Pitchers and Catchers. 

It’s like peanut-butter and jelly…Abbott and Costello (my favorites!!).  Or it should be.

Pitchers and Catchers – The yearly rebirth of our National Pastime from winter and the cycles we all live out.

However, in my case the GroundHog laughs at me as it burns a Mets cap in effigy.

No…, I await a serving of green eggs and ham and the arrival of Jekyll and Hyde.

I think you can tell I’m not too happy.  Quickly, let’s bring you up to speed where I stand.

The Wilpons have exhausted all resources left behind by Frank Cashen, Steve Phillips and former co-owner Nelson Doubleday.  Omar Minaya is the very last vestige of organizational talent the Mets have had in the last 30 years.

Frank Cashen was the organizational backbone of this team.  The Mets front offices were stocked by Cashen with Al Harazin, Bob Mandt, Joe McIlvaine, one that got away Jerry Hunsicker, and Steve Phillips.  Those are just the names.  Opinions about these guys will come another time. Not now.  Phillips was responsible for bringing in Jim Duquette and Omar Minaya the first time.  Omar went to Monteal.  Fred Wilpon went through all those names..fired Phillips…made Jim Duquette GM and begged Omar to come back before they even fired Duquette.  Fred Wilpon had two GMs in September of 2004.  Nice going (fool).

Fred Wilpon got lucky once before, when Joe McIlvaine left to GM the Padres because he tired of waiting for the Mets job and felt passed over, Fred begged him to come back and fix his mess of the mid-90s.  Fred begged Omar to come back and fix the mess of the early 2000s.

Jim Duquette wasn’t here long enough and wasn’t allowed to be effective enough to bring anyone into the fold.  The Wilpons only used him as a stop gap GM and told him basically to shut it down…no trades..no big free agents.

Omar is the only thing the Wilpons have left.  After him, the S.S. Wilpon is on it’s own.  They will have exhausted everything Cashen ever built.  Nelson Doubleday didn’t leave behind his baseball acumen when he sold Wilpon his half of the team.  He sold incidentally because he found his partner insufferable.  Over the last 7 years with Fred being the front man, we are finding out why.  Saul Katz is a minority owner of the Mets and I have named this era of Mets History…the Saul B. Katz Dilemma.  He is inconsequential.  Fred and more critically, Jeff Wilpon are the bosses.

I am dying for this ownership to go off campus for their next GM hire.  Omar is on the hot seat this year.  There is no doubt.  My problem is I do not trust the Wilpons to replace him effectively.  I want someone from outside the organization.  If I had my way I’d show up in Miami, grease Jeff Loria to keep him from whimpering, give Larry Beinfest anything he wants and give him the keys to METropolis.  The Mets front office has no new ideas.  Their thinking is stale and at this point, inbred.  No more internal hires.  Not this time.  We can’t anymore.

What scares me further is over the Beltran-Surgery-Gate earlier this winter, the Mets unleashed John Ricco, our assistant GM on us.  This guy is just the Wilpon’s latest Weapon of Mass Confusion.  Omar brought him on board but I don’t like nor trust him one bit.  The other Sargeant-at-arms Omar brought into the fold was Tony Bernazard.  We don’t need to do that again…do we?  At least the Wilpons dealt with that quickly.  They recently hired Bob Melvin to be a professional scout.  *sigh* -  And they promoted their bullpen catcher Guy Conti to senior advisor of minor league operations.  Really?  How yawn inspiring.

The fish rots from the head down.  This team has been spinning in a tightening eddy right down the NL East toilet under the sole ownership of the Wilpons.  They just don’t have the baseball smarts on their own and they need new direction and a bona-fide baseball guy like the one they hired in 1980…a man who constructed the mighty Baltimore Oriole teams of the late 60s and 70s, Frank Cashen.  Frank Cashen is the only executive hire the Wilpons ever made that wasn’t in-house.  That time has come again for Fred Wilpon 30 years later.  Everything Frank Cashen ever put in place comes to an end with Omar.  He is the last link to Fred Wilpon laying claim to a clue.  Frank Cashen you can argue built the 80s powerhouse of under achieving Mets who only have one ring to show for it.  That’s cool but that’s not what I’m addressing.  I’m saying the work of Frank Cashen has sustained the NY Metropoilitans under the Wilpons for 30 years and Omar is the last indirect link to that legacy.

For the first time since the mid 60s when Joe McDonald ran our minor leagues, our farm system has come to a screeching halt.  It’s been a strong healthy and prosperous system for 45 years.  That has all come to a halt.  Jose Reyes and David Wright, who were in the Mets organization prior to Omar Minaya being GM, were the last two farm products.  Omar is crossing his fingers that Mike Pelfrey will finally be his FIRST prospect that makes it on the MLB level.

Tonight I will post about the Mets pitchers or lack there-of.  Spring Training is upon us and I thought this would be a good start to let you see into my Met Mind.  The Trolley Trips have been fun for me and all…and plan on having many more.  But it’s time to take this blog and METrospection a bit more seriously.  These are supposed to be baseball blogs anyway….right?

Now that you know where I stand, tonight I will start getting into my team.  Blog ya later.

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