Tom Brennan - CUTTING THRU THE USUAL BLARNEY, WHAT IS THE METS BOTTOM LINE?
Other Mets-oriented websites dutifully report what's going on (e.g., the Mets acquire Devin Mesoraco, and what is he all about?), etc., etc.
Here we ask the questions that need to be asked - here are two of them:
1) How could the Mets lead the crosstown Yanks by 5 games at 13-3, while the Yanks were 9-9, and now trail them by 6.5 games just 18 games later at 18-16 (Yanks at 25-10), an 11.5 game swing in under 3 weeks?
2) When we ask our long-time Mets friends and Yankee fans we know about that sort of sickeningly disastrous & frequent Mets plunge, why do we consistently get answers like:
"What are you, surprised?"
"The Mets suck."
"The Yanks prioritize winning, the Mets don't - the Mets prioritize real estate deals."
And on and on.
There are, for sure, some core fans who get hurt by yearly Mets disasters, but live on in diehard mode, in hopes that the next game, week, month, year will somehow be different - but they are a minority.
We SHOULD be stunned - this, as we all know, is only the latest season series of Mets horror shows, so, however, we are not stunned, we are not surprised, all too many of us have come to expect it.
We are not surprised that they collapsed after starting 13-3 - and we are only somewhat surprised it happened that fast.
Because this ownership group drafts and signs international talent poorly by any objective standard, especially hitters, and then needs to sign a lot of free agents over time to fill the positions that the organization should be developing - and then makes signings that are "hopeful" moves - hopeful that if many things go right, the team will be competitive.
Fingers crossed. Toes, too.
But when you sign older guys like Vargas and Swarzak, after being deluded by the past success of old guys like a Bartolo Colon or a RA Dickey, thinking you are so smart you can cheap out on half-step acquisitions, you find out that many things instead go WRONG.
The laws of baseball are immutable - older guys frequently:
1) get hurt and/or
2) suddenly deteriorate.
Think Roberto Alomar. Think Shawn Marcum. Etc.
You sign a David Wright long term, hoping that back won't get worse - but it does.
You don't know when to trade, either, holding onto a Matt Harvey after a successful 2015 and great World Series outing instead of trading him for a boatload of top prospects that could keep the team pulsating for years - no, you wait until he loses all value to unload him.
The "no Blarney" answer is the one noted above:
This organization SUCKS.
While the Yanks' organization is the opposite of SUCKS.
And it has been that way for most of the 57 years I have called myself a Mets fan. I guess that makes me stupid.
7 comments:
I had to check the timeline to confirm that you were indeed, er, right about Wright. He was foolishly signed to that contract extension AFTER having a stress fracture in his back the previous season. More importantly, it was during this period of extreme austerity due to the Madoff debacle, the Mets curiously chose to issue the largest contract ever given to a ballplayer who had not proven he could hit at the new stadium and who was coming off a significant injury rather than parlaying him into multiple Top 10 prospects who would have only cost minimum wage. That aspect bothered me at the time me more than the injury risk which, as it turns out, turned out to be just as much a bad business decision.
(And I officially apologize for doubting you had your facts straight) :)
Remember how everyone blamed all of the Mets problems on Terry Collins, ah, Good Times.
Reese, the Wright signing is but one sign. Collins managing that long was another. There are many signs.
An unsolicited comment from a Met fan I know, just this afternoon:
"I had a conversation with a few Met fans and the consensus is that Trading away Harvey was the beginning of what this ownership must concede as the end of yet another failed run as .500 team and work on seriously re-building this franchise. The owners cheapskate ways is the reason that this team’s minor league system can’t even get the team a decent backup catcher.
I’d say they better trade DeGrom for a HUGE haul and get back some talent."
Ugh......losing two out of three to the Reds SHOULD signal that there are serious problems with this roster!
Thomas, a case can be made that the Mets are in a position that would necessitate trading both deGrom and Syndergaard in order to have a chance at improving the organization in a meaningful way.
Bob, I would entertain this team doing ANYTHING to get reset and get better fast.
Yanks got Gleyber for a Chapman rental - the Mets would have to get a more massive haul for either of their pitchers.
Trade Thor back to Toronto for Vlad Guerrero Jr. I'd do that in a minute.
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