And if there were a third certainty of baseball's hot stove season it would be me using this space to preach a more prudent approach.
I think I am going to punch the next person who says the Mets need to make a "big splash" to win back their fans. As stupid as Mets fans are, they want a winning team. I don't think any of them are going to games thinking "I owe the Wilpons my ticket money because they made a big splash signing some past-his-prime veteran who is now on the disabled list." And if they put some good young players on the field no one is going to stay home due to the lack of the big splash.
The other fallacy we need to address is that the "big splash" wins. It's a hard argument to make right now because the Yankees became World Champs by signing everyone in sight. But Mets fans need to face facts, we can never, should never and will never spend as the Yankees do. But we don't have to. Look down the list of World Series winners before 2009, other than Manny Ramirez twice, few of those teams made a big splash, and it took the Sox five years and a lot of young players for that to happen.
Remember the Yankees kissed a lot of toads (Kevin Brown, Jason Giambi) before they found CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira. And let's review the Mets recent history with the big splash: Pedro Martinez (one of the worst free agent signings in history), Carlos Beltran (I'm one of very few Mets fans who still likes this deal) and Johan Santana (they wasted two prime years already with no playoff appearances).
The Mets still have a good, young nucleus to build around (Reyes, Wright) and some good veterans who still have some years left (Beltran, Santana) so I preach measured patience.
3 comments:
paul...they need some serious help
and I don't want Marquis or Bay. Don't Bring back Delgado. Sign Kelly Johnson to play either 2nd base of LF. Sign some incentive based deals to Atkins, Wang/Sheets. And finally explore a trade that would send Reyes to the BoSox for Bucholz, Jed Lowrie and prospect.
VW - trading Reyes especially off of last year would be an incredibly unwise move. he is aunique player who they cannot replace. There are many other sources for pitching ... there are only a couple of players who do what Reyes does.
poop - where are the met fans that think beltran was a bad signing. and just b/c they didn't perform around santana doesn't make that a bad move
MB, I think a lot of Mets fans dislike Beltran. I didn't say the Santana trade was a bad move. I said it didn't help the Mets win anything. Because the team around him sucks. That's my point. They need to build a better team. Otherwise Santana is like a 50 inch LCD screen hanging on the wall inside a trailer home.
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