What are 2011 Mets Biggest Needs?

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.jsThe New York Mets begin to look toward the off-season. There are injuries mounting and disappointments all around. We can only imagine what it must feel like to continue going to work knowing that it means nothing. How can they even pretend to act excited or even mildly interested in the game? Players must be looking at each other wondering who will be with the team next year and who won’t. And so begins the long, slow, excruciatingly painful, end to the season.

Mets fans will now be exposed to some of the young players in the farm system. I do not want to use the term “talent” because I have very little respect for the Mets farm system. We will begin to see players you have never heard of and might never hear of again. There will be a glut of pitching changes throughout the games to allow the youngsters some “in-game experience,” and we will slowly start thinking about football season again.

So what will the Mets do to fix this awful run of disappointing seasons? Well, we can all assume there will be a high priced player or two joining the club. There will be lots of promises of young talent and mending limbs. There will be whispers of big moves and possible trades that will never happen. There will be high hopes and a frenzied fan base waiting for that one miracle season.

So here I begin the conversation. What are the Mets biggest needs this off-season?

Let me restate my position. There is an overhaul needed and I feel it needs to begin at the top. Omar Minaya has done some good things, but his teams have yet to produce to the high expectations he puts on them. Year after year the Mets seem to be bringing in players that take huge chunks out of the salary budget and fail to produce. There are recent moves made such as Oliver Perez, Jason Bay, and Luis Castillo that have been ill-conceived. There have been roster moves that have not panned out, Jeff Francoeur and the rotating door of catchers to name two. There has been a lack of new talent to replenish the farm system and the Mets haven’t drafted especially well.

Manager Jerry Manuel is a “Yes” man for Omar and will continue to struggle mainly because he is not the true leader of this team. I feel this is transparent and the players have little to no respect for the manager and maybe his entire staff. I feel either way Manuel’s days are numbered.

The players are another target of my disappointment. I have been on record stating that I would much rather bring in lots of young talent and allow them to learn and grow and become franchise players than continue to diminish our farm system to bring in one or two high priced players that are past their prime. I would be all for moving players like Jason Bay and Carlos Beltran to bring in younger players with high upside to put around some of the key pieces the team is now playing with. Ike Davis came out of nowhere, David Wright is still an All-Star, Jose Reyes, when healthy, is a top 10 shortstop. I think we should continue to build around this core and allow this team to grow and struggle with younger players with tons of talent. Wasting money on high priced free agents only works if you are willing to take on that type of money and there are only a couple of teams out there that will spend freely in order to win baseball games.

So with my point of view laid out, I ask the question again.

What are the Mets biggest needs this off-season?

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Author: Dave Doyle

Frequently disappointed Mets fan View all posts by Dave Doyle