That Which Wasn't Done

Life is divided up into the horrible and the miserable. The horrible would be terminal cases, blind people, cripples. The miserable is everyone else. When you go through life you should be thankful that you're miserable.

-Alvy Singer

I don't know that there was any one particular reason that I've only made 19 blog posts from the end of the Regular Season to now, the beginning of Spring Training 2010. You could accuse me of having sat on my hands while the Mets went to pieces, but in reality, what was there to say? Was I going to play some sort of bizarre company line? Should I echo the sentiments that every other Mets blogger was screaming? No, and no. The reality of the situation is that there just wasn't that much to say about the Mets, and their lack of activity during the offseason. The end result is that we're going into Spring Training 2010 with about as much optimism as Alvy himself shopping in a bookstore.

2007 and 2008 were the Miserable. 2009 was the Horrible. What the hell is 2010 going to be? I don't know, and I'm kind of scared to find out. But it's coming, and there's not much I can do to stop it. I've got 15 games worth of Mets tickets heading to my house imminently so I'll be at Citi Field, April 5th as per usual. I'll even be back in the Good Ol' 518, albeit a few rows lower than last season. But what the hell am I going to see?

Well, for one, I won't be seeing any of the following players: Joel Pineiro, Jason Marquis, Erik Bedard, John Lackey, Jason Schmidt, Randy Wolf or Todd Wellemeyer. I won't be seeing Matt Holliday, Orlando Hudson, Marco Scutaro or Russell Branyan either.

And you know what? I'm fine with that.

The problem the Mets have right now is that there's a little too much of the same going around, and they need an injection of a couple of impact guys to really cure those ills. But scan that crop of available Free Agents. Now, in your mind, remove the following names from that list: Jason Bay, Matt Holliday, John Lackey.

Is there anyone on that list that really lights you on fire, really gets you going? Anyone on that list that's going to come into this Mets locker room and change the attitude and atmosphere of the club? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Fact is, there were only 3 impact guys out there to be had, and the Mets got one of them. Everyone else would have simply been tacking on more question marks to a roster that already has enough of them. I would have started my 5 Key Mets for the upcoming season, but how can you pick just 5? Jason Marquis was not going to come to the Mets and immediately change the fortunes of the team. Neither was Joel Pineiro. Neither of them excited me a bit and deep down, I'm sort of glad the Mets didn't go out and sign them. So, then, what? The Mets could have a starting rotation of Santana, and yet another iffy guy to go with the iffy guys that already exist here?

The only reason the Mets would have made a move for any of those guys would have been to simply shake things up. Perhaps a shakeup is needed, I don't know. This particular group has proven itself only good enough to get tantalizingly close to the dream without actually getting there. Delgado's gone, Beltran's out until May at least (and given his feelings toward the organization, who knows if he's rushing to come back) and the Mets are functionally leaderless. Who steps up? Can Wright get out of his own head enough to do it? Is Jeff Francoeur's down-home, golly gee country boy style going to rub off on everyone? I don't know. I got no answers for the Mets. There are too many what-ifs that need to happen for the Mets to be successful in 2010.

All I know is that, going into Spring Training, we can't damn them for moves they didn't make. They really wouldn't have helped that much. If 2010 is Miserable, they wouldn't make it less miserable. If 2010 is Horrible, well, we're already screwed.