'The War Room' – 9-15-13 – Mack Ade - An Open Letter To Sandy Alderson

Dear Mr. Alderson:

My name is Mack Ade and I own and operate the website www.macksmetsreport.com . I have had the pleasure of writing about my favorite sports team since 2005 and have met and covered the large majority of your ballplayers when they passed through the Savannah affiliate that I covered for the Morris News Service.

I want to first thank you for your hard work and dedication that you have already brought to the organization. Your improved scouting system has signed some interesting international free agents, your 2013 draft is being projected as one of the top in baseball, and your acquisitions of player like Zack Wheeler, Dilson Herrera, Vic Black, Noah Syndergaard, and Travis d’Arnaud have brought overnight prospect respect to the system.

I have no desire to discuss with you areas of this game that you are far more expert in than I. You get to see these players (and their coaches) every day, as well as analyze all the information that crosses your desk about draft candidates, free agents, and trade available players. I saw a little of this in 2007 when I spend every home game in the Savannah Sand Gnats clubhouse prior to the game. I was then able to see what made the precious few players stand out from the rest of the team and none of that could be found within some SABR statistic. Great players leave 100% of themselves on the field and organizations that go on to pour champagne over each other’s head do so only after efforts like this.

I am writing you today as both a fan and a Mets writer. I’ve never considered myself part of the blog community and would rather be recognized as a Mets historian who operates a web site. The majority of readers on The Mack’s Mets Report are men between the ages of 35-64, not the fans that live on Twitter and express themselves on #Twitter. No, our readers have supported this team as far back as The Polo Grounds, and many start every season with a trip to Port St. Lucie to sit down by the bullpen.

What is sad is that the three greatest moments since 1962, only include two World Championships. Sadly, the third was a home run hit a few days after 9-11.

Mr. Alderson, I’m asking you to please return this team to a level of respect we can all be proud of. I’ve run businesses… hell, I’ve owned businesses… and I really have no idea how much pull you have in your organization. Bloggers every day write that the banks control your future and I know that’s not true. Banks control whether you will have the money to operate in the future and nothing more. What you do with the money is your choice.

In my opinion, you’ve already built a wonderful foundation. You, and your predecessor, have developed a rotation that looks to be developing into one of the more dominant in baseball for years to come. I stand by the ‘you can’t have enough pitching’ plan you and your corporate team seems to be operating on, and though the possible loss of Matt Harvey in 2014 might temporarily set that development back, the 2015 rotation projects as one of the top three in the game.

Mr. Alderson, you know what this team needs. You can only win so many games when only a couple of your players have the God-given ability to play this game every day at an all-star level. I applaud some of the efforts left on the field by players most of us pundits never projected past the AAA level, but it only took a couple of series against teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tiger to remind us all how real baseball is played.

The New York Mets are not operating on all cylinders and haven’t done so since the early days of when Mr. Wilpon gave Omar Minaya an open checkbook to build a team. Frankly, I don’t think you need that much to win the National League.  Four, maybe five players at selective positions would do the trick.

I consider myself an expert on the Mets minor league system and you are building yourself an exciting future for this team with players like Dominic Smith, Brandon Nimmo, Gavin Cecchini, Herrera, Michael Fulmer, Robert Whalen, and Chris Flexen, but none of this projected success will translate in the next couple of years. There might not be a future for either of us if the fans don’t return to support this team next year.

For what it’s worth, I and my team of writers have run out of positive things to say to our readers. I’ve even lost three of my top writers because they have ceased to being Mets fans. There are so many of my counterparts in ‘the city’ that just refuse to spend what is being asked to attend a game and watch the product being turned out. I don’t have to remind you of the difference you saw this year on ‘Harvey Day’.

Mr. Alderson, I’ll leave the who, what team, and length of contract to you (I love when fans say too much money has been spent and none came out of their pocket). I just beg you to give us a chance by going out and securing two or three more quality every day ‘bats’. You are the New York Mets. You must support your pitching staff with more talent and increased depth at the plate.

Lastly, in case someone actually drops a copy of this post of on your desk and you find the time to read it, please stop this Frank Francisco nonsense. I’ll give you that you had some kind of positive plan here in playing him in September, but that seems to have not worked in your favor.  Throwing at Jayson Werth and his comments to the press are simply embarrassing.

Thank you for your time reading this.

Mack

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Additional 'War Room' roster discussion - from Mark Mokris:

Mack,

Here is my  best guess as who might be available via trade or free agency and how the Mets  roster will shape up for the 2014 season.  Let me know what you think.

(FA = Free Agent, TR = Trade Candidate

1. (Matt Harvey - injured)  Sandy Alderson has said he is going to be looking for a top of the rotation starter to replace Harvey if he misses next year.

Top of rotation possibilities:

1. Masahiro Tanaka (FA) Won 25 games in Japan is only 24 years old. This would require winning bid and would include a hefty posting fee.  Why this is possible:  All major market teams that would normally bid are going into off season with budgetary concerns.  The Dodgers rotation seems pretty well set and they are about to spend 200 million on Clayton Kershaw.  The Yankees with what limited payroll flexibility they have are going to prioritize resigning Robinson Cano.  The Angels after going all in for Pujols and Hamilton are going to be looking to dump salary rather than add it.  That leaves the Cubs, Orioles, and potentially the Mariners as the most likely bidders.   Mariners have a load of young pitching getting ready to hit the majors so they are less likely to bid but never can count them out when Japanese players are involved.  This could be the top of the rotation arm the Mets need.

