August 22, 2012; New York, NY, USA; New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson speaks about pitcher Johan Santana (not pictured) during a press conference before a game against the Colorado Rockies at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Alderson has made some astute, future-oriented moves as Mets’ GM. He acquired Zack Wheeler for Carlos Beltran. It should be noted that Beltran has had two good years since being traded, and Wheeler has yet to throw a big-league pitch. However, all signs point to this being a good trade for New York. Sandy also seems to have fleeced the Blue Jays, getting four quality players for a struggling RA Dickey, and marginal major-leaguers Josh Thole and Mike Nickeas. Most of Alderson’s moves have centered on obtaining solid pitching. He has some very definite ideas about how to build an offense as well.

Alderson is very up front about his belief that the home run should be a primary offensive weapon. His successful Athletics teams rode that style of baseball to their success, with sluggers such as Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco. After his first year as GM of the Mets, Alderson requested that Citi Field’s fences be brought in to allow for more home runs.

Opinion: The game is significantly different in 2013 than it was in 1988. In the late 1980s, baseball was entering its tainted era, when players, even some who had never shown such prowess before (Brady Anderson), were hitting home runs at record paces. Ballparks are bigger now, and recent champions (San Francisco, St. Louis) have not been close to leading their leagues in home runs. The pendulum seems to have shifted back to pitching. One is left to wonder if Alderson is applying an outdated philosophy to the current Mets. Terry Collins has expressed his opinion, that reliance on home runs leads to the alarming strikeout rate that the club is experiencing.

Let’s get back to transparency. Alderson has, with club support, done an outstanding job of connecting with the fans. He has joined the social media world, and done so with a sense of humor. The team does blogger events, during which Alderson interacts with bloggers and fans, answering questions and posing for pictures. Here is where Alderson becomes something of a salesman, a quintessential politician. He smiles, and tells people what they want to hear. Often, he may be finding ways to soft-sell difficult messages. However, this isn’t consistent with being transparent. Sophisticated fans figure this out, and then the salesman seems anything but transparent. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Late 2011, with Jose Reyes‘s free agency looming.

September 20, 2011: Alderson joins the broadcast booth during the Mets/Cardinals game. When asked about his off-season plans, he says signing Reyes is job one, two, and three. The next day Alderson is on WFAN with Mike Francesa, and reiterates his strong desire to re-sign Reyes. He calls October “the month of Reyes”. Earlier that season, after Reyes made it clear he would not negotiate in-season, Alderson states that he approached Reyes about a contract, and was rebuffed. After the 2011 season, Alderson never makes an offer to Reyes, and Reyes signs with the Marlins.

Opinion: Alderson never intended to sign Reyes. He made it seem that he did want to do so, to keep the fans quiet and attending games. He waited after the season, he waited a long time, until a team made an offer to Reyes. He then pointed to that offer and said it was too much. But how did he know what Reyes may have taken, since he never made an offer? Alderson sold the fans that he refused to over-pay for Reyes, when in reality, the organization knew Reyes did not fit the budget. Transparency?

Summer of 2012: The Mets are shocking the baseball world, at 6 games over .500. However, the bullpen is a severely weak spot, and the feeling is that if the bullpen can be shored up, the Mets could compete. Alderson says that he has “deployed his scouts to see what’s available”. He never makes a deal.

Opinion: This one is almost insulting. All teams have scouts all over baseball. Alderson knew who was available, but had no intention of investing a penny in the 2012 Mets. The “scout deployment” was a ruse to buy time, time for the Mets to fade. Alderson wanted the need to make a move fade away also. The Mets sadly accommodated. The fans were briefly silenced, and distracted by the crumbling team. But later, Alderson incurred some wrath, as people sensed that the organization didn’t believe in its own team. Transparency?

May 13th on WFAN, Alderson says that Wheeler’s arrival in New York will be the result of a “confluence of factors”. He indicates that “Super Two” status for Wheeler is a very minor factor.

Opinion: Also on May 13th, reports came out that several major-league sources say that the Mets will call Wheeler up in mid June to avoid Super Two status. I’m going with the major-league sources.

