That Internal Fight

Something happened in the 4th inning of last night's game that kind of piqued my interest. And I don't mean Yasiel Puig taking too long to admire his Home Run and pissing off the entire Mets team, because those things tend to get overblown and players are often good at policing themselves.

It was, however, the initial source of the Mets ire that caught my attention. I know that if you make the rounds, most of the chatter involves something to the effect of "fweh fweh stupid Mets and cwybaby fwores," and "maybe don't throw a fastball down broadway stupit mutz." And in reality, I don't care much what Flores said or who he happened to be saying it to, but more that he did it. It's sort of his way of saying that he's getting a little sick of this shit. I think we're all getting a little sick of this shit, and, you know, you kind of want your players to show that sometimes. Flores has a history of not really being the "silent, methodical" type. You saw that two years ago when he was—and then wasn't—traded. And here the Mets are, getting their heads handed to them for the third day in a row, their overmatched Pitcher Tyler Pill just served another one up to an arrogant, underperforming headcase and he hot dogged it. I mean, didn't Wilmer Flores basically just do what every Mets fan wanted to do at that point?

Beyond that, you're starting to get a little bit of leadership out of Flores, which is important because the Mets seem to be kind of leaderless right now. David Wright probably won't be back unless some divine intervention occurs, and other guys are old, not playing well, injured, or have one foot out the door and in some cases all of the above. So it's incumbent on these younger guys to kind of make their case here. Flores to this point has had a very good season, which doesn't especially surprise me. People will listen to young guys if they're backing it up. I think you're seeing the beginning of a future leader.

This is sort of juxtaposed against an asinine article I read earlier on WFAN.com, the gist of which can be summed up as "dur dur dur stupid mets didn't sign turner and murphy and lookit them now." And, I mean, yeah. I get it. The past six games have just been a series of the Mets getting their heads bashed in by Justin Turner and Daniel Murphy, former Mets who were let go ostensibly because they hadn't proven themselves worth keeping around. I mean, Justin Turner was around for three seasons, and basically proved himself to be an inconsistent role player with a goofy personality who liked to throw pies in people's faces. At no point did he pose as a .330 hitter, because if he had, the Mets probably wouldn't have let him go. Murphy, of course, just makes me angry. Like, now, he makes me legitimately angry. I mean, think about it. We saw Daniel Murphy here for 8 years. Not a few cups of coffee. 8 years. And 8 years as a starting player. And if at ANY point in those 8 years, he'd shown that he was at all the kind of player he's turned into since he went to Washington, then the Mets would have given him a contract, and none of this would be happening, and everything would be fine. But nooooooo. We got 8 years of the anthropomorphic version of "the Yips," got tantalized by a well-timed two-week hot streak, and then an era that ended with two of the most egregious, Murphy-typifying errors in backbreaking spots in the World Series. And in case you forgot, nobody wanted him that offseason, he was probably Washington's 4th choice, and now he's Joe Fucking Morgan and the Mets are the jackasses.

Grumble. This is why it's important for guys like Wilmer Flores to get a little pissed off. It's just a reminder that these guys actually do care about this debacle of a season.

We'll Always Have Paris...

I can't say I'm especially surprised by today's news that Daniel Murphy signed with the Washington Nationals. I'm not particularly upset by it either. I know you don't want one of your own guys to jump to a division rival like this, but let's be real here before we get too worked up. The moves the Mets have made to this point have made it abundantly clear that Daniel Murphy wasn't part of the future plans here. And that's fine.

We've had 8 seasons with Daniel Murphy. I know there's a lot of sentimentality that comes attached to that, but it wasn't going to get any better with age. Mostly, Daniel Murphy played the kind of Baseball that left a lot of us scratching our heads. Yes, there were times when he was really good, and for those two weeks in October he took his version of "really good" to a whole new level. But that wasn't Daniel Murphy. That was Playoff Chosen Daniel Murphy. Nothing exemplifies Playoff Chosen Daniel Murphy more than that Stolen Base in Los Angeles. If Daniel Murphy tries to pull something like that in the regular season, he probably gets thrown out 100 times out of 100. Playoff Chosen Daniel Murphy was safe. But Playoff Chosen Daniel Murphy was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. Regular Daniel Murphy came back to us in the World Series, sometime around the 8th inning of Game 4.

