Long-Term Statergy

A fellow Mets writer, Mark Healey, said something this morning on Twitter that made an awful lot of sense to me: “Not sure what's worse, the Mets FO mulling dealing away under-30 homegrown stars, or the fan base buying that it's a long-term "strategy"”.



He’s absolutely right. As on old workout guy for the banks back in the 90’s, I didn’t have any long range plan when I began to operate a business that went under. One hundred per cent of my energies went into getting it back to a break even point, which usually meant spending a hell of a lot less and operating sometimes with less talent.


GE Capital sent me to Austin, Texas to get a radio station set up for a sale. I obviously had the most talented morning team in town, but they also were the most expensive and the lion share of my salaries budget. There was no question what I had to do and all I had to do was decide when and where the deed would be done.


We know very little about how Sandy Alderson is going to run this team. We’ve learned that he’s not afraid to admit a mistake (Brad Emaus, D. J. Carrasco, Chin-lung Hu, Blaine Boyer) and he’s willing to take chances at higher affiliate levels on older minor leaguers, especially in a pitching role (Collin McHugh, Mark Cohoon, Chris Schwinden).


The next big test will be the draft next week. We’ll first learn if the team will draft in the early rounds without concern for over-slotting. You don’t get a chance too often to draft four prospects in the first 101 picks, no less four in a draft as talented as this one. An example of a player that should still be on the board when the 101st pick comes up would be Georgia Tech RHP Mark Pope, who, in a normal year, would be a surefire second rounder.


The next test isn’t whether this player or that player is traded. That’s a Wilpon decision. No, the test will be who the Mets get for said star traded.


Lastly, we’ll take a close look at the placement of draft picks in the minor league affiliates for the remainder of this season. Omar & Company rarely started anyone off in the first four levels and filled Brooklyn with as many draft picks as they could.


What I’d like to see is some additional movement in the four current affiliates playing. Bump IF Josh Satin to AAA. Promote SP Matt Harvey, RP Jeff Kaplan, SS Robbie Shields, and OF Juan Legarus to AA. Send SP Greg Peavey, RP Josh Edgin, and OF Cory Vaughn to St. Lucie.

Build your teams around your prospects and release those (positionally) that are in the way.


Then, start a few of your college boys picked next week as high as Savannah, especially if you draft an outfielder like George Springer or Josh Bell (trust me… Bell is would sign for the right bonus).


Like “Heals” said, we’re a long way off from a long range plan. That should begin next week.