In assessing the Mets horrific and potentially historic meltdown, look no further than the following four players: Bradford, Oliver, Bannister, and Kazmir.
Let's begin our painful review of recent mind-bogglingly bad deals by the Mets by first looking at the stats each has posted this year:
Bradford (Bal): 3.41 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 18 holds, only 1 HR in 63.1 IP
Oliver (LAA): 3.66 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 8 holds, 3-1 record
Bannister (KC): 3.87 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 12-9 record
Kazmir (TB): 3.54 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, 13-9 record, 229 Ks
Now, let's review why those players are no longer on the Mets. Bradford: for some reason a one-year deal for $3 M was too rich for Omar. Oliver: don't know. Bannister: we got Burgos. Kazmir: we got Zambrano (the wrong one).
Bottom line: if we had kept these young and/or proven talents, we would NOT be in a downward death spiral at this point. I'd guess we'd have 90-92 wins and a comfortable 5-6+ game lead. Instead of retaining these players, the Mets went the much riskier route of sticking with injured and/or old and injury-prone players, including Sanchez, Duque, Glav, Pedro, and I'll throw Mota in the mix b/c I was confident he would stink this season after coming off the juice. Pitching is essential, especially in the playoffs, and we got rid of ours.
To make things worse, we got rid of these players for nothing. Literally we either let them walk and got nothing in return, or got garbage in return. I just don't understand the logic in any of these four cases. And that's not 20/20 hindsight: I didn't understand any of these moves at the time, especially oliver, bradford, and bannister.
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3 comments:
You might add Owens and Lindstrom to your list.
I've got to give you credit, SHK, you were on the Bradford/Oliver thing from the beginning. And D.C. was P.O.'d about the Bannister deal when it happened, unlike myself.
That said, it's a little unrealistic to expect a guy to be right every time, and the jury is still out on the Bannister trade (I'd like to see that the guy's not a one year wonder, and also see if what the future holds for Burgos).
Let's not forget that Omar is also the guy who brought us Pedro, Beltran, PLD, Delgado. These were the front-line moves that changed the Mets from a middling team to a team capable of winning the division. Kazmir was not on his watch.
Omar's made a number of other smart moves for bench guys who really contributed before they left or got hurt: bringing in Bradford and Oliver last year, Damion Easley, Jose Valentin, and Duaner Sanchez.
Other bench guys were plucked out of obscurity and have/are contributing big-time: Endy Chavez and Marlon Anderson. He fleeced Minny for Castillo. Traded for Gotay whose exceeded expectations (though Kepp's been good too).
Finally, there were the moves he didn't make despite all the media pressure to do so. Overpay for Zito. Trade for Gagne. Sign Schmidt. Two of those moves had support on this blog (Gagne for SHK, Schmidt for me), and all three would have been disastrous.
I still give Omar props overall but I think he needs to step back a bit and re-assess. I think he was a little quick to declare the core complete, and I think it gives him a bit of a blind eye to players we could really use (e.g., Teixeira, #1 starting pitcher, ...) Of course it also gives him the upper hand in negotiations if teams truly believe that we are unwilling to fork over large sums of cash or prospects.
A couple of guys you mention were not trades but just free-agent signings, so while I still consider them good moves that was just a matter of dollars.
In that same vein, I was only a fan of picking up gagne at the end of last season as a free agent - not in the middle of this season as a trade. Considering that his numbers only tanked after the trade, whose to say that Gagne's season wouldn't have stayed excellent had he remained with one team (Texas or NYM) all season? In any case, the benefit of Gagne still would have paid dividends since both his and Wagner's first halves were brilliant. That would have allowed us to trade one before all-star break for something solid in return. Unfortunately, Omar's basic principle that the core is complete precludes him from laying out $6 M for a gagne or $3.3 M for a bradford.
For me, I was disappointed when Bannister got injured after the first month last year, b/c I thought he looked very promising as a solid #3 or #4 in the rotation. Of course Maine took his spot, but I was surprised they traded Bannister. I thought he was someone with reasonable upside.
Well, Gagne is obviously shot. That he put together a half-a-season before this became known is irrelevant, b/c we wouldn't have been trading half the pen to get Gagne for May and June. Plus, playing for the Mets--with high pressure, part of the penanant race, in a major metro area--much more like Boston than Texas. He'd probably have sucked right out of the gate.
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