It's difficult as a fan to root against my team. I don't feel like I'm doing that in hoping that they don't make the playoffs. It seems that that isn't going to be a problem, but that's why they play the season. It's even more confusing to want to see a number of players have productive individual seasons, but then expect the team overall to come up short.
What I mean by this is that I think it's in the best interests of the Mets' long-term plans to be out of it by the trade deadline. With the new wild card system, the possibility remains that they might see a window of opportunity and go for it, especially considering how disappointing the last few years have been on fans. I don't think this FO will repeat the mistakes of the past and hurt the farm system foolishly, but they may waste an opportunity to add young talent at the expense of 'meaningful games in September'.
I'm just wondering how the rest of the Mack's Mets community feels about all of this. Do we want a playoff run? Do we want a 'punt' on 2013? Is it possible to eat our cake and have it too?
Individually I'd like to see:
- Santana, Marcum, Byrd, and maybe a reliever or two (Matt Capps brought back Wilson Ramos) stay healthy and play well enough to be valuable to contending teams at the deadline, possibly bringing 4-5 prospects back and really improving the farm system's depth even further.
- Dillon Gee continues to be solid but unspectacular, Jordanny Valdespin flashes his power/speed combo in CF, Lucas Duda becomes a 20HR, 80 RBI threat, Jenrry Mejia re-establishes his value, and Jeurys Familia pitches well enough out of the pen to be considered a future closer....making all of them valuable trade pieces in the offseason.
- Matt Harvey doesn't miss a beat from last year and assumes his role as leader of the pitching staff, Jon Niese continues his growth as one of the better LH starters in the league, and Zack Wheeler and Travis d'Arnaud have productive debuts.
- David Wright finally is recognized as the superstar leader of this team and has a monster year, Ike Davis turns the corner as a reliable power threat and gold glove candidate, and Ruben Tejada continues his steady play.
All of these individual performances would be in the long-term best interests of the team, but can we get all of them? Wouldn't this lead to a potential unexpected playoff run? Can they all perform to these expectations but still lose out on the post-season, enough to be out of it by mid-summer?
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2 comments:
Davis and Wright are the offense. Anything you get from anyone else is gravy.
Murphy isn't powerful enough, fast enough or flashy enough to justify his .291 average. It reeks of the emptiness of when Elliot Maddox was a .300 hitter. Valdespin would add both power and speed but not necessarily drop off the mediocre level of defense. There's also Wilmer Flores knocking on the door.
Tejada is a steady and unspectacular shortstop with even less in his .289 bat than Murphy has in his. Unfortunately the SS prospects behind him are far off so I would ride him until something better comes along.
If you got 20/80 from Duda then people would get off his case. WILL YOU get 20/80 from Duda? I'm personally off the big guy's bandwagon. Still, even his awful 2012 year was way better than the future Mariner he's replacing out there.
Anything you get from Cowgill will likely be better than what you got from Torres.
Byrd vs. 2012 Duda? Hmmn...tough call. Even as bad as he was, Duda had more pop. Byrd is much more well rounded.
In your list of trade prospects for the deadline did you forget John Buck? What about LaTroy Hawkins (who, at his age, is not a good bet for our future but could help solidify another team)?
Nurphy is the other chip to trade if someone is trotting out a weaker hitting second basemen (like the Dodgers might be).
I did forget about Buck and Hawkins as trade chips. Murphy could be valuable as a 2B or to a team desperate at 3B. This deadline could be a huge booster to the farm system...HUGE.
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