I'll admitt I started to worry as the calendar kept turning and seemingly nothing was getting done, but looking at it now Sandy played the hand he was dealt very strong and very patiently. going into the offseason the main concerns for fans were the Wright/Dickey questions, the catcher position, the outfield, and the bullpen. With the exception of the outfield so far, Sandy has addressed all these issues at a very good value. However, I like the Cowgill move for what it is, and now it seems there is a decent-likely chance we will land one of the top 3 or so free agent outfielders in this class. Not bad Sandy. He is now in this position to sign Bourne and pay the market and likely overpay the production to fill a huge need with Bourne because he addressed other needs with out doing it by simply throwing money at our deficiencies Now are the Mets fixed if we sign Bourne? No. But no one said he needed to do it all in one offseason unless you're one of those unrealistic folks who claim "realist" and the fact is that as it stands, it looks as though we have improved both the 2013 team while also significantly improving in the long term.

How have we significantly improved the 2013 team over the 88 loss 2012 team? Bourn hasn't been signed. I'll believe that when I see it. Not before. Too many times has SA expressed "interest" in a free agent he had no intention of signing. IF, and I say IF we sign him, I'll be the first to admit he made a good move...although a lot of posters here seem to prefer some Cowgill/Kirk N platoon. I think they'll get their wish. I think SA is just blowing smoke. I hope I'm wrong.

SA has done a great job given that he has had pretty much NOTHING to work with.

Very opinionated title to this thread. I disagree. Sandy is doing a great job overall at what he was hired to do. Spin cost cutting moves of a transition to smallish market to sell it as something else. If improving the team is what the offseason is for, though, I can't call it a nice offseason. We don't have mlb players in the outfield, and the pen is highly suspect. Not mush power or speed either. Some argue he is not given money to spend as the Wilpons continue to slash salary, "but even if true you can't rubber stamp the offseason as "nice" IMO.

Do you really believe that Sandy is faking interest in players? The conspiracy theorist here kill me. The reality is that his level of intrest varies on certain situations he is in on and that isn't always reflected in the limited characters twitter allows and the lack of information these insiders really have. It pretty clear at this point the Mets interest in Bourne is very serious. Will it ultimately happen? We will see it is far from a given, but at this point it is seems more likely to happen than not. Just because Sandy doesn't sign someone doesn't mean he wasn't interested, it means the player wasn't as intrested in joining the Mets or that he was unwilling to pay as much as another team was. And my point was that because the Mets filled other needs at great value rather then overspending on guys they liked or were intrested in, they are able to go hard at Bourne at this point in the offseason.

"Do you really believe that Sandy is faking interest in players?"

Of course just like they faked interest in signing Wright to an extension.

OK, but we hear about how we just can never know if the guy was interested in the Mets, or that they asked too much, or other reasons why a deal wasn;t done, a lot more than we hear about deals being done, for a while now.

I am pretty sure they faked interest in signing Dickey. They need Wright as token good mlb player for their All Star game.

"OK, but we hear about how we just can never know if the guy was interested in the Mets, or that they asked too much, or other reasons why a deal wasn;t done, a lot more than we hear about deals being done, for a while now."

But we CAN never know. And neither can any fan for any other team.

"I am pretty sure they faked interest in signing Dickey."

And if they had signed him you would have said they faked interest in trading him for prospects. They had interest in both depending on the situation.

Of course it is an opioniated thread title/content. Just as your reply is an opioniated one. This message board is 90% opinion and 10% news. I disagree with you on Sandy's role here. I think it was first to save the Mets franchise and unfortunately the Wilpon's ownership from total economic ruin, to bring competent management top to bottom, and build a team capable of long term success. Has he done a lot of spin and PR? Yes. But what he was doing would not be popular with a lot of fans who just want to win today. They still have to try to sell tickets after all. Sometimes though you gotta do whats best for the franchise, and keep the angry mob at bay that are misguided in what the best direction is.

he had last years cy young award winner to work with ... far more than nothing.

Agreed. But when teams acquire several players it says when thing, and when they acquire hardly any new players for long stretches, it is fair to make the assumption that team A wanted to acquire players, while team B was not really interested in acquiring players. It can't be true, or at least it is highly improbable, that nearly every player "wasn't interested" or just wanted too much money that the deal was impossible. Then again with how Fred runs the team maybe FAs really don't want any part of the Mets (but if the money was right probably not true).

"They need Wright as token good mlb player for their All Star game."

Um Wright was under team control this year he would have played in the All Star game without the 7 year $120M extension.

Well Dickey I will give you. Although I think they were interested in signing him as a plan B if the market value was not there that they sought. But their "interest" was not to fool fans, it was to control the market for the best possible return via trade.

Right but if they wanted to deal Wright that could have happened any time.

I meant FINANCIALLY....

i didn't really care for sandy. his opening presser i knew he was just a puppet for the wilpons. but all things considered, he got us wheeler, d'arnaud, snydergaard, he is also protecting our draft pick.

he's also made some bonehead moves and some non moves but this team has some nice pieces moving forward.

What did you expect SA to be? Any GM is only there to do the bidding of the owner. If he wasn't as you put it 'a puppet' he wouldn't have a job for long. GM can't do any more than what the owners allow and since our owners are severely strapped for cash they are handcuffing Sandy.
It has been demonstrated on a number of occasions that our owners don't make many good baseball decisions so it has been left up to Sandy but he has strict limitations to work with that limits his flexibility.

If he is indeed able to reel in Bourn, I'm in agreement. This will have been a successful offseason.