Empathy

By Metstradamus
Posted Saturday, February 2, 2008

I remember Frank Cashen talking about how he put together the 1986 World Championship team near the beginning of that season's highlight video. He said that he identified his needs and he identified the best player to fill that need. He needed a lefthander for the rotation ... he traded for Bobby Ojeda. He needed a righty to platoon with Wally Backman ... he traded for Tim Teufel.

It all seemed so simple then. Need something? Find the player you want and go get him.

Somewhere along the way, it became complicated. Large salaries, bad signings, and ownership battles have made the modus operandi a little more convoluted ... for no real good reason. And all of a sudden, Karim Garcia and Shane Spencer were platooning right field at Shea, and Scott Kazmir was heading to Tampa Bay.

But from disaster came great promise. Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran, and Carlos Delgado were brought to Shea to not only return the Mets to relevance, but to go back to the simple premise of "need him, find him, get him." With Tuesday's trading (and Friday's signing) of Johan Santana, the Mets have proved that from disaster can still sprout promise when you keep the program simple. The Mets needed a "best pitcher in baseball", and went out and traded for him.

Happy times for us. For others ...

I'm a Libra. It means that I have a tendency to see both sides of every story, even if one side is so obviously more desirable than the other. Usually, as a Met fan, I find myself on the side that's way up in the air. It's very rare that I'm on the side of the spoils. But this past Tuesday (and cemented on Friday), the weight shifted ... and Mets fans are on the heavy side.

(Before you ask, it's a metaphor. I'm not calling you "fat".)

But I look over at that light side with an all-too familiar look. Sure, better you than us. But I can't help but look at a Twins fan and think that we could have easily been in that position if, say, the negotiations had fallen flat. Hell, I look at a Twins fan today and think that we have been in that position before. Think about it and say the names to yourselves: Carlos Gomez, Deolis Guerra, Kevin Mulvey, and Phil Humber. And think of how Twins fans will be saying those names in the next couple of years and thinking "this is all we got for one of the top pitchers in baseball?"

Now say these names in your head: Steve Henderson, Doug Flynn, Dan Norman, and Pat Zachry.

Johan Santana, you see, is Minnesota's Tom Seaver.

It didn't involve a newspaper columnist trying to run him out of town, but the Santana trade has some of the hallmarks of the Seaver trade. It involved a rich contract, a richer yet miserly owner, and a seemingly better offer turned down before the fruition of the trade went down (while the Twins had turned down Phil Hughes, there seemed to be rumors about Dan Driessen and John Candelaria coming to the Mets in a Seaver trade before they settled on the package they got).

To you Twins fans: we know. We know all about cheapskate owners with agendas that don't jive with our own. For years you could always say "hey, we're in a small market ... what's your excuse?" Yet we now look at your billionaire owner refusing to throw a couple more million back into the product, and can't help but wince because we've been there. We've been through M. Donald Grant. We've been through Dick Young. We've been through the 70's. The 90's. Robby Alomar. We've been there. So for us here in New York to only look at this trade from one side would be taking the short side. Because the Mets aren't that far removed from the frustration you're feeling now ... between Santana and Torii Hunter both. Hey, at least you've traded Johan Santana to a fan base that has been on the other side of this deal just over twenty years ago, and can most identify with being frustrated with cheap owners and overmatched general managers.

Carlos Gomez could very well turn out to be your Torii Hunter. Deolis Guerra throws 95 and is built like a rock. Phil Humber and Kevin Mulvey could become Scott Erickson and Kevin Tapani. It's not so much solace to you at this point, but for what it's worth, I think that at the very least this deal will work out better than the four corners of Henderson, Zachry, Norman and Flynn.