Anti-ownership billboard has gone up just north of Mets spring training facility

  1. Michael Cuddyer is considered to be one of the worst defensive outfielders in baseball. So given the defensive risk, I'd rather have an elite hitter.

  2. A risk, sure. But at some point the team maybe should take a risk. I doubt they were as afraid of the risk as they were the $. Why weren't we in on any other Cuban player? Rusney Castillo would have been nice too.

  3. I hear that a lot. It's silly to think that we couldn't sign a good outfielder because Nimmo and Conforto. Nobody makes plans for prospects that are probably over a year away. And these aren't can't miss prospects. At best, they're ranked in the 40s. That's not even close to a sure thing. You don't make major league roster decisions based on those players. Melky would at least be a marginally better defensive (less bad) outfielder.

  4. Not correct at all. They're both on the last years of their contracts. The Braves are going to be terrible this year. What do they care where Upton and Heyward play when they have no chance of competing? They would have taken the best deal they were offered. Especially if they weren't offering signing windows.

  5. Again, Cuddyer is going to be a disaster in the outfield. I'll take the guy with more offensive potential.

  6. Our bullpen might be good already. We don't really have any sure things in there though. Last year they were solid, but our FIP was high. There's a good chance guys were getting lucky and will regress a bit. But even if they are solid again, you saw last year how effective a dominant bullpen can be with the Royals. If you think they will be good, then why would you have a problem with making it great? If your opinion is that there weren't any other moves that would improve the team, this is the one that above all doesn't agree with that. There's no way that Miller/Robertson don't make us better. And if you don't want to spend that much money, why not Neshek or someone in that range? There were moves out there.

I think Cuddyer was about the worst deal out there. Not only is he a bad defensive outfielder, but he's really old and he's been injured. On top of that, we lost a pick for him. He was probably the worst free agent signing with a pick attached to him. There was a reason we were the only team that bid on him. So even though I agree that there was no perfect signing/trade out there, I don't think this one made sense and I think it had more to do with the price tag than anything. He seems like a good guy and I hope he pans out, but it's really frustrating for him to be the only acquisition.

Even given all that armchair GMing - it's a silly exercise for me to have to tell you how they should have improved. Sandy is a great GM. I am not. Most other contenders found a way improve. If there wasn't an obvious move, they get creative. Sandy is creative when he can be. I don't buy that he couldn't have had a much more active offseason, and I don't buy that he couldn't have found moves to make that I didn't even list here.

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