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9/14/17

Reese Kaplan -- Blame the MGR or the GM?


I remember reading the Leo Tolstoy novel, Anna Karenina, many years ago.  There is a famous opening line, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”  This philosophy came to mind when I read recently Jay Bruce’s comments, “I think that I pretty much went from what ended up being one of the least fun situations in baseball to the most fun,” Bruce volunteered.  “That’s no slight to the Mets at all. But to have the opportunity to come to a team like this is something that doesn’t happen very often.”

Everyone is in agreement that things have gone off the rails for the Mets.  The question is how did this unhappy family arrive to its sad state?  Some say the blame should fall on the beleaguered manager, Terry Collins.  Other say the architect of this mess, Sandy Alderson, is responsible for it happening.  For more than a decade that preceded the current management team the fingers were pointed at the team owners, the Wilpon family.  Let’s take a look at each one. 

Terry Collins is a bad manager.  That’s not even worth arguing.  He has a career losing record, a Mets losing record and every day puts together lineups that have people muttering obscenities or talking to themselves.  He regularly burns out the bullpen, favors veterans ad nauseum over younger players and doesn’t seem to understand that the three-run homer is not the only way to try to win a game. 

To be fair, he hasn’t had much to work with.  However, unlike a Billy Martin who could get his team to play over its head by motivating players, Collins has a knack for getting the least out of his crew.  John McGraw himself couldn’t have put the current squad into contention given the spate of injuries, but even a Little League manager knows to ride the hot hand and to put the best team on the field from available options. 

Sandy Alderson was brought in to restore order and to transform a team that ended the 2010 season in public disgrace into one that was respectable once again.  Everyone knew it would not be an overnight affair, and the 2011, 2012 and 2013 seasons were pretty much lost.  2014 saw them finish in 2nd place, emerging from the fight for the cellar, and in 2015 they made it to the World Series.  The following year they returned to the post-season despite a large number of injuries, but were gone after just a single game.

During this time period Sandy Alderson has had several ponderous drafts in which he bypassed the consensus best choices for people who have not developed as he had hoped.  He let good players walk away and failed to be aggressive when it came to signing quality free agents both domestically and internationally.  This season he traded away the core of his team for a collection of non-prospect relief pitchers, some of whom hit the Mets own top 30 which speaks volumes about how thin his talent pool is. 

The Wilpons have been in financial turmoil ever since the Madoff scandal took place.  We were told by Fred Wilpon himself during spring training in 2013 about his financial issues, "It's all in the rear-view mirror.”

Really?  Since 2013 the spending has included luminaries such as Aaron Harang, Dice-K, John Mayberry, Chris Young (OF), Frank Francisco, Jon Rauch and others while also cutting ties with Justin Turner, Daniel Murphy, Angel Pagan, Carlos Gomez and similarly productive players.  They foolishly approved the contract extension to David Wright while simultaneously crying poverty and then went on to sign Curtis Granderson and Michael Cuddyer as second tier options when better talents existed in the marketplace. 

This season Sandy Alderson frankly embarrassed his employers by selling off many pieces for a bunch of warm bodies with the justification that he could only get approval to spend as much as he did if he could recoup some of the payroll dollars should the team fall out of contention.  When did the bottom line finances become more important than winning?

I think there’s blame to go around but you can’t fire the owners.  I’m of the opinion that both Alderson and Collins need to go since someone needs to be accountable for this debacle.  Collins' ongoing disdain for younger players suggests he is ill equipped for a rebuilding team and Alderson’s decision making brought the team over the brink. 

However, if you had to pick one of the two to go, which would it be?  Forget the reality that the manager can’t fire the GM.  Have at it.  Me?  I could flip a coin just so long as at least one of them left.  It’s highly unlikely you could do worse.  

10 comments:

  1. Alderson first - you can save money having a fire sale of quality players, but can you replace them and be in contention? Much tougher.

    Drafting has been awful. Mets are ranked 27th in their minors, the Yanks are 3rd.

    He must go - time to try something else. Followed by Collins - he has had quite a run, but it is past time for new blood.

    Only one way they should stay - Wilpons sell. Once they sell, the new owner can make the changes.

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  2. They both need to go. You cannot keep one or the other.

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  3. The fire sale bothers me on several levels.

    1. Everyone knew it was a fire sale. That still doesn't mean you roll over in negotiations and accept non-prospects.
    2. Paying down the salaries would have been a cheap way to up the returns. The money was already budgeted. Sandy operated like he expected to be back next year. Let's hope his assumptions are ill-founded.
    3. Why was the return exclusively relief pitchers? Are we still buying into the flawed philosophy that the bullpen doesn't matter and you shouldn't allocate real budget dollars to fill it?
    4. How many other flawed philosophies does it take for the Wilpons to say, "Hey, wait a minute...maybe SA has outlived his usefulness." What has the working the count philosophy done? What has the launch angle philosophy netted? What has the disdain for the Asian markets done for OTHER teams? What about the Cuban market? (Don't give me Cespedes...he was someone else's risk/investment who came here in trade after he was already established)
    5. How did that "stand pat and go with the horses that brung ya" approach look in retrospect? I think Tom Petty wrote a song about it called "Free Fallin'"

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  4. TC - for all the reasons Reese states, and has been stating for years. I'd like to see Gardenhire and have a DW-as-bench-coach fantasy. Viola & Grandy on the staff intrigue me too.

    SA? If there's an obvious replacement out there, sure. I have no idea who that could/should be. Remember we ALL, Mack, Thomas, Reese, Rubin etc., thought in March this was a playoff team, 1st or 2nd place in the division. So evidently the pieces had been assembled. We expected some DL time, but nothing like what eventuated or a pitching staff that either couldn't throw a strike or threw too good of one. We could complain about no Plan B. Who foresaw the need for a plan F, G & H?

    Wilpons are not going to sell. You want Trump?

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  5. Reese, tell us how you really feel! All valid points.

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  6. 1) Fire Sandy;
    2) Promote TC to GM;
    3) Make Wally the manager;
    4) Make Dykstra the conditioning coach;
    5) Make Keith the hitting/infield coach (or manager);
    6) Darling the pitching coach (or manager);
    7) Gardenhire the manager (or bench coach);
    8) Cohen replaces Jay Horowitz as PR guy;

    (note: at least 1 of these points, is just for humorous purposes)

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  7. Yes. Move on from BOTH Collins & Alderson.

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  8. Yes. Move on from BOTH Collins & Alderson.

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  9. @VT -- both 2 and 4 BETTER be humorous.

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  10. @LBR: 2, 3 and 4 were for humor...the rest of them, I could deal with...Gardenhire, like CLint Hurdle, is an ex-Met that actually showed competence as a MLB manager...and I would really like to see Darling/Keith show the players what they are doing wrong; they pitch a lot of good advice in the booth that I don't think that the players actually hear...

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