Reese Kaplan -- Father Time and the Mets

When you look at the Mets over the current sad regime something jumps out at you right away and that’s the age of the people involved in the team.  Now, being 57 years old myself, I’m not here to bash folks for getting older, but I am cognizant of what I must do in order to stay relevant.  I am in a high tech profession and continually seek to find new ways to improve, analyze data and bring innovation to the table.

Contrast that with the Sandy Alderson hiring decision to bring Terry Collins to lead the team.  He was thought to be “old school”, “traditional” or “experienced” depending on your perspective.  What he proved to be was hopelessly out of touch with the modern game and the players he was paid to lead.

Then there’s Alderson himself.  Yes, he was there when the whole Moneyball thing.  Michael Lewis quoted a baseball psychologist named Harvey Dorfman in his book in which he said, “Sandy didn’t know shit about baseball.  He was a neophyte.  But he was a progressive thinker.  And he wanted to understand how the game worked. He also had the capacity to install fear in others.” 

In doing his OBP and slugging percentage research, Alderson quickly eschewed the stolen base, the bunt and the hit & run as counterproductive.  Back in those days he was a strong drafter, including both Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco, Terry Steinbach, Walt Weiss and others.  He executed shrewd player acquisitions via trades and free agency, including Dave Stewart, Rickey Henderson, Dave Henderson, Bob Welch, Dennis Eckersley, etc.

So what changed?  Well, for one thing he did have much more control back then that he does now from the meddling Wilpons.  The A’s were one of the youngest teams in baseball.  The Mets are one of the oldest – 3^rd oldest according to a recent broadcast report (though that may have changed since they gave Adrian Gonzalez his farewell magnum of Geritol). 

In fact, if you peruse the top ten in terms of youngest teams, you find playoff contenders like the Atlanta Braves, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies.  On the other end of the spectrum you find teams like the Mets, the Rangers and the Blue Jays. 

In this week’s lineup the Braves featured starting players like Ozzie Albies (age 21), Johan Camargo (age 24), Dansby Swanson (age 24), Mike Soroka (age 20) and also have starting outfielder Ronald Acuna, Jr. (age 20).  The Mets roster, by contrast, included Jose Bautista (37), Jay Bruce (31), Asdrubal Cabrera (32), Jason Vargas (35) and Anthony Swarzak (32).  Their best hitting prospects are Jeff McNeil (26) and Peter Alonso (23) who are deemed not ready for the majors.  In case you haven’t noticed, the Braves are in 1^st place while the Mets are battling the Marlins for last…one of these things is not like the other. 

The formula for “success” over the past many years has been to acquire band-aid veterans to fill holes in the lineup, rotation or bullpen while doing everything possible to set up your own young players for failure (or simply not using them at all).  How’s that working out for ya?

Did anyone see elder statesman Jose Bautista flailing helplessly in each of his ABs on Thursday night?  Jose Reyes is apparently in the witness protection program as his manager hasn't used him in 15 days and counting...not that anyone is complaining, but if you're not using him then why is he on the roster?  This week the Mets went scrap heap picking again for reliever Chris Beck of the White Sox who owns a 5.94 ERA for his three year career and demoted rookie reliever Tim Peterson with a 2.08 ERA to make room for him.  Huh????????????

This approach is not new.  It failed miserably under Steve Phillips who never met an over-30 washed up veteran he didn't like.  Do the names Mo Vaughan, Pedro Astacio, Jeromy Burnitz and Roberto Alomar ring a bell?  It didn't work then and it's not working again now.  

The entire Mets organization could use a fountain of or injection of youth from top to bottom.  They are not one or two players away.  They are structurally unsound, have no foundation and no leadership.  I’m in the blow it up and start all over school of thinking.  Failing in that, how about starting up a GoFundMe page to hire a hacker to put Fred and Jeff's names in Michael Cohen's client roster.  Who’s with me?