A Scathing Review Of Sandy Alderson

[dunbummin]

I think the following article represents a very realistic assessment of Alderson's 2 year tenure as the Mets GM. It specifies and expands on his best and worst moves quite objectively.

http://metsmerizedonline.com/2012/12...comment-327307

It should be required reading for McFly, Coupon, and all the detractors who call Sandy a puppet and demean all he has tried to do. I'd like to hear from those who disagree with this assessment, as well as those who think it is spot on.

[Angry Norwegian]

Just gave it a quick glance, it seems like he knows what he's talking about.

But regarding people being angry at him saying "we're playing for 2012 (now)"... what the HELL do you expect him to say? Any GM that comes out and says "we're gonna suck for a little while, just hold on and keep buying tickets, we're sure gonna make a run a few years from now" is getting fired in a SECOND.

It's the #4, 'insulting Met fans intelligence' point. Well, let me break this to you: our organization, as well as every other one, has a ton of idiotic bandwagon fans. In NYC, this demographic is gigantic. Sandy needs these people to show up or buy tickets or merchandise in order to keep this ship running.

So of course he's going to lie. Of course he's going to be Mr. Optimism and committed to winning even when we have no shot. How do you think politicians get votes?

They ****ing lie, and for good reason-- because if they didn't they be in danger of losing their job. For Sandy, if he didn't lie he'd be in danger of losing his job. Simple as that.

[dunbummin]

Good point. Sometimes, in business, you have to say things that may not necessarily be true. So long as no one gets hurt by it. Your public position must always support the organization and your statements need to portray whatever is necessary to promote the welfare of the team.

One thing I do have a problem with was the way the Dickey situation seems to have been handled. Rather than low balling R.A. to deliberately prolong the negotiations, Sandy should have been up front, telling Dickey that he is a valuable asset, but that he was obligated to see what Dickey was worth on the trade market before proceding with serious extension negotiations. Dickey had no choice but to wait it out anyway. That way, perhaps he would not have been disgruntled.

[EastonRuthledge]

pretty good article...but he is a puppet to a certain extent in my opinion, all the statements about not throwing in the towel were pretty insulting to the fan base's intelligence...none the less, he's doing his best to do what he can do, if he actually had some money to play with i would be more than confident in his craftiness

[acerimusdux]

There's really only one area where I see this current front office being a major improvement over the previous regime, but the upgrade there is huge: contract and trade negotiations. All of Sandy's biggest achievements have come there.

Sandy so far has done an excellent job of getting good value generally in contracts and trades. You can criticize not trading Reyes, but with Reyes being injured heading into the deadline, he wasn't going to get a much better return than Plawecki + Reynolds anyway. Plus making Reyes available would have cut into the market for Beltran, who wasn't going to net us draft picks. Refusing to move Reyes was maybe enough to convince a trading partner that he wasn't going to cave in and move Beltran either unless the return was good.

And his handling of the Dickey trade was just brilliant. No one can say that any GM would have made that trade, because nearly every armchair GM I saw on these boards at the time was saying he'd be crazy to turn down d'Arnaud alone, and might have to settle for something like Arencibia + Gose. Sandy set the price at 2 top prospects, and he got his price. You don't get that price unless you first turn down the lower price.

At some point in the future, hopefully not too distant, Sandy is likely going to have to make the transition which Alex Anthopoulos has recently made, from building the farm, getting younger, and shedding bad contracts, to actually going for it. The players he chooses to invest in at that time may ultimately determine the Alderson legacy. On the lesser moves, I think his performance so far has been somewhat average, but hopefully he'll get the big moves right.

But he's doing a pretty decent job overall on the first phase, building the farm, getting younger, and shedding contracts. I do think the job he's done building the farm sometimes gets over-stated. I don't see the dramatic improvement some claim, and I'm not really yet convinced as to whether the drafting has improved at all. But I think there has been some improvement on player development, especially on pitching, and that these types of improvements will often take 5+ years before everyone fully appreciates them anyway, so maybe the drafting has been better as well, we'll see.

[DisgruntledGoat]

First off I'm not sure how much stock I can put into an article where the writer misuses "Scathing" right off the bat, if it was meant tongue in cheek well it failed to present itself in that light...that said....

Alderson "double-talks" or "Lawyer-speaks" too much, he's like a politician of sorts, he'll say one thing...two weeks later there is contradiction and a month after that there is even more contradiction to the previous 2 statements, He's made some good deals and some VERY questionable decisions as well, but then perhaps that is why he is here...to be the "Villain" and take some of the focus off ownerships own ineptitude...I don't know...what I do know is telling season ticket holders what he did during the meeting and then NOT living up to it should count as breech of contract, however...it doesn't.

Where the article states "Alderson realized that his team played over its head in the first halves of 2011 and 2012 and didn’t waste young talent on short-term upgrades in trades..." I disagree with that fully. It's pure supposition on the writers part, The fans believe that YES we DID play over our heads BUT it was to show that we wouldn't roll over and I believe if we would have made 1 or 2 well timed trades we could have reinvigorated the team and made a run for the 2nd wildcard in 2012, this of course can be construed as supposition on my part...I accept that.

