We Still Have One Prospect Left!

Attention, attention: This utterly fantastic piece of "artwork" is Used by Permission from Youth Change Workshops.


Voros McCracken manages to slam the Santana trade from both sides:

From the Mets point of view, considering that they look pretty incapable of developing a coherent plan for the future other than spend, spend and hope Wright and Reyes carry the lineup for the next decade, this is an excellent deal. If you don’t know how to use a scalpel, power up the chainsaw and carve away. The Mets are doing that by adding Santana to the rotation.

While the positive commentary vastly outweighs the negative commentary, those who are shining light on the dark underbelly of the Santana deal make some valid points.

I'd assume McCracken's premise is that instead of grooming their young pitchers for the majors, they shipped them off to the frozen tundra for one of the greatest pitchers of the past 5 years. Point taken. The fact remains, however, that the Mets held onto a pitcher who was once considered a "no-brainer" in Pelfrey and didn't give up their highest ranked prospect in Fernando Martinez. I understand that trading away Mulvey, Humber and Guerra was like taking a chainsaw to the farm system, but the deal also has the earmarks of a carefully prepared surgery as well (needed to get that scalpel reference in there somehow).

If Omar really took the McCracken-proverbial chainsaw to the body of the organization, he would have happily pulled the trigger at the Winter Meetings where we can only assume (based on the Red Sox & Yankee packages) that the asking price was much higher. Instead, Omar (again, I assume) trusted his instincts and sat back and waited for the price to get reasonable. When the price was reasonable (and nobody is arguing that it wasn't) Omar pulled the trigger. It just so happens that he employed both the chainsaw and the scalpel in executing this deal.

The second piece of not-so-happiness comes from JP at Blastings! Thrilledge. On the whole, JP isn't upset with the deal - it's the direction the Mets are headed in that he criticizes:

We won't forget [the collapse]. We will not be forced into optimism. And we will never give up hope that one day, the Mets will be an organization that develops young players and gives them starting jobs in the major leagues. As great as Santana is, his acquisition is a blow in that regard.

The Santana deal appears to be Yankee-ball at its finest. Trade away your young talent for a premier player. Well, we all know where that got the Yankees since 2001, and JP has reason to be concerned for the future.

I will not say the Mets philosophy will change and that they'll begin to develop prospects and give them a chance to succeed in the majors. I will say that as long as the Wilpon's are running the show, the constant pressure to win and compete with the Yankees - as asinine as it may be - will continue to permeate the organization as it has for as long as I can remember.

As fans, we should be thankful that we acquired the premier pitcher in the game in this deal. Based on past performance of an unnamed, semi-retarded BBTN analyst, Mets fans know that we could have traded those 4 prospects for a Gil Meche equivalent.

I don't condone the activity or philosophy of the Mets front office, nor do I think it will be beneficial in the long run - but for this trade, at least for the moment, the philosophy appears to have helped, rather than hurt, the team.