Aren't we all so tired of waiting for a team that never gets the kinks out?
Boy, oh boy, think back to the thrills of the 2015 playoffs as a Mets Mets fan.
Hmm, yeah. Smiles emerge.
That was really something, huh? Great thrills.
And to think - it was "only" 5 years ago.
Now, we could use a distraction like last year, where we have a rookie who wins rookie of the year, leads the majors in home runs too, and a Cy Young winner to boot.
Those awards are nice, sure, and we’re proud of those guys and their accomplishments, but at the end of the day they absolutely do not compare to going deep to the postseason. This Mets team rarely ever gets deep in to the postseason. Rarely gets into the playoffs at all.
Heck, let me repeat: this team hardly ever makes the postseason.
SO ineptly infrequent.
A question my doctor asked me after I took a suppository in his office the other day and headed into the bathroom:
"Eliminated yet?"
So it is with the Mets. The nearly annual question...eliminated yet?
As we all know this year, 16 teams are making the playoffs. And the the Mets are about to be not one of them.
Awards are nice. Being in the playoffs is immeasurably nicer.
I’m tired of watching clips from 1969 (51 years ago) and 1986 (34 years ago).
Aren’t you? I want to watch Mets playoffs that AREN’T reruns.
This team had better figure out how to start getting to the playoffs on a routine basis, rather than once in a blue moon. I know this Mets fan, the one writing here, is getting very awfully tired of not making the playoffs, except on the rarest of occasions. I know others who feel the same.
I know many who also have very low expectations of this organization. We can only hope that Steve Cohen can fundamentally transform this organization into one with a simple goal: making the playoffs virtually every year.
Whatever it takes. No excuses. We are, as the Kinks once sang, “So tired, tired of waiting...”
Awards in a very real sense are like kissing your sister.
We want annual playoffs participation instead. And an occasional World Series.
And I don't care who the Mets have to trade to get there.
Just, for Mets' Sake, don't trade d'Arnaud again.
Imagine if they kept d'Arnaud. Maybe a certain hitless first baseman could be moved in a team restructuring, and Dom could play 1B, with TDA backing him up and doing some catching. Would a .340 TDA in the line up make you feel better than a .200 hitting missile launcher?
Tom
ReplyDeleteMorning... good post.
Recently, due to complications beyond my control, I had to put aside my writing about the Mets on this site.
It has now given the opportunity to view this team from a little more distance than I have in the past.
I grew up first a Brooklyn fan followed by the Mets, but I had friends and co-workers that rooted for teams like the Cubs and Braves and they had never lived a day in either of those wonderful towns. Why? Well, teams like that were surrounded with pride. Not championships mine you, but pride.
The hip-hop culture took up the Yankee hat early in the development of that image. Again... pride.
There is no pride involving the Mets. You can't be a Mets fan unless you grew up with them. That's the fact, Jack.
Mack, very true. Very well put.
ReplyDeleteYank fans have pride. Mets fans hide.
Yanks fans have trust. Mets fans have disgust.
Cohen has his work cut out for him.
I have a bomb of an article set for 9:30 tomorrow, too.
Mack - about the pride. Grew up a Mets fan and only a Mets fan. When the Yankee fans got on us in the early 70's - we could say we were the better team with WS win in '69 and WS appearance in '73. Then George broke the bank and went out and bought every top free agent player he could. It worked for a number of years until the rest of the league figured out how to keep their best players. The Yankees started to get mediocre and the Mets rebuilt (first with Joe MacDonald who drafted Mookie Wilson, Hubie Brooks, Wally Backman, Neil Allen, Jeff Reardon and traded for Ed Lynch and Jesse Orosco) then with Frank Cashen by drafting Daryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden while trading for Ron Darling and Sid Fernandez, Gary Carter and Keith Hernandez. Mets fans took pride that the Mets built their team from within while the Yankees we said went out and bought their players.
ReplyDeleteThen the Mets started trying to get in the free agent game with Vince Coleman and Bobby Bonilla while trading for stars like Bret Saberhagen and Eddie Murphy. Mets fans could no longer claim that "at least we don't buy players". The Yankees then built their team with the farm system and turned into the late 90's Dynasty. All Mets pride and uniqueness was gone.
How do we get it back? By building a brand of baseball that is entertaining and wins. Look no further than what Fonzie did last year in Brooklyn. The team was built around speed, defense and fundamentals and won the NY Penn League Championship. The simple formula of getting runners on, getting them over and getting them in worked. They won close 1 run games and didn't lose games they should have won.
You want pride? You want winning? The answer is Edgardo Alfonso and the brand of baseball he brought to Brooklyn last year.
It is more than a goal, more than a dumb slogan "WIN NOW, WIN IN THE FUTURE". It is a viable plan and the way to bring back Mets Pride.
