Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The Winter of our Mets Discontent

John Steinbeck may have penned the phrase "winter of our discontent" but it's Mets fans who are living it. What is going on with this team? Is the goal to get 5th place in the NL East? Are the Mets hoping not to sell a lot of tickets this year?

What is the master plan?

We were sold on Sandy Alderson because of his involvement in Moneyball and the strategic mind that can see 5 moves ahead and plan for the future. I'm not seeing any such plan or strategery taking place here. It looks to me like Sandy Alderson is trying to get fired, which in all honestly might not be a bad move for him. Maybe he didn't realize just what kind of mess he was getting into and now wants out.

So far the biggest move of the off season is not doing anything to sign Reyes and trading Angel Pagan for an older version of himself. Now we're talking about trading Jon Niese? Really? A guy who's under contract for the next few years for a reasonable price and has proven to be pretty much the only consistent starter that we have is going to be traded? For what? Prospects? Isn't that what Niese is? He's a guy with 2 full years pitching under his belt and we don't know his ceiling yet. We know he can pitch pretty well though. So let's trade him for two guys who MIGHT be better? This is crazy.

Show me some signs of foresight. I get that there are a number of high ceiling pitching prospects in the farm system, but the chances of ALL of them panning out to be big league contributors is slim. Look at Fernando Martinez! The untouchable prospect and apple of Omar Minaya's eye is now the talk of Queens as the Mets may actually dump him. Not trade him. Dump him.

What was supposed to a major change in the front office that would lead to future success is looking more like a continuing legacy of ineptitude by the Mets. I don't expect blockbuster moves. I just want some hope for the future.

As John Malkovich so eloquently said on his Christmas episode hosting of Saturday Night Live: "Hope is what we cling to when reality has left us nothing else."

No truer words were spoken of the 2012 New York Mets. Welcome to the winter of our discontent. The current forecast is calling for it to last well into May.

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