However, words that once seemed to come fairly easily to me during most of my years writing this blog have lately refused to dance off my keyboard onto the virtual page. To be honest with you, it got to the point where I felt my time as a blogger had run its course.

I am in the midst of a number of changes in my life. At 51 years old I am not quite as quick to adapt as I once was, and I'm sure that has played a part in this. I'm getting out of the business that's paid my bills for more than a decade and trying to figure out where I'm going there. My Mom's situation is still complicated and time-consuming and, at times, mentally exhausting.

Anyway, those are my problems, not yours, but as 2009 rolled over into 2010 and the words continued not to come I felt that I was at a crossroads not only as a Mets blogger but even as a Mets fan.

I can't recall a winter in recent memory where I felt less invested in what the Mets were doing, and it really had nothing to do with the moves that they were and were not making. I guess that given everything else that was going on in my life, baseball just seemed trivial in comparison.

This was quite a contrast from where I was heading into the season. In February and March I felt energized and on top of my game writing for this blog. I committed myself to trying to blog daily again, and for the most part was accomplishing that. I felt like I was doing my best stuff in a couple of years and was looking forward to the season.

My Mom's problems began before the season did, however, and consumed most of my time going into the early summer. By that point the Mets season had essentially fallen apart, too, and I found myself expending whatever energy I had to spare in a last ditch effort to resurrect my business. There never seemed to be much time or energy left over for blogging.

The season came to its inglorious end, leading into an off-season that featured little of consequence beyond the Jason Bay signing. As the holiday season and then January slipped by and I still wasn't posting, I thought it was time to realistically confront the possibility that I didn't have the drive to do this anymore.

If I wasn't going to keep the blog going, however, I still had three books that I had accepted review copies of and hadn't produced the reviews: Ron Darling's The Complete Game: Reflections on Baseball, Pitching, and Life on the Mound, Greg Prince's Faith and Fear in Flushing: An Intense Personal History of the New York Mets, and Dana Brand's The Last Days of Shea: Delight and Despair in the Life of a Mets Fan.

When you're given a review copy of a book, the deal on your part is that you will give the book a fair read and an honest review. I certainly hadn't lived up to my part of the bargain. So I felt that I couldn't end my blogging career without doing the reviews.

Since it had been a while since I had read the books, particularly Darling's and Greg Prince's, I sat down and read them again in the order I had originally received them.

I've finished rereading both Darling's and Greg Prince's books and am just starting Dana's. They're all excellent books, and well worth the effort. I'd like to get all three reviews posted before the end of this month.

An unexpected consequence of my effort came partway through my encore read of Greg's book. I remembered why I love baseball and even the Mets so much. I remembered why obsessing over the ups and downs of this franchise somehow made sense despite its relative triviality compared to the real meat and potatoes problems that life throws at us.

We're going to give this thing one more shot -- returning to where we were a year ago when I committed to trying to post daily, starting today. As we wait for spring training to get underway we'll talk a little bit about things that happened this winter and where we think the club needs to go moving forward.

Let's talk some baseball. (And thanks, Greg and Dana.)

My other concern with the Bay deal is a preponderance of right-handed hitters (Bay, Wright, Francoeur and behind the dish) and switch-hitters (Beltran, Reyes and Castillo), with only one pure left-handed bat (Murphy). If Manuel wants to keep the opposition on their toes by keeping speed at the top of the lineup and also alternate righties and lefties--Reyes, Castillo, Wright, Beltran, Bay, Murphy and Francoeur--is likely the way it will look. And without much variation.

The other thing the Bay Play solidifies is Angel Pagan's critical role on the 2010 Mets. Pagan should start at least three games a week--one at each position. A smart manager acknowledging the internal damage to Beltran's knee would never let him play a day game following night, in bad weather or on a very wet outfield. Both Francoeur and Bay are susceptible to certain right-handed hurlers and Pagan should spell each of them once a week to keep him sharp, the others rested and give the Mets a little edge in the match-ups. No doubt, he will be a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner and play a couple of defensive innings in LF quite frequently. If Pagan is used creatively and not allowed to rot away on the bench, he will be the Most Valuable Sub in the league. The goal is at least 350 at-bats.

No Molina Please
Alternating the catching duties between Henry Blanco and Omir Santos with both Chris Coste and Josh Thole in reserve is just fine. Spend the bucks on pitching. An argument can even be made to carry Coste as a third receiver and right-handed platoon with Murphy at 1B. This gives the Mets some terrific depth. Even better, should Thole continue to excel and Santos have a decent season, the Mets can dangle Santos in July or at the end of the season. Using Blanco, Santos and Coste effectively can deliver anything and everything Molina can and then some, without clogging up the base paths. Bengie may well be the slowest man in baseball since Ernie Lombardi.

Bench Press
In today's game, the bench (and the farm system) DOES matter. High salaries appear to make managers play the higher priced talent as regulars and diminish the role player to bench jockey. The masterful Stengel/Hodges platooning, I so often refer to, is but a distant memory. The Mets may perhaps field a true platoon at 1B with Murphy paired with Coste, Evans, Garko, Garciaparra or even Tatis. (The first three are the most likely.) Catching will be more of a potpourri from three right-handed hitters and based more on who's pitching for both teams. As mentioned above, this leaves the Angel Pagan (a switch-hitting pure outfielder) as the key bench player, followed by Alex Cora (a lefty swinging pure infielder). If the Mets go with a trio of backstops (Blanco/Santos/Coste) this leaves only one slot available to fill. If they go with two catchers and sign a Garko or Garciaparra or Tatis, they will have a power right-handed bat. Presumably, the role should be another switch-hitter who can play both INF and OF. The ubiquitous and totally versatile utility man is certainly in vogue for the Mets, rather than a one-dimensional Jack Cust-type. There does not appear to be the switch-hitting character out there. However, what about Smithtown boy Frank Catalanotto? Frank plays everywhere decently, has a good contact, left-handed bat and is a savvy veteran. Sure he's a little long-in-the-tooth, but ending his career playing in his hometown is a nice way to go out and he will want to distinguish himself. The question is whether the Mets want to sacrifice power for versatility. If Garko or Garciaparra are at 1B, power may not be necessary.

Pen-ultimate?
Can't argue with what Omar/Jeff have put together for the 2010 bullpen. The key roles there will be setup man, long man and swing man. With K-Rod a lock for closer and Perpetual Pedro and Sean Green (unless they get Chad Bradford back) as the situational lefty and righty, respectively, there are a number of intriguing choices for Manuel and Warthen to ponder. There also appears to be quite a bit of depth reaching all the way down to AAA for the first time in memory.

Closer: Frankie Rodriguez
8th Inning setup man: Kelvim Escobar
7th Inning go-to-guy: Ryota Igarashi
Situational lefty: Pedro Feliciano
Situational righty: Sean Green
Swing arms: Brian Stokes and/or Bobby Parnell
Long lefty: Pat Misch
Long righty: Nelson Figueroa

If the Mets go with three southpaws in the starting rotation (Santana/Perez/Niese), look for Misch to open the season in Buffalo as a starter, along with Fernando Nieve, Toby Stoner and Dillon Gee. The Buffalo pen should feature lefties Derrick Ellison and Arturo Lopez, plus righties Elmer Dessens, RA Dickey, Clint Everts, Jack Egbert, Eddie Kunz and perhaps Parnell (if he is not dealt and Escobar & Igarashi each have a nice spring training). Dickey and Parnell could also be candidates for the Bison rotation.

Would you make Deal A?
Mike Pelfrey, Bobby Parnell (or Fernando Martinez) and Luis Castillo to the Cubs for Carlos Zambrano?

The Cubs would need to replace Zambrano in the rotation with a pitcher who can deliver 200 innings. Pelfrey throws a heavy ball and is generally considered a ground ball pitcher. He appears to be durable. Parnell has a lot of upside. Still a prospect with a full season of experience and a 98 MPH fastball. He slots nicely into Piniella's pen. Castillo provides much of what the Cubs are looking for--a steady hand at 2B, who can put the ball in play from both sides of the plate and get on base for Lee, Ramirez, and Soriano. The Cubs problem is too much right-handed hitting and an aging roster. Fukidome is at best a platoon right-fielder. And who is going to play CF? This is why F-Mart could be in the mix. If so, the Cubs would have to put a prospect into the mix.

Mets rotation candidates:
L - Santana
R - Zambrano
L - Perez
R - Maine
L - Niese
R - Nieve

Cubs rotation candidates:
L - Lilly
R - Dempster
R - Wells
L - Gorzelanny
R - Pelfrey
R - Silva

Or would you make Deal B?
Mike Pelfrey, Bobby Parnell (or Jon Niese) and Luis Castillo to the Reds for Bronson Arroyo and Brandon Phillips?

The Reds would be looking for a big young arm to replace Arroyo at a lesser price. Between Pelfrey and Parnell, they fill a couple of needs at a far lower cost. Phillips is a defense, speed and power upgrade, but he adds another big right-handed bat to the Mets lineup, which they do not necessarily require. Castillo would certainly replace Phillips in the Reds lineup, but the Mets would likely have to pay $4-5 million to satisfy the contract for the low payroll Reds. Substituting Niese for Parnell might mitigate the paydown and deliver a "B" prospect to the Mets. Or, how about Pelfrey, Niese, Castillo and a few mil for Arroyo, Phillips and Matt Maloney or Homer Bailey?

