Jack thinks that he should introduce himself first, and probably explain what he's doing here.
I'm Jack. Occasionally I write about baseball.
I used to write about baseball in a blog called Productive Outs and Crackerjack. I also used to write for a website called Flushing University. Mack and I were staff writers there and stayed connected even after that site met its demise a few years ago. Since then, Mack has always been kind enough to offer me this platform to keep writing about baseball, whenever I felt the urge to do so.The problem is, the focus of this website is the New York Mets. I love and loathe the Mets in equal parts. Perhaps you can relate.
I've written feature pieces for the site on those rare occasions that I have been able to convince myself to transcribe the running dialogue in my mind to a medium where it can be enjoyed by others. No more of that. I'm taking a new approach now.
I'm just going to tell you what I think. A few sentences at a time, a few paragraphs at a time. Maybe you'll agree. Maybe you won't. Tell me in the comments section. I'll answer you back.
One of my favorite phrases, sometimes found in the comments section of articles posted in the Newsstand at Baseball Think Factory, is that there are people in this world who are "dumber than 10 dogs." Reader, you are not dumber than 10 dogs. Therefore, you know better than to put too much stock in the first three games of the baseball season.
D'Arnaud has looked hopeless at the plate during those three games. WFAN's Mike Francesca - who, like the Mets, I love and loathe in equal measures - has taken a particularly bizarre fascination in d'Arnaud's lack of hitting over the last two days. Ignore him.
D'Arnaud is finally healthy (at least for the next 20 minutes or so) and he is going to be the starting catcher for as long as he can stay on the field in 2014. The Mets have no one else in the organization ready to catch every day, and in this case it will give the team the proper incentive to stick with d'Arnaud until he finds his groove.
And he will find his groove. The scouts say it. His minor-league numbers say it. And Jack says it. Mets fans, your patience will be rewarded.
You can count me squarely in the Alderson camp. On balance, I am very happy with the way he has gone about rebuilding an organization that was hopelessly adrift both on the field and at the bank. The Mets remain hopelessly adrift financially - thanks Fred and Jeffy! - but Alderson has pared the deadwood from the payroll, began replenishing the farm system and has given Mets fans with long-term vision a dose of cautious optimism.
He isn't perfect though.
Chris Young was three years removed from his best offensive season when the Mets handed him $7.25 million last winter. I like outfield defense as much as the next guy, but no one who hits as poorly as Young should be making $7.25 million a year. The contract is especially indefensible on a team that hits as poorly as the Mets do.
Alderson could have stuck with Eric Young, Jr. in left and played Curtis Granderson every day in right field. Granderson's arm isn't up to snuff for a right fielder, but 77-win teams don't have to sweat the small stuff. That would've opened up center field for a competition between Juan Lagares, Matt den Dekker and a couple of non-roster invitees. Lagares and den Dekker are backup outfielders on competent baseball teams, but the Mets could've let them platoon for 600 at-bats and still have gotten roughly the same production as they will from Chris Young.
The other mistake was not trading Lucas Duda. If Alderson had done so, Terry Collins wouldn't have been tempted to waste the next three weeks on the "Duda-as-first-baseman" experiment.
Lucas Duda is Ike Davis without the defense. On May 1, when you're holding your head in agony after yet another Duda defensive malaprop, ask yourself if the Mets are better off having given Davis 17 at-bats in the month of April while shattering what's left of his confidence along the way.
8 comments:
Hello there. I love Mack's Mets - so much better than the hot and cold fanaticism that occurs on a regular basis over at Metsblog that ebbs and flows according to whatever occurred during that particular day. Anyway...totally agree on Sandy Alderson. The guy has done a great job, given the payroll limitations and general ownership shortfalls, rebuilding this organization. I actually think Chris Young will turn out to be a good signing. But Ike/Duda is brutal. Ike should've been given first crack at winning the job in-season just based on upside and track record. Or the Mets need to just come out and say that Duda is their preference, they're giving him the job and they'll sink or swim with him. Then of course, they'll also have to live with the consequences when Ike comes back to haunt them after he's eventually dealt. I feel like they've been absolutely soul crushing for Ike. Ever wonder what Ike's career would be like if David had called him off that popup?