Unfair as it may seem, that's probably going to be the Daniel Murphy that most of us will remember. The guy who was consistently frighting on defense. The guy who would all too often try to be a hero and end up making a semipro-caliber play. The guy who would go on those raging hot streaks and then spend the next two months grounding out to the 2nd baseman. The guy who exemplified the lost era of the Mets when he led the team in Home Runs...with 12. A few years ago, I was watching a program on MLB Network where Daniel Murphy was ranked 10th among MLB 2nd Basemen and I nearly passed out. Murphy was the sort of player that I would watch and after a few years of his schtick I said to myself, "You know, Daniel Murphy is the kind of ballplayer who only has a job because of the Mets. Only the Mets would have a guy like Murphy on the roster."

I guess there's some people who are upset about this, but I can't. I know he went to a division rival, but my feeling is that now, he's going to get himself so cranked up and out of control when he plays the Mets that he's going to do things like try to score from 1st Base on an infield ground out or try to throw a runner out at 3rd base while overshifted into Right Field. These absurd mistakes that he makes are now the problem of Dusty Baker and the Washington Nationals. While he's totally going to hit .340 in April, I feel like more often than not we'll see the Good Ol' Murphy on highlights and silently chuckle.

The other reason people seem to be annoyed really has less to do with Murphy and more that the Mets aren't making those "Bold" or "Flashy" moves. I know general logic would dictate that the Mets should bring back Cespedes and, sure, that makes sense but again, a lot of it comes from that sentimental feeling that most Mets fans seem to have. I mean, sure. I'd love to have that big-time bat back and sure, it annoys me to see the Cubs and Giants gobbling up every big-ticket Free Agent in sight (and if you thought the Cubs had anointed themselves last season...oy veh...), but outside of Cespedes, or possibly Heyward, who sitting out there were the Mets legitimately going to bring in? The idea isn't to make moves for the purpose of being reactionary, the idea is to make moves to improve the team and under Sandy Alderson, the Mets have continually done that. No, I don't especially like the idea that the Opening Day 2016 roster is going to mostly resemble the Opening Day 2015 roster barring a Cespedes Smokescreen. But top to bottom the Mets are a better team right now than they were on Opening Day last season even without Cespedes. Instead of having absolute junk filling out the roster, there's good, serviceable depth here, which is nice to have. Also, I feel like people are forgetting this Conforto fellow. He might be pretty good.

All besides the point. I sort of want to tip my cap and wish Murphy well and maybe that was supposed to be the general intent of this post. I know I really raked Murphy over the coals quite a bit over the years and, well, most of the time he deserved it, but for all his foibles he was a fine Met and it's always a little wistful when a guy who's been with the team a long time leaves. But, that's the nature of the game. Players always leave town and the cynics always win the day. Murph...It's been real.

Filling In The Gaps

The signing of Michael Cuddyer, much like the signing of Curtis Granderson last season, won't make the Mets better by itself. But what these signings have done is added the presence of useful, helpful veterans that know how to succeed and win on the Major League level to a team that's generally comprised of younger players still figuring it out.

The Met outfield, particularly Left Field, was a point of contention throughout the 2014 season. Chris Young didn't work. Neither did anyone else they tried out there, whether it was Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Matt den Dekker, Andrew Brown, Josh Satin, Eric Young Jr., or the rest of a forgettable runaway mob of guys that weren't ever going to be an every day solution. Young was a strikeout waiting to happen and didn't finish the season. den Dekker struggled to bat his weight. Eric Young was exposed and returned to the super sub role he was better suited for. Satin, Brown, and other such memorables bounced between the minors and majors all season without making much impact. Thus a better answer was needed.

Michael Cuddyer, at age 35, isn't a long-term solution for the Mets, but he comes at a reasonable price, 2 years, $21 million, for a guy that's coming off some fine seasons with the Colorados after many years playing for the Twins during an era in which they enjoyed more than their share of success. An All Star in 2011 and again in 2013, Cuddyer's accomplishments have long been in the spirit of the team; more about the whole than the sum of the parts. The numbers are solid, but not eye-popping, the man not flashy, just consistent.

