The curious cases of Sandy Obama and Barack H. Alderson

Two Harvard Law grads are in an unusually similar predicament today. As news broke of Jose Reyes agreeing to a six-year deal to be another athlete that will "take his talents to South Beach", Sandy Alderson tried to send some semblance of calm and, as President Obama often says, be the grown-up in the room. Just like the president, he succeeded privately and failed miserably publicly.

Alderson is being vilified from this friends and enemies today, not dissimilar to the treatment the President gets from the Left and Right. If there is one statement that describes Obama's relationship with these two groups, it would be he's disappointed the Left and distrusted by the Right.

Likewise, the reaction to the Reyes signing has been negative from all but the most diehard supporters (known in politics as "The Base"). Folks that hate the Mets or New York Sports or East Coast Sports are elated at this "failure" because it shows at least one big market team that cannot do whatever it wants. But what about Met fans?  They think Alderson didn't do all he could to keep Jose Reyes in spite of an exclusive negotiating window that didnt give the kind of security people thought it did. Kind of like the lack of a public option in spite of a House majority and filibuster-proof Senate majority in 2009 and 2010.

Like the President, Alderson is stuck trying to placate supporters who know deep down inside that problems cannot be fixed overnight but generally don't have the patience to wait that long in the face of competition that may seem insurmountable today but is likely making decisions at could be foolish down the road. In that vain, which is the lessor of two evils: 2008 Republican Presidential nominee Newt Gingrich or 2017 Miami Marlins leadoff hitter 34-year old/$18 million per year Jose Reyes?  Or a better question would be, is either of these options favorable to the alternatives that Obama and Alderson present to you today?

I'm aware that you can't compare politics to sports (most of the time) so lets focus on Reyes. You can say all you want about Rickey Henderson and Ichiro Suzuki performing as speed players at an older age but does Reyes have their durability, not to mention Ichiro's pure hitting prowess?

Both President Obama and GM Sandy Alderson know that the media will dissect everything superficially but that they are really chess players while everyone around them is telling them they're playing checkers. I don't have a window into what is happening behind-the-scenes but I'm not naive enough to think that nothing constructive is going on out of sight and out of view.

So if President Obama gets to welcome the World Champion Miami Marlins to the White House in his first year after winning re-election, so be it. I'd be willing to trade that if there's a chance the last year of his presidency and the first few years of his successor's presidency that the White House is welcoming the multiple-time World Champion New York Mets. Perhaps Jose Reyes can watch the White House visit on his iPad5 while he's getting his hamstring rehabbed for the n-teenth time in his career.

"If we’re not going to finish first, it doesn’t matter if we’re last."

In a column in today's New York Times, Tyler Kepner states the obvious:

"In a loaded division, one team must absorb a lot of losses. In the A.L. East, that team has long been the Baltimore Orioles. And in the N.L. East, that team could well be the Mets. That may be true no matter where Jose Reyes ends up, but it is especially likely if a division rival snags him."

He also brings up an interesting thought, one which I've agreed with:

"General Manager Sandy Alderson is viewed as a realistic decision maker. He could let things become worse for a while if it means a sound future for the organization. The healthiest thing Alderson did last season was trade Carlos Beltran for the minor league pitcher Zack Wheeler, who is now considered the Mets’ best prospect.

“Sandy’s not afraid to say, ‘If we’re not going to finish first, it doesn’t matter if we’re last,’ ” said an official of a rival team, who was granted anonymity so he could talk candidly about another team’s plans. “He’ll break it down if he has to. The question is, can it get by ownership?”"

Welcome to the 1982 New York Mets.

Pictures of New Wall and Dimensions at Citi Field - Metsblog.com

They're bringing back the Blue Walls!!! ESPN.com has some great pictures too. The issue of the blue walls is something that was widely discussed and endorsed by the fan base on Metsblog.com and other blogs. In fact Alderson was surprised in September when a beat writer asked him about it but seems like his team did their research on the fan support for this.

Hopefully they can bring back winning baseball too. (That will probably take more work but at least they seem to be on the right track.)

Why the Proposed Changes to Citi Field Should be Made - Rising Apple

All great points. Now let's see it happen soon.

More David and Jose thoughts...

A few more nuggets about Jose Reyes and David Wright. Joel Sherman of the New York Post wrote yesterday that the Mets unlikely to get a lot back for veteran stars. Additionally, Jeff Bradley of The Newark Star-Ledger wrote that Sandy Alderson is familiar with the Jose Reyes situation:

"The date was June 21, 1989, and Alderson, then the 41-year-old GM of the Oakland A’s, fleeced the Yankees for Rickey Henderson, sending pitchers Greg Cadaret and Eric Plunk, and outfielder Luis Polonia east for the greatest leadoff hitter in major-league history. Four months later, the Henderson-led A’s were World Series champions.

At the time of that deal, Alderson believed Henderson — in his walk year — was most likely going to be a short-term rental for the A’s. But taking Henderson was a risk he took on behalf of Oakland that translated into that team’s one and only World Series title during an era the A’s appeared ready to dominate."

I remember the Henderson trade, remember the buzz created by Caderet, Plunk, and Polonia. The buzz was especially loudest about Polonia growing up blocks away from Yankee Stadium and that the Yankees got back the fireballer Plunk, who they sent to Oakland when they traded to get Rickey Henderson a few years earlier. The only other buzz thereafter was when Luis Polonia was arrested after an incident involving a 15-year old girl in a Milwaukee hotel room.

[On a side note, any Met fan over the Reyes era can tell you that Jose's mindset as a leadoff hitter or focus as a basestealer didn't really solidfy until the Mets hired Rickey Henderson as a baserunning coach. I don't think it's a coincidence that is when Reyes' game really picked up.]

Which is why Ken Rosenthal's column at FoxSports.com today is so appealing. I mentioned in my blog post yesterday that replacing Reyes would be much more difficult than replacing Wright and I even made some comparison to Nomar Garciaparra. However, Rosenthal makes some great points that I hadn't considered that replacing Wright isn't so simple either:

"Let’s see if I can build a market for this ne’er-do-well third baseman, whose OPS-plus from 2008 to ’10 — as pointed out by Andy McCullough of the Newark Star-Ledger — was comparable to Mark Teixeira’s from ’06 to ’08 at a similar age.

Wright would fit for both Los Angeles teams, both Chicago teams, the Rockies, Orioles, Twins, Tigers and Mariners. He could replace Scott Rolen in Cincinnati, Chipper Jones in Atlanta and Aramis Ramirez with the Cubs.

That enough?

No, the Mets probably wouldn’t trade Wright to the Braves or Phillies. But I’d bet that the Phillies’ uber-aggressive GM, Ruben Amaro Jr., would move heaven, earth and a killer prospect package to get Wright’s right-handed bat at Citizens Bank Park.

I’ll say it again: The entire discussion is ridiculous. If so many teams could use Wright, then maybe, just maybe, the Mets could use him, too."