Mets rotation candidates:
L - Santana
R - Arroyo
L - Perez
R - Maine
L - Niese
R - Nieve

Reds rotation candidates:
R - Harang
R - Volquez
L - Maloney
R - Pelfrey
R - Cueto
R - Bailey

Trade Proposal Follow-Up
Just because I'm suggesting moving Pelfrey and Parnell does not mean I do not want them, like them or believe they are not still very good prospects and valuable pieces. Clearly, John Maine does not have Pelfrey's value due to injuries and age. Parnell has a tremendous fast ball and good delivery, which should keep him less prone to injury than other fireballers. For the Mets, the problem is where does Parnell slot? For a team that once developed and distributed an amazing array of closers (McGraw, Lockwood, Reardon, Aguilera, Orosco, McDowell, Myers, Isringhausen and Heath Bell), it sure seems the Mets like to go out and acquire them for the past 20 years (Franco, Benitez, Looper, Wagner and Rodriquez). Right now, Bobby Parnell, who is a step beyond most prospects, should have some very good upside to another ballclub be it as a closer, setup man or perhaps starter.

There are certainly other prospects and names that can be thrown in the mix, but only as throw-ins. At this particular point in time, the guys mentioned above (Pelfrey, Parnell, Niese and F-Mart) are the only meaningful names to other organizations.

In the unlikely (but not out-of-the-question) event that Zambrano could be acquired, the Mets would likely go after Orlando Hudson to man the second sack. However, Felipe Lopez could be a cheaper, younger (2.5 years and 9 seasons in The Show as opposed to 8 for the O-Dog) and more versatile option (has played SS, 3B and OF in addition to 2B). Lopez and Hudson, both switch-hitters, have remarkably similar offensive stats and neither is the base-running threat they once appeared to be.

The true measure of this deal won't be known for years. But no one can deny that a Mets roster with Bay on it is a marked improvement from a roster without him. So he's not a Gold Glove outfielder. With the exception of Carlos Beltran, the Mets haven't had one of those in thirty years, and they've had a few pretty good teams despite that glaring deficiency.

Did the Mets overpay for Bay? Quite likely. So what? Every player in baseball is paid more than he's worth. Some are just more overpaid than others. Is Bay on the other side of 30, and getting older every year? Sure is. And every other player gets exactly one year older every year, too. Will Bay put the Mets over the top in 2010? Probably not, but he fills one of the two biggest needs they had going into the winter.

The other need, for a mid-line starting pitcher, remains unmet so far, but signing Bay without losing any prospects gives them far more flexibility to make a trade for one between now and March. Problem is, every team in baseball could use another decent starter, and the fear is that Omar Minaya will overpay in minor league bodies to deal for one.

Can Bay play in New York? That's a question none of us can accurately predict. We've seen a lot of talented players come to Flushing from other cities where they excelled, only to grow feet of clay inside Shea. Pittsburgh ain't New York. But let's give the man a chance to prove himself. Going into the 2009 season, the Mets roster looked to be one of the most talented in their history. One year and several hundred days on the disabled list later, the pieces are there again, and Bay is one big added piece. If they can stay healthy, and Bay can adjust to a New York lifestyle without too much culture shock, the Mets can give the Phillies a run for their money. Any fan willing to dismiss the value of a player with 514 RBI's in the last five years isn't much of a fan.

The pundits (from TV, to radio, to print, to bloggers) are all over the place on these issues. Season ticket holders seem to be in the 'wait-and-see' mode, which is perfectly reasonable for those who shell out considerable bucks for what is a questionable product at the moment.

But what goes with all the pessimism and bashing of virtually everyone in the Mets organization? From 2006-2008, the Mets averaged 91 victories a season and spent all but a few weeks out of first place in the NL East. Is there anyone out there who think the Highlanders or Phillies (or other postseason participants) could have won without their first baseman, shortstop and centerfielder, not to mention their #3 and #4 starters, missing the same amount of games as Delgado, Reyes, Beltran, Maine and Perez? No way. Come on, get real.

There is still plenty of time and plenty of talent from which to craft a winning ballclub.

All along, it has been this scribe's observation that due to a very good core, some talent that has to be given a chance to show their wares, a few prospects who are ready now and others who will be ready within the next year, Omar/Jeff should go the clever and prudent route.

Let's take a look on a position to position basis...

FIRST BASE
It seems that the Mets, like some of us, think that Daniel Murphy deserves an opportunity to play the first sack in 2010 and at least against right-handed pitching within a platoon. Considering the Mets have Ike Davis perhaps a year away, it is well worth seeing some other talent in 2010. Don't look for the Mets to sign Delgado since there is not much of an upside. Murph was hot for most of the last two months of the 2009 campaign and made big strides defensively, showing good range and quickness. It appears he is a doubles machine and should hit perhaps 20 HRs and drive in an acceptable 75-90 RBI while keeping strikeouts reasonably low and increasing his base on balls. Here a re a couple of the best options for a right-handed hitting platoon partner:

In the system: Nick Evans - Can play some LF and 3B and needs some seasoning. Should it be in The Show against lefties?
Young veteran: Ryan Garko (FA) - Nice power and experience and likely a reasonable contract. Limited to 1B.
Aging veteran: Nomar Garciaparra (FA) - Once great. Is there anything left? Leadership and can play some 3B.
Known commodity: Fernando Tatis (FA) - Can he do any worse than the others?
Chris Coste - Perhaps Jerry & Omar are thinking of Coste against righties and a 3rd receiver at the same time.
In the wings: Ike Davis, Lucas Duda

SECOND BASE
I've said it before, I'll say it again: Whether its Castillo or anyone else, this position will not make or break the Mets. In fact, with Reyes leading off, Luis is about as good a two-hole hitter as can be found. He makes contact, is a great bunter and is willing to give himself up to move the runner. And he does it from both sides of the dish. Granted, Phillips/Lopez/Hudson would all be an upgrade. Alex Cora can effectively spell Castillo at least once a week and certainly in every day game after night game against right-handed pitching.

In the system: Anderson Hernandez - Not the answer, but good to have at Buffalo in a pinch.
Young veteran: Felipe Lopez (FA) or Brandon Phillips (trade) - Either would be a big defensive lift and add a touch of power.
Aging veteran: Orlando Hudson (FA) - Still young enough, but petered out in 2009 after a great first half.
Known commodity: Luis Castillo - gets on base and fields adequately.
In the wings: Ruben Tejada

SHORTSTOP
Jose Reyes is the key man on this team. If he is healthy and plays decently everything will fall into place. If he plays very well, the Mets will be formidable. Problem is, if he doesn't play due to nagging injuries, there is no one to fill his shoes and the Mets will falter. Jose must play 150 games for the Mets to be competitive. With a fly ball pitchers on the mound, Alex Cora will fill in admirably a dozen games or so.

In the system: Anderson Hernandez - Certainly not the answer, but good to have at Buffalo in a pinch.
In the wings: Ruben Tejada

THIRD BASE
David Wright had the best worst year that a player ever had. With virtually no protection in the lineup after the first 37 games, he still hit over .300 with 39 doubles and 27 SB. With Reyes and Castillo in front and Beltran and Murphy/Francoeur behind, is there any doubt he would have been more productive? The higher strikeout and lower BB certainly were part and parcel of the lack of protection. What Citi Field may have wrought will also be mitigated by having a complete compliment of personnel.

In the system: Daniel Murphy/Nick Evans/Shawn Bowman.
In the wings: several highly regarded 3B prospects at lower levels

CATCHER
Stay away from fat Jose, Molina that is. No reason henry Blanco and Omir Santos can't split the duties with Chris Coste in reserve and Josh Thole honing his skills on the farm. I thought Josh Bard was a good fit for one year, but he signed with Seattle yesterday.

In the system: Chris Coste - Will be first call from Buffalo (or is there another plan in mind?)
In the wings: Josh Thole - He can rope, but can he cut the mustard behind the dish?

LEFT FIELD
Jason Bay and Matt Holiday are not good enough defensively to man the huge expanse of Citi Field that constitutes left field, especially at the salaries that are being bandied about. By all accounts, Chris Carter, acquired for Billy Wagner, is ready to hit major league pitching now; With Fernando Martinez perhaps less than a season away (if he can stay healthy); With all the great hitting prowess shown by Angel Pagan; And with all the interesting free agents rearing their heads for 2011 (especially Carl Crawford, a perfect fit for Citi Field), it seems the only thing the Mets really need is a right-handed hitting platoon candidate.

In the system: Nick Evans - Perhaps a better platoon match at 1B with Murphy to build up his value.
Young veteran: Jonny Gomes - This guy may be just the right fit and the right price for a year (or two).
Aging veteran: Jermaine Dye - Leadership, good glove and bat. And a lot healthier than Gary Sheffield.
Known commodity: Angel Pagan - No doubt he can hit and catch, but can he run and throw?
In the wings: Fernando Martinez/Kirk Niewenhuis - both lefty swingers of the future.

CENTER FIELD
Carlos Beltran may well be the best CF in baseball when he is healthy. Problem is, he is no longer healthy. His internally bruised knee is likely to need a rest on day games after night and for a week to 10 days a couple of times each year plus he will be the DH in AL parks. Sorry, those are the facts. This will cut down on his and the Mets running game, but 130 games where Beltran is effective is probably all they need with Pagan as the caddie.

In the system: Angel Pagan - Could be the key role player on the Mets and CF could be his spot for 40 games or so.
In the wings: Fernando Martinez/Kirk Niewenhuis

RIGHT FIELD
The Mets can do much worse than Jeff Francoeur. He defends the terrain way above average with a rifle arm. He has adequate power and drives in runs. Sure, he strikes out quite a bit and hardly walks at all, but what a great attitude and teammate. So, lets give Omar a little credit, this guy was a terrific pickup and a good trade for the Mets. Not as good as the Santana swindle, but pretty darn good.

