Juan Rivera, get your bags packed for Queens.

"How is this team not going to lose 100 games?"

Eh, I can't see that happening. My hopes and expectations are that Harvey keeps it up, Wheeler comes up and has an impact, Ditto D'Arnaud, Ike has the same sort of year power-wise and also brings up the BA, and (with less hope frankly) Kirk adjusts and lowers his K's, Baxter turns out to be a solid OF'er though most likely as a backup and platoon role.

LOL..shocker....let's see what the Mets do now...(or don't do). They could have signed Hairston to a fair contract that wouldn't have broke the bank...but didn't. They could have signed Young for even CHEAPER....but didn't. I really hope we aren't going into the season with what we have already...............

It really does. They were also a fun group.

I honestly cannot even believe Hairston was let go. I really didn't expect it. This is not a remotely steep price and he'd have gotten more playing time here. So either Sandy really is confident something else will happen or the team truly is broke.

Mets ask MLB to protect their draft pick so they can sign Bourn

Passing on solid options in hopes the rules will be bent for you doesn't seem wise to me. What then happens if we don't get Bourn?

good for him.

Our OF is going to be historically lousy though. it would have been lousy even with him, but yesh, it's terrible now.

"When complimentary players are "too expensive", it's beyond the joke stage."

For a complimentary player to be worth signing at all there needs to be something to compliment. The Mets are not good enough to slap a band-aid on with one signing and pretend to be in the game. they are better off sitting on the sidelines and developing their own talent to either use next year or trade away.

Brinck Bobby Bonilla, I think the Mets are still paying him anyway!

Lets see what happens, They know alot more then we do.

So I assume you believe the Marcum signing was a waste of resources.

You are trying to pick a fight that is not there. The Mets dont lose anything by signing Marcum, nor did they have to go over and beyond for a marginal pickup. Marcum is an upgrade of the rotation, and BP in one move. Trading for Upton would have been plain dumb, signing Bourn gets a short term gain with a long term detriment, which doesnt help the franchise, and over paying for Hairston for the sake of signing an OF is bad management. The two scenarios are totally different.

The two situations are virtually identical. Marcum fills a hole in the rotation for one season. Signing Hairston or another right handed outfielder would fill a need and strengthen the bench.

"I say get the 2000/2001 gang back together - Timo, Agbayani, and Payton."

Amazingly enough, that outfield looks All Star caliber in comparison to what we have now."

Were people laughing about that outfield prior to the 2000 season?

But signing Hairston for two years closes a spot for next year. I would not have been opposed to it if they signed Hairston, I just dont think it is a big deal they didnt. Also signing good pitchers is always better than getting marginal position players.

They were laughing about that during the season too...

OK so then we have some hope.

The difference is, and I think you will agree, that pitching is much more important than a mediocre outfielder.

I agree pitching is more important. However, the argument against signing a player like Hairston has been that it doesn't make us contenders, he's not a long-term building block and there's no difference between winning 74 games and 77 games.

Now you tell me how signing Marcum for one season differs.