STEP ONE: Make a plan for the future and stick with it
2006 featured good pitching, excellent defense, a lot of power, great speed, timely hitting, a clutch bench, etc. Since then, we have been jacks of all trades, masters ofnone. There has been a little bit of each of these attributes, but never at the same timeand never at the right place.
Our pitching betrayed us in the 2006 post‐season (thanks a lot, Steve Trachsel) and thenagain down the stretch in 2007 (kudos Tom Glavine, Aaron Heilman and GuillermoMota). Billy Wagner's injury really shined the light on how shallow our 2008 bullpen was(Luis Ayala was our closer!). In all 3 seasons, our offense was way above average in mostcases, but more often than not, we couldn’t score when we needed to. 2009 wasabysmal, and had as much to do with the injuries as anything else. In the past 3 seasons,we did lots of little things right, but too many other things wrong.
That’s why starting in 2010, the team must define itself as something – Great Pitching and Defense? Contact and Speed? Power? I think the first option is the best bet. TheCitiField Mets should be built around pitching and defense, as their new home dictates.The Mets play 81 games there, and there's no arguing the fact that it's a pitcher's park.The roster should be constructed to take advantage of it.
Finding the right guys is a tall task on any given day, but will be even taller in 2010, when the team’s budget will be slashed. It's going to happen all across baseball, but it'll likelybe even more exaggerated with the Mets, thanks to Bernie Madoff. Someone reallyshould find out if that guy's secretly a Phillies fan. (UPDATE, 10/5 – Per their pressconference today, Jeff Wilpon and Omar Minaya stated that they would still have thehighest payroll in the NL. Whether that’s true remains to be seen.)
I’ll review who I believe to be the right guys are in another post, but for now, I’ll saythat regardless of the personnel, the most important piece for the future will be toSTICK TO THE PLAN!!
When Omar Minaya joined the Mets in 2005 he said he'd be building a team where pitching and defense were the top priority. Omar has never really made good on thatpromise, outside of 2006. He’s put together teams that have had a little bit ofeverything, and instead of picking one of those attributes and building upon it, Omarhas been all over the place.
If Omar was serious about pitching, how could he have been serious when he gave Ollie 3 years and $36 million?!?!? Other than stepping up in the 2006 post‐season andwinning 15 games in 2007, Ollie’s been a disaster. He will always be a guy with“tremendous upside,” but it’s going to take a Zen master (paging Phil Jackson) to unlockthe key to his potential. Rick Peterson caught lightning in a bottle in 2006/2007, butcouldn’t recapture it and neither could Dan Warthen. (More on Mr. Warthen in a bit.)
And defense? Come on… Moises Alou was our Opening Day LF for two consecutive seasons. A Gold Glover he is not. There are countless other examples, too, but these aretwo glaring ones. Omar’s biggest problem is that he seems to get blinded by the goodthings about players (Ollie’s “stuff,” the fact that Moises could hit the ball in his sleep,Julio Franco’s clutch year in 2006, etc.) and ignores the bad/obvious (Ollie sucks, Moisesis brittle, and Julio is old as dirt).
The henceforth plan is pitching and defense. Period. Omar should write it on an indexcard and carry it with him everywhere he goes. When he answers questions insubsequent press conferences, every answer should either be “Pitching and defense” orsome derivation of the phrase.
Coming up next is STEP TWO: Choose management that best fit that plan.
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