Trade
Deadline Aftereffect –
I let Sandy and Company off the hook
yesterday in my Morning Report.
I’ve now had twenty-four hours to
take a closer look at all the player movement and my stance hasn’t changed.
I do feel
like I went to the dance and no one punched my ticket, but that wasn’t the
fault of the guy that let me in the front door.
Most of the
teams that participated in the big deals traded established players with
another team’s established player. Frankly, our New York Mets are still not
ready to do that. The Mets are still working on establishing a base team to
build on and the last thing they should be doing is putting a deal together for
a rental player or trading one of the few established stars they have in their
everyday lineup.
I really
like what I see in the progress of Travis d’Arnaud and
Lucas Duda, but that doesn’t mean I should be
trading Kevin Plawecki or Dominic Smith at this time of the building of this
team.
I look at
all these John Lester and David Price deals and the amount and quality of
players the Mets would have to have sent would have crippled this team. Teams
that can trade someone like Austin Jackson are
teams that have options within their system to fill that slot and make the
player (s) they have secured a positive in the organization. Same Yoenis Cespedes.
I’m not sure
what I think about the Marlins deal (Marlins send Colin
Moran, Jake Marisnick, Francis Martes, 2015 comp pick to Astros for Jarred Cosart, Kike Hernandez,
Austin Wates). It looks to me like Miami is
making a valiant effort to make a run for a wild card which I give them credit
for. Frankly, I think they gave up far too much for adding a 4+ ERA SP4
(Cosart).
We had all
hoped that the 2014 season was going to be the ‘Year of Mets Pitchers’. This
was the year that all the good was supposed to return. And then, Matt Harvey went under the knife and the ‘super
rotation’ was put back on the shelf for another season.
I’m writing
this just after the end of the trading period on Thursday and, yes, I do have
an empty feeling in my stomach. I wanted something to happen today. I wanted to
write one of my ‘new Mets’ posts, but it’s not to be.
Do I think Sandy Alderson tried hard enough here or was he busy
playing Mind Craft? Who knows. I have to have faith in his judgment in not
dealing off either Daniel Murphy or Bartolo Colon for someone (s) of less talent.
All I want
at this point in my 50+ years of following this team is a dominant, healthy
2015 rotation. Anything else that happens this season is a bonus, but I don’t
want anything done to jeopardize next year. Please don’t overpitch any of the
young arms, and don’t bring up guys like Noah
Syndergaard (last night update... once again, 107 pitches in 6,0 IP, but 0-ER at home and 7-K/0-BB) unless they are ready to pitch every five days at the major
league level.
(BTW…
everybody talks about the downside of playing ball in Vegas because of the thin
air… I just checked and at 6:58 EST it
was 108 degrees there. Did anyone ever consider the downside of playing
baseball in that kind of heat?)
The pitching
talent is here. There also is enough to trade for a new SS or LF, but you won’t
be able to do this unless the player (s) you are offering are healthy. You, as
fans, didn’t get either of these positions filled this week because your
General Manager wasn’t willing to deal off a young, healthy starter. That
probably is a good thing.
The future
of this team lies in its strengths which is its young pitching. Don’t let any
of these guys go anywhere until you have decided which ones are YOUR future.
11 comments:
Both Florida teams got fleeced, we could of topped either one of those trades and not hurt our future too much.
Marlins trade- we could of given Niese or Gee, Flores(no matter how much I luv him has no future with us), and Cecchini. To get our left fielder and great trade chips for the future.
Ray's trade- even though we have plenty of pitching it would have been awesome for Price to join our rotation for at least a year and 2 months. I would have given up Niese or Gee, Flores and Plawecki for him. Yes we would have taken on more money and lost some prospects (that probably aren't apart of our future), but adding a top 5 pitcher to your rotation is well worth it. If we didn't sign him long term we could have gotten 2 picks for him when he left us.
I believe both my trade options would have trumped the offers they received, without losing that much of our pitching prospects. I still can't believe the Rays got more for James Shields than Price got?
Im ok with Mets, and Sandy, doing nothing. He knows what he's doing. Mets simply didn't have a john lester/david price type player to trade to anyone this year. That being said, it makes sense to assume that players like colon and Murphy would get a better return in the offseason, then as a 2 month rental to a contender.
You're letting them off the hook for trade deadline inactivity....I get it.
But you're dreaming of a Ready and able pitching staff for 2015.... well, I have a different take.
This team HAS a ready and able pitching staff NOW. They didn't do nearly enough in October -Dec. of 2013, essentially pocketing the 25 million dollars in extra MLB TV revenues. They crapped around with 3 first basemen and a junk bin bullpen for the first 1/4-1/3rd of a season. They've carried a strange and unusable mix of players thoughout this season---the Six Outfield mix is just generally the start of it. They've continued to NOT ONLY employ, but PLAY Abreu and CY---two guys without a future. What's worse is that they also have NO Present use on this ballclub.
