The Sorry State of My Favorite Baseball Team: The New York Mets

Imagine this scenario. You ask the really hot girl to go to the prom with you. She hasn’t been asked by anybody else yet, and she doesn’t really want to go with you, so she says “I will let you know later”. In the meantime, the attractive girl who is good in bed asks you to go with her. Any other time you would say yes. But right now, you are pinning your hopes on the Hot Girl, and you tell the attractive, good in bed girl, thanks but no thanks. So as you wait for an answer from the Hot Girl, the attractive, good in bed girl, asks your friend to go, and he says yes. Then the Hot Girl finally gets asked by someone else to go to the prom with him, and she says yes. So now, to save face, you are forced to go with the pimpled faced, dweeby girl, while the Hot Girl is now enjoying the prom with someone she really wanted to go with, and your friend is enjoying his time with the attractive girl that is good in bed. And you are stuck with a last resort choice that is just happy to be invited to the dance.

That basically is the current, sorry state of my favorite baseball team, the New York Mets. They make an offer to Jason Bay. He says that he will let the team know soon his decision. That was over three weeks ago. They also have an offer to Benji Molina to be their catcher, but he wants more years than the Mets are offering. In the mean time, Jason Marquis is on the market. He says he wants to be a Met. The Mets basically tell him, thanks, but until we find out about Bay and Molina, we can’t do anything else. So Marquis signs with the Nationals for $15M, an amount the Mets easily could have afforded. And with the best pitcher on the Market (Lackey) signing with Boston, the Mets are shutting them selves out of any chance to get a good starter to fill in as a #2 after Johann Santana. Philadelphia went out and traded for Roy Halladay, arguably the best pitcher in baseball.

That move didn’t upset me because the Mets didn’t have the chips to trade for him, so they had to focus on free agents. And they don’t even talk to Lackey. They say they were concerned about his arm. But Boston, who has an abundance of pitchers, felt they needed more, had no problem with Lackey. And they way Boston has performed lately, both on the field and their off-field moves, I would trust their evaluation more than the Mets.

The Mets stated that they would be making big moves to shore up the team, coming off of the disastrous year they just had. Their focus was, according to the team, was first pitching then the field. And they wanted to get faster and more defensive. So what do they do? They make an offer for the older, less mobile outfielder with so-so defense (Jason Bay compared to Matt Holiday) and do not even make an offer to the best free agent pitcher on the market. They are stuck in limbo waiting on an answer from bay, who doesn’t really want to be a Met, and Molina because it seems the Mets can’t do multiple things at a time.

In the meantime, the Yankees (who I do not like), after coming off of a World Series victory, go right out and make the team better. They trade for Curtis Granderson, a young outfielder whose swing should benefit by the smallish outfield of Yankee Stadium. They let go of Damon and Matsui because they don’t really fit into there plans, and it is always better to get rid of someone 1 year too early than 1 year too late. Then they go out and trade an average outfielder, who was the 4th outfielder on the team, for Javier Vasquez, the 4th runner up in the NL CY Young Award last year. An absolute steal. And I would be surprised if they swoop in and sign Jason Bay, giving him the chance to NOT sign with the Mets. And they are positioning themselves to be big buyers in next year’s free agent class, which is expected to be one of the best classes in a LONG time.

This offseason actually made me respect the way the Yankees do business, though I would NEVER switch allegiances to them. They have an eye for the future as well as making moves to win now. When they need something, they get it and usually on good terms. The Mets, total opposite. They panic, make stupid moves and bad financial signings. When they do sign someone big, they do not make any other big signings for a couple of years, so they do not back up their previous signings. They sign Santana, but do not bring in a legitimate # 2 starter.

I never thought I would say this, but my wish is for people to stop going to the games and for people to cancel their season tickets (which from the sounds of it on sports radio, a lot are canceling). The Mets ownership sees this and finally decides they have to change philosophy. They get rid of Omar and Manuel and bring in people who know what they are doing and let them do the job with no interference. The owners need to stay way in the background. My personal hope is to bring back Bobby V to manage the team. He gets the most out of his players (look at who the outfield was in the 2000 World Series against the Yankees) and he is at least entertaining.