Turning to other current matters, Alderson is being called on the carpet for some curious moves. Here are two of them.

Mets recall Shaun Marcum in April.

Opinion: Marcum is not doing well, and Alderson and Collins point to Marcum’s lack of innings in spring training due to injury. Marcum is in spring training in the major leagues, in games that count. Why isn’t Marcum in Las Vegas or Binghampton, getting his innings there, while Collin McHugh, pitching well in Vegas, gets a shot in New York?

Juan Lagares is in the major leagues. Alderson says on WFAN that Lagares is not ready.

Opinion: Why is Lagares being allowed to struggle, and play part-time, in New York? Yes, Lagares can play defense. But he’s in over his head at the plate. What value is coming from watching him fail, when he could play in Vegas and work on his offensive skills? Collin Cowgill could be with the big club. Yes, he was not hitting, and was sent down. Lagares doesn’t hit either, and needs time to develop. Why does Alderson call up players who, by his own words, are not ready?

Alderson has to be given adequate time to rebuild this organization, as any GM would when rebuilding any organization. The usual time frame is 5 years, so Alderson is entitled to at least 2 more years. However, improvement needs to start soon, since the current version of the Mets is worse than the version he inherited. One thing is for sure, the fans are watching Alderson-and the clock.

Commentary from Danny Abriano:

I agree with the majority of the piece, but I have to chime in on two issues: the Reyes situation, and Alderson’s comments regarding Zack Wheeler and Super Two status.

As far as Reyes is concerned, it needs to be pointed out that although the Mets didn’t fax Reyes’ agents an official offer, Sandy Alderson made it known that the Mets were willing to give Reyes a guaranteed five year deal that would’ve approached $100 million if the sixth year option kicked in.  Whether or not that offer was on paper is a matter of semantics.  The Mets made it known what they were willing to offer and Reyes had no interest.  There’s no reason to claim Alderson was lying during the season or being intentionally misleading.  If you recall, the Mets were still in the middle of the Bernard Madoff mess when it was time to pony up for Reyes.  So, even if Alderson wanted to outbid Miami, ownership would’ve likely vetoed it due to a lack of funds.

On the Zack Wheeler/Super Two stuff not being a factor regarding Wheeler’s promotion date, Alderson is probably full of it.  However, stating that Super Two isn’t a factor is something he has to say.  If Alderson intimated that the Mets were keeping Wheeler down because of financial reasons, the players uni0n would go insane.

Now, Alderson and the lieutenants he brought in have made a few tremendous trades (one for Wheeler, the other for Travis d’Arnaud, Noah Syndergaard, and Wuilmer Becerra).  They’ve held on to their valuable minor league chips.  They extended David Wright long term.  Aside from that, the players they’ve brought in have been incredibly underwhelming and a collective disappointment.  Beginning next year, Alderson and Co. will be judged.  If there aren’t major strides made, it’ll be time to consider a change at the top.

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On the Rick Ankiel signing:

What we’re trying to do is improve our outfield defense and at the same time provide some opportunity for offense…(echoed what Collins said regarding Ankiel starting against righties and Juan Lagares starting against lefties)…obviously there are reasons why he was available. He was released by Houston primarily to give some other players an option to play…we think this might be a nice bridge and ultimately…could be a nice acquisition. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. We’re happy to have him.

…I found it comical that Alderson noted that Houston released Ankiel (a team going nowhere) so their youngsters could play, before turning around and picking him up for the Mets (a team likely going nowhere) at the expense of younger players.

How disappointed is he in Collin Cowgill?

We had high hopes that he would be a piece…it didn’t work out in the early part of the season, doesn’t mean he can’t come back. Certainly, even in a part time role, he wasn’t contributing after the first few days of the season.

…After the first few days, Cowgill was nailed to the bench.  Yes, he struggled, but he also wasn’t given a fair shot.  That’s on Terry Collins, though, not Alderson.

