No Christmas Gift from Mets
If you were hoping to find one, two or three major league outfielders on the Mets roster under the Christmas tree, or a bullpen which could actually close out games, then you will be one sad boy on Christmas morning. You see, the Mets still have the same team they had in 2012. Oh wait, it is worse because they traded away the best pitcher in the league. Meet Sandy Alderson, the Grinch Who Stole the 2013 Season.
Alderson is charged with making the Mets better — not just in the long run, but now as well. You could argue that the R.A. Dickey trade will indeed eventually pay off for the Mets. Perhaps one day, Noah Syndergaard will be throwing to Travis d’Arnaud in the seventh game of a World Series.
In the meantime, the Mets still have to play baseball, and Alderson has done absolutely nothing to improve the team for the present. I’m not saying he should go out and mortgage the future by signing big money free agents and trading prospects; that didn’t work in the past. But Alderson has to do something, and he just hasn’t.
The outfield is an embarrassment, yet the Mets still have the same crew out there. Oh wait, I forgot, the Mets made that blockbuster deal to import Collin Cowgill. That should set things straight.
Alderson traded Dickey, which is fine, but he did so without a backup plan for the rotation. Instead of just letting top prospects Zack Wheeler, Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia compete for the spot, Alderson says, “Duh, I guess I have to sign a mediocre veteran along the lines of the incomparable Chris Young and guarantee him a spot.” I would think if you are going to trade a Cy Young award winner, you should have a plan. Oh well, I guess I’m the dumb one.
It is stunning to me that Alderson is lauded for his performance because he made two good trades (Beltran and Dickey) to bring in top prospects. He definitely deserves credit for those deals, but they are the only major moves he’s made in two years (including three off seasons). I’m sorry but that is not a positive track record.
Alderson took over a team that won 79 games in 2010, and under his watch the Mets have won 77 and 74 games in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Am I crazy or is that the wrong direction?
Everyone is saying, “Just wait until 2014 when the $50 million owed to Johan Santana and Jason Bay come off the books. Then Alderson will do something!” Remember we said, “Wait until the $50 million owed to Carlos Beltran, Francisco Rodriguez, Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo come off the books. Then Alderson will do something!”? Well guess what? That money came off the books and Alderson did not do anything with it. Was that the Wilpons’s fault? Probably, but what makes anyone think things will be different the next time around?
The Mets needed a creative general manager who could work within the parameters the Wilpons set down. Sandy Alderson is not that man. Instead he just lies to us about payroll and acquiring new talent, playing the fans for saps because we keep believing and hoping it will be true. Really, Alderson is nothing more than a con man. It figures the Bernie Madoff-loving Wilpons hired him.
Merry Christmas, Mets fans.
honestly, everything here is true. the only thing that alderson truly could be doing, though, is making trades. the mets don’t have too much to trade other than pitching prospects, so it’s tough. I HATE waiting until the mets will be good, but I will definitely appreciate the successful mets teams that much more in the future. Sandy comes off as a conservative GM, so i wouldn’t expect too much out of him yet, but I assume when he sees the one or two big free agents to put the mets over the top, he’ll make his move. It simply doesn’t make sense to do that this year because none of the FA’s out there are good enough to do that with the mets
Of course you’d always hope they’d pull a trade similar to what the Nats did last year for Gio gonzalez, but it probably won’t.