So Omar used his interpersonal skills to get a pitcher who’s been hurt for two years.
Great. More work for Ray Ramirez and Mike Herbst. That’s just what the doctor ordered.

Got to hand it to the Mets. They’ve been able to reach one goal this off-season. That Buffalo (AAA) club ought to be better than last year. Hell, they couldn’t have been much worse.

So far this off-season the Mets have accomplished the following:

1. Re-signed a back-up middle infielder in Alex Cora who needed surgery to repair a damaged thumb and has been experiencing back problems during winter ball.

2. Signed two journeymen catchers in Chris Conte and Henry Blanco, both of who are over the age of 35. Let’s just hope that Dan Warthen was right and that last year’s catching was so bad that these two will be a palpable upgrade.

3. Signed journeyman reliever Elmer Dessens. He’s 38 and the Mets are his 6th major league club.

4. Signed Japanese reliever Rygota Igarashi. At least he has an actual upside. And he’s only 30. But pitchers from Japan have proved to be feast or famine. But comparatively, the Mets got him far cheaper than they would many of the other experienced relievers. So far, this is probably the club’s best player move.

5. Signed journeymen pitchers (geez, I’m using that alot) Clint Evers (26) and R. A. Dickey (35).

6. Signed 3B/1B Mike Hessman (31) to a minor league contract – another player to make Buffalo better.

On now Escobar.

The line of the winter went to Peter Gammons yesterday when he said that Jason Bay would rather play in Beirut than Queens. Let’s hope that prompts the Mets to move on. Even if Bay would decide to take the money, why would you want to make such a financial commitment to someone who really doesn’t want to be there.

Say what you will , but the Mets have been willing to pay for talent this offseaon to improve a glaring hole in leftfield and in the line-up. They haven’t looked to take advantage of the salaries that came off the book after last season.

But on this day after Christmas Minaya’s moves thus far have only unwanted parts that were discarded after last year’s disaster. There have been no additions that in any way can be seen as improving the major league club. To make things worse, no deals have been made that improve the farm system. Keeping Billy Wagner would have better served the future of the club than would they acquisition of two low tiered prospects from the Red Sox.

President Obama has sent signals he’s looking to make a “hard pivot” toward jobs and the economy. Let’s hope that Minaya does the same.

Posted under Uncategorized

Bay Watch may be officially over, and it’s the worse case scenario for the Mets.

Adam Rubin’s report this morning that the Red Sox are considering getting back to Jason Bay is immeasurable in its potential to embarrass and further weaken Omar Minaya.

With the Wilpons staying in the background this off-season, and in perception they are making Minaya own the club’s future. This is potential political suicide on their part. If not corrected in some manner it will get worse before it gets better. And if Bay is lost, Minaya will have to move quickly to improve his 25 man roster. It’s the only way now.

They’ve set themselves up for this by giving the public face of trying to improve the club. If an unknown Plan B emerges because of an off-season of failure, it will not sit well with the fan base. A rebuilding plan that emerges suddenly in December will lose the Mets even more credibility in a town that doesn’t tolerate a lack of candor well. A decison to rebuild from the beginning would have been an easy sell after the last three seasons.

For an organization that’s always been obsessed with what’s on the back page of it’s city’s tabloids, they’ve never realized that they cannot have it both ways. On one hand, you cannot seek to spin the bad news while not doing enough to create good news on your own. Since the 2007 slide, this has been the Mets operational model.

Neither Minaya nor Jerry Manual have enough personal capital to protect the club from the negatives that will come from a disasterous off-season once spring training starts. There are just too many holes in the roster to overcome a juggernaut of unfavorable attention that will come with inconsistent play.

Much will be learned about the future of the Mets during the next few days.

Posted under Uncategorized

One week ago, Omar Minaya confidently emphasized the club’s patient approach to this off-season. Having lost the confidence of fans and the favorable press he once enjoyed, Minaya badly needs to be right. The future of the franchise is at stake.

So one week later, that patience thing better be working out.

It still could, but as the free agent talent pool shrinks the Mets self described patience meanders its way to dithering.

Gone now are players whom know how to win in Jason Marquis (Nationals), Garrett Atkins (Orioles) and Darren Oliver (Rangers). The Braves apparently are about to sign Troy Glaus to play first base. The once publically coveted Orlando Hudson is said to be talking to the Nationals as well.

As bad as it was last year, it’s hard to imagine how the last place Nationals are kicking the Mets ass so far this off-season. Nevermind the fact that they are closing the gap with Marquis, reliever Brian Burney and first ballot Hall of Fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez.

Players are not afraid to go to the Nationals. They have alot the Mets cannot offer. The Nationals were an energetic, fun team to watch at the end of last season. They have a new manager and GM with a mandate. The Nationals offer a sense of certainty that their organization is moving in a positive direction. The Mets have nothing of the sort.

It’s being noticed, too.

Meanwhile the Mets signed journyman knuckleballer, R.A. Dickey. Most Mets’ observers went beyond a yawn to a snicker.