In the system: Angel Pagan - Can spot Francoeur against tough righties once a week.

STARTING PITCHERS
While the Mets could easily go to Spring Training with Johan Santana, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese, Fernando Nieve, Pat Misch and Nelson Figueroa competing for five spots, signing one of the previously injured hurlers like Ben Sheets (too pricey) or Chien Ming Wang (could be a worthwhile sleeper) along with a trade (How about Pelfrey, Bobby Parnell, Sean Green and Castillo for Carlos Zambrano?) could deliver some serious depth to the staff. There is also a possibility of adding Bronson Arroyo or Aaron Harang (and Phillips) for a similar package.

RELIEF PITCHING
Here is where Omar has made a few very clever pickups. Darren Oliver would have been nice in the long LOOGY role, but he's gone. Add Chad Bradford to the current mix and it's the best pen in baseball, with a nice mix of arm types from K-Rod to Escobar to Igarashi to Feliciano to Stokes to Misch and/or Figueroa. Escobar, Stokes, Misch and Figueroa can go multiple innings.

Let's say Omar/Jeff make a deal for the real Zambrano, signs Gomes or Dye and Hudson or Lopez. They can find a right-handed hitting fist sacker from Dye/Coste/Evans and give several young players a chance to grow. Pretty good team, don't you think?

As we've been saying... plenty of time and still plenty of available talent. Sit tight, take a deep breath and let things fall into place.

Although I would have liked to have seen the Mets make a legitimate run at the top free agents and trade targets, I felt that it would mostly be a lot of posturing and that the 2010 Mets would be a different Mets' squad, but not necessarily an improved one. But at this point, if the Mets had merely done what I predicted instead of what they have actually done, we would all be extremely grateful. Sure, there are still weeks before the team reports to spring training and a lot can be done in that time. But will it?

My predictions included the Mets making non-competitive token offers to all the prime free agents to show the fans they are trying to do something : Lackey, Holliday, Bay, Marquis and eventually signing Joel Pineiro. Of that group, only Bay got an offer from the Mets, and who knows how seriously they will pursue him? For some strange reason, they made it a point to tell the fans that they had analyzed both players' swings and preferred Bay, which kind of negates their chances of signing Holliday if Bay goes elsewhere. Pineiro will probably also be out of the Mets' price range. I also foresaw the Mets offering a package for Roy Halladay, one that would be turned down flat and countered with an offer that included a couple of the Mets' better established players (Pelfrey and Francoueur) as well as their three best prospects. No deal there. Not even any talk, only a farfetched rumor that Toronto wanted Jose Reyes.

Then, I saw the Mets inquiring on Carl Crawford, only to be offered and enticed by a package of B.J. Upton (who the Mets would build up as their next superstar) and Andy Sonnanstine in exchange for Pelfrey, Fernando Martinez, and 3 other top prospects (Flores, Mejia, and Nieuwenhuis, or similar). I gave this as an example of a BAD over-reaching move that Omar would make, but I'm beginning to think that no one the Mets will actually acquire will excite the fans as much as Upton would, if exciting the fans rather than fielding a winning team is the Mets' off-season goal, which it well may be.

I also saw Melvin Mora and Austin Kearns as 2010 Mets, not exactly difference-makers, but a whole lot better than Chris Coste and Mike Hessman. And Elmer Dessens has been re-signed? He was #1 on my list of players "certain" not to return.

About the only thing the Mets have gotten right this off-season is the hiring of Wally Backman to manage the Cyclones. Unfortunately, since Brooklyn's season doesn't start until June, if the Mets get off to a bad start and Manuel goes, Backman could hardly be considered a candidate to take over when he hasn't even started managing in the organization yet.

Maybe the Mets really will sign Jason Bay. I doubt it, but even if they did, it doesn't exactly make them a contender. Plugging him into leftfield, the Mets still need at least someone to platoon with Murphy at first base (Garko?), a guy for the bench with both defensive versatility and pinch-hitting skills (Mark DeRosa?), two starting pitchers at least one of whom is a legitimate #2, and some bullpen upgrades including one more lefty. The signings of Everts and Igarashi would normally be called under-the-radar moves that could pay off, but to date, they are the biggest moves the Mets have made since the season ended. Unbelievable.

Even Dave Mills' self-described restrained approach implores the Mets to go after players like Gomes, Capps, Escobar, DeRosa, Sheets, Wang, and Chapman. Like that'll happen. There's still plenty of time to make these moves and the players are out there. But will the Mets spend the money or make a shrewd trade? We'll see. I grow more pessimistic daily.

Eight years and $128 million for Matt Holliday? What? He's a butcher in the OF (exemplified against the Dodgers in the playoffs) and not exactly a speed demon.

Five years and $85 million for John Lackey, who has only once won more than 14 games in a season and whose lifetime ERA is 3.81? Almost makes the Derek Lowe signing for $60 million look like a bargain.

Doc Halladay for $20 million a year at ages 34, 35 and 36 (plus cutting loose Cliff Lee and a prospect or two)?

For the Mets to enter the fray on these overpriced acquisitions and signings will do nothing more than personify desperation.

Restraint is demanded by those of us who know that 2009 was an aberration. The Mets were beset by a string of injuries that no team, no matter how deep their system, could have possibly overcome. The possibility of such roster devastation next season, or during any future campaign, is so improbable even Vegas would be reluctant to make book.

Why can't we all take a deep breath and not exacerbate the situation? Our verbal restraint may actually keep a skittish Omar Minaya from making classic errors of misjudgment in a last-ditch effort to save his job.

This scribe (and a couple of others), has proposed a series of fixes that can yield positive results without sending away our quality prospects and taking on huge salaries.

Why can't we give Chris Carter a chance to platoon with a Jonny Gomes and deliver some offensive firepower in LF, especially with Angel Pagan in reserve and Fernando Martinez and Nick Evans at AAA?

Why can't Daniel Murphy be teamed with Garrett Atkins or Mark DeRosa, either of whom can also spell David Wright from time to time? With talent like Ike Davis on the farm, this strategy would be sensible.

Why can't we let Omir Santos and Henry Blanco (Santana's personal catcher) handle the receiving duties knowing that Josh Thole and Chris Coste are 90 minutes away in Buffalo?

Why can't we sign a Sheets and/or Wang and see if Maine, Pelfrey and Perez can each revisit their best year of the past two? With Niese, Nieve and Misch in the mix of Show-worthy prospects, is it a risk not worth taking? Perhaps spending $16 million to sign Aroldis Chapman would even prove worthwhile in a year or two?

Can a Kelvim Escobar, Matt Capps, Nieve or even Maine be the 8th Inning answer? Why not?

All of these questions can be answered more prudently than just tossing big bucks and too many years at Jason Bay, Joel Pinero and others. Good teams need good role players.

Those of us who observed Gil Hodges' resourceful and contemplative management style understand why he was able to nurture a championship. Gil understood and quietly communicated the role of each player on his roster. In case it has been lost in the 40 intervening years, that 1969 team had excellent starting pitching, a good (but not great bullpen), above average defense and not much else. At four positions (1B/2B/3B/RF), strict righty/lefty platoons were employed, yet Hodges still found playing time for his lefty swinging catcher (JC Martin) and backup switch-hitting outfielder (Rod Gaspar) to stay sharp and contribute both offensively and defensively. No manager ever got more out of a roster.

While the hoard of pundits like to tell us that the Mets oversell and overvalue their prospects, the thought of retaining Davis, Thole, Niese, F-Mart, Mejia, Nieuwenhuis, Holt, Flores, Havens and Tejada warms the cockles of my heart. No less exciting is the opportunity to see Reyes, Wright, Murphy, Pelfrey and Parnell try to climb the organizational ladder to some sort of greatness, or even just consistency.

If these reasonable questions are not answered in the 2010 campaign, the list of free agents that follows will certainly present far more options for 2011. That list includes: Joe Mauer, Victor Martinez, AJ Pierzynski, Carl Crawford, Jason Werth, Josh Beckett, Cliff Lee, Felix Hernandez, Brandon Webb, Javier Vazquez, Jeremy Affeldt and Huston Street. And the Highlanders and Red Sox can only afford about two apiece.

To say the least, the plot has thickened for Team Omar/Jeff. Yet, for some reason, I am still not worked up about the top-three free agents (Bay/Holliday/Lackey) or the specter of paying too dearly in prospects and salary for Doc Halladay.

Dealing too many quality prospects and creating higher payroll is not really what the Mets need. And if they listen to too many of voices calling for impact free agent signings and trades, we may sell off the future for an even more uncertain present.

What the Mets do need to do right now is to acknowledge 2010 as a transitional season where they could just as easily make the post-season, or miss it in an effort to evaluate and nurture talent and make better decisions for 2011. This time next year, the free agent market will feature far more quality players than we are seeing right now.

The Mets extended roster can be broken down into three categories:

Young players who have performed admirably or better at the MLB level in the past and need to move forward to a new dimension of their game (MLB total games by everyday players followed by pitchers):
Jose Reyes
David Wright
Jeff Francoeur
Angel Pagan
Daniel Murphy
*****************
Oliver Perez
John Maine
Mike Pelfrey
Brian Stokes

Experienced veterans over 30 who may have a career year or two left in them:
Carlos Beltran
Luis Castillo
Alex Cora (clearly, this is for leadership)
Henry Blanco (if he's here to work with Santana and nurture Santos and Thole, that's good enough)
Chris Coste (if he's here to nurture Thole and provide leadership at Buffalo, that's good enough)
*****************
Johan Santana
Pedro Feliciano
Sean Green
Nelson Figueroa (rubber arm and good role player)
Elmer Dessens (injury insurance)

Prospects with a touch of MLB experience who we need to get a look at:
Omir Santos
Josh Thole
Chris Carter
Nick Evans
Fernando Martinez
****************
Bobby Parnell
Fernando Nieve
Jon Niese
Pat Misch
Toby Stoner

For the first time in many years, it appears the Mets have far more potential and sheer numbers in the first and last group than the middle group, which may be a very good thing.

