Dear Steve
Yes, it’s me. Mack. Back from the dead. Medically, I’m doing
better. Two carotid artery surgeries and a TIA later and I’m rehabbing from my
home. I’ve retired from writing following the advice of my doctor and the
demands of Mrs. Mack, though I am guest posting every once in a while. Consider
this one of them.
We haven’t communicated with each other since this season
started. You following me when X was Twitter led to my contacting you via
private messaging. I remember my first suggestion of getting more aggressive in
the international market. You messaged me “I’m all over this” and two days
later you snagged away another top prospect. And you weren’t afraid to tell me when
things I wrote could have been framed more professionally.
You sure as hell didn’t seem to need my advice after the way
your season started. But here we are, a million injuries later and falling to
the worst win-loss percentage in the league.
Steve, I’ve never worked an inning for the Mets, but I have
written about them for over 25 years, and I’ve been a fan since Game 1 in
1962. You know I love this team as much as you do and I truly feel your pain
right now. I just think it’s time to take a good look in the jacuzzi and
realize this team isn’t going anywhere this season and the players that matter
to you the most may be agreeing with the fans that this is the time to begin
building for the future rather than chasing the unobtainable in the present.
I have suggestions based on 30+ years of successful
management. They are just MY suggestions. Nothing more:
1 – Whatever you are doing internally that is either
unpopular, or not working, stop doing. Today.
2 - Make your operation more people based, rather that AI or
analytical driven. I’m not saying eliminate all of it. Just get your
organization back to being people driven.
3 - Hire real ballplayers as your instructors. One person
suggested Daniel Murphy as your hitting
coach. Love this idea. Nothing against who you have, but hire an ex-major
league pitcher as your pitching coach. One with a successful tract record
wouldn’t hurt either.
4 - Give back the lineup decisions to your manager. He does
know his team a little better than people who have never played an organized
inning in their life.
5 – Make the decision as to what pitching changes are needed
be determined by your pitching coach. Same logic as the lineup decisions.
6. Stop worrying about the fact that what you did in the
off-season is backfiring. And don’t blame this on injuries. You don’t see
Atlanta sitting on their hands through all their time in the infirmary. You
have some great, young talent on this team, but even the most talented minor
leaguer rarely comes out of the box like an all-star. Take Carson Benge. Only now is he starting to jell. The
BA is perking up, the defense is top-notch, and the confidence is building. You
have the most talented rookie pitcher in the league in Nolan
McLean. And Juan Soto? Well, he’s
Juan Soto, and his current slump is probably highly affected by what the box
score looks like at least half the time. But they aren’t the only talented young
players you either have under long-term contract or team control. Players like Jack Wenninger, Christian
Scott, Jonah Tong, Nick Morabito, and AJ
Ewing should all be starting at the major league level for the rest of
this season. They too need the Benge plan.
7. There are other players that simply need to be polished
off or, if needs to be, determined that that they don’t have what’s needed to
be successful at the major league level… and this can’t be accomplished unless
they get major reps in the major at some point this season. Players like Dylan Ross, Ryan
Lambert, Ryan Clifford. Early? Yes,
but so what. Where do they play? On to #8.
8. The trading deadline is coming up. You have players with
trade value that either are going to opt out or simply don’t have a long-term
future with your team. Bo Bichette, Freddy Peralta, David
Peterson, Clay Holmes, and Brooks Raley all have the talent that other teams
could use to help them earn a playoff birth while, at the same time, could
bring a serious addition of prospects to replenish the depleted Mets minor
league teams.
9. And let’s not forget Devin
Williams, Luke Weaver, Brett Baty, and Mark
Vientos. You need to shop these names as well to see what some teams
would come back with. Remember, this didn’t work and all the players mentioned
here are a big part of this failure. This is a business, Steve. You operated
this like a business when you dumped Pete Alonso,
Brandon Nimmo, and Jeff
McNeil. Don’t be embarrassed at what has happened. The embarrassment begins
if you don’t start making changes now.
10. Let’s talk Carlos Mendosa.
Let’s me put it this way. Put someone at the helm of your ship and call him
your Captain. Then put one of those audio thingies in his ear and have someone at
your base be given the responsibility of telling the Captain what to do. This
includes steering the ship. Next, tell your Captain to turn left, causing the
ship to hit an iceberg. Question: who is getting hit with the blame? See, it’s
its impossible for me to call for the firing of Mendoza because I don’t know
how much he really is in charge of. On the other side of this, HE is the face
of this failure and I’m not sure fans are going to rally around him anymore.
Your call here, Steve.