 

1. CJ Wilson(TR) May be available via trade and has had a nice bounce back season and he is a lefty.

 

1. H. Iwakuma (TR) This is my sneaky under the radar guy I would like the Mets to target.  Good innings eater and has had two very solid seasons with the Mariners.  He would be coming to a new league so his stuff would even play up better for the first half of the season.

 

2.    Jonathan Niese

3.   Dillon Gee

4.   Zack Wheeler

5.   Jenry Mejia, Rafael Montero, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob DeGrom

If the Mets go alternative route and go after mid or back of rotation starters:

1. T. Hudson (FA) – good role model for the younger pitchers


2. Jason Vargas (FA) – lefty innings eater


3. Bartolo Colon (FA) – has found the fountain of youth (and steroids is thy name)


4. Phil Hughes(FA)


5. Josh Johnson (FA)


6. Bronson Arroyo (FA)


7. Pass on all the starting pitchers that have come up thus far as potentially available this off season.

Bullpen looks to only possibly have one or two openings

6.  Carlos Torres (long man)

7.  Scott Rice – lefty

8.  Josh Edgin – lefty

9. Jeurys Familia

10. Vic Black

11. Latroy Hawkins (FA) or some other veteran reliever that can close if needed possibly Kevin Gregg (FA) or Brian Wilson (FA)

12. Bobby Parnell – closer if healthy

13.  Travis d’Arnaud (If it meant getting Stanton would you package d’Arnaud with say Duda, Murphy, Flores, and either Syndergaard or Montero?  This would give the Marlins their starting infield for the forseeable future with Duda taking over at first, Murphy at second, Flores at third, and d’Arnaud at catcher) This would greatly speed up the Marlins rebuilding while giving them a top of the rotation starter and a top ten third base prospect in Flores, a top ten catching prospect in d’Arnaud, and a top ten pitching prospect in Syndergaard (or Montero).  This of course would only work if the Mets then signed Brian McCann to play catcher.  The Mets would have to be sold on Plawecki as the future at the catcher position for this to work unless the Marlins preferred Plawecki over d’Arnaud.

14. Back up catcher will most likely be internal option of either Anthony Recker, Juan Centeno, or Francisco Pena.

15.  Ike Davis, Lucus Duda, Wilmer Flores , Josh Satin are internal options for first base with Abreu (Cuban defector who should be eligible to sign hopefully this winter), Kendrys Morales (FA), Trumbo (TR), Laroche (TR), Hart (FA)

16.  Daniel Murphy – I have a gut feeling that the Mets are going to try to upgrade infield defense this off season so Murphy may go in trade.  Wilmer Flores or Eric Young may be internal options if Murphy is traded but not sure that Young is anything more than utility player and Flores hasn’t proven he can play second base.  Don’t like any of the free agent options at second base except for Robinson Cano but cannot see Alderson spending the entire budget on one player but sure would be nice.  Not a fan of 30 year old Howie Kendrick (TR) but a real nice trade target might be Ben Zobrist (TR). Also potentially available via trade is Ian Kinsler (TR)

17. Justin Turner – utility infielder

18.  Josh Satin – utility infielder

19.   Ruben Tejada – shortstop.  This is where it gets very interesting.  Potentially available via trade are:  J.J. Hardy (TR) Orioles would love to move Machado back to his natural position.  Jed Lowrie(TR), Eric Aybar (TR), Elvis Andrus (TR),  Asdrubel Cabrera (TR), Chris Owings (TR),  Troy Tulowitzki (TR) Nothing worth looking at via free agency.  Don’t think Drew’s injury history or attitude is a fit. Don’t see Mets signing an aging Peralta who always has had questionable range.   Yes I know he somehow did well with defensive metrics this year but he is a  below average shortstop.

20.  Juan Lagares – center field. Potentially available via trade: Matt Kemp (TR), or free agency Jacoby Ellsbury (FA)

21.  Matt DenDekker – platoon with Lagares in center field or possibly platoon with Brown in left or right.

22.   Right Field free agent from the following:  Shin Shoo Choo (FA), Carlos Beltran (FA), Hunter Pence (FA), Marlon Byrd (FA) or trade Michael Cuddyer (TR) – Cuddyer is an interesting player because he would give Mets flexibility to try out either Duda or Davis at first and if they both fail again he can slide to first when either Puello or Lawley is ready.

23.  Left Field free agent or trade from the following:   Carlos Gonzalez (TR), Jose Bautista(TR) Nelson Cruz (FA)

24.   Eric Young – fifth outfielder and backup second baseman

25.   I like carrying three catchers that would give the Mets the ability to pinch hit say a Recker from the right side if they needed pop or Centeno from the left side if they needed a contact hitter.  Most likely 25^th man.  Andrew Brown.

So from what I can see the Mets really don’t need to do much with the pitching staff. May be add one starter and one reliever.  Everything else is a crap shoot.  Anyway this is my latest war room suggestion if you would like to use it.  Feel free to cut it up any way you wish.