I'm just hoping a year from now were thinking of another Kinks song when referring to our new owner "You really got me, You really got me. Not making the playoffs this year is embarrassing plain and simple and I'm really tired of seeing ex Mets become all-stars with other teams....what's up with that! Stevie has to instill a "Mets way" in this organization and the sooner the better.
ReplyDeleteGary, so sad, ain’t it. Again, at the time they brought d’Arnaud up last year from rehab, I wondered what the rush was. Nido was the sub major league caliber catcher back up, so why dump an injury-cursed catcher with a far higher ceiling so quickly? I did not think TDA could hit like this. But if he could finally throw, it was worth being patient. Enormous mistake. The Mets had NO real back up catcher. What was the rush? What if Ramos had gotten hurt? He didn’t but d’Arnaud’s 2019 bat rather than Nido’s gets the Mets into the 2019 playoffs.
ReplyDeleteMurphy too. Think back to how THRILLED we all were, EVERY Mets fan I know, when Murphy was beating up on the elite pitchers of all baseball...and we had underwhelming and boring Duda. I repeatedly wrote then that the decision was so simple...trade Duda, keep Murphy for 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Cheap at 3/36, while saving Duda’s salary. Duda made $19 million over the same 3 years. So only $6 million more per year.
Two, frankly, inexcusable moves. Bewildering. Beyond stupid. Way beyond.
John, whether it is Fonzie or someone else, this team is a failure. It needs INTELLIGENT reconstruction.
ReplyDeleteGary, we could trade Pete for Aaron Nola. We then use another Kinks song...N..O..L..A, Nola.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to see that Gary is past the test stage.
ReplyDeleteGary tested positive here, and hopefully no where else. Everybody stay safe. And keep your TV safe too - don't throw anything at it.
ReplyDeleteLOL good one guys
ReplyDeleteAn intelligent design would be like discovering an alien element in our midst. We're accustomed to staying out of the top bidding for external talent and overpaying for mid range folks who demonstrate why they were there for the picking. Haven't we seen enough of the Rick Porcello, Michael Wacha and Todd Frazier types to take a new direction?
ReplyDeleteReese, we need a newer, much smarter direction. Look at the Yanks this year. Plenty of guys went down...they had a real bad patch...but enough quality players saved their bacon.
ReplyDeleteYanks vs. Mets
ReplyDeleteThe Yankees innately seem to lessen the severity of in-season injuries by having higher level (and often multi-positional)player substitutions available. In this way, there is little talent falloff and subsequent damage can be more easily controlled. Sometimes these substitutions can lead sub-in players to next seasons starting lineup with trade maneuverings allowing.
I still like what the NY Mets are building here. They just need to cut back on their mid to lower level veteran off season acquisitions to "fill roles." Develop more from within like they have been doing, so this can happen. And strengthen those positions that have been weakest this past season. Like catcher. Get Ryan Jeffers from Minny. Study him and see why. Check videos for power game. Could then platoon him with C Tomas Nido. You need two solid catchers now in MLB. It's like goaltending was back in the 1970's. Then rid this thinking that two older veteran catchers are somehow better than two younger good one with future.
I would be very leery of the FA Market this off season. A lot of "flotillas in that stream", if you know what I mean. I'd just concentrate on getting some more good young starters in here. One pitcher I might seriously look at is NJ's own 6'6" lefty SP Jay Groome, now with Boston. Maybe trade them Matz and Porcello for? LOL
Mack
ReplyDeleteLived in Chi-town during the low years for the Cubs, Bill Madlock era. Everyone hated or laughed at them. I was the only Mets fan in town. I know. I have scars still.
Mets fans a little bit too suicidal sometimes. They cannot see the forest through the trees. Want their dessert first with no fanfare attached.
I (for one) do not want a total shake-up here this off season personnel wise. It would take us back to "square one" when there is much good here now. I don't want high priced fading veterans from other teams. We've done that and lost.
It's just the starting pitching here overall. Bring us that one more really decent starter more Mr. Cohen, and all us fans will be singing a new tune a year from now right here.
Look one more time:
1b Smith/Alonso DH/ Smith or Alonso 1b Smith/Alonso 2b McNeil/Cano SS Rosario/Gimenez LF Nimmo CF Marisnick RF Conforto C Nido/Jeffers SP: 1. Jake, 2. Noah (when healthy again), 3. New Left-handed Starter from outside, 4. Lugo, 5. Either T. Szapucki or an idea like J. Groome (both lefties).
The Mets need to stay away from AAA relievers who just are not good enough for here. I won't name any names, but we have seen a few over the past three seasons on these Mets. New direction needed here to prevent a repeat of that.
The bullpen has some very good arms now. Make it work optimally. I think that the pieces are as great as the sum total will be.