There are at least a few of the following things that i think many of us can agree on:

1. The Wilpons are probably financially the weakest owners of any NY sports franchise since Mrs DeRoulet inherited the team from her mother and was handcuffed by M Donald Grant

2. Fred allowed Jeff to run the organization into utter disrepair from top to bottom.

3. All of the recapitalization efforts that the Wilpons have made have helped to stabilize their world but have not made them Dolans, Steinbrenners, Johnson's or Maras financially by any stretch of the imagination.

4. Sandy was brought here to help right their sinking financial ship on the baseball operations side, to rebuild the organization from top to bottom with limited resources to do so, and perhaps as the quid pro quo for the loan that MLB made to the Mets shortly after he arrived in order to keep them afloat.

5. This organization is still a mess, and no free agent signing will put us in a class with the Nationals, Braves or Phillies.

6. We may very well lose 100 games this year, in what will likely be the nadir of the rebuilding phase.

7. Although the Mets refuse to use the "R" word, they are indeed rebuilding, just as sure as Frank Cashen was doing for the first 5 years of his term

8. We, as consumers have a free choice as to how to allocate our own personal resources. Many, as me, have abided by a personal pledge for several years to not give a penny to the Wilpons until a product that is deserving of the ticket prices is put on the field.

9. The Wilpons will own this team for all eternity. We are stuck with them forever and we are just dreaming if we think that they will ever sell.

10. Under these circumstances, Sandy needs at least three more years to fully restock the farm and get it to the point where it is regularly supplying us with major league players.

11. Sandy doesn't set the budget, Fred does.

12. We can, if we choose, become Yankee fans ( I would sooner drink the contents of a septic tank) or wait this out while we do other things in our spare time and/or watch from afar.

13. It doesn't matter who plays in our outfield this year. We will still lose close to 100 games.

How many of the above points can each of you agree with? I'd be interested to hear.

i would disagree with your last point

if they fielded an outfield (and im not saying this is at all realistic) of 3 above average to very good regulars, i do think we could compete for a playoff spot

right now our rotation has some ?'s but has a solid core w/ the possibility to be a plus rotation by mid season

our infield (including catcher once d'arnaud comes up) is a top 10 infield

right now what is keeping us from competing is the worst outfield in baseball and a questionable bullpen...im not saying that signing 3 great of's is a possibility or that it would guarantee a post season appearance but i do think it would make us competitive

i also disagree that we would need to do much to be on par w/ the phillies...that franchise is on its way down and by 2014, i think the mets may just surpass them for a fairly significant period of time

I agree with them all, especially number 9.
IF 10 ever happens that is when the rebuilding will start. (comment )

To a tee...although I'm not sure the Wilpons fully believe #5' and they could set the rebuild back even further with a foolish attempt at a quick fix trade that cleans out the farm.

I reluctantly have to agree with all your points. One hundred losses is a possibility, but I don't think we'll stink the place up quite that bad. The hardest point to take is the Wilpons owning the team ad infinitum. I have little and close to no faith in Sandy, but thats just me. Every point you make is valid. This entire FO, as of this moment, sickens me. Being the masochist I am, still love the Mets though.

I've been there on most of those points for ages. I don't think they'll lose 100, but it's moot. The season isn't going to be good. I didn't want or expect them to spend a lot of money on overpriced stars, but they aren't even going for the NECESSARY complimentary players.

It's pathetic. I put 100% of the blame on the Wilpons, as always.

The Wilpons owning the Mets is like an ax murderer marrying your daughter. You still love her but your stuck with the baggage.

Maybe not 100, but 90 is a pretty safe bet. Subtract a minimum of 10 wins out of Dickey's replacement(s). He won an awful lot of games singlehandedly.

Good analogy and so true. I can live with the infield, I think they are good overall, even Murphys defense is tolerable. Our faith as of right now is in the 4/5 rotation, which eventually should become one of the better rotations in MLB ( hoping/praying etc). The OF, of course is a complete disaster. The BP is not much better. I can actually deal with all of this for 2013 knowing they weren't going to be a contender or competitive this year no matter. But, right now, my disgust with the FO is overwhelming. It matches the Grants Tomb years in many ways. But we all pretty much knew the cavalry was coming eventually in Frank Cashen and the rest. There is no light at the end of this tunnel that I can see.

i believe that we SHOULD be re-building but that we're riding the fence instead and it's the half effort on either side of that fence that is slowing any real change down

I think that so far Sandy's only absolute rebuilding blunder was failing to trade Reyes. We can argue about whether his two first round picks will pan out, but we won't know for a few years.

The whole problem is that it doesn't matter WHAT we decide to do...whether we rebuild, retool, try to win now, etc. etc.....as long as the wilpons are here it will ALWAYS be done WRONG. They never put the TEAM first. A team can really only be as good as the owners....kind of like the QB dependence on his O line.

DFAB you nailed it in a nutshell! I like you, gave up season tickets my family held for almost 20 years as I refuse to financially support an inferior product. I wish I could change allegiance to a team that cares about it's fan base but unfortunately I cant! I was born a Met fan and will Die a Met fan. (Most likely without seeing anothing World Series). As much as this Outfield is a joke, it doesnt matter! Not at all. Sandy is doing just as told, and I love all the Koolaiders that keep saying it is NOT ST yet. LOL It is what it is! Cowgill, Niewenheis and Duda in the Outfield. God help us! Hopefully DW doesnt win an MVP or he will be next to get traded as with anyone on this team that has any kind of success. It is truly the classic example of the train wreck. You dont want to watch, but you have to.