Does this constitute a complete roster that can go to the post-season? Probably not, but it is not that far-fetched to think it could happen in 2010 by acquiring some selective role players. Of course, staying healthy and having a reasonably productive season is the key.

Lets examine some of the options that are being promoted for the Mets:

JASON BAY
Does anyone think this may be the next George Foster? Defensively, Bay (.988) is just slightly better than George (.984). Foster had a bit more power. George had his best years from age 26-31, but had his exceptional years from age 27-29. Bay has been very good from age 25-30, but not nearly as good as Foster's three consecutive exceptional seasons when he hit .302/121 HRs/390 RBI. Bay has not had three consecutive seasons even remotely close to George, but his three best seasons at ages 26, 27 & 29 featured .293 BA/98 HRs/311 RBI. The glaring difference between the two right-handed hitting outfielders is Bay's incredibly high number of strikeouts--838 since he became an everyday player at age 25, with no season where he struck out less than 129 times. Last season he whiffed 162 times. Ouch! During the six seasons he was the same age, Foster struck out 564 times. To Bay's credit, he has a higher SLG and OBP, since he walks twice as much as George did.

No doubt, if the Mets sign Bay, he will begin a serious decline after a year or two of meeting expectations. Therefore, the worst thing Omar/Jeff can do is ink a five-year deal. In my opinion, even four years is two too many.

BAY ALTERNATIVE
How about a platoon of Chris Carter (L) and Jonny Gomes (R)? All the reports on Carter indicate he is more than ready to hit major league pitching and with these two in a strict platoon, there is every reason to expect .270/30 HRs/90 RBI without spending $64-$80 million. Gomes lifetime stats against southpaws: 515 ABs/.274 BA/30 HRs/80 RBI/.369 OBP/.517 SLG/.885 OPS. He even shows a little speed. These two would likely match up to Foster defensively.

Best thing about this platoon is we get to see what Carter can do and it buys one full year of seasoning for Fernando Martinez at AAA. And if Carter crashes, F-Mart and Ike Davis (who can also play OF) are in the wings. Of course, Angel Pagan as the super-sub in the OF delivers some pretty nice depth.

PLATOON PARTNER FOR MURPHY
Right now there are two very nice (albeit a bit more expensive than Tatis) choices for the right-handed compliment to Daniel Murphy. They are Garrett Atkins and Passaic boy Mark DeRosa. Atkins has age on his side, but DeRosa's experience and versatility make him very desirable. On age and insurance against long-term injuries to Murphy or Wright, I give Atkins a slight edge, but either of these interesting role players could be a great fit on the Mets. Ryan Garko is another possibility. The price will be more than Omar/Jeff want to spend, but they can have one of these guys, Gomes and a bunch of arms for less than Bay will cost. Certainly something to mull over.

TOOLS OF IGNORANCE
By cornering the market on backup receivers, maybe we can actually let Josh Thole toil at Buffalo without thinking he is blocked for a couple of years. Lets face it -- Omar/Jeff got Blanco specifically to be the personal receiver for Santana and perhaps do 40% of the catching. That leaves Santos behind the dish about 60% of the time. Lets see what he can do. If he makes the grade, we have a nice platoon for the next few seasons. If not, there's Coste, or even Thole, for the second half (if he is tearing up AAA pitching, which he may well do). Is a fat, out-of-shape, slow-footed, 35/36 year-old backstop who never takes a base on balls worth $12 million and a two-year commitment? No way Bengie.

STARTERS
How about not going after John Lackey? Too much money and too much risk. Randy Wolf would have been a good choice last year for about $3 million per-annum less than Oliver Perez, but that was last year. Right now, why not take a chance on one or two of the three arms coming off injuries. I speak of Ben Sheets, Chien-Ming Wang and Scott Olsen. If you sign two of these three to incentive laden deals, there's far more upside than signing Lackey, especially since the Mets have some potentially live arms in Maine (he should become the setup man), Pelfrey, Nieve (another possible setup man) and Niese to sandwich between Santana and Perez. It can go wrong, but so can the near $50 million that might be thrown in Lackey's direction fro too many years.

Jason Marquis might be a nice fit for the 5th starter role, especially since he can be counted on for 200 innings, is a terrific hitting pitcher and is likely to extend a hometown discount to play with the team he rooted for growing up on Staten Island.

How's this for a rotation?
L - Santana
R - Sheets or Wang
R - Pelfrey
L - Perez
R - Marquis

Not bad for a starting staff at Buffalo --
R - Wang or Sheets
R - Nieve
L - Niese
R - Stoner
L - Misch

PEN PALS
We said it once, twice and now three times... move Maine to the pen to setup K-Rod and sign either Chad Bradford and/or Darren Oliver, who are both a good fit. Signings like that would also give tremendous depth to the overall staff and protect against significant injuries.

One of the interesting non-tenders that came up at the last moment is Matt Capps, formerly of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who converted 27 of 32 save opportunities this past season. Can he be a hidden gem to setup for K-Rod?

Here's a taste of what can be:
R - K-Rod
R - Maine or Nive or Capps
L - Perpetual Pedro
R - Green or Bradford
R - Stokes or Parnell (could be the closer at Buffalo)
L - Misch or Oliver
R - Figueroa

DEPTH & BALANCE
Picking up a Garrett Atkins, Jonny Gomes, Jason Marquis, Chad Bradford, Darren Oliver and/or Sheets/Wang/Olsen, will cost no more than picking up Bay or Lackey, but with a lot more upside and far less risk. It could also put the Mets in a nice position of depth to make mid-season deadline deals whether they are buyers or sellers. They would also be much more insulated against injury and far more balanced than the rosters of the previous three campaigns.

Haven't we learned that more depth at AAA is absolutely necessary?

Taking stock in this manner demands a resolve to not overspend in order to placate the base and the media. Frankly, this sort of an approach can only be undertaken by the Wilpons reigning in a possible overreaction by Minaya to save his own job. Lets spend money in a more sensible manner and create substantive roster depth. If Carter/Gomes doesn't work and Pagan and F-Mart seem like a bust, there will plenty of capital to spend on LF for 2011.

Let's try to put away all the diatribe aimed at the Wilpons, Minaya and Manuel and analyze just some of the various items that must be considered when creating a balanced major league roster. This includes a thorough understanding the farm system, available talent via trades and free agency (including compensation picks), and keeping within some budget constraints. All of us who run or manage businesses (except Brian Cashman of the Highlanders) must keep budgets in perspective to varying degrees.

Last week, I used a few premises that need to be listed more straightforwardly to be appreciated. There is really no particular order to this, so I'll just fire away...

Assuming good health, four everyday positions in 2010 are spoken for: Reyes at SS, Wright at 3B, Beltran in CF and Francoeur in RF. To all the naysayers, none of the quartet is likely to be moved between now and July 31 of next year. This leaves some question marks at 1B, 2B, C and LF.

FIRST BASE
With Ike Davis in waiting at Buffalo and Daniel Murphy having shown quite a bit of promise at the first sack in 2009, it would be absurd to do anything other than sign a right-handed bat to platoon with Murphy. And frankly, Nick Evans might be a very good option to be the platoon partner. If one or both do reasonably well, the Mets have more tradeable pieces at the deadline or after 2010. Does anyone think it is far-fetched for those two to hit a respectable combined .270 with 20 HR and 80 RBI? Shawn Bowman, the 6'4" right-handed hitting third sacker could be a sleeper from the Mets system for a platoon role.

SECOND BASE
The calls for Luis Castillo's head are becoming deafening. There are some good reasons why, and some bad reasons as well. Good or bad, whomever mans the second sack is not going to make or break the Mets in 2010. The best available free agent options are Felipe Lopez and Orlando Hudson. The best player who may be available via trade could be Brandon Phillips. All three could be an improvement over Castillo, but moving Castillo will likely mean taking on another, and more expensive problem contract. Luis is an average fielder at this point in his career with limited range and poor arm, but he is fairly sure-handed. The three alternatives are all very good to excellent and the Mets do need to shore up their defense. But Castillo is an on-base machine, sprays balls to all field and rarely strikes out, which makes him the ideal batter behind a healthy Jose Reyes. That being said, he may not be an ideal second place hitter to other leadoff hitters. If Omar and Jeff (now a tandem act) can move Castillo and end up with a Kevin Millwood-type, perhaps it would be positive. However, moving Luis for a Milton Bradley, or another player with a huge contract, would be a disaster. The options down in the farms are limited at this point with Ruben Tejada at least a year away and a couple of others at least 2-3 years from Citi Field. Finding the best backup middle infielder(s) may be even more important to the overall team-improvement equation.

