Friday, April 15, 2011

N.Y. METS ~ Like the Team Now? You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet

From the desk of:  Head-Butting Mr. Met




NEW YORK METS:  The Fog Over Citi Field Still Lingers Over The Mets.  But You'll See, Sandy Alderson Will Light up The Night.

What!?  Me Worry?  What could be wrong?

It's still too early for seeking ledges to jump off, but we have to start somewhere, right?  After all, the early bird gets the worm.

Stop yourselves.  Now.

On the one hand, we knew our team had more problems than a math book.  On the other hand, ...there is no other hand.  Our team has more problems than a math book.  This is as good as it gets people.  There's nothing more to see at Citi Field.  If you are that disgusted, go back to your farms if you really want Mets R Us shut down for good...   If you had expectations, shame on you.  You'll hear this a lot from me; You can't be disappointed with what you do not expect.  So stay home if you want the Wilpons gone.  The brown paper bags routine was an old 1970's gag that is no longer "CooooL Man"!

Please!

But, there is still something to be said for brown paper bags and what they say.  So, in the mean time, Sandy Alderson's team leaves us with an awful lot to talk about.  Let's start out with the easiest target; their record:



4-9   .308 pct.


The New York Mets have won 30% of their games so far.  Or, the New York Mets have lost 70% of their games; - Give or take a fraction.  You choose how you like your numbers.  Let's move on, shall we?

For me, ten games is a nice number to wait before I really start taking stock of the Mets.  So, after Tuesday's rain-out, I thought it time to start putting the 'Mazin thinking cap on.  And so far, for me, the best thing to happen to the Mets this season has been the New York Rangers.  The 'Mazin Mets have remained safely off my docket because I still have Hockey of the brain.

I've been paying attention, but it's time to start a-talkin'.   And I guess for King 'Pon, Son Of 'Pon, and the whole "Saul B. Katz Dilemma" over in Flushing..., that sucks.

When my fellow Met fans come to grips with the fact our season doesn't start until the trade deadline rolls around, they'll stop twitching in their sleep at night after games.  It doesn't matter where in the standings we are come July, this team is getting exterminated.   The best we should hope for are some individual successes so as to bump up their value.  But for sure, we haven't seen anything yet.  Sandy Alderson is going to strip this Bad Boy down to a fig leaf.  The only thing that prevents that from happening now, is the calendar.  The only thing that separates real concrete change on the field and a change in our perceptions and attitudes, is TIME.  In three more years, this team will not have a single semi to high profile free agent on it.  Not One!  We'll neither have one of our own holdovers and it certainly won't be one picked up on the market.  All that is done.


Do you think Alderson hired DePodesta and Ricciardi to scout potential high priced free agents and potential recipients of five and seven year deals?  No, of course not.  They are here to wipe the slate clean.  Make no mistake.  Everyone is gone....Even David Wright!  That sucks to hear.  I know it and I am with you.  I'd rather keep him.  But we have to reconcile ourselves with the fact that it's not about what we want.  This is more of what Sandy Alderson is going to do.  But you can not deny, no matter what David Wright has done here, he's been a constant throughout the last seven dramatic and frustrating years in Flushing; - both him and Reyes.

Carney Lansford was Sandy Alderson's third-baseman back in the Bash-Brothers Days; - Can you dig it? And no one has been holding an open umbrella under the dark clouds at Shea/Citi longer than Jose Reyes and David Wright.  They have been the one constant these last 7 years.  Do you want to improve this club?  Trade your best players!  And that's exactly what Sandy Alderson is going to do.  He has no personal attachment towards, and for what we hold dear, and cherish; - our beloved Met History and favorite players.  What Alderson does have is a plan to totally restructure this team.  And the player (Wright) that can very well own every Met record if he's allowed to stay, I feel will be gone.  It makes sense, he will garner the biggest return.  Who will play third after David is gone? Answer - A Sandy Guy.  Ricciardi is working on that as we speak.

At Shortstop, Reyes is the other pre-Omar Days guy.  But, don't you know the only reason why Jose Reyes is off to such a good start is to fulfill our manifest destiny?  He'll go on to get as many hits as Paul Molitor and steal as many bases as Tim Raines.  Why? - Because he won't be doing it in a Mets' uniform.  We know how that goes..(eh..hem! Nolan Ryan).  I say that in jest, he won't achieve those numbers, but do we really want to start talking money again; whether it's Madoff's money, Wilpon's money, or Reyes money?  Nah.  And there is nothing developing down on the farm ready to step in for Reyes upon his trade at the deadline which seems like a lock at this point.  Wilmer Flores, Ruben Tejada, etc. - They aren't Sandy's guys.  They belong to Omar and they're looking more and more like duds.  Harsh?  Maybe.  Trust me, I'd love to ease off.  But truth is truth.


Alderson still has his hands full with cleaning this roster of Omar's thumbprints.  And it's turning out to be a monumental task.  Counting backwards, Jason Bay and Johan Santana are the latest two lost to lengthy injuries, and are players who's contracts are hampering the team in the meantime.  And before them came the jettisoning of Ollie Perez, Castillo, and John Maine.  You are more than within your rights to ask, did Everything Omar Touch Turn To Mush?  I mean really?  Almost every one of his mid to high profile acquisitions have all wound up on the backs of milk cartons.  Which one hasn't?  Please..., remind me.

