Saturday, December 19, 2009

(6) Comments

Klapisch: Trade Santana - I Don't Necessarily Disagree

Anonymous

,

Didn't see this when it came out on Thursday, but Bob Klapisch has a suggestion that is brutal, honest, and makes a whole lotta sense.

Wilpon should trade Santana.

I don't want to steal his thunder - you can read the full article here - but essentially what Klapisch suggests is that the Mets should be honest and go into a real, honest rebuilding mode.

I love the idea. Streamline back to a bunch of young kids and mid level cheap players while actually building a farm system. It would take a few years and those would really be LEAN years. But would it be worse than what we have now?

Think of the glory years of the Mets - the late 60's/early 70's, and the mid-to-late 80's. Two different periods in baseball yes, but what was similar? A core nucleus of home grown talent - either brought up all the way through the system or guys plucked from other team's farm systems in exchange for some of our stars. (Remember we got Darling and Walt Terrel - who turned into HoJo - for Mazzilli)

Could it work? I think it could. But the Mets would have to be totally committed to the process. In addition, the way to win over this town - or at least the fans they have lost - would be to be more fan friendly. Roll back some prices. Re-introduce some of the old-time traditions like Banner Day, Family Day, and the Old Timers Game. Sure the quality of play on the field might suck for two to three years (again, worse than now?), but knowing that the team was taking its time and doing something with a sense of commitment - you'd win a lot of patience that way.

What do you think? If the Mets traded Santana and maybe 1 or 2 others, and stated they were committed to building from teh ground up, would you support them? Would it work?

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6 Responses to "Klapisch: Trade Santana - I Don't Necessarily Disagree"
Anonymous said :
December 19, 2009 at 11:44 AM
I'm sorry, but I think I would walk away if the Mets trade Santana. I don't object to a major rebuilding project in principle.

But please tell me what kind of value you think the Mets will get back for Santana, remembering that 1)he's coming back from injury; 2)is owed a minimum of $98.5 million over the next four seasons and 3)has a full no-trade clause.

A trade would probably be worth it if you could land two or three prospects who are ready to step into starting roles in the majors. I just don't see that happening, particularly when the Wilpons would probably be extremely reluctant to kick in any cash to make the contract more palatable.
Unknown said :
December 19, 2009 at 12:11 PM
I like Santana, but I'd trade him for two cheap, young established players and two 'can't miss' prospects.
The Mets are no where near popping any Champagne corks in the near future. However, in the past two years, Santana has popped various parts of his body. NOTE: Even if the Mets pulled off the WC 2008, Santana would have missed the playoffs. By 2009, he exited the stage much earlier.
However, I would not trade him with Minaya and Lil Jeff in charge. They'll muck it up.
So it's moot.
SS said :
December 19, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Dan I think you may have lost it. There's no way they could do this. If they did they could get the moving fans and move to Mercury early.

The only think that got the franchise out of the 77 funk was that another special pitcher came along.

Think how awful it was last time when the Yankees were winning championships in a new park while the Mets were awful. Now add on a 24/7 newscycle, two all sports radio stations, and yes even dopey bloggers like me.

Ask the Twins how they are enjoying the Santana deal from a players standpoint.
kami said :
December 19, 2009 at 4:43 PM
If I trusted the management of this team, yes, rebuilding would be the dramatic and creative approach to fixing this team.

But I don't, and neither does anyone else, so I prefer continuing with the guys the Mets have now, with a few free agents brought in like Bay, a less-greedy catcher than Molina, and some guys like Sheets/Mulder/Bedard on incentive-laden deals.

When that fails to produce a play-off team, then fire Minaya and rebuild the management structure (getting rid of Jeff Wilpon from his position of total power would be the place to start).
Stewie said :
December 19, 2009 at 6:04 PM
They can't get anything for Santana, his contract is too big.

I don't trust the people in charge now to rebuild, if they had top notch talent evaluators and started drafting over slot I might think different.y.
Anonymous said :
December 19, 2009 at 6:17 PM
The key to this idea working out is that yes, the Mets would need a good, logical, media-savvy management and ownership in place.

They have neither.

My premise was more of, in an ideal world this isn't such a bad idea. A well-run organization could probably pull this off. Atlanta basically did this a few years ago, and now they are climbing back into the fray.

Could the Mets do it successfully? You guys are right, not with Jeff & Omar in place.

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