Same Old Met$
It feels like it's been 15 years now that the Mets have been throwing out money to past their prime players. Every year fans are taken in by the names and annoint them the NL East favorites. And most years they disappoint. Now the Mets are doing it again, taking on exorbitant contracts for Carlos Delgado and Billy Wagner to go along with past their prime and/or overpaid players like Tom Glavine, Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran, Kazuo Matsui and Cliff Floyd. Yes, if everyone on the team stays healthy and doesn't decline, they could be a beast. But that never happens when you have so many question marks. They never have the patience to build through the farm system, so it's just this endless cycle. Even if this team makes a run like the 2000 team, it won't last more than a year or two anyway. Do what Cleveland did. Punt for a year or two, turn it over to a GM with a vision, and then when you've got a core of young players, you throw around the money and fill up a championship team.
posted by Todd Martin at 4:39 PM
4 Comments:
Could not disagree more. First the Mets have a GM with vision in Omar Minaya. Second, they needed a closed. Though I would have liked them to pay more attention to BJ Ryan Billy Wagner was the best closer available. Third, David Wright, Jose Reyes, Jae Seo, Victor Diaz and Aaron Hielman are all products of the Mets farm system and Wright and Reyes are emerging as superstars.
Will they win next year? Who knows. Your point about them staying healthy applies to EVERY team not just the Mets.
Love you wrestling colunms.
I think it's very possible the Mets will be good for a couple of years and then fall apart. I think it's also as likely they fall apart in one year. There isn't great precedent even in MLB, which is by its nature more mercenary than the other sports, of teams throwing a bunch of older players together with big money and winning big. The Florida Marlins of 1997 come to mind as an exception. The moves have backfired on the Yankees in recent years. I don't dispute that signing name players sells tickets. I just doubt its ability to win pennants.
I like Omar Minaya and want to believe he's a GM with vision. His track record doesn't give me great confidence. He depleted a Montreal farm system that had been one of the best in baseball for damn near a decade. And his strategy in New York has basically been to take on salary. Pedro looked like a good signing last year. Beltran and Matsui not so much. The fact they have some potential superstars coming up to me suggests you're better off signing younger players who can grow with them, not older guys who aren't going to be around for long. Of course every team's health is a concern. But it's a bigger concern with a team of 34 and 35 year olds with giant red flags than it is with a collection of 26-30 year olds with healthy histories.
Minaya did not sign Matsui. Beltran is only 27 and was not 100% healthy last year; not to mention the fact that Shea is notoriously unfreindly to hitters..
My bad on Matsui. The guy has done so little I had forgotten he's actually been there two years. Even if Beltran turns it around and gets healthy, I don't think he's ever going to be worth the money they gave him. But I guess we'll see. I don't really dislike most of the players being brought on. I just think they're taking on a lot of guys that are aging for too much money, which at the very least is questionable long term planning
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