This is sort of what the Mets need. While Cuddyer isn't going to hit 35 Home Runs, there's nobody readily available to the Mets that's going to, for one. For two, unlike the pu-pu platter the Mets kept throwing out in Left Field last season, Cuddyer will actually play every day and more than likely will not hit .200 and strike out a third of the time. Though Cuddyer was limited to 49 games last season due to injury, his career track has generally been pretty healthy, and in his 49 games, he hit .332 with 10 Home Runs and 31 RBI—numbers that were markedly better than anyone the Mets were able to toss out in Left Field any of the last 3 years.

The argument on the other side of this of course, is everything I just stated. Cuddyer is 35, which is old as ballplayers tend to go, and he was injured for a majority of the last season, which isn't a good sign, and also that the Mets just haven't had a great deal of luck with Free Agent Left Fielders in recent memory. Some of us are still scarred from their last dalliance with someone of this particular ilk. Then, there's the whole draft pick issue. Cuddyer received a qualifying offer from the Colorados before bolting town, which meant that whoever signed him and a bah blah blah. The Mets, with their middling finish from last season, had the #15 pick in the draft which now goes to the Colorados. For a system that seems so predicated on prospects and developing talent, why give that up? Alderson wouldn't budge on this for someone like Michael Bourn.

And so here's why it makes sense now, Charleston:

By this point, the Mets and their fans are sick of rebuilding and waiting for prospects to pay off. All the prospects they have are just about to hit the scene in the Majors, if they haven't already. The farm system has been rebuilt and there's even more prospects on the horizon. There's enough prospects here already, and the Mets don't need one more, especially if the idea of a potential prospect is going to prevent the team from making a move that will help to bring in a player that's going to help the team Win. Now. Not that it hasn't already been discussed, but 2015 is no longer about waiting to see what the hell we have here, it's time to start filling in the gaps at the Major League level to make this into a complete, cohesive roster that will contend. Whoever the #15 draft pick in June 2015 ends up being, that guy isn't going to help the Mets in 2015. Michael Cuddyer is going to help the Mets. And that's why now, it makes sense to sacrifice the pick and get the player. And maybe do it again if the right player presents himself.

Delusions Of Grandeurson

To state the obvious, the Curtis Granderson signing by itself won't make the Mets into a Playoff team. In fact, it's no sure thing that the signing will even make them a contending team right away. Granderson, who will be 33 on Opening Day of 2014, is coming off a season completely undercut by a pair of freak injuries, switching leagues for the first time and moving to a ballpark that's decidedly un-friendly to hitters.

And yet, I have absolutely nothing bad to say about the move.

Skeptics seem to point to Granderson's signing potentially being another Jason Bay-type disaster, and for all we know, that could very well happen. Granderson's career arc doesn't necessarily posit that he's due for that kind of a serious dropoff (Unlike Jason Bay, I never referred to Granderson as an overglorified Gabe Kapler). First of all, Granderson actually seemed like he wanted to come to the Mets. Jason Bay seemed to come to the Mets because nobody else would take him. But it goes deeper than that. While playing most of his formative years in spacious Comerica Park, Granderson was a gap hitter who hit a lot of doubles and triples (his 23 in 2007 led the AL) and scored a lot of runs. When he moved to the cute little bandbox in the Bronx, those doubles and triples were suddenly flying out of the ballpark, which led to 41 and 43 Home Run seasons in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Nobody's hitting 40 Home Runs a season playing half their games in Citi Field, but a more likely scenario would see Granderson's Home Runs drop off and his doubles and triples increase again. Point is, he's used to simply hitting line drives, so the park factor won't fuck up his head the way it did to Bay.

