Spring Thought
Spring training is here and I’m at work. Big projects are keeping me from blogging as much as I’d like but I hope to be able to blog more soon.
As with most years I’m excited about spring training this year. Usually I’m excited because I love the game of baseball. And while that’s true this year I also have a bit more optimism than I’ve had the last few years.
The Omar Minaya era is over which means an acknowledgment from ownership that a rebuilding period is needed. Minaya made some bold moves to make the Mets contenders the first few years of his tenure but the last few years he was plagued by ‘1 player away’ syndrome. For example, last year’s 1 player was Jason Bay.
Now Sandy Alderson is at the controls and he’s taken a step back from the ‘1 player away’ philosophy. A lot has been made of the role the Bernie Madoff mess that ownership is in has played in Alderson’s approach of paring down the payroll. Despite his denials I’m sure that it’s a factor. However a team that’s been a loser the last two years but has been caught up in the ‘1 player away’ philosophy for so long is going to have dead wood that needs to be cut away before a new forest can be grown. Dead wood such as Luis Castillo & Oliver Perez whose contracts are guaranteed through this season.
Alderson’s approach to signing cheaper, fringe free agents may be the right approach to take for this club. The Mets have a team that is capable, if they play to their potential, of scoring some runs. Though the pitching needs some help (I know that’s an understatement) they could be an exciting team to watch. I don’t think this is a playoff caliber team but letting chemistry develop without a major acquisition to inflate expectations is not a bad idea. This team is certainly not ‘1 player away’.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by mostlymets, Scott Bayne. Scott Bayne said: RT @mostlymets: New #mets blog post: Spring Thought http://golddave.com/1w7K9y […]