LEFT F IELD
LF certainly becomes the main target for Omar/Jeff. Power, speed and a good glove must be in the mix. However, if I were the GM, I'd be looking to create a scenario where the Mets would not get locked into any more than two years. Additionally, I would exploit Angel Pagan's 4th outfielder status so as to yield him 350-400 ABs. There are several reasons for such thinking. The Mets do have four legitimate prospects for the LF job, all of whom will be ready for The Show during the next two seasons. They are Fernando Martinez (only 21 and likely in need of a full season at AAA), Chris Carter (could be ready as a hitter now, but not much of a glove), Ike Davis (if Murphy excels at 1B, then Ike is in LF) and Kirk Nieuwenhuis (could well be Beltran's replacement in 2012). All of these prospects are left-handed swingers with some pop, which means they could be full-time outfielders; platooners with Francoeur, Evans or a prospect like Caleb Stewart; or trade bait for some first-rate arms or prospects. While the ideal candidates for LF at Citi are Andre Ethier, or Nick Markakis, they would be expensive and hard to snare from the Dodgers or Orioles. But Curtis Granderson might have all the tools (greater speed and better defense) and be far easier and cheaper to obtain for a two-year hitch. An outfield of Granderson/Beltran/Francoeur would also allow Pagan to start in LF against tough southpaws and in RF against tough righties. A smart manager would also begin to rest Beltran on virtually all day games following night contests. In such a scenario Pagan would start at least three games weekly. The Mets would also see excellent defense and speed across the board, and something in the neighborhood of 80 HR from their outfield mix.

CATCHER
At catcher, the Mets have more limited options. Omir Santos should either be given the role of right-handed platoon partner or very active backup receiver. No doubt, Josh Thole can hit right now and be an effective two-hole hitter (kind of a left-handed Paul LoDuca). However, his catching skills need some more seasoning and Buffalo is likely where he'll apply himself. So, the answer may be a one-year deal for the most desirable left-handed or switch-hitting free agent catcher. Rather than the aging, more expensive options like Bengie Molina (35), Rod Barajas (34) or Ivan Rodriguez (38), the cheapest decent solution may be the switch-hitting, good fielding Josh Bard (32). For right-hand hitting options, clearly Miguel Olivo (31) presents power and grit (and a fight with Jose Reyes in his past). Olivo may well be the best choice.

BENCH
In an era where (as few as) four position players can constitute a bench, the choices for those few spots become all the more important. Assuming Pagan as the super sub in the OF, two catchers sharing the duties and a right-handed platoon partner for Murphy at 1B, that would leave only two available slots for a strong middle-infielder and a super versatile utility player. If the Mets utilize Evans or Fernando Tatis as the right-handed compliment at 1B and corner INF and OF roles, they can really afford two middle infielder types. From within their current roster only the switch-hitting Anderson Hernandez (marginally acceptable) is in the mix. Left-handed hitting options are Adam Kennedy (perhaps not ready for a bench role), Alex Cora and Craig Counsell (had a terrific 2009 season). Right-handed choices are Juan Uribe and Jamey Carroll. But how about switch-hitting senior citizen Omar Vizquel? He can still play "D" and spray some hits around. Perhaps he would help make Reyes into the player we all think he should be?

BULLPEN
This is where the Mets have lots of very good options and some talented arms. The one move that should be made is to move John Maine into the setup role and let him pitch lights out for an inning every other day or so. Closer is set with K-Rod. Former Mets Octavio Dotel and Darren Oliver are Type-A FAs, so no reason to give up a high draft choice. Chad Bradford could be a nice pickup and compliment to Perpetual Pedro Feliciano, especially if Omar/Jeff can move Sean Green. Kiko Calero has been mentioned and could help. Nothing wrong with resigning Elmer Dessens, who did quite an effective job in late 2009. The live arms of Brian Stokes, Bobby Parnell and Francisco Nieve could come up big if they are used wisely. Pat Misch can swing between lefty specialist and long man. Believe it or not, Nelson Figueroa would not hurt any bullpen.

STARTERS
This is where Omar/Jeff have to make their biggest decisions. Two are pretty much made for them. Johan Santana will be the ace and Oliver Perez will be the 5th man simply because they have to give him a chance to rehabilitate himself. This leaves three wide open slots. They could be filled with last year's bunch -- Pelfrey, Maine and Redding -- or with on-roster deposits from the likes of Jon Niese (my choice for the middle lefty), Pat Misch (showed some promise and another southpaw arm, Francisco Nieve (sure has some stuff) and the irrepressible Nelson Figueroa. The farm system may have some available arms in Lance Broadway and Tobi Stoner. So, could the Mets make a strong play for Roy Halladay? Absolutely. Should they deal Pelfrey, F-Mart, Parnell and some more quality prospects like Chris Carter or Brad Holt for Doc? No doubt about it, but only if they can sign him to a contract extension, retain Ike Davis and Jon Niese, and they do not have to take Vernon Wells and his obscene deal. Frankly, with Santana and Halladay, the Mets have plenty of arms to fill up those other three slots more than adequately.

The fun and games of the Hot Stove Season really begins this week.

And what it really boils down to, is do the Mets have the trading horses to get Halladay and a Granderson-type without completely bankrupting their farm system? Getting Halladay might negate the need to make any other deals and inexpensive free agents could fill in the other holes.

For anyone to think the Mets have to make too many trades, sign too many free agents or bet the farm, is just plain wrong. The tweak's the thing. Clearly, we need a powerful starting arm to pitch behind Santana and we need to shore up LF and the bench. Having Niese, Thole, Davis, Nieuwenhuis, Tejada and Wilmer Flores still in the system would warm the senses.

The real issue that will make or break the Mets in 2010 is whether Reyes, Beltran, Santana, Maine and Perez can all recover from injury and have a quality season. David Wright finding his power stroke will also be a blessing. Let us pray!

So, how do Jeff and Omar set forth to right the ship?

Let me throw my two cents worth in the pot...

Firstly, 2009 was an aberration and will not likely ever happen again.

Now to the more practical observations...

I have serious doubts about a few of our pitching mainstays (Perez, Maine and Pelfrey). I see some real nice potential from a handful of young players (Murphy, Pagan, Thole as well as Francoeur and Wright). I worry about nagging injuries (Beltran and Reyes). And what happened to our defense?

There's quite a bit of talk of unloading Luis Castillo's contract for another problem contract. Not a bad idea because he did have a terrific year and stayed healthy. Sell high. Outside of the dropped pop-up in The Bronx, he was very, very good. In fact, other than a loss of some range and a middling arm at 2B, he was the Castillo of old at the dish. That being said, no matter who we replace him with at 2b, it will not be the difference maker. Pray that Omar stays away from Milton Bradley and all his mind games. The proposed three-way where the Mets get Kevin Millwood works for me, but why would the Rangers do it? Right now, at 2B, I like Brandon Phillips (if he can be had) by a slight margin over life-long Mets fan Orlando Hudson.

There continues to be a lot of fannies not too pleased with Daniel Murphy at 1B. These folks need to have their heads examined. Murphy has talent and it is clear to many that 1B may be just the fit. He showed quickness, range and aggressiveness. Give him a couple of seasons and some good instruction and there could even be a fine fielder in the making. Not only that, but he can rake. He led the team in dingers. Yes, by default more than design, but he also hits into the power alleys for an amazing number of two-base hits. With Ike Davis on the horizon (who also hits from the left side), the Mets actually have some prospect depth at the first sack. Nothing wrong with importing a right-handed platoon guy, but Nick Evans might be more than serviceable.

A four-step program to right the Mets ship...

1. LOAD UP ON SOUTHPAWS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE HUGE CITI FIELD OUTFIELD DIMENSIONS.
No doubt about it, right-handed power hitters struggle in Citi Field. Only those who dead-pull are able to clear the fences. Those with opposite field power (like David Wright and Matt Holiday), just hit catchable fly balls. Even Mike Piazza would struggle at Citi. On the other hand, it seems the better place to hit big flies is to right field from the left side of the dish. So, why not load up on lefthanders? Three or four southpaws in the rotation is an absolute must. And the Phillies would be pretty vulnerable to such a rotation. How about Santana, Wolf, Millwood, Niese and Perez? Sorry, the Mets have to give Oliver a chance to redeem himself (not unlike Castillo) and then move him if things go well. Even if they land Doc Halladay (which would likely mean moving Big Pelf and several others), they can still trot out three or four southpaws. This would also work to the advantage of a heavily right-handed bullpen, which the Mets already feature. Give us the lefty starters and stay clear of the Harangs, Arroyos, Pinieros and Marquis.

2. MOVE JOHN MAINE TO THE 8TH INNING SETUP ROLE
Why not? Maine has the size, strength and velocity. He also runs out of juice in the 5th or 6th as a starter. With a rotation of three to four lefties and Bobby Parnell for the 7th, this could work and is certainly worth a try at no cost.

3. GET A LEFTY SWINGING LF WITH POP, SPEED, YOUTH AND A GOOD GLOVE
Here are the candidates for a trade: Andre Ethier (pretty much the perfect model), Nick Markakis (does it all and is durable), Curtis Granderson (speed and fine "D", but doesn't hit for high average and strikes out too much). Slim pick-ins among the FAs. No way the Mets should pay for sub-par fielders Holliday or Bay, as a lefty swinger is a far better fit with Frenchy in RF and Beltran in CF, especially with Angel Pagan as the perfect switch-hitting 4th OF. Beltran should always be rested on day games after night. Pagan can also spell Frenchy against real tough righthanders and the LF against real tough southpaws, which should capture at least 350 ABs in a balanced OF mix. Granderson appears to be the most obtainable option.

4. IT'S ALL ABOUT SPEED AND DEFENSE IN CITI FIELD.
The Mets need gloves and some crafty baserunners. Murphy will be better at 1B. Hudson or Phillips deliver more speed, range and arm than Castillo. Jose will be better than any of the fill-ins. David Wright has to be better than 2009. Bengie Molina and Santos are a nice defensive pair behind the dish. Granderson/Beltran/Francoeur are as good an OF as any in the game. With Pagan as a 4th OF and a good utility glove in the INF, the Mets will play far better "D" in 2010. Speed will also be improved if several of the players targeted here get to Citi Field.