11. And finally, let’s talk David
Stearns. This one is easy. If you’re not already secretly looking for a
replacement here, I shouldn’t even have written this post. Your players will
never want to play past their current commitment if you don’t find a new person
to lead this organization. I’m sure he’s a nice man. I’ve had a lot of nice men
managing my radio stations into the ground. What I never had was one of those
failed stations rise from the ashes still managed by that person that put it in
this position.
Lastly, I hope you read this Steve. And I hope you don’t
unfollow me now on X. I’m a retired writer now, so I can just be a fan now. I
love your team but my heart is broken at what has happened this year. To you.
BREAKING NEWS –
I finished writing this yesterday afternoon, but like
everything I write, I wait a day before posting it. They I polish it up and
place it in draft form on the site.
Sure as hell, things seem to have started without me. You
promoted AJ Ewing in the middle of me
watching Hannah Harper win American Idol. Is
this a one and done?
Sure wish I posted this a day ago. Woulda looked like genius.
Great post. Get the kids up here as soon as bad contracts can be moved, and let’s rock ‘n’ roll with the youth. It is not easy to go that route. Just look at Pittsburgh for so many years. But look at low budget Pittsburgh now. I’d switch our team for theirs.
ReplyDeleteI would have my people study and study and study everything that the Atlanta Braves organization does. They get so much right, so often..
This Mets organization has gotten so much wrong, so often. Emulate that Braves success model.
I know we have key player Lindor out with an injury, but they have Acuna out with an injury, and they just shrug it off and keep winning.
Steve is a very proud man.
ReplyDeleteAnd this team is not a stock. It's like his daughter.
I don't expect a white flag approach. The trade deadline is long away. First week in August. That's a long time to wait for trades.
I look for intermittent additions from the chain.
My guess, Wenninger in around two weeks
Hopefully, Tong, too, and Morabito by mid-June.
ReplyDeleteAnd Clifford when it gets hot
DeleteThe Mets are last in scoring with 139 runs in 40 games. In 4 of those 40, they scores 10 or more.
ReplyDeleteIn the other 36 (90%) of their games, they’ve scored 98 runs, or 2.7 runs per game.
David Stearns did that.
Love the Daniel Murphy as batting coach idea. FYI, not just the Mets having issues scoring runs - the entire system with the exception of Syracuse (with their AAAA players) is not hitting.
ReplyDeleteAlso, just say no to Devers or Chapman from the Giants. Both have lots of money and years owed and are not looking good at all. Devers at 29 could bounce back but you don't want to pay him $28M for the next 7 years. I think Chapman at 33 looks done after several bad years in a row.
ReplyDeleteGet Walker from Houston. Tomorrows post will build off this post
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I have to say Thank You to Steve Cohen for buying the Mets from the Dodger fan Fred Wilpon. It is gratifying to have an owner who also a fan.
ReplyDeleteAnd as Omar Minaya would say, having said that, once the Mets decided they were going to blow out the old core, the next logical move should have been to play the kids and thereby find out who were the keepers and which ones were trade bait or bench players.
Not only would the Mets get to see the very fast youngsters in the minors but also feed of the energy they would bring. Yes, having a team full of power hitters is a good thing but not the only way to win games. If you have a AJ Ewing, Morabito, Benge stealing bases and getting themselves into scoring positions, you can also win by creating chaos on the bases.
As for Stearns, yes he knows more about baseball than us but that doesn't mean that we recognize moves that go against common sense. Why would any GM sign Montas and on top of that, pay premium money for him?. Why trade for a CF that is always hurt because he once had a great year?. Why bring in a 2B with a gold glove and a lead bat?. I could go on but the fact is that he has failed to fix even the BP when there were plenty of high end BP arms available for just money?.
Anyway, if there is one person I will not blame for this disaster is you Steve. You have done your part.
Hey, if Mack can write to Steve, maybe he will see our responses too.
Dear Steve--on behalf of us older fans, I would like to thank you for cramming the last 48 years of franchise misery into a nice 11-month package and presenting it to every Mets fan under 30:
ReplyDeleteBorn after the Midnight Massacre in 1977? No problem, we gave you an updated version last December. How did you like losing Pete and Diaz back-to-back like that?
Not a book reader? Then you probably never read "The Worst Team Money Could Buy," all about the 1992-93 Mets. Just tune in tonight, and you can watch another chapter from the updated version that was released in March.
Too young to remember 2007's collapse? We gave you an even better (worse sequel that opened last June and continued to the end of September.
And just to put a cherry on the misery--the guy who looked at Strike Three in the 2006 NLCS is getting his number retired later this year. What an achievement.
Viper and Dan, agreed. And Dan…I was there for Ryan and Otis for Fregosi and Foy.
DeleteThose 2 trades redefined the 1970s for the Mets, badly.
Delete