Tom Brennan - "IS THIS ANY WAY TO WIN THE DIVISION?"

The question in the title to this article is a question I ask myself almost yearly since the mid-1980's about the Mets.

Every once in a while, the tumblers line up, and the safe door to playoff riches opens - and the fans don't kvetch.

Most years, though, due to spending constraints imposed by the Woolworths Wilpons, so named today by me because they often spend like anything more than a nickel or a dime is too much to shell out, we get players who are old, crappy, break down...or all three.

Last year, the Mets non-starter pitchers were horrible. 

In the off season, modest moves were made. 

Naturally, injuries occurred in early 2019, and the Mets again found themselves starting a Wilmer Font against the struggling Nationals, who were hoping for a lifeline to be tossed to them and got one named Wilmer Font.

I would have preferred to see Jake and Zack pitch the last two games of this series, to try to sweep and bury the Nats, and save the "mighty" Font for the weaker-hitting Marlins this weekend, but decisions are what decisions are...like sitting key position starters in the 3rd game of the season to "rest" them, after the Mets won games 1 and 2, helping the Nats to  win the 3rd game and not get swept.

Other player acquisitions, like Broxton and Frazier, are not aggressive enough acquisitions. 

Save a few bucks in salaries, but lose more games and lose revenues at the box office.  Happens a lot in Metsville.

A quarter of the way through the 2019 season, those 2 incompetents are hitting so badly, the Mets PITCHERS are out-hitting them.  No hyperbole, no exaggeration...look it up.

And the Mets sign a guy like Jed Lowrie, who frankly was excellent for Oakland in 2017 and 2018, but my concerns at the time of the signing were that his first Mets season would be at age 35, and concerns therefore were durability and the possibility of a Robbie Alomar type fade as soon as he became a Met.

Well, we can't gauge the "fade" possibility, can we, because the durability issue has kept him from a single spring training or regular season at bat! 

My guess is, we don't see him until June.  Nice.

I asked above: is this any way to win the division? 

The answer, as in almost every year, is: NO.

Of course they could get lucky, regroup, and pull that off - but that does not happen often, at all, when a Woolworths Five and Dime mentality rules the roost.

I can think of another team I won't name without the Woolworths mentality that is normally highly successful, just as a point of contrast. 

They like being lucky, too... but they count on being a front runner, luck or no luck.  They load up the roster to WIN.

They shop at Starbucks instead.