DEALS
How about...
A lefty swinging LF:
Me thinks Ethier will never happen, but could Markakis be pried away from Baltimore for F-Mart, Parnell, Brad Holt and Shawn Bowman? The Glen Cove native is one of the most underrated players in the game.
or
Mike Pelfrey, F-Mart, Ruben Tejada, Sean Green and Pat Misch for Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson.

Try this on for size..,
Big time arm:
Pelfrey, Parnell, Holt, Tejada and Jeremy Reed for Roy Halladay

PREDICTIONS
Omar and Jeff will make pitching the centerpiece of the rebuild and sign FAs Molina (a great defensive catcher with some power), Alex Cora, Marco Scutaro, Randy Wolf, and either Darren Oliver or Chad Bradford, and make a deal for Curtis Granderson. Fernando Martinez and Brad Holt will be moved, but Ike Davis and Jon Niese will not. Luis Castillo will still be the Mets second sacker. Adrian Gonzales will go to the Red Sox in a blockbuster deal. Lackey goes to the Brewers.

Mets will have big strikeout numbers among their hitters, but they will hit 130-135 HRs and be in the top-3 NL clubs in hitting. Defense will improve radically and they will be among the top-3 clubs in MLB in steals.

Here is the lineup:
S - Jose Reyes, SS Has to return to form and stay healthy
S - Luis Castillo, 2B Can he repeat 2009 without the dropped pop-up?
R - David Wright, 3B Cut down the strikeouts and up the power
S - Carlos Beltran, CF Stay healthy and everything will take care of itself
R - Jeff Francoeur, RF More plate discipline and the same great attitude
S - Murphy/Evans, 1B Give these boys a chance
R - Molina/Santos, C Upgrade over the past several years
L - Curtis Granderson, LF Speed, glove and some power in the 8th hole

Bench: S - Angel Pagan, OF Could be a key player. Looked good in 2009 L - Alex Cora, INF Valuable in a limited role R - Marco Scutaro, INF/OF Versatile asset in steady role if others go down with injuries

Starters:
L - Johan Santana
L - Randy Wolf
R - Mike Pelfrey
L - Jon Niese (could start the year at AAA)
L - Oliver Perez

Bullpen (7-8 members):
R - Francisco Rodriguez
R - John Maine
L - Pedro Feliciano
R - Chad Bradford or Sean Green
R - Brian Stokes or Bobby Parnell
L - Darren Oliver or Pat Misch
R - Nelson Figueroa or Francisco Nieve

Nieve or Misch could start the year in the rotation.

Always fun to speculate!]]> http://www.mikesmets.com/2009/11/high_buy_low_and_other_unlikel.html http://www.mikesmets.com/2009/11/high_buy_low_and_other_unlikel.html Dave Mills Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:07:58 -0500 I live in Waterbury, CT, about 70 miles or so away from Shea Stadium. The local paper doesn't offer any Mets coverage at all outside of the standard wire service stuff, so I need to go elsewhere to find my New York Mets news.

Thanks to the Internet, I've been lucky enough to have on-line access to all of the New York area dailies that cover the Mets. A few years ago when I had more free time, I would spend 45 minutes to an hour a day reading most of the stories written in the Daily News, Post, Times, Newsday, Record, The Journal News and the Star-Ledger. I'd also spend another half hour reading some of the national stuff.

My life has become more hectic since then, and a half hour a day is all the time I can typically devote to all of my baseball-related on-line reading. I've learned to be more efficient in skimming most of the stuff and picking out the few items that seem worth devoting more time to. I try to at least skim Buster Olney, Rob Neyer and some of the better stuff at ESPN on a daily basis. I also spend a few minutes daily skimming and reading my favorite Mets blogs.

I've been aware for some time that Newsday was in the process of implementing a subscriber based on-line system, which is now in place. When you click over to an article on their site you get a small tease and a notice that if you are not a subscriber to the print version of the paper or Cablevision's Optimum Online cable Internet, you have to subscribe to access the rest of the content.

This not only applied to the Mets articles, but even the paper's Mets Blog and Ken Davidoff's baseball insider blog -- and, I'm sure, anything else in the paper you might want to access.

There are three subscription options: one, subscribe to the paper and the web site is free; two, sign up for Optimum Online and also get the site for free; and three, pay a weekly fee to access only the web site.

Since I live outside the areas for Newsday delivery and Optimum Online, my only option would be to sign up for the weekly web site access. However, at $5 per week, that won't be happening soon.

I figure that I might spend a maximum of a half-hour per week reading Newsday content right now, mostly David Lennon's beat coverage and Davidoff's blog and the occasional column of interest. As much as I enjoy them, they're not worth more than $250 per year to me.

If I lived in western Long Island I might be interested enough in the local coverage and other items to justify the money, but that's not the case. A subscription to the web site has much less value to me than a local person, but Newsday is basically offering all or nothing access with nothing to differentiate between my likely usage and theirs.

No longer having access to Newsday won't change my life all that much. I'll spend the time I used to spend at Newsday.com on other sites. I'll miss Lennon's insights and Davidoff's stuff, but I never had much use for Wallace Matthews or the other guys there, anyway.

I have to say, though, I was very surprised that Newsday is charging $5 a week for their content. I understand that an ad-based revenue system isn't paying the bills for on-line newspapers, but I would expect the web site's traffic to drop fairly dramatically at that price level.

To put it into perspective, $4 per week would buy me both 7 days a week delivery of my local paper and full access to their web site.

At full retail, a subscription to ESPN Insider costs less than $1 per week -- and I'm getting Buster Olney, Peter Gammons and Keith Law for that money as opposed to paying more than 5 times that price for Matthews, Mark Hermann and Anthony Rieber. With respect, Rob Neyer puts out more intelligent content in a week than those guys do in a year, and his stuff is still completely free on ESPN.com. Sorry, but even Davidoff and Lennon can't tilt those scales far enough for me.

I'm sure the other local NYC area papers are watching the Newsday pricing model with interest. Newspapers across the country are going out of business as print sales continue to drop along with web site ad revenue. Classified ads, once a large source of profit, have been almost completely supplanted by cyberspace equivalents.

On-line readers mostly ignore an ad, which forces these sites to resort to more intrusive and annoying methods of serving up the ads. I find myself becoming very adept at closing pop-ups and clicking through ads that assure me that my content will appear shortly. I don't pay any attention at all to what they are advertising.

I know enough about business to understand that people like me aren't paying the bills for the cost of gathering and presenting the news, so I'm not surprised that the providers of this content are looking for other methods of getting paid for their product.

On the other hand, Newsday will no longer make any money at all off of me and others who decide that $5 a week doesn't represent value at our level of consumption.

In the short run we will turn to the sources of content that are still free but, as these sources make the tough decisions on how they will survive, ultimately I assume those free sources will dry up.

Although I am a proud blogger, I am not one who believes that bloggers can ultimately replace traditional media sources. I do, however, believe those traditional sources will evolve into something quite different than they are today, and I'd be surprised if the current Newsday model bears any resemblance to what that future might look like.

Perhaps in the long term it will be easier to implement different pricing models for different levels of access to on-line content. In the meantime, though, it seems to me that content providers will have some tough choices to make.

These choices won't be limited to the print media, either. Most of the television I watch, other than live sports and some news, is recorded to DVR and watched later. Needless to say, I don't watch the commercials when I play these programs back.

I am still the exception rather than the rule for television consumers, but as DVR viewing continues to increase broadcast and cable networks will look to replace lost ad revenue, even as their audience continues to splinter to ever-increasing content choices.

You wonder how much longer cable and satellite companies will be able to continue to sell their programming in tiers of service where consumers are forced to pay for channels and programming they never watch.

We are living in an interesting time. Not since television took hold of the country after World War II has there been a dramatic change in the way consumers receive content as I believe we will experience in the coming years. Not even the rise of the Internet, as important is it has become, will rival the transformation the next couple of decades will bring to our lives. Some forms of media will adapt and evolve, and others will go the way of the wooly mammoth and saber tooth tiger.

Traditional print sources of news aren't likely to disappear, but I do think what ESPN is doing in combing television, print and on-line under one brand seems more likely to endure than what Newsday is doing, which is essentially taking the old print model on-line and putting a "one size fits all" price tag on it. In any case, this will be interesting to watch in the coming months. Stay tuned.

As baseball's hot stove begins to heat up, other sports are in full swing. Don't forget to check out my friends at Ticket Solutions for Knicks Tickets, Nets Tickets, Jets tickets and Giants tickets. If you like things a little colder, you'll also find plenty of Rangers Tickets, Islanders Tickets and Devils Tickets, too.

We know now how Yankee fans must have felt heading into the 1986 World Series. The Mets against the Red Sox? Who does a Yankee fan root for? We're now in the unenviable position of seeing the two teams many of us can't stand the most battling into November. If you're a "New York first" fan, by all means, knock yourself out and root for the Yankees. If you're a "National League first" fan, there's no other choice -- it's the Phillies for you. If you're neither, you've got a dilemma. What happens when the enemy of your enemy is your other enemy?

