History Repeats Itself

Since one can only subject them self to so many hours of civil procedure review...I have just enough brainpower left to copy and paste this piece by Tim Marchman from today's NY Sun. Why just cut and paste you ask? Well, because he's the journalist and put what I've been thinking for 2 weeks into just the right words:

"Every time the Mets make a fetish of professionalism (and do so at the price of talent), they regret it, as they do whenever they make a fetish of experience at the expense of youth, or play for the next year rather than the next five. When they do all these at once, as when they traded Kevin Mitchell and Scott Kazmir, the results tend towards the unforgivable. But they do the same thing over and over again, never learning from the past and never changing. General managers, managers, and coaches are fired, and the players grow old and retire, but the Mets are always the Mets — never accepting risk, always afraid of failure, and never quite as good as they should be.

The Mets should be a great team, and they can be. David Wright, Jose Reyes, Perez, and Maine all met or surpassed expectations this year, and the best of the team's veterans still have plenty left. This is a team that can succeed, wildly, for years. But for that to happen, the Mets have to trust talent, at every level and in every signing and trade."

As usual, I couldn't have said it better myself.

Your season has come!

Toying With Our Emotions

Yes that's right, you heard me correctly, Johan Santana wants to be a Met. In fact, he's dying to be a Met. He's painted his summer villa in Venezuela orange and blue. He's been spotted in midtown in a #41 throwback. He's even made sure to alert the press that he always wears his seatbelt while riding in taxicabs.

This from MetsBlog:

"…having talked with a variety of people over the last few days, ranging from those who are connected to the team to people connected to player reps to those who work in media and for teams who are following the negotiations, from what i can gather, Johan Santana prefers to be on the Mets, where he can a) be in New York City, and b) get out of the hitter-dominant American League…

…the Twins are well aware of this, and are willing to accommodate his request, while also trying to maximize the level of talent they get in return…

…so, over the last few days, if not longer, the Twins have been speaking on and off with the Mets, who are willing to flood them with young talent, but who refuse to provide a major-league ready, immediate-impact player, like Jose Reyes…"

It's Mets For Me had this to say: "It maybe that similar stories can be found on other less-than-impartial sites around the interwebs, ("Santana wants to be a Devil Ray" "Santana wants to be a Rockette"), but invoking Santa's blanket no-trade and hoped-for preference is a recipe for an internet feeding frenzy in Flushing fantasyland. That sound you just heard was not grandpa's bladder, it was hope springing eternal. Well played, Matthew, well played. Let's get frenzied!"

Cerrone goes on to add that the hangup may be that the Mets are unwilling to give Santana the 7-year contract extension that he is looking for. If this is true (which admittedly there's probably much more to the story) why should this even be an problem?

When the Mets were looking to add an impact arm after the 2004 season and Kazmir debacle, what did they do? Oh that's right, they went out and overpaid for Pedro and gave him what everyone thought was too many years. Actually, it was too many years, but the move needed to be made and it re-energized a franchise that desperately needed a boost.

Santana in 2007 is not Pedro in 2004. There aren't any health questions, there aren't any size questions, there aren't any questions period. If this is the only hangup and a deal doesn't get done because the Wilpons all of a sudden wish to exercise financial restraint, there should be a mutiny.