On Juan Lagares:

He’s a guy who likes to chase pitches out of the strike zone…he was improving to some extent in Las Vegas. That’s been underscored since he’s been with us at the major league level. It’s one of the reasons that we decided to sign [Rick] Ankiel. We won’t continue to keep Lagares at the major league level if he’s not able to contribute. What we need to assess is whether his defense is worth having his offense in the eight hole.

On conceding the season and/or potentially making changes:

I’m not sure that things can devolve any further… we’re looking at the waiver wire…this is not the time of year when clubs are making massive changes. In our case, we are watching what’s happening at the major league level…obviously we’re very sensitive to what’s going on. But we’re also watching the development of our younger players at the minor league level. What I’m hopeful of is that at some point in the season…if we are not performing well with the current group, we will see several of our young players. But our younger players have to be healthy and have to be performing. It’s great to give young guys opportunities, but they have to be ready to seize it.

May 7, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson and manager Terry Collins (right) talk before the game against the Chicago White Sox at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: John Munson/THE STAR-LEDGER via USA TODAY Sports

…Sounds like it Travis d’Arnaud had remained healthy, he would’ve been here.  If not by now, extremely soon.

On the players who have struggled and what can be done:

We’re not gonna make moves for moves sake. What we’re trying to do is make calculated moves that will give us a chance to improve while at the same time not preventing us from doing something later in the season in terms of our longer term investment in players…[Shaun] Marcum hasn’t pitched well so far, Marcum had virtually no spring training.  It’s unfortunate, but we are going to see him pitch on several more occasions…the rotation (problems) aren’t a matter of one (guy not performing), they’re a matter of three or four.

…Alderson has to defend his signing (Marcum).  However, if Marcum is unable to perform over his next few starts, he has to be removed from the rotation.  If the Mets aren’t ready to promote Zack Wheeler, let Collin McHugh have a shot.

On Jordany Valdespin and the team not protecting him (Francesa went off a bit, accusing the Mets of not protecting their player):

I don’t necessarily agree with that. First of all, Valdespin knew that (the hit by pitch) was coming…he was gonna have to hit in one of the two days, otherwise he’s not an asset for us…I don’t think it was a surprise to anybody that that’s what transpired. I don’t think it’s fair to say that since we didn’t hit one of the Pittsburgh hitters that he doesn’t have a friend. Valdepsin’s a very interesting player, we all know that. I think you’re assuming that Jordany has been taken at face value…he’s part of the Mets, he’s part of our team, and we have a responsibility to the entire team to make sure that he can become the best player he can be. This is not an attempt that we’ve simply made over the last few weeks or few months, it (his behavior) is something that’s been going on for years. The notion that he was hung out to dry I think is a mistake. Everything that goes on is not verbalized or overt within the media…I’m not telling you he’s the most popular guy in the clubhouse…but I don’t think he was hung out to dry.

Is there any help coming to fortify the roster?

It’s tough for me to say Mets fans should be more patient. I’m not seeking that kind of dispensation.  I’m not happy the way the team has played either…at this particular juncture there’s not a lot that’s availbale to us. Some of the players who aren’t playing well have to play better. We can start jettisoning some of those players…but we have to decide if that’s best for us and the player. Take Ike Davis (descibred last years turnaround). At least what we have is some indication that what happened last year remains a possibility this year. I’m not asking anybody to be patient…the reality Is we’re probably gonna have to be more patient with guys like Ike and we have to hope like hell they perform again.

…a simple “no” would’ve sufficed here from Sandy.

Is the team close to elevating any pitchers or position players from the  minor league system in the next 7-10 days?

Probably not.  [Matt]Den dekker’s still hurt…the same is true at other spots. [Travis] d’Arnaud isn’t even gonna see a doctor until later this week.  Under those circumstances, we’ve got to grin and bear it at this point.

Did he think things would be better than they are?

Any time you’ve gone 6-17 (over the last stretch of games), you feel things should’ve been better. I suffer through these games too…we’re not sitting on our hands, but we’ve got to think through everything we’re doing and sort of questioning everything we have done and are thinking going forward. That continues on a daily basis.