There's a lot to (grudgingly) admire about both teams. The Phillies were not the reason the Mets failed this season. They just went out and did what we tried to, and couldn't, do -- win games. You can't hold that against them. The Yankees weren't the reason the Mets failed, either. They did what we tried to, and couldn't, do -- bought themselves another ticket into the Big Show. Before all the "we're nothing like the Yankees" wailing starts, you have to admit that the purchase of a pennant is a matter of degrees. The Yankees threw more money at that pursuit than any other team, but the Mets threw more at it than almost every other team not named the Yankees.

As Yankee skippers go, Joe Girardi's all right, though I'm not convinced he's as good a manager as the Yankees' record indicates. Throwing Pettitte at the Angels in the late innings was a great move, so great that several sportswriters were talking about it all day on Sunday, before the game began. The Phillies could do something that hasn't been done by an NL team since the days of the Big Red Machine -- repeat as World Champions. And before the Reds of the mid-70's, you have to go back to the Giants of 1921-22 for an NL series repeat.

My rooting interest this year usually means a losing interest. After the Mets' chances were gone, I was a Tigers fan, until they choked away the AL Central. Then I jumped on the Rockies' and Twins' bandwagons for less than a week, until both those Conestogas threw a wheel. Then I figured a Joe Torre appearance in the Series would get under the skin of the Steinbrenners, and the Angels were far more preferable than their opponents. I'm batting .000 this post-season.

Ultimately, though, the team I'm rooting for, albeit unenthusiastically, is the team with less obnoxious fans. That's saying quite a lot, when given these two fan bases. One anonymous Yankee fan was quoted thusly on a network radio newscast last night: "Woooo! It's about time! Six years is too long!" There's no way the average Yankee fan can realize how condescending and pompous that attitude sounds to fans of the other 29 teams. The players on every team fight every year to get to the World Series. Yankee fans expect it every year. That sense of entitlement is why I'm a Phillies fan for the next ten days.

But really, I'm praying for a seven-game series, a lot of extra innings, cold, wind, rain, sleet, and a touch of pneumonia on both sides.

Well, M and M are back and Jeff Wilpon is publicly saying that the Mets will spend "whatever Omar needs" to make the team a contender next year. There has been a minor shuffle in the coaching staff and several rumors have been circulating regarding the team's plans. Here's my take on what will happen regarding some of those rumors:

RUMOR #1 - The Mets will reach out to Wally Backman and offer him a meaningful job in the organization.
PREDICTION - The Mets will promote AAA manager Ken Oberkfell to third base coach and shuffle the managers within the organization, creating an opening at Savannah. Backman will interview for the post and may even be offered and accept the job if nothing better comes up. This would hardly put him in line to be the next manager of the Mets, but might create some positive vibe among Mets fans.

RUMOR #2 - The Mets will consider hiring J.P. Ricciardi or Josh Towers as assistant to Omar Minaya.
PREDICTION - The Mets will talk to both and one of them might wind up with a job with the team, again pending any better offers they might get. They will become the likely successors to Minaya if either accepts.

RUMOR #3 - The Mets will make a play for Roy Halladay.
PREDICTION - The Mets will discuss Halladay with the Jays. The Jays will insist the Mets take Vernon Wells as part of the deal. Rumors will intensify that the Mets are offering some combination of the following players: Daniel Murphy, Angel Pagan, Fernando Martinez, Mike Pelfrey, Brad Holt, and Eddie Kunz. The Jays will bring up Ike Davis, Jenrry Mejia, Wilmer Flores, and Jeff Francoeur and try to turn the Mets' attention to Lyle Overbay and one of their lesser starting pitchers. Any deal completed between the teams won't involve Halladay. Or the talks could break down completely.

RUMOR #4 - The Mets will talk to the Rays about Upton, Crawford, and Pena
PREDICTION - The Mets will bring up the same names that they did with Toronto and find that the Rays have interest in Jeff Francoeur and Fernando Martinez as well as some of the prospects. The Rays will offer Pat Burrell, who was a bust with them but built his reputation with his slugging against the Mets. The name Andy Sonnanstine, once regarded by some as the Rays' best pitcher, but who had a terrible season, will surface. The Mets may actually make a multi-player deal with the Rays, but it won't be a no-brainer and the Mets won't get Crawford. I could see Pena or Upton plus Sonnanstine possibly coming to the Mets for a 5-player package which won't even look good when the deal is made and that will turn out bad in the immediate future and even worse in the long run. But if it happens, it will be the talk of the winter (for Mets fans). I'm sure there are many Mets fans who would be excited if the Mets added B.J. Upton or Carlos Pena. Well, for say, Daniel Murphy and Pat Misch, I would be too, but it will cost a lot more and I don't think it will be worth it in either case.

RUMOR #5 - The Mets will make a big play for a free-agent power hitter.
PREDICTION - The Mets will look into Matt Holliday and Jason Bay, but both will get better deals from better teams and the Mets will say they made "competitive" offers and sign someone like Melvin Mora instead as a super sub and "feel-good" story. The Mets might pick up someone like an Austin Kearns to throw into the mix.

RUMOR #6 - The Mets will go after the top free agent pitchers
PREDICTION - The Mets will talk about John Lackey, but he'll go elsewhere. The Mets' most serious involvement could be with Joel Piniero, who they just might get if they overpay.

RUMOR #7 - The Mets will get a new #1 catcher
PREDICTION - It won't be Victor Martinez. The Mets WILL sign one of the many journeymen catchers with big league experience who are available, maybe a lefthanded hitter, maybe a switch-hitter, to split the job with Omir Santos. The Mets may well get a Molina, but most likely, Gustavo (the unrelated one). In any case, it won't be the second coming of Gary Carter or even Jerry Grote.

CONCLUSION - There will be a bunch of new faces on the Mets by spring training and they will certainly offer more promise than the likes of Elmer Dessens, Ken Takahashi, Wilson Valdez, and Jeremy Reed, to name just a few of the players who likely won't be back, but they won't be anywhere nearly enough to compete with the Phillies, Braves, or Marlins. If the Mets can stay closer to first place than last, Jerry and Omar may keep their jobs through the season, though not likely beyond. The Mets should not make the mistake of trading relatively young proven major leaguers like Pelfrey and Francoeur, unless they are getting a no-question-about it bonafide star in exchange. Unfortunately, I think either or both may go in a miscalculated deal to bring in a "tools" guy like a B.J. Upton or Chris Young.

If you missed it, check out Barry's terrific series on Mets Second Basemen: A History of Mistakes

It is much less painful for me to have a season end like this than the way the past 2 seasons ended. It is not as heartbreaking, but more soul-searing. It comes down to whether you prefer to lose on a last second field goal or you are totally blown out. The 2009 Mets were totally blown out. They were never really in it, so for me, that stab in the heart, that kick in the gut didn't happen. We just limped quietly to the finish line in disrepair. I would've much preferred that we had put ourselves in a position to be devastated again. Although my cardiologist would beg to differ, I'm sure.

I just have this overwhelming feeling of dread and depression. What upset me the most about this season is not so much the injuries and how they were handled, or our lack of depth, but the lack of fundamentals - the way we played the game. There is no justification for that. Our team has a very low baseball IQ. They make the same dumb mistakes over and over again and I just don't get it. We are talking basics here - running the bases, throwing to the right base, running out a ball. I knew what our problems were going into this season. I wasn't counting lack of baseball knowledge and fundamentals among them. I should have - my bad. And with no changes in the coaching staff (I'm sorry I don't think Luis Alicea was the cause of all this), I cannot assume this won't be an issue in 2010. You can fill all the holes you want, but if the players you bring in don't play the game the right way what difference will it make? With the same staff coming back, why should I believe this situation will change? Where is the accountability?

I have a lack of faith in the organization as a whole. I'm not saying they don't mean well, I'm just saying I don't think they have a plan or the right plan. I watched the entire Minaya-Wilpon-Howard interview on WFAN yesterday and I honestly felt they were insulting my baseball intelligence and my fandom. They would be much better off from a public relations perspective if they just don't speak. We keep hearing the same state-of-the-team address/apology at the end of every season and are promised that things will change and they are working to bring us a championship. Why would I believe 2010 will be any better or different? Be specific, what changes have you made? What is the plan going forward? None, and therein the problem lies. I'm tired of bad signings, bad contracts (including Omar's 3 year extension), poor hires and poor drafts and development. Someone needs to look at the whole picture and determine if a complete overhaul is necessary. I can be patient if I know we are rebuilding the right way for the future.

They had the players film a combo thank you/sorry video to the fans and they showed it Friday night. I'm a soft touch and of course it brought tears to my eyes. At least they thanked me for my support and said sorry for the bad year, but it's not enough. I want change. Play better baseball. It is that simple. You don't need a bigger payroll to play fundamentally sound baseball. You need the right people on staff to teach the fundamentals and make the players stay on task. This obviously begins in the minors so we don't have to be worrying about this at the major league level. We lack consistency through the various levels of the organization. Make this part of the plan. I just feel like we are one big mess from the top to the bottom. I don't ask for much, just play good baseball. Am I wrong? I know they have made some changes at the minor league level, but is it too little too late? Are these cosmetic changes to try and appease the fan base and distract us from the larger issues with the major league club? I no longer have any answers, just questions.

After my first season at Citifield let me say this - I miss Shea. I could go into all the reasons why, but now is not the post for that particular discussion. However, I do not appreciate being told that fans are over-reacting to what they don't like about the stadium. What the Mets don't understand is that it is not just the stadium we are reacting to, but how the Mets do things. Yes, they are making some changes, but it seems as if they are doing it to shut us up, not because they have heard us and see our point. They just don't get us. There is a total disconnect between the organization and its fans. Allow me to digress for one moment in regard to how they treat their fans. Here's an idea: when you have a give-away night, especially like the one that celebrates the '69 Mets, how about you splurge and give a tee shirt to every person who comes to the stadium, not just the first 25,000. Imagine how it felt to see all those Philly fans have tee shirts to rip to shreds and real met fans who never got one. What's wrong with this picture? In all honesty, I'm still upset that I didn't get a bear to give to my granddaughter. I guess I was number 25, 001 that night. I pay for my ticket and parking, I think that should entitle me to a giveaway no matter what time I arrive at the stadium. By the way, I have never missed the first pitch. Give a little something back to me, I give plenty to you.