D'arnaud...I'm sorry I can't get as excited as everyone else here for acquiring a 23yo catcher who's already had knee surgery...let me say that again....CATCHER who has ALREADY had KNEE SURGERY, moving Thole though...I applaud that, Moving Dickey...Not such a great idea. would R.A. have won 20 games or won another Cy Young on 2013? probably not...would he have continued to give us QUALITY starts? most probably YES! this trade was a slap in the face and an example of the double speak I mentioned earlier...


That said... Will SA's Tenure as GM be looked at as being genius or jester? well only time will tell...I'm keeping an open mind.

[DisgruntledGoat]

Sorry...double post

[blueman2424]

pretty good article...but he is a puppet to a certain extent in my opinion, all the statements about not throwing in the towel were pretty insulting to the fan base's intelligence...none the less, he's doing his best to do what he can do, if he actually had some money to play with i would be more than confident in his craftiness

Agreed, although I would add that nearly every GM is a puppet to some extent just given their nature: spending someone else's money.

Brian Cashman, anyone? (whose name, by the way, is among the most ironic in all of history)

[Dugmet]

D'arnaud...I'm sorry I can't get as excited as everyone else here for acquiring a 23yo catcher who's already had knee surgery...let me say that again....CATCHER who has ALREADY had KNEE SURGERY...

At the age of 23 at AAA, Jorge Posada broke his left leg and dislocated an ankle in a collision at home.

At the age of 24 Buster Posey fractured his fibula and tore ligaments in his ankle. He had an MVP season the next year.

There are only 16 HoF catchers. I wonder how many OFers there are in the Hall? Competent catchers are even hard to find. Knee injuries tend to become a more of a problem later in a player's career. It takes a while for degenerative effects to accumulate to the point where the player is affected. d'Arnaud is not a big, heavy kid either, and by keeping his leg muscles strong, he can reduce the stress. I'm sure the Mets paid careful attention to d'Arnaud's medicals and felt the knee was not going to be an issue.

[Bluetug]

It should be required reading for McFly, Coupon, and all the detractors who call Sandy a puppet and demean all he has tried to do. I'd like to hear from those who disagree with this assessment, as well as those who think it is spot on.

What he is doing is exactly what the puppetmasters (The Wilpons) want him to do. The team would not have gotten to the point of horrible without thier every day imput and micro management of the past GM's. The Mets are now and have been the laughing stock of baseball. Sandy was hire to cheaply rebuild the team. If it were not for the Wilpons close relationship with Bud they would have been forced out by now. Not only do the Wilpons suck as owners not really careing about the fans, but the organazation is classless in thier treatment of Dickey, not even putting him inthe highlights of 2012. He was one of the only highlights of 2012.

[jomota]

Asking a GM about his team is like asking a Maitre D' about the food in his restaurant. What do you expect him to say????

As far as we all know, Alderson made a few good deals (Beltran, Dickey) and a few bad deals (Reyes, PAgan). The jury is still out on his drafts so we do not know about that.

All GMs are puppets in that they do what they are told by their owners. Alderson didn't sign Wright to his deal without permission from on high. Ditto cutting Bay. My opinion on Reyes…he was told to hold on to him to keep fans coming to the ball park the last two months of the season. He has too much baseball savvy to just let him walk away. It was too dumb a move to be Alderson's. It was the Wilnotpon's call.

Alderson is probably given a financial scenario that goes out 5-7 years and is told to make it work. To a degree, he can do what he wants within those parameters but he probably has discussions with on high on major moves. e.g. he can sign Chris Young on his own, he would have to do a selling job to Fred and Boo Radley to go after Josh Hamilton.

Is Alderson a good GM???? Probably yes. He hasn't done anything I can label as completely stupid like the Ollie Perez deal. He is great in interviews and in front of the camera and the fan base has not totally rebelled…yet.

An awful lot of people are expecting big things next off season when the Santana deal is over. I'm not so sure the bank will be open any more than it is now. I also think that a smart baseball man like Alderson sees some of these contracts as being absurd ($27 million for Cody Ross? Really?). It will be very interesting to see what he does a year from now.

And I still suspect that Alderson has been promised a key position in MLB's front office once he stabilizes the Mets.

[Bluetug]

If Santanna did not have an injury, he'd be gone too.

[Angry Norwegian]

Is Alderson a good GM???? Probably yes. He hasn't done anything I can label as completely stupid like the Ollie Perez deal. He is great in interviews and in front of the camera and the fan base has not totally rebelled…yet.

This is really all I can conclude at this point.

I don't buy all the sobbing about how the Wilpons want us to lose. Truth is our team hasn't been ready to win for the past few years, and it won't be for another couple of years. That's just the way it is.

You can't just throw money on the fire.

[jomota]

If Santanna did not have an injury, he'd be gone too.

Not without the Mets paying a big chunk of his contract for the coming year. Probably more that half.

[METMANYAK]

I think the following article represents a very realistic assessment of Alderson's 2 year tenure as the Mets GM. It specifies and expands on his best and worst moves quite objectively.

http://metsmerizedonline.com/2012/12...comment-327307

It should be required reading for McFly, Coupon, and all the detractors who call Sandy a puppet and demean all he has tried to do. I'd like to hear from those who disagree with this assessment, as well as those who think it is spot on.

Thanks, that was a very good read and he was spot on. I especially appreciate his consideration for the Mets' financial uncertainty and how that may have played in to Sandy's decisions.