back in August i posted that we should just deal Wright,Dickey,Murphy,and Davis and start over,i later proposed dealing even Niese and getting back as much in the way of prospects as we could and do a total rebuild,start over

many of us agreed that the problem with throwing money at Wright and Dickey was that there wouldn't be anything left to do much else,in other words how would we answer the "then what?" question and i fear that we're seeing the beginning of the answer as time goes on

we signed the "face of the franchise" and now we can't afford Hairston,we're trying to low ball our best pitcher and there still isn't much in the way of minor league help arriving

and sure enough there are whispers that our Opening Day lineup will look very similar to the end of 2012....

it's sad when the Dodgers and the Reds and the Nats are beating us at every step,at every turn

but at least we still have the face of the franchise because you just can't put a price tag on "legitimacy" and the entertainment factor that filled the ballpark at the end of last year

Fred signed his boy and that's all they may have been committed to doing. The rest was filed under "let's see if a good deal falls in our lap if not, hey, we were in it for half a season, who knows? Of course, that's (pardon me for using this phrase considering the infamous post from last spring) fool's gold, but that may be how ownership hopes enough of the fans feel.

I agree with most of your trade proposals and I still think that was the smarter way to go. It's gone from being hard to believe a rebuild was going on to, let's just be honest, a rebuild isn't going on. Especially if they end up re-signing R.A. I find it extremely hard to believe that Fred and Jeff aren't STILL calling the shots when I see an offseason such as this one has been thus far. We still have a few months to go, anything can happen, hopefully something will. But the headlines keep showing another team getting another nice player, some of whom the Mets could've used. I'd hate to think this will be another offseason like the one we re-signed Oliver Perez, where we fans watched each nice player go elsewhere. It was a maddening, frustrating and disappointing baseball version of "And Then There Was None."

and Wright isn't even capable of carrying the team

Wright is a good, even very good player when he has Beltran and Delgado to surround him. Fairly naked in a lineup like the Mets will probably have? It's going to be rough. Opposing pitchers will continue to pitch around him. And he may start swinging at too many outside pitches in the dirt. Not the optimum situation for him. One only wonders what was promised him, considering his statement about how much winning was important to him.

thx, that's where I was going, when Wright has big boppers around him, he complements them. As well as when the pitchers adjust to him, when he adjusts he fails. Also, he's a better 5th place hitter than a 3rd place one if you ask me.

Did you see the first half of last season?

Did you see the first half of last season? >>>>

fairly or not, people will remember the awful 2nd half more.

Which only shows that David does carry the team. He had a big first half and no one else hit and we were over .500. He stops hitting and they fall apart. They are doing to Wright the same thing they did to Piazza, they are not putting anyone around him.

the payrolls prob gonna be around 69-73 million.down around 25 million even with the wright signing. wrights contract isnt why we cant spend on filling holes.they just dont want too.

why is it some people are perfectly content with wright and a minor league team (scratch that,some wanted to trade wright and have just a minor league team)? i agree younger players are important,and should be a big part of this team.but they cant be the whole team.we need proven mlb'ers in there too and not just guys that can be great but havent hit a major league pitch yet.

That's not accurate about no one hitting. In the first half, the Mets batted .259 as a team and were 46-40. Wright batted .351. In the second half, the team batted .238. Wright hit .258. I agree one of the reasons they had such a poor second half was because of his dropoff. But others WERE hitting in the first half, and Dickey was incredible (Santana had a great first two months). I don't want to sound like I'm knocking Wright. MOST players need complimentary players around them to perform well.

Patience, (yes I know) 2014 is our year. The order of business for now is to extend RA. We have Wright, but now Sandy has to get his head on straight and make a decision, then fill the bench with cheap bats.

For now, we live and die with Thole. One of our young outfielders may have a tremendous season, which will reduce our need for an outfielder for 2014.

We must remain deep at the pitching level. At some point, we will need to sign a top level closer. Keep in mind a lot of money comes off the books, so we will have the option to go after one or two good FA's..... patience .... ! one step at a time. The Mets organization must resist the temptation to give up an ace to plug a bunch of little holes with a pile of outfielders. That's not going to win us a championship. I've been saying this like a broken record. (anyone remember records?) :)

i know we didn't agree in regards to Davis being dealt but did on Wright and RA...but i look at the Rays deal with the Royals and while my proposal of Davis and Murphy to the Rays (very early on,before they signed Loney) could have brought back either Shields plus or Hellickson plus a lower down pitching prospect,i was thinking Archer or Cobb perhaps...and THEN you had a surplus of pitching from which to deal

then you could move Dickey for Olt and maybe expand the deal a little by adding Gee even and getting another prospect or two or maybe their David Murphy...

