A few thoughts on the organization's strategy moving forward...

[Rio40]

3 top prospects, huge payroll relief, and developing talent. Not bad in 3 years.

Exactly...

McFly - If our young players show promise and the Mets don't make a major signing next season I will agree with you. I am simply giving them a chance to rebuild before I make a judgment.

Also you act like SA doesn't spend like its coming out of his own pocket. If he was given 100 million budget do you really not think he would sign someone who would help this team?

[YoungStuna28]

Omar tried to win and look where it got us? One playoff appearance in 6 seasons, a sorry excuse for a farm system, absolutely no depth, and a fat payroll to underachieving players.

Sandy's job has been to rebuild the organization. He's done a nice job improving the depth of the farm, acquiring high upside young talent for aging players, greatly improving the flexibility, not being impatient knowing when it's time to make moves, and not making moves based on emotion. I am very comfortable with what the FO is doing right now.

[Rio40]

We really need Santana to have a stellar first half so SA can work his magic again.

[Sick Of It All]

Payroll relief is not really something to hang your hat on, anybody can sit and not sign anybody for three years.

[Sick Of It All]

The trick is spending on the right personnel, not over paying for mediocre talent. If and when we see Sandy start to spend then we will see if the payroll flexibility he spoke about made sense.

But as of right now his biggest or most expensive FA signings have DJ Carrasco, Jon Rauch and Frank Francisco not exactly spending wisely either.

[YoungStuna28]

The trick is spending on the right personnel, not over paying for mediocre talent. If and when we see Sandy start to spend then we will see if the payroll flexibility he spoke about made sense.

But as of right now his biggest or most expensive FA signings have DJ Carrasco, Jon Rauch and Frank Francisco not exactly spending wisely either.

But those contracts don't kill us long-term. Sandy will be judged on the players he brings in after our core is set.

[Sick Of It All]

But there unwise signings and that is all we have to judge him for now since he has done no other major signing. And bases on those signings am not ready to say I trust him as far as who he will bring in later on. Hell, I think in two years Sandy will not even be the GM anymore.

[Rio40]

But there unwise signings and that is all we have to judge him for now since he has done no other major signing. And bases on those signings am not ready to say I trust him as far as who he will bring in later on. Hell, I think in two years Sandy will not even be the GM anymore.

Yup

The Bay signing was miserable from the start. You can't take a .250 fly ball power hitter put him in a huge field and expect him to have good production.

Spending the extra money on Holliday would have been a huge difference. While his home runs would have gone down in Citi, being a line drive hitter with a good average his doubles and average would go up with more space in the outfield. Let alone Holliday was the younger of the two.

Hopefully once the Mets do spend again they will spend it more wisely.

[Rio40]

YoungStuna your def right about the small contracts not hurting us longterm and that was def part of Sandys plan.

[MetsFanatic19]

He's not even tried to win. He's failed, we've wasted three seasons and in exchange we've got 3 prospects.

He's trying to win in the future. Building a team to win in the time he has been here was practically impossible, being that he had no money to spend and nobody to (smartly) spend it on.

What would've you done if you were GM in his situation? Resign Reyes, sign Pujols, and trade the farm for Felix Hernandez and Giancarlo Stanton?

You can't base a GM's success on whether or not the team is winning, especially since that's not Sandy's goal at the moment. He has done a great job in putting the Mets in position to win in a few years.

-Traded Carlos Beltran (aging, injury prone oufielder rental) for Zack Wheeler (future ace)
-Traded R.A. Dickey (aging pitcher and, while I believe he has multiple good seasons left, would not make much a difference in New York) for Noah -Syndergaard (future TORP) and Travis d'Arnaud (future catching stud that we have lacked ever since Piazza).
-Resigned the best player to ever put on a Mets uniform for life.

How is that all outweighed by the fact that the Mets didn't trade Reyes/resign him and that Sandy hasn't won with a team that has been annualy projected to finish dead last every year?

[wdwyer]

The problem most Mets fans have right now is that this is new waters for us. We have come to expect the Minaya and Phillips way of doing things. Going out and signing a name player (usually past his prime) and trying to spin it in the papers. We literally try to convince ourselves they are the right moves.

