Pay day is here.

The New York Mets are 2-4 on the young season and already several early trends are forming that are cause for concern for any die hard Met fan.

There’s this middle infield that continue to play hot-potato with the baseball anytime a double play is in order.  There’s the young stud catcher who’s right now hitting a number lower than one but hey let’s keep being ok with it because he’s got a track record in the minor leagues.  We’ve got a pitching staff that has quality starts, which means atleast 6 innings pitched and 3 or fewer runs, but two wins as a team to show for it.  We’ve got a bullpen that was an unmitigated disaster during the Opening series and seems like they have about 90-100 more of those kind of performances in store for the fans.  We have a 1b platoon that sounds like it will either motivate all three cadets OR irrevocably damage their intestinal fortitude altogether. Finally we have a team consistently beating the crap out of the air and giving cold Met fans a stiffer breeze everytime they flail at a live baseball.

And yet, the Mets are 2-4 and struggling to stay relevant in a season that is six games old while having 156 more to play.  That’s the kind of pessimism that sticks to you like gum to a shoe.  Why?  Because the Mets, the NEW YORK Mets as you will remember, operate their payroll like a kid operates a lemonade stand.  Nickel and dimes will get your thirst quenched for meaningful baseball but just know its going to cost you five bucks for a glass.

The prevailing wisdom around these parts are that the season is young and there are reinforcements on their way.  What they won’t tell you is that those reinforcements are scheduled to come around May when they will have earned enough time OUT of the actual games that count to be playing for pennies for a longer period of time.  What’s amazing about the Mets this year though is that they are operating under the guise of this “90-win” edict that their GM may have mistakenly put them under.

I’ve been thinking about what Sandy Alderson was actually thinking when he had to answer for the 90-win goal?  How tough was it for him to know that a snitch in his operation had leaked it to reporters who love poking the Mets with every snarky headline and column they can write?  How many times did he want to finesse the story so that it wasn’t so much a demand as it was a fantasy of his?

Right now, the starting pitching is doing a decent enough job.  Six games have gone by and there hasn’t been one pitcher who completely bombed.  The Mets starting five is averaging a 3.82 ERA good for 17th in baseball while their SP have gone a respectable 37.2 innings thus far in the season.  That averages out to 6.2 innings a game which is decent, except when you hand it off to the 28th best ERA crew of a bullpen.  The Mets aren’t just a badly constructed group of relievers its almost  become a thing with Sandy Alderson and once stuff become “a thing” for a GM its very hard to deconstruct that narrative until you destroy it.  And while the Mets have 156 games to destroy that, its funny how the guy who is demanding a 90 win season out of a team no one expects to is content on letting the losses pile up while waiting for his team to bring up the young studs everyone swears the Mets have.

That is the line that Sandy Alderson walks everyday.  We’re supposed to believe that he is the GM of a baseball team in NY while operating the budget of a team outside of Tulsa.  No disrespect.  He’s got to be small market minded while handling big city politics.  What Sandy says and does this year will be weighed against the 90-win expectation he set on himself.  And while I am NOT opposed to any GM throwing his team a spark to get fire going, let’s help it along by throwing in some huge logs to help the flame build.

This will be the year that Sandy Alderson will be judged on his work fairly.  This is after all his team.  This is the year he predicted the Mets would be on their way or showing signs of becoming relevant.  But as Sandy is finding out, not all plans work out the way we want.  A simple life lesson for a man who seems to operate under the premise that every angle must be investigated or its not worth proceeding with the plan.  The plan was to be competitive by this year.  That the Mets would start showing signs that the years of losing were worth it.  But there is no set expiration date for youthfulness.  One day young guys who need to learn are forced to step out from the shadow of “oh he doesn’t know any better” to “what the hell have you been doing this whole time?”  That is where Sandy and plenty of Met players find themselves.

Travis d’Arnaud is no spring chicken.  He’s 25.  Still young enough to believe that there is a spike in production coming and old enough where if he doesn’t do anythign this year legitimate worry and doubt will creep in to all the heads that have been assuring us that he is a stud. Matt Harvey went from potential stud, to superstar ace, to partying rockstar that has a digital mind all its own.  Noah Syndergaard, Rafael Montero, Jake deGrom and even Zack Wheeler are just question marks.  We don’t know what Brandon Nimmo is capable of but we know what the guy picked after him is doing.  Shit like this.

For Sandy the allure of the prospect is over.  Now is the coming of age.  Either they are or they aren’t.  Either the Mets ARE a team with no payroll restrictions OR they aren’t.  While its smart to milk as much arbitration clock as you possibly can from what could be frontline starters, at what cost?  Sandy is likely going to lose his job if they send a xerox copy of 2012 and 2013 this year and have 74 wins.  In that respect Sandy will find, and i’m sure is reminded everyday, it is New York.  There is no time for lollygagging.  Met fans have been patient enough.  Its not time to hide the gifts under the Christmas tree.  Its time to open it up.  That fine bottle of wine you’ve been saving for that special occasion?  Its tonight.  Because this is the night you’ve been waiting for and yet you’re still keeping that bottle of wine locked in the cabinet for some mythical day that doesn’t exist.

Its time to stop hiding behind the premise of Super-Two statuses that fans don’t care about.  Its time to own up and pay up to the fans who have stood by and waited.  Its time to demand out of your pitchers and hitters the support you are asking from the fans.  You want the fans to come out?  Bring the players we want to see and then perhaps we will shell out the 40 bucks.  Until then you can have all the pet days you want.  You can give out as many David Wright posters as  you would like.  Nobody will care until the fans get what they want: a winner.