tangledupinblue

From my MEtsBlog today:


Duquette's Hobson's Choice


Damned if you do, dammed if you don't.

Jim Duquette is caught between a rock and a hard place, and he has the Braves, the Phillies and the Marlins to thank. The marginal play of the other east teams and our resulting contention oddly enough has messed up the Mets' plan. Coming off the back- to-back debacles that were the 2002 and 2003 seasons, this was a clearly transitional year to hope for .500 ball and try to get a couple of kids acclimated to NY. The obvious plan was to cut salary, fly under the radar and save payroll for offseason acquisitons (Pavano and Clement?) because say what you will we did have a $120 million payroll as recently as last year and it's only a matter of time until Fred and Paris get over Maurice and take a chance on love again.

The real push was to start next year when hopefully Kazmir might have a shot out of spring (he might have made Binghamton much earlier without injury), with Huber maybe ready to move Piazza (who could work with Hernandez all spring) to first full time, with Wright, Reyes and Matsui having logged time together, and with Ring, McGinley and some imports ready to overhaul the pen, etc.

But, with the team staying close -- through a combination of othr teams' mediocrity and BATTLING by the Amazins themselves -- to the top of a craptastic division, Duquette now has to try to do two things at once -- stick to the long-term plan while satisfying the restless natives who want to at least have the illusion of a shot this year. He made one coup with the Hidalgo deal by acquiring a legitimate thumper for a player who had no part in our future. Hidalgo also helps the future and is a player we MUST re-sign. Too many all-stars have disintegrated in NYC to let someone who actually improves upon getting here walk away even if his talent "MAY" be a notch below Beltran (and I say "may" because no one who puts a month like this up and who has a 44 HR season to his credit cannot be looked at as 2nd tier -- maybe inconsistent or perhaps unmotivated in the past, but RH is a top-drawer talent). His knees are certainly a notch above Sugar Maggs' and I've never heard an athlete work so hard to come up with new ways to use the phrase "I am so happy to be here," in so many interviews. Hidalgo is the goods and his performance and attitude only reinforce everyone's assumptions that Jimy Williams is a joke.

Now faced with a chance perhaps to acquire Kris Benson, an A-level talent suddenly living up to billing in the last half of a walk-year (shocker! even J.D. Drew stays on the field in a walk year), we probably could acquire him by sweetening a Wiggy/Peterson package with the Hit Machine Victor Diaz (I speculate here, but he leads our entire organization in total bases). Tempting, and I see why it is attractive. But Duquette has to take the lumps from the fans, and the Wilpons have to take the "Coupon" catcalls and say no to Littlefield.
Why?

Simply put, the team has far too many holes. Duquette just has to accept that he will get murdered when he rightly doesn't make a move for Benson. It would be the right move if this was a 90-win team that needed 95 to get to the dance. But it isn't. Another starter to give us 7 great innings is a moot acquisition if he leaves the mound only to hear the strains of "Johnny B. Goode" coming over the loudspeaker. There are too many holes in the bullpen and in the situational hitting of the team as a whole to warrant the rental of even the best pitcher on the market. Only one factor gives me the slightest pause. Our 1 & 2 are good enough that if we MacGyvered our way into the playoffs Benson would give us a top 3 good enough to possibly shock some teams if Piazza, Floyd. Hidalgo, Reyes and Wright all were hot at once. But honestly we are just not good enough to mess things up right now. Stay the course, 1000 points of light, enjoy the ride. Don't be sellers, we may grow into the division yet . . . but either do it with the crew we have, or with Keissler and McGinley and Ring reinforcing the pen (which I would LOVE) or die trying and get ready to open a can that will last for years on the NL next spring. Anyway, that's my breakdown as the deadline draws nigh. That being said, i will now try and remember that this team has so far exceeded my expectations and let me give my best friend, a die hard Jeter lover a broom for his birthday. So I am going to take a page from the strange folk of Red Sox Nation and issue a call.

ALL ABOARD THE POSITIVITY TRAIN!

Let's Go Mets

We are on the verge of something very, very cool, and it will be done the right way.



posted by jpkmets at 3:58 PM 0 comments