Also, the specter of playing in the media vacuum that is New York can mess up some sensitive-types. Jason Bay came to New York after spending many years in Pittsburgh obscurity and surrounded by a galaxy of stars in Boston before coming to the Mets with the expectations of being The Man and rescuing the Mets from a down season (the fact that things were already too far gone is besides the point; we really hadn't accepted that as truth yet). After a slow start, he pressed and never recovered. Granderson arrives with the Mets having already spent 4 years playing in New York for that other team, so he's used to the basic craziness of the whole thing. Granderson is also one of those gregarious, outgoing types, who's more likely to fire back some witty retorts when faced with criticism. Additionally, Granderson is joining a team that's taking a step forward in rebuilding. He doesn't have to be The Man. He just has to do what he does and help make the players around him better. This is also something he's generally used to doing. He's not a savior and nobody is viewing him as such. Or, at least, they shouldn't be (the real savior is going to miss playing with Granderson for a year, assuming things go as planned).

Really, the best thing about the Granderson signing is that it happened at all. After about a month of Free Agency chatter and a tepid amount of player movement, the Mets fans were really starting to get restless. This was supposed to be the Offseason where things finally started to happen for the Mets to bring them out of this 5-year abyss. Nobody was amused by the Chris Young signing, particularly when, for a while there, it looked like that was all the Mets were going to do. But then the Granderson rumors picked up steam and finally it became official last Friday morning. Finally, the Mets had gone out and done something of consequence. It's been a long time since the Mets made a Free Agent signing of some note, and that it's someone that fans can really get behind makes it that much better. It means that the days of us Mets fans having to talk ourselves into the idea that somehow Shaun Marcum is a shrewd Free Agent pickup are (probably) finally over.

If anything, the Granderson deal is probably more like the Pedro Martinez signing back in 2005 as far as the statement it makes. Pedro was past his prime and probably signed for a year longer than the Mets should have given him, but they had to bring him in and they couldn't fuck it up. Once Pedro signed, and made it clear that this was where he wanted to be, other Free Agents saw that the Mets were serious about putting together a winning team and pretty soon, guys like Carlos Beltran, Billy Wagner and others were coming on board. Pedro didn't ultimately perform to the worth of his contract (though not for lack of effort), but no Mets fan can possibly think it was a bad move for how it eventually set the team up for success. Of course, that was fleeting success, but it was fun while it lasted, wasn't it? This is what the Mets are doing with the Granderson move. It's a 4-year contract, which will last until he's 37 and probably on the downside of his career, but that's irrelevant. The Mets are a big-market team and should be able to absorb a few bad contracts assuming the economics fall into place.

By signing Granderson, the Mets are finally making good on the promise they've continually made to their fans that 2014 would be the year things finally got better. By signing Granderson, the Mets are sending a message to other Free Agents that this is a team players want to come to (and Granderson said as much in his press conference Tuesday). They're sending the message that this 5-year journey through Hell is finally coming to an end and the team is going to get serious about winning once again. Granderson's effect on the Mets may not be obvious immediately, but in time, it will pay off.

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.

Lost in the Shuffle

Somehow, the Mets have ceased to exist.

With the quick exit of the Yankees from the postseason, followed by the subsequent chatter over the state of the team, and the future of Joe Torre's job in flux, and the great "meeting" going on between the Yankee Higher-uppers in Florida as we speak, combined with the playoffs continuing on and continuing to surprise everyone, it's almost as if the Mets have become persona non grata across all of Baseball.

That's not necessarily a bad thing right now.

I know there have been the odd rumblings and grumblings being bandied about. Buster Olney of ESPN proposed a massive trade involving Reyes and Johan Santana as the key figures in his blog last week (which I'd link to, but it requires insider, which I don't have), but otherwise, nary a peep from Willie, Omar, heck, you haven't even heard anybody talking about whether or not David Wright has a girlfriend lately.

That's not to say that there's nothing to talk about. Jason at Faith and Fear wrote a compelling breakdown of the state of the team last week. I offered up my player capsules a couple of weeks ago. Undoubtedly, there will be players that I filleted that are sure to return, or others that we like destined elsewhere. There is a short list of pending Free Agents on the Mets, plus a host of other options about to flood the market, lest they are re-signed by their current club before the requisite 10-day period following the World Series ends.