Wright would have been a good fit for a number of possible teams including the Dbacks,Angels,and maybe even the Orioles

and after all that you'd still have Santana,Niese,Harvey,Hellickson,Cobb,with Wheeler coming along with Mejia as an option....you could still conceivably package Niese in a deal (to the Mariners for Montero plus?)

what we did here,what we're doing now just doesn't make much sense and low balling a Cy Young winner doesn't do much for our franchise's "legitimacy"

the problem (and the reality) has always been what do we do after signing someone like Wright....i would rather have Wright and Dickey on my team,but not alone just so we can have a few major leaguers on it but have no chance to win

we had Wright,Dickey,Davis,and Niese were all on the team last year and other than Ike's avg had very good seasons and we won 74 games,can we count on all 4 having similar seasons as last year?

the question no one on the board (or the FO) can answer is how do we improve on THOSE FOUR PLAYERS aside from Harvey and maybe Wheeler?....

and like a big circle that brings us back to "then what?" and that's where we are now,starting to bicker with Dickey over money in the papers and not even being able to afford 2 years for Hairston

The team can afford, they are just not willing to pay.

maybe, i really don't know....but re-building was something we all know this ownership could afford and it might have given us more flexibility financially

"the problem (and the reality) has always been what do we do after signing someone like Wright....i would rather have Wright and Dickey on my team,but not alone just so we can have a few major leaguers on it but have no chance to win"

well,theres no argueing with that one.when your right ,your right.

"we had Wright,Dickey,Davis,and Niese were all on the team last year and other than Ike's avg had very good seasons and we won 74 games,can we count on all 4 having similar seasons as last year?"

yeah,i believe we can.theres no reason to think otherwise.niese seems to get better and better every year.i fully expect ike to raise that average and hit 28-32 hrs again .wright is just wright,he does what he does and with the exception of one season (where even that one wasnt as bad as people make it out to be) he does it every year. and dickey,well,i believe he can win more than he loses if can win 15 games there you go.maybe he'll never win another cy young.or 20 games again but he can be effective the next three or four years.

" the the question no one on the board (or the FO) can answer is how do we improve on THOSE FOUR PLAYERS aside from Harvey and maybe Wheeler?...."

and this is where i disagree.i knew coming in we werent going after bourne,napoli,swisher,or greinke.and i was ok with that.but we build on it with guys like ross,who might not be allstar caliber,but hes still a good player and a good piece of the puzzle.it seems to me they banked their entire offseason plans on what they could get for dickey,what "cant miss" prospects they can get.and that seems to be falling thru,so they have no plan b,make a bunch of comments that is UTTER AND COMPLETLY different over what was said just a few months ago. they went from ,we will be raising payroll,a little this year,a little next year,etc.etc...to maybe well spend it in january,maybe not at all,etc...i tried,i really did,i tried believing in what they were saying.but theyve lied the past 3 seasons,and the lies continue. "

and like a big circle that brings us back to "then what?" and that's where we are now,starting to bicker with Dickey over money in the papers and not even being able to afford 2 years for Hairston

"

theres a difference between not affording it,and not spending it. and they can afford 2 years on hairston.they just dont want to spend it.and wrights contract cannot be blamed for that.especially since ,again,even with wrights contract,the defered money he agreed to to to improve the team.bays defered money,not having some of the contracts we had. we are 29 million from last year.

BINGO!!!!!!! teams havent exactly been generous with their offers. so eff them.we keep him.im hearing why build around a 38 y/o pitcher.well,thats true.but you also cant build around the little packages of one decent and a bunch mediocre prospects thats been being offered either.

BINGO!!!!!!! teams havent exactly been generous with their offers. so eff them.we keep him.im hearing why build around a 38 y/o pitcher.well,thats true.but you also cant build around the little packages of one decent and a bunch mediocre prospects thats been being offered either."

Thats pretty much the situation we're in though. We need as much help as we can get. Jeffys mouth doesnt help but we are pretty much forced to take what we can get. Keeping Dickey does NOTHING for us. he won 20 games.... we won 74.... We arent improving around him so we need to get what we can. Sandy's job is to get us the best return. Lets hope he can do that