***************************RIP:THE 2021 NEW YORK METS*********************
Let's start at the top and work our way down.
SANDY ALDERSON-On social media, many were calling for his scalp, saying the game had passed him by and stuff like that. In the regular sports media, he came under fire, as his last three big hires for the Mets ended up in various forms of trouble. Mickey Calloway and Jared Porter sexually harassed women, and Zack Scott got busted for DWI.
Alderson graduated from Dartmouth, then joined the Marines and served in Vietnam. After that, he graduated from Harvard Law School and was the general counsel to the Oakland A's when he was hired as their GM. He wasn't a career baseball guy, who spent his younger years in the minor leagues chasing women around. I believe him to be a stand up guy and an honorable man. I would bet almost anything, that he never mistreated any employee who worked for him, male or female.
Yes, ultimately he is responsible for the people he hires, but to be honest, I don't think it ever crossed his mind that someone would take pictures of their unmentionables and send them to unwitting female journalists. I'm gonna guess his reaction when he found out that Porter did that was "Why?"
And as for Calloway, I mean, I never heard a word while he was managing the Mets that he gave anyone any trouble. He managed here in 2018 and 2019, right in the heart of the #Metoo movement. I don't believe any of this was brought to his attention and he swept it under the rug. I could be wrong, but that's my stance.
And unless Scott was stumbling around the Mets offices like Dean Martin, how can you predict someone is going to decide to take a nap right in the middle of Old Mamaroneck Avenue* at 4 in the morning? And it's not like baseball hires Mormons to run their teams. As Phil Mushnick pointed out, they practically dug Tony La Russa out of mothballs to manage the White Sox, and he has as many DWI's as he's had World Series rings.
Now, I am in total agreement that Sandy Alderson should not be the Mets GM. For starters, I'm sure he doesn't want the job and more importantly, Steve Cohen didn't hire him for that role. I think Cohen wants Sandy to be the team's Chief Operating Officer. Cohen's making his billions as a hedge fund honcho, he wants Sandy to run the Mets. That means hiring a director of baseball operations and a GM.
And I'll be stunned if either Theo Epstein or Billy Beane gets the baseball operations job.
Why would they?
Beane lives in California and has an ownership stake in the A's. Why the hell would he pack up and move to New York, and sell back his stake in the A's? To come back where he started? (He was drafted by the Mets in 1980). I just don't see it.
And Epstein, who helped to end perhaps the two biggest droughts in sports history. (86 years for the Red Sox, 108 for the Cubs) might look at the Mets and be like, 35 years? That's nothing. Why give up my cushy job with MLB to take on that?
Whoever the new GM is, will have to hire a new manager, which leads me to
LUIS ROJAS- I've said this before and I'll say it again, I think Rojas has the makings to be a really good MLB manager. His father was a great manager and his family is rich in baseball tradition. Also, it seemed as though all the players that came through the Mets system the last few years gave praise to Rojas with helping them in their development. The idea that he's some baseball dunce is pure folly.
That being said, he made a whole bunch of head scratching decisions in the dugout this year, especially in terms of pitching, that leads me to believe he may need some more seasoning in the minors. Or as someone with more experience's right hand man.
Too many times, he pulled a pitcher who was rolling for a pitcher who didn't have it. And while that doesn't make him unique amongst today's analytic driven managers, he really took it to a whole new level.
In his defense, at one time he had Pete Alonso, Michael Conforto, James McCann, Jeff McNeil and Brandon Nimmo on the injured list and he still managed to keep the team in first place for a long time. But as the season wore on, it seemed like the team stopped showing heart. That's inexcusable.
I feel about Rojas the same as I felt about Willie Randolph back in 2007. He knew his baseball, but he couldn't get his players fired up. The big difference between Willie and Louie was that Louie wasn't afraid to get himself tossed every once in a while. Otherwise, it was the same sad song.
I do hope Luis Rojas gets another shot, and I think he will. I just don't want him to get it here.
Now onto some of the players
FRANCISCO LINDOR- When Bobby Bonilla signed his 5 year $29 million contract with the Mets in 1991, he told the assembled media that "They'll never knock the smile off my face."
That lasted all of about 12 seconds.
Lindor on the other hand, played the game with an infectious joy. Even when he was not hitting, which he wasn't for most of the season, he played hard, he hustled. And he made some spectacular plays in the field too. I insisted all along that by the time his 10 year contract ran out, even if he had some rough years at the end, he would still be a net positive.
