What Is Wrong With the Mets’ Organization

I’m going to write this before anything happens today or tomorrow with coaching changes.

The point is, I’m getting the feeling that the Mets aren’t going to make any significant changes by the July 31 trade deadline, whether coaching-related or player personnel related.

The Mets can’t hit, are pitching well with a mediocre pitching coach, and have played wildly inconsistent baseball with a bad players’ manager. However, since they are so inconsistent, they look like worldbeaters at their best. And every time they move towards that end of the continuum, it convinces everyone in the organization that they can win with what they have.

They become complacent. I don’t know how badly the Mets have to play for their manager to be axed. I don’t know how badly they have to play for their hitting coach, a guy who only seems to be there because he was on one of the Mets’ two championship teams and that’s supposed to give some “motivation.”

You know what motivation is? Darryl Strawberry’s periodic criticism of the Mets. He’s done it before, and several Mets were discontented with it. Recently, he’s said that the Mets need to have more fire under their belly-that with the way they play, teams don’t fear them.

Teams don’t have reason to fear other squads who don’t come out with an intimidation factor, with hunger, who don’t just go through the motions. I’m a stat guy for baseball, and I’m not as big on chemistry and baseball psychology as more old-school types because every professional baseball player is amazing at what he does. Obviously, personalities differ, but there’s still a certain baseline every man sets for himself and performs up to. Some guys have trouble with in with changes of scenery: Beltran in 2005, Bay this year, etc. But the point is, something’s gotta give. The Mets have played lazy, go-through-the-motions baseball. Something has to be done to wake them up.

The Mets had reason to fire Jerry Manuel (rather, not extend him) after the 2008 collapse. Sure, they played better than they did under Willie, but Manuel constantly over- or under-managed and still bore witness to the second collapse in a row. In 2009, the Mets were destroyed by injuries. But they never played that well to begin with. After last year, the injuries excuse gave Jerry Manuel a free pass. Indeed, it may be that Omar just loves Jerry and wants to defend him. Or the Wilpons were too cheap to be paying three different managers’ contracts (Willie’s expired after 2009).

This team has talent, and that can’t be contested. The talent level is in fact very close to that of the 2006 Mets, who blew away the league with 97 wins with a rather pedestrian pitching staff. The lineup was better then, with Lo Duca and Valentin being better than Barajas and Castillo respectively. When you compare Green to Bay and Delgado to Davis you end up with a wash, and Endy Chavez was a great defender and a fan favorite, but Angel Pagan is a much better player. The starting pitching of this year’s team is much better. To compare the two:

Pedro Martinez
Tom Glavine
Steve Trachsel
Orlando Hernandez
John Maine/Oliver Perez

vs.

Johan Santana
Mike Pelfrey
Jon Niese
R.A. Dickey
Hisanori Takahashi

I think we’re at a point with R.A. Dickey and Jon Niese where we can say they are good, solid pitchers. Niese could be a start at the rate he’s rising at-I see a lot of Cliff Lee, or at least Barry Zito, in him.

Pelfrey has been up and down, but has shown you flashes of greatness. Santana’s easily better than Glavine or Pedro was that year. Furthermore, this staff has managed to remain healthy. The top 4 of the rotation missed 27 starts in 2006 and never really had a “fifth starter;” John Maine made 15 starts and qualified as number 5. Darren Oliver, Alay Soler, Brian Bannister, Oliver Perez, and Mike Pelfrey all had a handful of starts each.

You can see where I’m going with this. There’s no denying the Mets have talent. But that’s exactly where the rub lies.

This organization has held out hope for years that the 2007, 2008, 2009, and now 2010 teams could match the 2006 team, which has become arguably one of the most popular Mets teams of all time-at least in this generation. We all remember. But they refuse to make proactive changes because they think they have enough. The reality is, that team’s offense never really hit a skid and just rolled through a weak National League that year. Funnily enough, the other three teams in the National League who made the playoffs that year all remain similar to this day. The Cardinals have improved with Holliday and Rasmus and the advent of Adam Wainwright. The Dodgers are a similarly good team with different players. The Diamondbacks, however, seemed to catch lightning in a bottle that year, because their team today is very similar to that team. Where I’m going with this is that the National League was weak that year. The Mets are blinded by the fact that since they won 97 games, the equally-talented ’10 team must be able to, despite that the NL is leaps and bounds stronger now than it was then.

The organization just does not make proactive moves. I was never an advocate of “blowing up the core” or rebuilding because the Mets a) have a ton of talent and b) have never really made “seller” type trades. I can back them in that sense. But furthermore, they are mediocre at developing prospects. Many teams often have a top prospect ranking in the top 25 from year-to-year. The Mets are not one of those teams. They draft poorly, no matter where they pick, and have only really succeeded with “sure thing” prospects (Wright, Davis) and the occasional Latin product like Reyes.

They have taken steps to promoting youth on the team, giving Davis the first base job, and giving Josh Thole and Ruben Tejada both shots at starting. But that’s been merely because they were forced to, either due to injury or utterly atrocious play by the “starters.” I’ll remind you that the Mets’ Opening Day first baseman was Mike Jacobs.

They don’t reinforce the supporting staff enough to make themselves a better overall contender. Luis Castillo is a below-average baseball player. They continue to make patchwork or risky signings for the bullpen to “hopefully” improve it. And they have refrained from bolstering the starting staff with anyone outside of R.A. Dickey since the Santana trade.

It’s like they continue to believe, year after year, that they will catch lightning in a bottle with guys like Perez and Maine in ’06, Tatis in ’08, Castillo in ’09, and even Murphy in ’08. It’s killing them, because it seems like they are content with making the moves that on the surface seem “good enough,” but in reality, aren’t even close.

It’s sad, because it’s almost like the only option at this point is to root for poor play that motivates change. But come on, how much poor play is enough? What already, a 2-9 road trip (that should have been 1-10, mind you) doesn’t knock some sense into you?

What a shame.