I am mentally exhausted from this season. All the drama on and off the field, has taken its toll on me. Who needs General Hospital as my soap of choice, I have the NY Mets. I want any and all drama to be on the field, not off of it. Just play the game. I don't want to be cringing when I watch press conferences. Can't we please behave professionally? Other teams do, why can't we?

I have vowed not to get caught up in any of the offseason hype this year, not to watch one pitch of spring training and not to read anything that is written about 2010. I have finally learned that none of it matters. Until that holy day in April, it all means nothing and I refuse to set myself up for another fall. Who am I kidding? I will be on top of every move and ever non-move in the hope that we get this thing turned around. And I will be counting the days until pitchers and catchers to try and get the bad taste out of my mouth from this season. But don't expect me to take their word for it, that things will be just fine going forward. Don't tell me, show me. Prove it to me on the field. That is the only place it really matters. They have a lot of work to do.

I wish I had more faith that we will be contending next year and I hope I am wrong in thinking that things will not change for the better. At this point, I can't even give the organization the benefit of the doubt. I'll tell you what, if you have me, a long time diehard season ticket holder doubting the organization's ability to get on the right track, you're in big trouble. I'm the kind of fan who lives and die with every pitch of every inning and who believes in miracles. I have always defended the Mets with all my passion. So if I'm starting to question our future that says a lot. I'm the original "wait till next year" gal and right now I am anticipating another season of frustrating, aggravating, embarrassing, underachieving baseball. What a way to go into the off season.

While I can't blame Manuel for the endless string of injuries that sealed the Mets fate as far as making the playoffs, I have to hold the manager accountable for a season of sloppy fundamentals and three months of virtually unwatchable baseball.

The Mets dropped below .500 for the final time this season when they dropped the first game of a series against the Phillies on July 3 to fall to 39-40. Counting that loss, they went 31-52 the rest of the way. That translates to a 60 win season over a full 162 games. Indeed, it actually took a 3-game sweep of another team that was playing out the string to avoid the ignominy of a 60-something win season.

They went 8-20 in September and were swept in four series -- once each by Florida and Washington and twice by the Braves. Essentially they kept the Braves in the wild card picture for a couple of extra weeks.

For all of his faults, one thing for which I will always give former manager Willie Randolph credit is the way the 2005 Mets kept playing after falling out of playoff contention in early September.

Unfortunately for Willie, he undermined himself with his inability to deal with the New York media. While Jerry Manuel does himself a great service in that regard, I don't see any other area where his managerial skills exceed Randolph's admittedly mediocre talents as an in-game manager.

Manuel's handling of relief pitchers has been woeful, and I believe his reliance in "playing the hot hand" and running the same guys out every day sealed their fate in 2008 and had a lot to do with Parnell's mid-season struggles.

He has not shown himself adept at getting his team to play solid fundamental baseball, nor has he distinguished himself in his handling of young players.

He was not dealt a good hand with the injuries and some of the front office decisions, but his "go with the gut" decision making style compounded his problems.

In retrospect, Jerry's greatest strength in 2008 was that he was not Willie Randolph. The Mets decision to retain Randolph after the 2007 season proved to be a mistake. Keeping Jerry will likely prove to be another one. If the Mets don't get off to a fast start the speculation about his job will start immediately, and will be the same sort of distraction that Randolph's status was last year.

Even if the Mets were unwilling to spend the money on a name, they could have went with someone like Buffalo manager Ken Oberkfell, who was selected by Baseball America as their minor league manager of the year in 2005. They wouldn't need to invest a lot in either money or years to give Oberkfell a shot at a major league job.

Again, the injuries were a huge problem this year, and you certainly can't blame Jerry for that, but I do hold him accountable that the team took steps backward in fundamentals and bringing the effort.

By bringing back Manuel and all but two of his coaches, the Mets haven't done much to change the dynamic of leadership, and I suspect they will regret that. I could understand it if I could point to Manuel being an outstanding manager in any aspect of the game, but he simply is not.

For those of you that don't know, my mother suffered a stroke this spring that wound up complicating things greatly in both her life and mine. My mom has always been a fairly troubled person, but she was able to keep up a façade for the outside world. Things fell apart for her fairly quickly after the stroke to the point where she was forcibly removed from her house.

Since that happened in May, my life has included removing tons of paper and trash from her house, and endlessly dealing with hospitals and convalescent homes and various government officials.

Despite the fact that my Mom literally never threw anything away, the type of actual records that we needed to apply for care and treatment were nowhere to be found. I still have a lot of work to do in that regard, and it hasn't been much fun.

The whole process has been pretty draining. My mom and I have always had a fairly troubled relationship, but it was still sad to see some of the humiliations she had to endure -- even though they came as a direct result of a lifetime of avoiding facing up to her own problems.

I know there were a lot of people who I was unintentionally rude to during the past few months, and I'm sorry for that. I just got overwhelmed with everything, and there wasn't enough energy to answer all the emails or keep the interviews I had in progress going. Believe me, any slight on my part was not deliberate.

Anyway, as I try to work my way back to regular posting on this blog, here is an item that caught my eye this weekend.

The Sherman Plan
The Post's Joel Sherman, whose blog and articles are generally a few IQ points above most of the local baseball coverage, gave us his take Sunday on what was, in his opinion, a "Realistic way to re-tool [the] Mets".

I would tend to agree with what he described as the Mets organizational "Polyanna (sic) problem" (note to Mr. Sherman, it's actually spelled "Pollyanna"). I think any effective executive, whether in sports or any other business, needs to surround himself with folks who will challenge his ideas. The caveat here, of course, is that he actually needs to listen to them sometimes, which Sherman accuses Minaya of not doing to naysayers in his brain trust.

I find myself somewhat less in agreement with a plan that would bring in some veterans along the lines of Rod Barajas, Nick Johnson and Mark DeRosa in on 1-year contracts with an option.

First of all, I don't think it will work. I don't think any of these players (or the other examples given) would accept such contracts unless it was the end of the winter and they were unsigned. If your plan is to hope for that to happen then you don't really have a plan.

But even if it did happen -- even if the Mets were able to sign these three guys to the contracts Sherman proposes -- would this necessarily be a great thing? Barajas will be 34 and has a lifetime MLB batting line of .239/.284/.409. Do the Mets really need another catcher who doesn't get on base?

Nick Johnson will be 31 next year and has achieved 500 AB once in eight major league seasons. If the Mets do sign him, put my down for June 1 in the pool for when Johnson will go down with a horrific season-ending injury. Do we really need to see more of that after this year?

Moreover, for all of his admitted OB skills, Johnson doesn't hit for a lot of power. After hitting 23 HR in his one 500 AB season with the Nats in 2006, Johnson has hit a total of 13 in 562 combined AB since. If your goal is to upgrade the power from your 1B, he's really not the guy.

Finally, DeRosa is an admirable hard-nose player with solid skills, but he'll be 35 next season. Do we really need to pin our hopes on another left fielder who is at the end of his career?

I guess the biggest positive from this whole group is that they are Type B free agents who will not require the Mets to give up a draft pick if they signed them.

It's not that I can't see that signing these guys would likely make the Mets more competitive next season, but they're all short-term fixes at best, and I still don't see the Mets as real competitors with these additions.

It's tempting to try to patch and spackle your way into being a possible playoff contender, but if the ultimate goal is winning a championship I believe there is no substitute for committing your team to a plan that gives them a multi-year window to try to achieve that goal.

It's precisely because the Mets were built that way in the 80s that they were able to win the championship in 1986 after coming up short in '84 and '85. The Mets were essentially competitors for 7 seasons from 1984-1990. They won 87 games once (1989), 90+ games four times (1984, 1985, 1987, 1990) and 100 or more twice (1986 and 1988).

In comparison, in the nineteen seasons (counting this one) that have followed, the Mets have four seasons with 88 or 89 wins (1997, 1998, 2007 and 2008) and three with 90+ wins (1999, 2000 and 2006). None have won 100 or more, and only two other years (2001 and 2005) have even featured above .500 finishes.

In that 7-year "Golden Age" period from 1984-1990 the Mets won 666 games, an average of 95.1 wins per season. In the 19 years since (with 6 games to go in 2009), they have won 1488, an average of 78.3. They have made the playoffs only 3 times in those 19 seasons.

I think my point would be that there has been too much "patching together" in an attempt to compete and too little following a long-term strategic plan that gives the team more than a crap shoot chance of winning a championship.

I'd rather see the Mets make some tough decisions and try to build something than fall into yet another shortsighted, duct-taped*, jerry-rigged approach that they have chosen so often in the past two decades. It's time for this club to learn from past mistakes rather than just mindlessly repeating them.

(*Corrected thanks to comment below)

I want to see a team that is a legit contender for a few years even if I have to live through a season or two of building towards that goal. I'm exhausted from riding the rollercoaster of the Mets "boom and bust" approach of the 1990s and this decade. While what Sherman has suggested might add up to a few extra wins in 2010, I think tougher decisions are needed if I'm ever too see another Championship flag raised in Queens in my lifetime.