What SA is doing whether it was forced by the Wilpons/lawsuit or just the plan all along...doesn't matter at this point. This is new territory for us Mets fans and we do not know how to quantify it. We do not how to react just yet. We are not used to rebuilding and it is very hard to break the "instant gratification" habit.

We also do not know how SA will react considering this is also new territory for him. The Mets are rebuilding, there is no question, but it is also the largest market in the world. That does come with expectations. Expectations that SA is not used to. This is not Oakland, every step, word, and move will be critiqued and studied and crucified (wrongly or rightly). So with these new frontiers ahead of us, we can only wait and watch...to see how SA reacts...and of course how we will react in kind.

Right now we are getting ahead of ourselves because everything is being questioned.

[Coupon]

The problem most Mets fans have right now is that this is new waters for us. We have come to expect the Minaya and Phillips way of doing things. Going out and signing a name player (usually past his prime) and trying to spin it in the papers. We literally try to convince ourselves they are the right moves.

What SA is doing whether it was forced by the Wilpons/lawsuit or just the plan all along...doesn't matter at this point. This is new territory for us Mets fans and we do not know how to quantify it. We do not how to react just yet. We are not used to rebuilding and it is very hard to break the "instant gratification" habit.

We also do not know how SA will react considering this is also new territory for him. The Mets are rebuilding, there is no question, but it is also the largest market in the world. That does come with expectations. Expectations that SA is not used to. This is not Oakland, every step, word, and move will be critiqued and studied and crucified (wrongly or rightly). So with these new frontiers ahead of us, we can only wait and watch...to see how SA reacts...and of course how we will react in kind.

Right now we are getting ahead of ourselves because everything is being questioned.

Not exactly new or a surprise to me. I called a transition to a small market budget over two years ago.

http://forums.prosportsdaily.com/sho...d.php?t=532697

This was after a 2010 season in which the Mets were still near the top of the league in revenue.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2011/33/...s-11_land.html

This doesn't include their SNY revenue which isn't dependent on attendance or even wins and losses.

The Wilpons reacted to $500 million of stolen money vanishing from their accounts by endeavoring to bleed as much as possible out of the Mets.

After not spending any money, losing all their best players but one, and "rebuilding" since 2010 all they have to show for it are 3 prospects. They've acquired very little in terms of minor league talent. What else do you expect when willingness to sign below slot is a requirement for almost all their top picks. This whole thing is a typical Wilpon deception. These aren't new waters for any of us.

The only difference is in the past an inadequate team would be fobbed off on us as a contender. Now a crummier team is being fobbed off on us as a "rebuild".

[YoungStuna28]

It's only been 2 seasons and we've acquired 3 Top prospects in Zack Wheeler, Travis d'Arnaud, and Noah Syndergaard.

Michael Fulmer, Luis Mateo, Rafael Montero, and many of our other promising prospects like Brandon Nimmo, Gavin Cecchini, Amed Rosario, Vincente Lupo, Gabriel Ynoa, Chris Flexen, Wuilmer Becarra, and Jose Garcia that are further away and needs years to develop.

Rebuilding takes time, and it doesn't change things overnight. You need to be more patient.

[Coupon]

It's only been 2 seasons and we've acquired 3 Top prospects in Zack Wheeler, Travis d'Arnaud, and Noah Syndergaard.

Michael Fulmer, Luis Mateo, Rafael Montero, and many of our other promising prospects like Brandon Nimmo, Gavin Cecchini, Amed Rosario, Vincente Lupo, Gabriel Ynoa, Chris Flexen, Wuilmer Becarra, and Jose Garcia that are further away and needs years to develop.

Rebuilding takes time, and it doesn't change things overnight. You need to be more patient.

Except for Becarra all those were regular draft picks that could have been acquired without cutting payroll in half and tanking season after season.

The main effect of shedding salary has been... shedding salary!

[YoungStuna28]

Except for Becarra all those were regular draft picks that could have been acquired without cutting payroll in half and tanking season after season.

Mateo, Montero, Rosario, Lupo, Ynoa, and Garcia weren't drafted. We've only tanked 2 seasons, that isn't anything big. Next year will be the third, and after that has been yet to be determined.

The main effect of shedding salary has been... shedding salary!

Exactly! Shedding salary is one of the main components of rebuilding.