Here's what the Mets have:
Sandy Alomar, Jr.: Hell of a way to start.

Moises Alou: The case for him has been and had been made ad infinitum over the course of the final, miserable few weeks of the season, when he was the few players producing offensively on a consistent basis. The case against him was nailed down perfectly by Jason at FAFIF: Yes, he's great, but we know that he's only great for about 90-100 games, and that means there are 60-70 games that we leave to chance because he'll inevitably get hurt. And for a team that needs time to gel and click, it's difficult to do when you are relying heavily on the dreaded creaky-old-guy-who-can-hit-but-is-rarely-healthy. My thought: If a more attractive, younger, and less injury-prone option presents itself, please take it.

Shawn Green: Green is sort of Alou-lite, if only because he's not as creaky, and not as injury-prone (not yet, anyway), but at the same time, I can't realistically see him even as the lefty half of a RF platoon with Milledge, which is totally asinine, but somehow in the back of my mind I could see Willie doing this because of his hatred of Milledge. But that shouldn't happen. Milledge deserves the RF job, despite what Willie, Boy-King or anyone in the Media thinks about him. If Green stays at all, he should be kept at a vastly reduced price and come off the bench as the key lefty pinch hitter, unless...

...Marlon Anderson is brought back to be that lefty pinch hitter. Which he should be, because he's demonstrated himself comfortable and capable in that role, and can offer a bit more in the spot starter role than Green probably would.

Luis Castillo: An e-mail string I've been involved with was talking about how Jose Valentin was a much more positive influence on Jose Reyes than Castillo, who can apparently be a space cadet of Manny Ramirez-esque proportions. Word is Castillo often doesn't know which city he is in. Then again, if he's healthy and can hit, he can think he's on Mars for all I care. But, like Alou, if a more attractive option should present itself, the Mets should take it.

Jose Valentin: Speaking of Valentin, did you know that he was supposedly a good influence on Reyes? Apparently, Reyes' downward slide coincided with Valentin's trip to the DL. Maybe he can be brought back as a coach...

Ramon Castro: I said it before and I'll say it again. He's not good enough to start every day. He'll get exposed so fast it won't be funny. He's a perfect backup if he'd like to return in that role, or even the righty half of a catching platoon if that should be the situation. But under no circumstances should he start.

Paul LoDuca: I'm convinced he won't be back. It's a shame, since he can be a good vocal leader, but his issues with the Media combined with his age seem to be pointing to LoDuca walking.

Aaron Sele: Darren Oliver put up similar numbers for the Angels that he did for the Mets in 2006, albeit pro-rated over fewer IP. Point is, if the Mets had kept him around and maybe thrown the kind of asinine money at him that they did at Schoeneweis, this wouldn't have been necessary.

Damion Easley: I would prefer that the Mets do their best to keep away from the dreaded "creaky old guys." That said, I know they won't, and it's pretty much impossible to fill out a roster without at least one or two of them (even the Rockies are trotting out the ancient Matt Herges), and if there has to be a couple of them here, I would like Easley to be one of them. He provides a nice righty counter to, say, Marlon Anderson off the bench.

Tom Glavine: Go back to Atlanta. I would prefer to have Philip Humber make the 33 starts. Or someone who won't shit the bed in the biggest game of the year.

Jeff Conine: Retired.

Mike DiFelice: See here.

There are other Free Agents out there, a comprehensive list is here. There are some nice, attractive options out there (in the vein of players like Bobby Abreu, Francisco Cordero or Mike Lowell (if this season proves that Lowell is Lowell again, and if he could, perhaps, be moved to another position, say, 1B, but that leaves a very expensive mess in the name of Carlos Delgado, who I've completely soured on after the evasiveness and the Jeter jersey incident, but this is another issue for another time)), but for each guy like that, there are another 10 Steve Trachsel/John Mabry/Neifi Perez types who are completely useless, except for those guys who could catch lightning in a bottle for a season (which is all hearsay at this point), or for me to put in a list to make snide remarks about in a future post.

It's going to be a head-scratching good time.

Congratulations, Rockies. I wish I'd put $100 on them to make it to the World Series back in April.