Regarding when Zack Wheeler could be called up:

(Alderson took a very long pause before answering)…What we wanna do is what we did with [Matt] Harvey, and that is to create the right moment for him to begin his major league career and have success from the outset and go forward. That doesn’t mean bringing him up in July (meaning he’d be up sooner)…but we have to have a comfort level. There never is gonna be 100 percent comfort. At some point our needs will be a factor, but bringing Zack Wheeler up here, does that create a second day out of five where fans will have interest in watching us play? Yes, but (that interest) won’t continue if he doesn’t pitch well…(over his last three starts) he’s pitched great with solid command as well as overall success, so we continue to monitor that. I think it’s unfair to him to view him as a savior…we want to make sure that he has the best chance to succeed and he’s not viewed as the savior of the Mets. Ultimately he’s gonna be a great, we hope, part of a very successful team. This is not about Super Two status, I can assure you.

…First of all, I don’t buy the fact that keeping Wheeler down isn’t about Super Two status.  Second, I think the fact that Alderson alluded to him not wanting to promote Wheeler and have him be viewed as the “savior” means he wants things to calm down a bit before the promotion.  Meaning, he’d like the team to start playing a bit better so Wheeler isn’t viewed as the be-all end-all when he’s promoted.

On the coaches and Manager being safe:

The communication is excellent…it’s not as if players have rejected the coaches. They’re working hard…this is not about anybody giving up or quitting. The communication and the tone in the clubhouse…look, they’re down, they’re not playing that well but the tone continues to be constructive and that’s important.

…Alderson didn’t answer the question, nor did I expect him to.  Giving the coaches and manager a vote of confidence at this point just doesn’t make sense.

 
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Feb 26, 2013; Jupiter, FL, USA; New York Mets relief pitcher Jenrry Mejia (32) throws in the first inning during a spring training game against the Miami Marlins at Roger Dean Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

To date, the largest criticisms levied against Sanday Alderson revolve around his two seasons spent renovating the bullpen.  As we know, last year’s relief corp was a collective failure.  So in preparation for this season, the GM recruited a host of new free agent nomads to join forces with the returning Mets pitchers.  Plan A involved starting the season with both Frank Francisco and Bobby Parnell leading the pack, with the hope Jeurys Familia and Jenrry Mejia would join them.  Instead, Bobby Parnell led a bullpen manned by LaTroy Hawkins, Scott Rice, Scott Atchison, Brandon Lyon, Greg Burke, Josh Edgin, and swing man (let’s include him) Aaron Laffey into April.  Before breaking camp, at least there was something to be said for Sandy Alderson’s apparent collection of depth – or so we thought.

Aaron Laffey’s stay with the organization was brief.  Sandy Alderson DFA’d Laffey in short time, and once exposed to waivers, he was claimed by Toronto.  Then of course, injuries always seem to factor into everything.  As we know, Frank Francisco never broke north with the team.  Recovering from off-season elbow surgery has been problematic for him.   This past Sunday, he finally climbed the mound again for the first time since April 20th.  On Sunday, he pitched one inning for the St. Lucie Mets and stuck out two batters.  Meanwhile, Jenrry Mejia is yet to throw a pitch in the regular season. He has been out with elbow inflammation, and may be back later this month.

Bobby Parnell is currently enjoying the most success he’s had in three chances at being the team’s primary closer.  Next in, Scott Rice has a low 1.80 ERA, but is battling control issues.  So far, the ancient LaTroy Hawkins has put in respectable work with a 2.77 ERA.  While Scott Atchison and Brandon Lyon have been a mixed bag of goods.  Atchison has a 3.68 ERA in 14.2 innings, with six walks and four strikeouts.  Brandon Lyon sports a lofty 4.38 ERA in 12.1 innings, but has only walked two batters and struck out ten.

