The New York Mets just ended a weekend where they didn’t add any player before the trading deadline and lost a series to one of the worst teams in baseball. The Diamondbacks outpitched the Mets despite trading away two pitchers.
With the trade deadline, there are many ways to look at what happened. Some may believe the Mets did well because they didn’t “trade just to trade.”
Some excuses for not making any trades are financial reasons, not being able to add salary, teams that were selling were asking too much, players that were available were not really difference makers.
Since last year, there have been reports that the Wilpons took a hit in the Madoff scandal. There are also reports that attendance at Citi Field has dropped, two major financial factors.
Whether these two excuses are true or not, let me give a couple reasons why it shouldn’t matter:
1. THE TEXAS RANGERS ARE BANKRUPT and they still added a few players including CLIFF LEE.
2. THE LOS ANGELES DODGERS and their owner is going through a divorce and they still added.
People keep excusing the Mets because of the two bad contracts they have and saying that’s why they haven’t really been able to add anybody. Tell that to Donnie Walsh who had more than two bad contracts, got rid of those players and were able to get well under the cap. Cap, that’s another key. Basketball has a cap, football has a cap, but baseball does not and the NEW YORK Mets play in a big city.
It’s incredible how things look now in 2010 and how optimistic things were when Omar first became General Manager. What happened to the NEW METS?
Omar came in and was talking about aiming to win a World Series, then it was about making the playoffs and winning the division, then it was about competing and now Omar is saying “winning SOME games.”
How did the expectation dwindle away so quickly? At least when Jim Duquette was General Manager and Art Howe was manager they were talking about winning “meaningful games.” That sounds a lot better than “winning SOME games.”
I think what makes this so painful for Met fans is that it doesn’t seem like the organization is being honest about what direction they are going in. It seems like people within the organization are not on the same page.
When it was the off-season and the Mets were considering signing players, it never seemed like the organization collectively knew who they wanted to sign. Players who signed elsewhere and had discussions with the Mets shared how it seemed like the organization seemed indecisive with their direction.
There were also reports saying how ownership didn’t give Omar a budget, but Omar had to go to ownership every time he was interested in signing a player. These actions made the process discombobulated.
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