Now? Let's just say I'm not as convinced.
Yeah the thumbs down thing pissed me off (more on that later), but I also kind of got the feeling that he was really beaten down by the end of the season. I'm not sure he gave it is all when it began to look like the team wouldn't make the playoffs.
But you know something? Many moons ago, I felt the same way about another Met.
Mike Piazza.
Indeed, after the Mets lost the last 5 games on the 1998 season and blew their chance at the playoffs, I laid most of the blame on Piazza. I also figured he had already punched his ticket back to Southern California, to play for the Angels. So I bid him good riddance.
But a funny thing happened that off season.
Piazza found himself missing the Big Apple from his home in Florida. I believe he had also stuck around a little bit and watched the Yankees run to the World Series, and saw and heard what NYC is like when one of it's teams wins a title. He thought about the nights that summer that he rocked Shea Stadium. All that, and $91 million kept him here in Queens. And my sister Katie only a few years ago stopped reminding me of my rant that after the last game of the season in 98.**
Lindor doesn't have that option, for better or worse we are stuck with each other for the next 10 years. But maybe he can consult with Piazza, or Derek Jeter or even that blowhard A-Rod, and see what can happen in this town to young, good looking superstars if they win (or come close to winning).
Lindor has to stay, but
JAVY BAEZ- does not.
Baez may be the more apropos comparison to Piazza, as both were midseason acquisitions. But my gut is telling me on Baez that we are looking at another Yoenis Cespedes situation. Maybe he won't be getting chased by wild boars or anything, but I can see not getting the bang for the high amount of bucks we are going to have to shell out to keep him here.
I could be wrong about this. He's played well, even shown some plate discipline, doesn't equate a walk to having root canal. And the though of him and Lindor locking down our middle infield for the next few years is very appealing.
But the thumbs down pissed me off (and I promise we'll address that shortly) and who knows if he'll go back to his swing at anything ways over the course of a full season. I realize we now have an owner who can sign a player to a big contract and not be hamstrung by the contract if it turns out bad. But a few more of these bad deals and Cohen might get gun shy. All I can say is I will happily eat crow*** if they sign Baez and he turns out to be a stud.
All right, lets talk about the..
THUMBS DOWN- After a 9-4 win over the tanking Washington Nationals on August 29, Baez, Lindor and Kevin Pillar gave the thumbs down sign to the cheering fans. Baez, who hadn't even been here a month, explained
“Just the boos that we get,” . “We’re not machines, we’re going to struggle. We’re going to struggle seven times out of 10. It just feels bad when I strike out and I get booed — it doesn’t really get to me, but I want to let them know that when we’re a success, we’re going to do the same thing, to let them know how it feels.
“Because if we win together, then we’ve got to lose together and the fans are a really big part of it. In my case, they got to be better. I play for the fans and I love the fans, but if they’re going to do that, they’re just putting more pressure on the team and that’s not what we want.” NYT-August 30,2021
Cue the violins!
One of my friends said that she was most disappointed in Pillar over this because we fans stuck by him after he got hit in the face with a fastball earlier in the year. I was pissed at Lindor. As I stated previous, I stuck up for him even when he wasn't hitting. I appreciated his good attitude and I believed that would be what would get him through his struggles. Instead he pulls that crap.
This is my attitude on booing.... I of course boo the other team. With my own team, I very rarely boo a player per se, but I boo the performance. If a guy grounds into an inning ending double play, I boo. If a player strikes out with the bases loaded, I boo. But I'm booing what he did, I'm not booing him.
If a pitcher has a rough outing, yeah I'll boo sometimes as he leaves the game, but again, it's the performance, not the person.
There was only one time I ever booed a Met before he even took the field. In 2003, Armando Benítez blew a bunch of games in the 9th inning. The final straw was on a Sunday Night against the Yankees at Shea, he blew another lead, and the Yanks ended up winning the game in 11 innings.
A few nights later, they brought him into a game against the Marlins and as he walked in from the bullpen, I booed his a$$. I wanted no part of him as a Met anymore, Ironically he was traded to the Yankees, of all teams, later on in the season.
I always clap as they announce the lineups and when the guys get up.
