Excuses, Excuses

As some of you may or may not know, not only do I happen to be one of the founders of The Daily Stache, but also have been working as the host of the new Metsmerized Radio Podcast show every Thursday at 6 pm.

Last weeks show came on the heels of the Mets awful home stand against the Braves and Nationals and my frustration and exasperation with the team had reached a boiling point.

The theme of my opening monologue to the show was “Whats The Excuse This Time”. What I meant was that with the Mets season once again reduced to nothing but playing out the string, what was the franchise going to blame this time on why the season went to hell.

In 2008 the Bullpen was to blame, Omar Minaya, the GM at the time, went out and got not one, but two! Closers (K-Rod and JJ Putz) to help fix the problem, so it seemed.

In that 2009 season, it was the injuries the team endured. At one point or another the Mets lost Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Johan Santana and, JJ Putz just to name a few.

Injuries happen to every team, its not a great excuse to use, not that the Mets really cared if the excuse was great. They used it and to this humble blogger, when you see the talent above that was lost, its hard not to use that excuse.

In 2010, the run was over for Omar and Jerry Manuel as GM and Manager and so the blame was easily placed on them and the Mets moved on to a new regime with a new manager.

In 2011, the problem was Citi Field! The park was too big, the Great Wall of Flushing, the 415 to Right Center, the dreaded Mo’s Zone. They had to go to make this team feel better day in and day out about being able to hit at home and be rewarded for it.

So, in the off=season, the Mets brought in the fences and shortened them to, once again in my humble opinion, a perfect dimension and height to make the park fair for the hitters and not unfair to the pitchers.

But now as 2012 winds down to nothing more than listless play on offense, frustrating mental lapses, horrid home play and Gary, Keith and Ron trying not to explode in a fit a rage by just clowning around half the time in the booth, I gotta ask…

Whats the Excuse this time?

As Adam Rubin told me on another episode of the Metsmerized podcast, which you can hear by clicking on the episode list on the right side of the page, the team hasn’t quit on Terry Collins, its just a lack of talent finally reaching its endgame for this season.

I do agree with the point. The excuse the Mets are going to use, even if they wont admit it this time, because seriously, why degrade your own players, is that they just don’t have the talent to compete.

You can make claims of whoever that is to blame for the lack of talent the Mets are dealing with. The Wilpons for getting screwed by Bernie Madoff, Sandy Alderson and his band of Merry SABR Men not wanting to spend the money the Wilpons don’t have or Omar Minaya for not stocking the farm system properly before he was let go.

Either way, you really can’t lose. Each argument has its own positives and negatives and trust me, everyone who is a Mets fan will have an opinion on which option of blame for the lack of talent they choose to go with.

To me, its a little from Choice A and a little from Choice C. Omar did better on the international free agency front finding players for this franchise than he ever did in the draft. But with the Wilpons being strictly adherent to the slotting system in the Draft, Omar had to draft to what the money said he could draft.

When the money went bye bye (Thanks Bernie), Omar was even more hamstrung and continued to draft poorly. But couldn’t back it up by signing those kids from the International pool because they get MORE money then the Drafted kids, so you know that pipeline dried up as well for the most part.

When all is said and done, this franchise once again has a built in, ready excuse to give the fans for why the season went to hell in a hand basket.

Of course we will have to just accept it for what its worth, complain about it to whom ever is gonna listen or read and then get ready for next season with optimism and hope for a great 2013.

But as you get ready for another season of Metropolitan baseball this winter, ask yourself two questions…..

What will the excuse be from the Mets in 2013? And When will the excuses end?