Last I checked, each year, 10 of them make the playoffs.
So, based on straight math, a team should make the playoffs 33.3% of the time.
Eliminate a few teams that have no chance of the playoffs ever, like chintzy Pittsburgh, and your average, larger market team should make the playoffs closer to 40% of the time.
The odds for a truly large market team should be north of 40%.
The Mets have not made the playoffs the last 5 seasons, and only thrice in the past 20 seasons. The latter ratio is 15%, not 40%.
Unacceptable Performance.
The Yankees made the playoffs 17 times (14 more times than the Mets’ 3 times) over the past 20 years.
Looking back:
In 2007, the Mets were excellent and flat out deserved the playoffs.
In 2015, they were floundering and punchless in mid-July, then they got bold in acquisitions and lucky in that the team ignited while the Nationals collapsed. They (to me) just got lucky. They threw a Hail Mary pass and it connected.
In 2016, AAA saved the day. Trailing late in the season, AAA call ups TJ Rivera, Seth Lugo, and Robert Gsellman well out-performed expectations, helping the Mets to surge late, just enough to nab a wild card slot. Luck again won the day.
I did not verify it, but the Mets over the past 20 years have to be a top 10 spending team.
Big spending, but reaping abysmal playoff investment returns.
So one has to ask oneself:
What can irreversibly alter the trajectory of this unacceptable performance and dismal failure? Alter it upwards?
Why do other teams succeed where they fail….the Dodgers, the Red Sox, the Yankees, Atlanta, to name 4, etc.?
I'm clueless. So please. Have at it.
How do we make getting to (rather than missing) the playoffs to be the Mets' norm?
I will say this until I bleed from my ears.
ReplyDeleteSTOP relying on free agents, old guys, and trades,
Spend the correct amount of money in the International draft each year and keep your draft picks.
Use trades and free agents to fill gaps in.
We need internationals of great skills, badly, Mack.
ReplyDeleteI'll patriotically take Americans of excellent skill, too :)
ReplyDeleteSend us your tired your poor, your superstars
ReplyDeleteYankees minor league teams have 5 coaches in each dugout. Mets have 3. Rays have more talent evaluators and scouts than the Mets that look for hidden gems in other organizations that they can acquire in trades. For a long time the Mets didn't scout any teams Single A and lower.
ReplyDeleteWant to win? This has to change.
John, great point. The Yanks system won far more games than the Mets system this year. No accident.
ReplyDeleteYou'd think we would learn from other team's successes.
ReplyDeleteGood points as always, John. As I said previously, the Mets farm system finished in the bottom third of the league (eliminating low-A, it was bottom quartile). You can parse it into first half and second half, but the numbers speak for themselves. Yankees did way better, even at low-A. St. Lucie won the FSL East by going 5 games over .500. The Tampa Tarpons were 30 games over .500 in the FSL West.
ReplyDeleteI look at the Mets this off-season as a team that has to spend a ton of money just to remain mediocre. They do have pieces in the farm system, but they seem a long way off from helping.