The bullpen has been a complete and utter mess.  They are/were? still anchored by two Minaya guys in Bobby Parnell and closer Francisco Rodriguez.  Iggy got cut and now he's back.  Izzy is back too.  They won't last!  All the other guys were Alderson imports, but there was nothing he realistically had to work with money wise, nor was there anything available talent wise.  If anything the Mets were smart to let Pedro Feliciano walk away.  Now the Yankees are stuck with that medical bill.

Second base hasn't been correct since Edgardo Alfonzo played the position for us.  And while Emaus is an Alderson guy, it looks like the job will go to the jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none, and Omar leftover, Daniel Murphy.  It's looking like 2B will turn out to be a strict platoon very shortly.  But I'm sorry, even though I like Murph, he's not a solution at 2B.  And other Omar farm-hands like Reese Havens and Jonathan Malo have been beset by injuries.  And I get the feeling Alderson isn't as enamored with Reese and Malo as I am, for ever materializing good reasons.

Left field has been a complete joke for how many years now? 

Most fans know by now, teams never get their money's worth from a player on the back end of long term deals; - See Carlos Beltran.  If at all possible, this old Omar acquisition will be a trade-deadline goner.  Omar farm-hand Fernando Martinez just got injured yet again.  Every season he proves himself more and more fragile.  Another Omar farm-hand Lucas Duda, even though I like him (from Brooklyn Cyclones days), is headed back to Buffalo because he was over-matched to start the season and looked frighteningly unprepared.

And speaking of being unprepared, all that needed to be done was to watch just a few games this season to come to a conclusion, it is no longer a matter of being prepared or unprepared with this team.  The on-field folly still looks the same.  Terry Collins is proving that right now.  How is it that Willie Randolph, Jerry Manuel AND Terry Collins now, all have had that "I just got pumped by the neighbor's cat look on their face", after yet another futile looking loss.  How is it?  The Media for one, corners these managers into said looks on their faces.  But the results on the field won't change, and the questions won't change, and therefore the answers won't change, until the reasons for this cycle of insanity are all eliminated.

That's why I tell you now, it's not the manager anymore.  Kiss Everyone Goodbye!  And stop all your nonsense people.  If you want to do something constructive, get a highlighter and mark every day on the calendar till the trade deadline hits.  Then get a black Sharpie and cross out every player with Omar's name on it - every one!  It's time to look forward to new players and farm hands that will make their managers look good for a change.  Because that's where we are headed.  Sandy Alderson has no plan for making this team better right now or ever; not with these players he's not.  This team is still headed for the glue factory horse by horse.  This season is still about purge.  And I couldn't be more on board.  So I guess that makes me, ironically, a happy Mets fan.  Hmmm?

Be happy with this.  Two relievers were having a ghastly time on the mound and Sandy Alderson sent them packing, post haste.  It took a meeting between Jerry Manuel, Omar Minaya, John Ricco, Jeff Wilpon, Saul Katz, Fred Wilpon, five hot dog vendors, and the valet parking guy to make a decision last season, when they made changes.  Sandy Alderson didn't have to make multiple trips to Atlanta to scold his team - remember the "I'm not here to fire anyone guys." - Jeff Wilpon?  Sandy Alderson did it from his desk with a phone call and a pen to sign the paperwork.  That's where we are now, with a GM making decisive decisions in a timely manner.

Now! - for some positives regarding Omar's leftovers.  We like Ike.  I don't know about you, but I am a staunch Bobby Parnell supporter.  I like Niese and I am holding out hope for Big Pelf.  Down at AAA, I really like Dillon Gee.  And then there is my guy, Josh Thole.

At catcher, can some one tell me why most local Media do not believe in Josh Thole?  And I'm not so sure Sandy Alderson has warmed up to him either.  Am I looking at Thole through Love Blind Eyes?  Regardless,  I am an unabashed supporter of Thole and I don't care to have the position upgraded.  I'm very content giving him the job.  I think he's solid defensively and calls a good game.  He makes contact at bat and I believe he will hit for a higher average than many project for him.  I also believe he will work himself into being quite an effective 2-spot hitter in the line-up.  I don't get why so many are still down or not enamored with the kid.  Someone fill me in as to what I do not see.

And with our season being what it is, I'm also quite content giving Angel Pagan the full season in center field without any complaints from me.  I moved beyond Beltran two years ago.

If manager Terry Collins is going to blow a gasket this early, fine.  If he wants them to take extra infield practice, fine.  What ever he does is fine.  It doesn't matter.  They will all be gone....(eventually) the manager included.

Are you kidding me?  In July, Sandy Alderson is going to light up the Flushing night with a fireworks extravaganza unseen around here since the Mets blew it up on Black Friday back in 1977, and when Frank Cashen lit the second fuse to set off better nights in Flushing.

Forget strike one; strike two; and strike three for now.

Wait for the Boom!  Burst!  And the WOW!  ...when Sandy really starts to blow this up.



I conclude by saying, Let's Go Rangers!!!  Because Mets Opening Day doesn't come until later in the summer.  That should give me plenty of time to let the Rangers play out their run for a Stanley Cup.  Yea, I know..., good luck with that too.


Let's Go Mets!

Let's Go Rangers!!




Mike.BTB

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