Questions, questions...

After today's press conference, we're all filled with questions- and thankfully, for a change, we'll be receiving positive answers for the first time in a long time. (As I write this, Sandy Alderson is on with Mike Francesa - this should be interesting!!) That being said, Johnny Lowe asked a few questions the other day, that Mack asked me to take a swing at. Without further ado, here goes (I'm para-phrasing the questions, Johnny):

1.) Any thoughts about rebuilding- specifically, trading David Wright and/or Jose Reyes??
2.) What are your thoughts on which manager might be hired?

Johnny - excellent questions. I'll attempt to answer them both, and would be curious to hear what other fans have to say about these areas.


Obviously, we'll know soon enough who the manager is, and Alderson will have to make a decision about Reyes, at least for next season (picking up his option vs. signing him to a longer-term contract) pretty soon, too.

First, regarding the potential trading of David Wright & Jose Reyes, this needs to be broken into 2 pieces - trading/not trading Wright, and trading/not trading Reyes.

David Wright currently represents the second best all-around player (non-pitcher) that the organization has ever produced, after Darryl Strawberry. He’s become, for good or bad, the face of the organization. As a third baseman, he’s amongst the top 5 at his position in the game, and as all long-time Mets’ fans know, third base has LONG been a sore-spot in relation to actually finding someone who’s more than a “warm body” to man the hot corner (JIM F*%&$NG FREGOSI!!!) Wright has also proven himself to be an honest (and earnest) interviewee, something also rare amongst Mets of recent vintage. He’s become a quiet leader, and his struggles in over-coming the effects of being hit by a Matt Cain pitch never led to excuses, as Wright buckled down and tried harder to get back his old stroke. All of these points, however, become moot if he wasn’t such an excellent, two-way player at such a hard position to fill. And, in spite of a lot of depth at third in the minor leagues, I believe that said depth should be best utilized as trade-bait to acquire pitching, pitching and MORE pitching!!!

Verdict: Keep Wright, let him play his entire career as a Met, and let him be the third Met (after Seaver and Piazza) in the Hall-of-Fame!!

Jose Reyes is a much more difficult player to evaluate/project. It’s possible that we have never seen the best that Reyes can provide, as his ability to stay both healthy and happy at the same time hasn’t happened yet across a full season. It’s often been speculated that Reyes’ has had maturity issues, and whether that’s fact or fiction, what we DO know is that he hasn’t been healthy for a full season since 2008. When he IS healthy, you can predict around 12 homers, 70+ RBIs, 60+ stolen bases, 120 runs, 15 triples and an OPB of around .355. He hasn’t had a full, healthy season in spacious CitiField yet, so if he’s able to keep away from the DL this coming season, we’ll have a better barometer of what to expect from Mr. Reyes. At his best, Reyes is one of a handful of game-changers in all of baseball, as he makes pitchers nervous in a way that we haven’t seen since the hey-day of one Rickey Henderson.

Verdict: In spite of having a lot of young talent at SS, you have to keep Reyes, for at least a half season, in order to see exactly WHICH Reyes he is and will be. Also, it’s never a good idea to trade someone at a lower value, and most teams would expect to “steal” Reyes right now, rather than over-paying for him, the way they’d need to do if/when he regains/maintains full health for a full season.

Johnny’s second question involves potential managerial candidates. We’ve heard a handful of names speculated about over and over, including Clint Hurdle, Bob Melvin, Chip Hale, Wally Backman, Terry Collins, John Gibbons, Lee Mazzilli and Ken Oberkfell, and of course, Joe Torre and Bobby Valentine. I’d also add the names of Joey Cora, Mike Maddux (Rangers pitching coach), Darren Balsley (Padres pitching coach), Tim Wallach, Ryne Sandberg, Sandy Alomar Jr, Tim Teufel, Al Pedrique and Ted Simmons. In other words, the candidate field is WIDE OPEN and while it’s tons of fun to speculate, there’s NO sure thing right now- until there IS one…

Verdict: I’m sorry, Johnny, that there isn’t a more definitive answer, but maybe that’s for the best right now, as whoever the new manager will be should come not from the media’s list, or the fans’ list, but from the General Manager’s list, and that’s one piece of “paper” that only 4 people have right now. We’ll know soon enough…so until that time, let the speculation (and the fun) continue!! (And it wouldn't surprise me at ALL if Alderson ends up hiring someone none of us have speculated about!!) Personally, I'd LOVE to see Wally Backman as manager, but that's just my personal preference. I'd also love to see Ken Oberkfell get his chance, as I've been supporting that choice since my first blog, back in 2005. However, the manager most importantly has to be two things- a choice that Alderson can get behind 100%, and someone who knows how to get the most out of his players. Beyond that, there are tons of reasons to hire or not hire just about everyone you and I can think about naming...and that, too, makes for a lot of fun arguments!!

Special note: For pitching coach, I'd love to see either Leo Mazzone or Bobby Ojeda- just my opinion...