N.Y. METS ~ 2011 Season Ticking Like A Time-Bomb

From the desk of:  HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET



NEW YORK METS:  The General Manager Has Punched In.  Now Everyone Is On The Clock.

Meanwhile....  Back at Mets R Us; Day Manager; Lil' Jeff (Wilpon) said Sandy Alderson is free to sign players as he sees fit without any restrictions.


Right.


Now, we can take that either one of two ways.  The choices are take his words at face value, or, think to yourself - We heard that line before.  Jeff Wilpon has been spinning that line on us for three years now.  I can knit a sweater from the string of Jeff Wilpon re-assurances that the team was in a position to spend money.


How's this...., because I really don't care to get into The Saul B. Katz Dilemma in depth today.  The way I see it, the Mets have $7.5 million spare dollars to spend on an acquisition should they find themselves in realistic contention for the Wild Card in about five weeks from now.  In the absence of contention, there is a very distinct possibility the Age of Wilponianism may finally come to an end after nine years.  Sandy Alderson came in to replace the 30 year string of in-house Front Office executives.  And as a GM, he is now OFFICIALLY on the clock, and I hardly think he agreed to come here only to pick-up where Omar Minaya left off.


How did I arrive at that $7.5 million dollar number?  Sandy Alderson scoffed at the notion the Mets would substantially increase payroll this coming deadline.  To paraphrase, he flatly said adding $15 million dollars was basically out of the question.  I factored in Son of Pon's obligatory pitch to supply Sandy with ample Jeffery Dollars and then decided to cut Sandy's $15 million dollar number in half.  I don't think they'd even add ten million.  No, not the Wilpons; I mean Sandy.


The GM basically said the next five and six weeks will decide most matters and that signing Jose Reyes was largely unrelated to the Mets being in contention come July.  With Jose, it's more a matter of the Mets' ability to ante up than it hinging on the Mets' position in the standings.


And so New York Mets, you're officially on the clock now.  Or should I say we're all sitting on a ticking time-bomb.  Either way, your General Manager has spoken.  And it's all in the uniformed members of this club's hands between now and the dead-line to change minds and keep that bomb from going off.


Dillon Gee will try and get the Mets headed back in the direction of .500 again.  His mound-mate Jon Niese, had a rough go of it last time out.  But now we ask Dillon to truly be a stopper tonight and straighten the ship after the Angels came to CITI and took two of three games.  Dillon Gee is 7-0 this season, and now for really the first time, we desperately need a win from of our new Ace.  It's an unfortunate position for Gee to be in; considering the absence of Johan Santana and the underachieving Mike Pelfrey.  But as of yesterday, the GM declared from the golf course, the team could either land in the rough in a few weeks, or land on the green.  He said it's up to them.  That means tonight it's up to Gee and whatever offense we can scrape together for him.


If this team ever needed to pull together; for need of pure self-preservation; they need to have their kumbaya moment really, really soon.  A .500 record is two games away; the Wild Card is a little farther than that.  But somehow, the trade-deadline is closer than we think.  Today is Day One for a great many things regarding METropolis. 


So, in a sense, after an off-day, the Mets will re-launch their season today in the hopes of staving off a shut-down next month.



Let's Go Mets!






Mike.BTB