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.
My question is with our revamped FO when will we start to see the kind of smart under the radar moves teams like the Rays and Twins make. The Cano trade has such a high probability of blowing up in our faces I'm still surprised Freddy and Jeff signed off on it. Now it's hard not to love Diaz but wow what a price to pay and it's hard to even think about what Cano will be in a year or two or for that matter right now.
ReplyDeleteGary, very true.
ReplyDeleteAs I recently observed, when the small market Brewers needed a starting pitcher they signed Gio Gonzalez. When the large market Mets needed one, they traded away a youngster with 100 mph potential to get a 29 year old with a 6.35 CAREER ERA. One of these things is not like the other.
ReplyDeleteWoolworths is out of business, Reese. May the Wilpons will mimic that by selling some day.
ReplyDeletereese who are you referring to?
ReplyDeleteReese is referring to Wilmer Font, who has somehow been allowed to start two games for the Mets.
ReplyDeleteI mean the guy who threw 100 mph? thats not Font
ReplyDeleteSupposedly, the player to be named later is a tall teenaged international kid who has yet to play in a game. If he already throws 100, put another trade in the idiot pile.
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