One New York Life

The season blissfully ended last weekend and I happily get to put this season to bed with watching some non-depressing baseball games. I can happily stop hearing insane Mets calls on WFAN. I can happily stop reading the commenters on Metsblog. I can happily ignore Twitters from Mets’ bloggers. I used to think it would be fun maintaining a Mets Blog. It’s not. Because, as I’ve mentioned earlier this year, when the Mets are going badly, the fans (and writers) are as bad as the Jets. It’s so insanely different then the Giants. The Giants don’t make changes based on media pressure. The Mets and Jets do. That’s why you got Favre last season. That’s why Mangini is gone. That’s why the Jets have been terrible. The Mets have a terrible tendency to listen too much. And they can’t.

The number of bloggers (and, to be fair, newspaper reporters and beat writers) who have talked up the need to blow up this team and start from scratch is mind-boggling. The people who follow this franchise really, honestly believe that we should start from scratch when the opening day line-up, if nothing changed from right now, would have Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Jose Reyes, Jeff Francoeur, and Luis Castillo (off a .302/.387/.346 year). Their ace pitcher would be Johan Santana and their closer would be K-Rod. If they execute his option, their set-up man is still JJ Putz. These people would argue that the team should trade off five All-Stars (for fifty cents on the dollar off bad years, mind you) for what? Prospects? Half of equal value? If this team needs to be blown up, what should we do to the Pirates? Nuke them from orbit?

Besides that, the number of columns written saying the Wilpons are terrible owners and that Jeff embarrassed himself by appearing live, in-studio, with Omar Minaya on the Mike Francesa Show is equally mind-boggling. Francesa, regardless of if you like him or hate him, is a tough interviewer. He asked everything the fans should be wondering (will the Mets’ share Wilpon’s Madoff-related suffering? Will the stadium concerns be addressed? Will Murphy be the every day first basemen? Will the Mets at least spend up to this year’s payroll?) and he answered them honestly as possible. Yes, the Mets will probably have the highest payroll in the National League next year. No, it won’t be as high as the Yankees. Yes, we’re going to be aggressive in filling our shortcomings. No wonder other team fanbases hate us so much. Can you imagine being stuck under the thumb of Robert Nutting or Jeff Loria and listening to a group of spoiled people complaining about their owner spending $150M/year?

And, on top of all that, I can’t even imagine the abject idiocy of people demanding firings off this season. Off of a season in which, before the injuries started, the Mets were in first place by 4 games. A season which featured over 1500 days and $40 million on the DL. How, with a straight face, can you demand a manager and a general manager be fired off that? No one can present a cogent argument for why Omar Minaya should be fired. “He should have made mid-season moves.” No, he shouldn’t have. There was nothing that was going to fix this season. Sending prospects to the Nationals for Adam Dunn meant we would have had Adam Dunn on a 70-win team. “He should have had a better bench.” We had a great bench. We had Gary Sheffield to play twice a week in the outfield, Alex Cora to handle middle infield, and Fernando Tatis to handle corner outfield. By the end of the season, they were on a fourth string middle infielder and a third string corner outfielder. You get 25 guys on a major league roster, people… not 50. He made a great trade this season in getting an every day right fielder for a bench right fielder. His trade record with the Mets is 75%. “He should have signed Derek Lowe instead of Oliver Perez.” You don’t know that. Let’s wait until Lowe is serving up batting practice in 2013, shall we? “He was wrong about Daniel Murphy.” Yes, he was. He misread a prospect. It happens.

Other than the yearly reworking that goes in to every bullpen, the Mets need to replace three — THREE — positions. First base, left field, and a 2nd starting pitcher. The Mets’ farm system isn’t deep, but they certainly have enough in the system to put together a package for a Johan Santana-like sign-and-trade deal. If I’m taking the Wilpons at their word and they’re going to at least spend up to the current salary number and maybe a little more, they have around $50M to spend after dealing with Wright’s and Reyes’s escalators.

Plan 1 (The stars align and everything happens like I want it): Resign Carlos Delgado to a one-year, incentive deal which he’ll likely take to try and score a DH job in 2011… remind him it’s either this or the A’s. Delgado fills the role of everyday 1B and interleague DH. Let Daniel Murphy develop as a bench player/caddy for Delgado so he can get some at-bats without the entirety of the Mets’ Media Douches wanting to lay a season at his feat because he’s learning two new positions at the major league level. Offer a sign-and-trade package to Toronto for the available Roy Halladay. Pick up JJ Putz’s option and trade him and cash to the Rays for Carl Crawford and his option. Angel Pagan becomes the bench outfielder. Sign Rafael Soriano from the Braves. The Mets have a rotation of Johan Santana, Roy Halliday, Mike Pelfrey, Oliver Perez, and John Maine. An All-Star closer, an All-Star set-up man. And a line-up of Jose Reyes, Carl Crawford, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, David Wright, Jeff Francoeur, Luis Castillo, and a catcher. $24M for Halliday, $10M for Crawford, $8M for Soriano, $5M for Delgado. Pencil in 65 wins for your starters and go to work.

Pros: Unbelievably awesome. Selling season tickets is not a problem.
Cons: Probably won’t happen because too many things have to break right.

Plan 2: Sign-and-trade for Prince Fielder or Adrian Gonzales, either of whom will probably be made available in the last years of their deals. Sign Jason Bay. Take a flier on Erik Bedard.

Pros: Lineup is still an awesome Reyes, Castillo, Beltran, Wright, Fielder, Francoeur, Bay, Catcher.
Cons: Island of Manhattan may not be big enough for both Prince and CC. Brewers are close enough to contention that they’re going to want major league ready players. No Roy Halladay. Signing a guy prone to DL stints.

Plan 3: Offer the Nationals whatever prospects they want for Adam Dunn since they’re not contending until at least 2011. Sign John Lackey. Execute Putz’s option. Still sign Rafael Soriano. Roll the dice with Angel Pagan and his adventurous base-running in left-field.

Pros: Lockdown bullpen, less wins in the rotation.
Cons: Angel Pagan is a bench player. He shouldn’t be starting.

Plan 4 (worst case scenario so what will happen): Lavish type A free agent money on Matt Holliday and enjoy him hitting .220 in Citi Field. Sign 32-year-old Aubrey Huff to a 5-year deal and wonder why he’s declining every season. Sign John Lackey. Don’t have a draft pick until 2012.

Pros: Spending lots of money.
Cons: Terrible.

The Mets are going to have to spend money to fill in their gaps — but the idea they need to start from scratch is absurd.

Related posts:

• New York Mets Preview 2009 – The Bullpen
• New York Mets Preview 2009 – The Bench
• New York Mets 2009 Preview – The Outfield
• New York Mets 2009 Preview – The Infield
• New York Mets: The Rumored Options