Minaya and the Mets are not going to be able to survive the negative perception that will come with the failure to secure the services of a Jason Bay. Unless that is they know something we don ‘t. As no one in the Mets hierchy talks to the NY print media anymore, this could easily be true.

The negotiations for Bay and Bengie Molina might simply be just business, and that in the end the Mets won’t be outbid for them. And maybe they know that the upgrades they seek in the rotation will come from a trade. See all those Cincinnati Reds rumors. Several starters remain unsigned such as Joel Pineiro and Jarod Washburn.

Right now there isn’t enough roster change that helps Jerry Manuel’s team to go into next season with any confidence. If the current perception of dithering manifests as reality, the narrative that emerges about 6 weeks from now in Port St. Lucie will not be pleasant.

Collectively, everyone will be waiting for the manager to get fired. The Wilpons will look like fools to have kept Omar Minaya around after last season while the Mets struggle to finish ahead of the Nationals in the NL East cellar.

Posted under Uncategorized

If the report that the Mets are prioritizing the line-up, it means Jason Bay. The longer it goes, the less likely they are to sign him. It seems as if Bay and his agent have made no counter proposal. This further indicates that he’s looking to play elsewhere.

Nonetheless, if the Mets are waiting on Bay or to enter into the end game with Scott Boras on Matt Holliday, they are holding themselves up.

Couple this with the Mets efforts to move Luis Castillo. If the Mets believe that moving Castillo is a bigger priority than acquiring talent, they are further hamstringing themselves.

As the Yankees have gotten their pitcher in Javier Vazquez, it could start things rolling for everyone. Somehow, everyone always needs to wait on the Yankees.

Maybe that whisper about something going with the Reds that will involve a starting pitcher means something.

Posted under Uncategorized

It’s clear that the Mets could have had Jason Marquis and at a price they might have found acceptable. Today’s report in the Daily News puzzles me:

The explanation coming from the Mets last night, via a club source, is that they are focused on offense first, as they continue negotiations with Molina and outfielder Jason Bay. As such they aren’t ready to negotiate with pitchers until they know how much it costs to add bats.

Really? You mean you don’t have salary already slotted for a starter and you cannot go after more need than once? How do you explain all your efforts to improve catching. All of those available now are going to go for about the same thing. A relaible veteran player who wants to play for the Mets should not have been dismissed so easily. If there was diagreement on Marquis, it must have been from somebody high up like Omar Minaya or Jeff Wilpon.

So the quote the John Harper got sounds like a cop out to deflect criticism. The Mets hypersensitivity toward what’s written about them in the newspaper far too often results in clearly disingenuous spin. The Mets just needed to be big boys and say that they had no interest in Marquis. Because if they were, letting him sign with the Nationals was a screw up.

Posted under Uncategorized

How can it be any other way?

1. Two successive collapses at the end the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

2. The messy handling and dithering of Willie Randolph’s dismissal.

3. The Tony Bernazard saga that important parties are still in public denial over.

4. The flawed player development and amatuer talent acquisition philosophy.

5. 2009.

Nothing has happened over the last few seasons shows that the Wilpon-Minaya blue print for success has been correct since the 2006 season.

Minaya is still the organization’s front man on acquiring major talent, but the unique interpersonal skills we all once marveled are now a mytical notion from swoons past.

I doubt we will see long lines of fans waiting to get Minaya’s autograph this spring. Nonetheless, the man’s been busy. And he’s currently playing a bad hand fairly well.

Minaya seems to have read the market well. He hasn’t panicked to satisfy the vultures who create the back pages and has refused to be baited by agents negotiating via media propoganda. Unless they just don’t want to play for the Mets, Jason Bay and Bengie Molina could be Mets very soon. And at a cost to the Mets that wasn’t artificially ramped up.

The acquisition of Japanese reliever Ryota Igarashi is clever in that he didn’t cost the Mets what a seasoned MLB pitcher would. He could be lightening in a bottle at a very low financial committment.

The Mets focus on foreign talent payed off here. If they have any notion of being relevant in the future they will have to change their financial attitude to US talent. The trade of Billy Wagner at the end of last season was a disasterous misuse of an asset. Maybe the subtle changes that occurred in player development signals a change.

The market is coming back on free agents right now. Few teams are biting at what agents are asking for. I believe that Minaya will be bringing in either Joel Piniero or Jason Marquis who unlike most players makes no bones about wanting to play for the Mets. Some major league bats were let go last Saturday, too. Look for one of those to be a Met.

If something is indeed happening with the Reds, Minaya’s winter might not be one of discontent.

Posted under Uncategorized

After yesterday’s take down, John Harper is protraying Omar Minaya as a shrewd operator.

One day a blade of grass, the next day a horses ass.

Now it appears Minaya is being lauded for his deliberate approach to trying to sign Jason Bay. And Harper is correct in observing that there are signs that the Mets could be bidding against themselves. The Red Sox have publically said they are moving on. Once the Mariners finish with their Cliff Lee deal, they could turn to Bay – a man who has made no secret of his desire to play in Seattle.