Alderson is doing a great job?
what about the Marlins GM then?
Thank you for your compliments regarding Mack's Mets.
I assume Matt Cerrone and the guys over at MetsBlog do a great job also.
I'll wait the proper time for Jack to answer back on the rest of your comment.
mudvillenine: I hope you're right about Chris Young. The timing of his injury is particularly unfortunate. I think we'd all have to be happy with .250/.325/.450 and 20 home runs.
bob gregory: Former Marlins GM Larry Beinfest is one of the smartest men in baseball. The work he did with Florida/Miami while having to deal with possibly the worst owner in all of professional sports (Jeffrey Loria) has been nothing short of remarkable. Beinfest was promoted to president of baseball operations in 2007 and kept the Marlins far more competitive then they had any right to be. You will see the difference in the next few years, now that Loria forced him out.
Do you disagree that Alderson has done a great job? if so, what should he have done differently?
Jack
Yes, I disagree with the thought that Alderson has done a great job.
I used the Marlins as an off-the-top comparison.
Look at both teams over the past 5 years.
and then look at them now.
There are many things that I believe Alderson has done wrong, but the biggest thing I would have to say is the way the Met fans have been treated over the past few years.
Being HONEST with the fans would have been a much better approach.
Instead we have been subjected to a constant disinformation, misinformation, misdirection, flat out lies, and actions that do not match their (Alderson & Wilpons') own words.
"we have no money problems"
"we are competing for and expect to be in the hunt for the playoffs"
"we need to upgrade at 1st base and ss"
"2014"
Alderson knew the Mets were in definite trouble when it came to their minor league system when he took over.
It is debateable (atleast when the Wilpons speak on the subject) that the Mets were in definite financial trouble.
The fact that Reyes was not traded in order to fortify the farm system was an out-right lie, if the Mets were in financial trouble or if Alderson believed giving Reyes a $100 millioin dollar contract made no sense for a player whose worth depended on his legs.
Instead the lie of keeping him, in order to sell tickets occured. There was never any real intent to re-sign Reyes. There was never any realistic belief that Reyes would give the Mets a clearance discount special.
This decision, not to admit the Mets problems (talent-wise and financially) to the fans, led to many actions over the past few years that did not match what the fan-base was being told. The fan-base kept trying to have faith and believe and look for each sliver of hope they could hang on to in order to make sense of what they were being told.
I have to believe at this point that the Wilpons have lied about the team's financial problems over and over again. Alderson has not disputed the Wilpons claims.
Fans are very interesting as a group. There are portions that are fair-weather that disappear as soon as the winning stops. There are others that hang around out of habit or stubborness, and there are others that will always be a fan, no matter what.
Notice the fan-base has dropped and continues to drop. It is reaching a point where even the die-hards are seriously re-evaluating their life decisions, not because the team is losing. Instead it is because they believed when it was hard, trusting what they were being told. Now it becomes more and more appearant that what they were believing were lies, and the plans do not appear to compete with the plans of other organizations
Bob: No argument from me about the level of dishonesty coming from the front office. That's been a staple of this team for years, and old-timers would probably tell you that the team's penchant for lying goes back at least to 1977 and the Seaver trade. Alderson is an employee, however, and if his bosses tell him to lie, then he has to tell the fan base that no, the Emperor is not actually standing there naked in front of us.
Alderson was hired almost two years after Bernie Madoff was arrested, so the world knew just how much financial trouble the Mets were in by then. I'm not sure what Alderson was supposed to do about Reyes; if the Wilpons are saying not to trade him because they're trying to squeeze out ticket sales and entertain some foggy notion that Reyes is going to sign below market-value, Alderson can't just trade him anyway. I don't think anyone would look back today and say that Alderson shouldn't have traded Reyes at the deadline - the flip side to it is that sometimes even the best offer at the moment isn't good enough to take.
I disagree in regards to Alderson's helplessness vs the Wilpons. Alderson had Seligs backing and was reportedly given to the Mets as the answer to their problem. Alderson needed to use this leverage to convince the Wilpons' the long term financial advantage of trading Reyes and how important it is to be up front with the fans
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