
stopped in Queens and 20% of the roster turned over. And?
This team is beyond rudderless. The GM has no clue. The field manager has no clue. The roster is nearly devoid of talent. It’s painfully obvious to anyone who watches
(a dwindling number, by the way, based upon TV ratings and turnstile
receipts). Yet nothing is done to change
course to a new direction.
Now there is hope for the future. You have pitchers like Zack Wheeler, Rafael
Montero and Jack Leathersich all beckoning to make it to the majors before the
end of the year. You have a few
interesting hitters in Wilmer Flores and Cesar Puello who might have a future
here. You have a few veterans who are worth
keeping around like David Wright, Daniel Murphy and Bobby Parnell. You have some young guns who are injured who
could possibly have a future someday like Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia. All is not completely bleak for 2014.
However, instead of giving the high ceiling players a chance this
year when the team is already the third worst in baseball (and getting shut
down by the second worst team in baseball), we’re treated to the immortal
Collin Cowgill and his .267 average, Josh Edgin and his 6.75 ERA in the minors
and Kirk Nieuwenhuis who despite a recent home run barrage in Las Vegas was
hitting a lusty .220 and will sorely be missed in the desert heat for all of
the wind he produced with his prodigious number of strikeouts. Josh Satin’s chance is long overdue, but in
typical Terry Collins fashion he’s been told to ride the pines while shifting
Daniel Murphy from the only defensive position where he’s not embarrassed
himself.
Now the talent pool at Las Vegas isn’t exactly Murderer’s
Row but has anyone looked at what Andrew Brown is doing there? He’s hitting over .370 with power and second
on the team in RBIs to Satin while spending 17 days on the DL and a brief stint
(pattern repeating itself) sitting on the bench in the majors. He was dismissed after a mere 15 ABs in favor
of the lunacy of signing Rick Ankiel (since mercifully released).
Looking ahead to 2014, who exactly is the core around
which you build a competitive team? As
it stands you go into 2014 with no outfielders, no shortstop and no first
baseman. There are precious few “givens”
– David Wright, Matt Harvey, Travis d’Arnaud, Zack Wheeler, Rafael Montero and Jon
Niese.
This week Sandy Alderson already threw both Lucas Duda
and Ruben Tejada under the bus this week while proclaiming the .160 hitting Las
Vegas 51 Ike Davis part of the long term foundation. I hope that was just posturing for the sake
of soothing Ike’s fragile ego.
Bobby Parnell may have to be the lynchpin to bring back
some major SS or OF talent as there is little else they can afford to trade
without doing themselves more harm than good (assuming Leathersich is ready to
take over for him in the pen). You also
have to decide who is your second baseman of the future – Murphy or Flores –
with the other one becoming trade bait.
More importantly, the management of this team has to be
held similarly accountable. Some
FrankenManager made up of parts of John McGraw, Earl Weaver and Whitey Herzog
likely couldn’t have made contenders of the ragtag bunch Alderson gave Collins
to fill his roster, but that doesn’t excuse Collins’ propensity to play washed
up veterans while having youngsters like Juan Lagares sitting on the
bench.
Replacing Collins with Wally Backman gives the Mets the
unique opportunity to see how the former World Champion performs under the
bright lights of the big city while only granting him “interim” status. If he proves more embarrassing than
motivational, cut him loose at the end of the year. If he wrings some unexpected wins out of this
team, then lock him up to a contract. It
took almost 2.5 months for them to hold Ike Davis accountable. Terry Collins has had 2.5 YEARS. Enough is enough.
While they’re cleaning house, it may be time for the
Wilpons to consider whether or not Sandy Alderson is really up to the task of
building a contender. Thus far his big
claims to fame (and infamy) were shipping a batting champion and a Cy Young
Award winner out of town, one netting a nice return and the other not even
resulting in a draft pick. He gave away
Angel Pagan who has established himself as a solid centerfielder for San
Francisco and really not done a whole lot else.
Was the plan to sit on your hands and do nothing? Or was the entire plan to save the team
money? If so, then give the man a raise
as he’s done just that (except for the puzzling Frank Francisco contract and
overpaying for David Wright). The one
thing that’s sure about the plan is that building a winning team was not part
of its scope.
6 comments:
IMO, this is a lost year, so I guess I shoulld be hoping they have 100+ loses and get another chance to draft someone that no one else would pick first...
sigh...
Sounds like a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking here. Essentially, you want Sandy to scrap his plan and make some bullshit, highlight reel move that Minaya made, thus setting the organization back light years. This wasn't an overnight project, let the man who made a career out of doing building baseball teams, build a baseball team.
fine, then tell the man to stop saying the team is competitive now.
What, is attendance going to hurt?
It's 500 today.
Is it Monday morning quarterbacking to point out that he lost a key employee with nothing to show for it? Or that he failed to address the outfield? Or that he picked up crap like Rick Ankiel?
Ya know, I'm going to put up a morning report tomorrow that outlines just what Sandy and Company has done so far.
You'll find it interesting.
Are you really that upset that he picked Rick Ankiel off the trash heap and gave him a few at bats?
And who is the key employee that was lost with nothing to show for it? You mentioned a batting champion so I have to assume you're talking about Reyes. The Mets got two picks for him, Kevin Plawecki being one of them. Would it have been nice if the Mets had either traded him before he left or signed him long-term? Sure....but the situation was a lot more complicated than just Alderson's involvement. The Wilpons money situation was tenuous, Reyes got hurt, and the Marlins offered way more than I would have wanted the Mets to pay.
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