It might be that its just the Mets and Mariners. Bay really wants to play in Seattle, but the Mets have the best offer on the table. His agent could be using the Mets to get the best deal he came from the Mariners. It looks like Minaya senses this.

Posted under Uncategorized

You need to be able to do that in New York, but as John Harper explains this morning the Mets cannot do that.

Compared to the Red Sox and Phillies, then, what exactly is there to like about them?

Harper offers a path to success:

For that matter, the Mets should take a hard look at how the Phillies have built a powerhouse ballclub. Most important, they did it with a farm system that produced the likes of Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Cole Hamels, as well as another wave of top prospects that allowed them to deal for Lee and now Halladay.

Because the Mets have so few top prospects at the upper levels of their farm system, they couldn’t begin to fill the holes created by all their injuries last season, and they are at the mercy of a weak free-agent class this offseason.

Is it 1982 again? Or 1992?

No. Not with three all-stars in the everyday line-up, one of the games’ dominate starters and a big time closer. An average year from the three keeps the Mets relevant and maybe even contenders. But the building will have to be less dramatic. Save the signing Of Jason Bay or Matt Holiday, the Mets will need to bring in some of the guys who got let go on Saturday. They also will need to go get someone like Joel Piniero or Jason Marquis. And yes, the catching will benefit from Bengie Molina, although not at three years.

But there is a problem in Harper’s perscription in that this isn’t the way the Mets current player development philosophy works. By budgeting so little money for US free agents, they limit the number of players they can draft. To few of the kids with leverage that are getting big deals in the current market are not selected.

Note the core group of Phillies that Harper cited are US born player – Hammels, Rollins, Utley and Howard are US born players. Under the Tony Bernazrad regime, latin players were emphasized and favored. This will have to change.

As Harper pointed out, people in the game know how dysfunctional the Mets are right now. Change will have to come.

I think the Mets have done alot this off-season in changing the culture with the hiring of Terry Collins to direct on-field operations in the minors. The hiring of Wally Backman to manage their high profile Brooklyn team is a signal that they are looking to not only be different, but appear different.

Major league talent is on the way this off-season. There will be a new look in the clubhouse. It will be up to Jerry Manuel to get the team to play competitively or he’ll be let go early. Minaya’s contract situation makes his future more uncertain and less predictable. But the heir apparents for Manuel’s job will be in Florida in Mets uniforms starting in February.

Posted under Uncategorized

Bill Madden throws cold water on the chances of the Mets signing Jason Bay.

Can’t say that I blame Madden. The Mets haven’t really made a good deal since bringing Johan Santana to New York. Jeff Francoeur fell in their lap. Their questionable frugality in signing amatuer talent was on display when they gave away Billy Wagner who will be closing this season for a division opponent.

Plus the unthinkable…who really wants to play for the Mets right now? Minaya’s powers of persuassion are not what they once were, thus putting the Mets in the position of having to clearly outbid for the services of talent. The Mets could meerly be used just to drive up the market for players whom have no intention of signing on to what can understandably be looked at as a dysfunctional organization. A seasoned observer such as Madden is sure to be aware of just this possibility.

Posted under Uncategorized

I’ve always been a fans of Matt Cerrone’s use of polling data of Met fans. One today gives me a reason to believe I’ve been right about something. I wrote the following in a post last week:

The Mets’ historical identity of being built around strong starting pitching has always appeared to be absolute. Last year’s failure of any starter to assume the role of a #2 behind one of the game’s best necessitated the club’s turn it’s attention to acquiring one. Met fans have a comfort level when their clubs are built around it’s stating pitching.

Metsblog offers a choice to fans to select between John Lackey, Matt Holliday and Jason Bay. Lackey leads all with 44%.

The Mets are an organization with a relatively short history in that there are fans alive who were there at the beginning. The first taste of glory came with a team built on strong starting pitching in Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and Jon Matlack. No one will never forget the Dwight Gooden led staffs of the late 1980′s. It was the Mets dependency on starters which prompted Joe McIlvaine to give up Rick Aguillera along with four other players to get Frank Viola during 1990. Reacquisitions of Seaver, along with such pitchers as Brett Saberhagen, Al Leiter, Mike Hampton, Tom Glavine and Johan Santana support this hypothesis.

Even after a season such as 2009 that witnessed such offensive impotence, Met fans still put a premium on starting pitching.

I voted for Holliday in the poll, as I see the Mets need for a right-handed bat to be the greatest. They must compete with the Phillies whom have very good lefthanded pitching in Cliff Lee, Cole Hammels, J.A. Happ and Jamie Moyers. Righthanded hitters like Holliday and Jason Bay may not be available again.

Maybe I’m being allowed to buy into the weakness of catching last year and am optimistic of a positive return of some of the starters – except for Oliver Perez that is. And don’t get me wrong, if it’s any of these three, I’ll be pleased that the Wilpons are trying to win.

Posted under Uncategorized