But we the fans pay good money for these games and these guys are making millions of dollars. I don't deny the fans the right to let their voices be heard. The fact of the matter was the Mets played like crap for most of August and they deserved to be booed. You don't want to be booed, play better. It's that simple.
That's my $0.02 on that...now back to our recap.
JACOB dEGROM: Now, you want to know where I will hold Alderson's feet to the fire? Right here as it pertains to deGrom.
All summer we heard that all the MRI's he was having were coming back clean, yet they kept shutting him down. Finally, Alderson came out on September 8th and said he had a sprain in his UCL, AKA a tear in his elbow ligament.
So obviously the MRI's weren't "clean" and the Mets front office allowed even guys like Ron Darling to question deGrom's heart and toughness. I'm sorry but that's just f-cked up.
And now Sandy is saying that the ligament healed itself and is perfectly intact. Does that make you feel reassured? Cuz I'm not.
I knew deGrom was done for the year the first time they pushed him back two weeks in late July. I just don't understand what they feel they had to gain by lying?
I could almost see at the trade deadline maybe downplaying the injury. George Steinbrenner used to pull that crap all the time. "Don't tell them how badly hurt he is so we don't get fleeced in a trade." Inevitably it would come out anyway and whoever the GM was at the time would find their heads squarely on the chopping block.
But after July 31st, when they didn't get a front line pitcher anyway, why keep up the charade? To sell tickets? I'm sorry, but that's Jeff Wilpon type bull$h-t there.
I have an old friend who kept insisting deGrom was going to end up having Tommy John surgery, and I believe that more than I believe he's going to be our starter on Opening Day 2022. And really? If DeGrom ends up having TJS, then the next discussion is when will they be having his night at Citi Field, because he a'int coming back from that to pitch at age 35 or 36.
I would make qualifying offers to Noah Syndergaard and Michael Conforto. I imagine Thor would accept his as he probably won't get too many offers coming off two years on the shelf. Conforto, especially with Sc-mbag Scott Boras as his agent, will probably test the waters. If so, then I would bid him a fond farewell. He's the Chris Kreider of the Mets, oodles of talent, but has never put it all together. I can't see the Mets giving him a huge deal, not after this season. If he goes somewhere else and has a big year, I'll put him with Justin Turner as a guy who just couldn't hack it in the Big Apple. If he signs with the Yankees and has a big year, I might sit in the middle of Times Square and cry.
Folks, to wrap things up: Obviously, any year you don't make the playoffs is disappointing, but this year really stings. It only took 85 wins to clinch the NL East. For us to be out of the race as early as we were after being in first place most of the season is truly pathetic. It was stated the other day that the Mets were the first team in baseball to have been in 1st place over 100 days and finish the season with a losing record. As a franchise we have way too many of those dubious distinctions. I was telling Karl (the Ace) Ludwig and (Razor) Ray McGarvey the other night that this is the first year in a loong time where I really don't hold out much hope for the future of this team. In 2013, we had Matt Harvey starting the All-Star Game at Citi Field. In 2014 Jacob deGrom won Rookie of the Year. In 2015, we went to the show, and even though I blew a gasket after we lost, we still had that great young rotation. We made it to the play-in game in 2016, then injuries sabotaged us in 2017. 2018 was another rough year, but they came on at the end and deGrom was all world on the mound. Another bad June cost us in 2019, but deGrom was almost better than the year before, and Pete Alonso was the most exciting everyday player we had in years. 2020 we hoped was an aberration due to COVID-19, and hey, we were getting Daddy Warbucks as our new owner!
Now? What do we have to look forward to? Maybe if Beane or Epstein come we can hold out some hope, but even at that, I can't get excited. I have no idea if Lindor will bounce back, or if deGrom will ever pitch again. Karl and Ray think they underachieved. I think it's like Bill Parcells says, you are what your record says you are. And hey remember how I said it felt like 1991 around Flushing in August? At 77 wins, that's exactly how many wins they had in 1991.
And that's why for the first time in about 10 years, Wait Till Next Year sounds more like a threat than a promise.
And for a die hard fan like me, that just stinks.
*I'm not sure where they found Zack Scott. I just know it was in White Plains and that's the only street I know in White Plains
**That I said it on Kate's 15th birthday was another point she liked to bring up
****But if he stinks, then you can eat Crow-Armstrong #seewhatididthere?
No comments:
Post a Comment