Collins posits some of his lineup choices around "winning now" and directly commnets that player development is secondary. Can their be any argument that those 400 AB's for CY and Abreu have been the difference in Winning Games?..... and how about the next 250-300 ab's for the same two guys!!!? Would I rather devote the NEXT 300-400 ab's to Campbell?....Kirk????...DD???? Player development aside---- Kirk, Camplell and DD will WIN you more games...NOW.
Flores can also get 150-200 ab's---spell Duda...Spell the all the IF'ers....take some sghortstop starts.
I cannot continue to provide a PASS for the Alderson Team. They wasted an opportunity this year...THROUGHT THE YEAR. Their slow to NON-active. They hold and ride losers.
Yes....I understand what the did not do at the trade deadline---the past as prologue is a great warning about their inability and LACK OF INTENT to answer/address the baseball opportunity that tyhey now have. So Far, they're an excuse ridden NO SHOW.
I'll forget the past 4 years...they have an opportunity to be legitimate next year---I want to see action and urgency
OUCH!!!---wish I could edit my typos
I hear ya eraff
Its pretty safe to assume that if certain contending teams out there had the same exact starting 5 rotation the Mets have (like the As pre trades) they would certainly still be one of the favorites in their division/league, because even an injury riddles season still sports a pretty damn solid staff......
The die hard mets fan in me kept hoping upon hope that CY would pull a Grandy and start hitting more....... (I guess now I'm hoping Grandy goes back to pulling a Grandy after his slow post break start)
But as I said in previous comments, with trade deadline gone, there is now NO reason for abreu or CY to be on the 25 man roster. I think even josh satin had better pinch hitting numbers this year then abreu.
Plus, whether there are more underlying issues we don't know about or not, it makes absolutely no sense for a prospect like Cesar puello to be a 4th outfielder out in Vegas, with Wally pulling a Terry Collins, stating that he's simply putting his best 3 guys out there every night to give best chance to win.
Mack,
Like you, I tried to digest the trade deadline deals a bit further. And I heard some of Alderson during the game last night. Unless I'm wrong, the Tigers landed a year and a third of David Price for a year and a third of Austin Jackson. That is downright filthy. How the Mets could have been in the mix on this I don't know, but it strikes me that Alderson doesn't even bother and is very laid back. I know the Mets need hitting, but a to 2 LHP would lessen the need for two bats to one bat. They could live with Tejada at SS with a staff of Price-Harvey-Wheeler-deGrom-Syndergaard plus all the other SPs. They could deal both Niese and Gee for an OF bat. Had Alderson been in the discussion and backed off, I would have deferred to his judgment. But, not being on the conversation at all is very disappointing in retrospect.
This is not a playoff team yet. A .500 record is a noble accomplishment for this season.
John-You use sound logic and in a vacuum I agree with you but the Rays and Marlins have been scouting these players they've acquired for weeks. They were taking offers but more or less knew who and what they wanted.
Franklin is a low-priced replacement for Zobrist, when he departs, with a decent glove. Defensively, he's a better players than Wilmer. Offensively, he fits Maddon's offensive philosophy better.
Both Gee and Niese have had injury problems this year-second season Niese has had shoulder issues. Gee is three years older than Smyly, and to the Rays that means extra years of team control for the latter.
As for the Marlins? I'd have to say it's for the roughly the same reason as the Rays. They want a young team-controlled arm, the 24 year-old Cosart (ex-Phil prospect) fits the bill. Hernandez is a better a fielder than Flores and so far has outhit him at the big-league level too.
The Mets would've almost certainly had to have given up one of the trifecta of Wheeler-Syndegaard-deGrom to start with in either trade. That's the type of hurler the Rays and Marlins were seeking. Power arms under team control for several years.
Eraff -
We love typos here.
I believe D Whit is correct.
Any decent trade through NYC would have cost the Mets either Wheeler, deGrom, or Thor and I (nor do I believe Sandy) were ready to do that.
Eraff -
Thank you for your astute comment.
I don't find fault with anything you said but I have to move on to the future of this team. If I don't, blood is going to come out of my eyes.
IMO...
Sandy Alderson is building a team around a rotation.
The 'hands off' members of that rotation are Harvey, Wheeler, and Syndergaard
deGrom has come out of nowhere and made claim for spot #4
the rest is still undetermined, but there are plenty of candidates
Yes, this whole process could have finished up much quicker if the Mets traded for David Price and added him to the top 4 I listed above, but who would the Mets have had to offer to get that deal done?
And, would a 3-4 player deal be in the best interest for the Mets for the services of a pitcher for 18 months?
No, I think the current plan is slow as hell and there has been a lot of pain in the past, especially out of the owners office, but I've been a General Manager and an owner during 2 bad times and I have have a bunch of ex-employees that would call me every name in the book for some of the decisions I had to make to keep afloat.
Please keep commenting. We need some fresh faces here.
WOW!
Eraff....... tell us how you really feel. ....
Seriously though everything you wrote is true.
And it is why the Mets fan base has shrunk to a fraction of what it once was
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