It is obvious at this point of the 2013 regular season however, Sandy Alderson has already reverted to Plan B, which was tapping into Las Vegas for reinforcements and upgrades.  Greg Burke and Josh Edgin encountered early troubles which prompted Alderson to send Edgin to AA-Binghamton instead of Las Vegas, due in part over concerns regarding affects the Pacific Coast League has on pitchers.  Alderson had no such reservations with Burke however, who was sent to Vegas.  In their place, Alderson called up Jeurys Famila and Robert Carson.  In Familia’s case, he made one appearance for the Mets on April 4th, then was sent to Las Vegas where he made four more appearances before being recalled to Flushing again.  Robert Carson started out well in eight appearances with Las Vegas to earn a call-up, but has yet to come around for the big club.

Battling to maintain a .500 record, Las Vegas is not without their problems.  The 51′s bullpen is struggling mightily, partly because of the situation in Flushing.  Remaining relievers Dylan Owen, Greg Peavey, Sean Henn, and Justin Hampson all currently have more problems than a math book.  So Sandy Alderson can’t look there for much more help.  But depending how forgiving your personal scouting is, there are two relief pitchers left in Las Vegas who can potentially help the Mets if needed.  Gonzalez Germen, 25, has pitched in twelve games and 18.2 innings this season.  His ERA is up at 5.30, on nineteen hits, and eleven runs allowed.  He walked six, but has twenty-two strikeouts.  Armando Rodriguez, 25, has twelve appearances with 13.1 innings pitched.  He, like Germen, is a power pitcher, with nineteen strikeouts so far.  Otherwise, it is hard to overlook a similar 5.40 ERA, on fifteen hits, eight runs and eight walks allowed.  Minus one start for each pitcher in Buffalo last season, both Germen and Rodriguez are in their first seasons at AAA.  Perhaps by mid-summer they will have improved, and demonstrated enough proficiency to warrant a consideration.

At some point, however, odds say Sandy Alderson will  have to implement a Plan C.  On that note, there are some very interesting bullpen prospects gaining attention in AA-Binghamton, led by Jeff Walters and Jack Leathersich.  Walters, 25, currently has a 0.86 ERA after 13.1 innings.  He has surrendered twelve hits, issued two walks, and struck out twelve so far.  In eleven appearances, he leads Binghamton with eight saves.  In eleven appearances, Jack Leathersich, 22, has been nothing short of ridiculous.  After fifteen innings pitched, he has allowed ten hits, and struck out a whopping twenty-seven batters, but has also walked an unsettling eleven.

After making over one hundred starts in his minor league career, Mark Cohoon was moved into the bullpen this season.  In 15.1 innings, he has a 2.93 ERA.  He has seventeen strikeouts, while only walking four, but has allowed twenty-three hits.  John Church, 26, has a 2.40 ERA in fifteen innings, allowing fourteen hits, five walks, and striking out eighteen batters.  And lastly, Chase Huchingson, 24, has 16.2 innings pitched in twelve appearances.  He has allowed twenty-one hits, offset however by just four walks, and fifteen strikeouts.

Those are the remaining organizational options available for potentially bolstering the Mets’ bullpen this season.  However, I should stress – later in the season.  When the time actually comes to implement an aforementioned Plan C, Sandy Alderson may very well have quality pitchers to turn to.  Some may not be pitching all that impressively at the moment, and some perhaps need more experience at AA, but there is respectable work being conducted down below.  In the next two months, perhaps these pitchers can build better cases for themselves until the Mets actually do come calling.

By the dog days of summer, it is not a stretch to envision a bullpen featuring Bobby Parnell and Frank Francisco again, complemented by Rice, Familia, and Mejia.  I would recall Josh Edgin, to join LaTroy Hawkins from the left side, and maybe add Jack Leathersich and John Church.  Keep Robert Carson and Brandon Lyon on stand-by.  Do you have a preferred combination?

The point is, at least the Mets have a few more choices to operate with.  For now, I cling to the belief the Mets will have a stronger second half once the potential promotions of Zack Wheeler and other players takes place.  I believe a stronger bullpen will no doubt contribute to that end, and that the Mets potentially have the in-house arms to help get things turned in a more positive direction.

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