Life Lessons Unlearned

By John "Metstradamus" Coppinger
Posted Friday, December 7, 2007

My sources at the Winter Meetings in Nashville have told me that Omar Minaya was denied in his attempts to expense his stay at the Opryland Hotel to the company. The Mets reason that they only expense trips for work purposes, and Omar didn't get any work done.

I, for one, am glad that these meetings are over. I always brace myself on those Sunday nights before these meetings start that more often than not, nothing is going to get done. Then of course, I find myself refreshing ESPN's winter meetings blog every five seconds hoping that the magical trade comes up and Mets fans live happily ever after until April. Then Thursday night comes, nothing happens, and I curse myself for having fallen prey to the hype of the winter meetings ... again.

"But the winter meetings seem to be all about chasing windmills anyway. Lotsa talk, lotsa foundations laid down...but if you want big news, the last thing anyone should do, myself included, is depend on the winter meetings for excitement and thrills."

Guess who wrote that? That's right, ME! One year ago today, when the Mets left the winter meetings only having made the Ambiorix Burgos trade. This year, if possible, the Mets did even less. So what have I learned? Apparently nothing ... because even though I've been resigned to the fact that the Mets are going to spend this winter in a futile attempt to land big pitchers while settling for the likes of Bartolo Colon, Livan Hernandez, and their combined appetites, I fell into the trap of hoping that the winter meetings would magically make Mike Pelfrey, Phil Humber, and Carlos Gomez look better than they are. What a fool I am. After all, these meetings haven't really done that much for anybody ... except, of course, the Tigers.

My assignment this week is to write on the blackboard 500 times: "You don't have to make deals at the winter meetings. They are for talking, and not necessarily for trading." Maybe after writing that the 352nd time, I'll start to believe it. It is true after all. But forgive me if I come down off of the sugar high of the winter meetings feeling completely unfulfilled ... I'm sure most of you are as well. Breaking news: Steven Register is no Johan Santana.

But another reason why these winter meetings are worse than last year's is that this year, the Mets leave Nashville with more false hope that Santana could still be a Met. I've almost would have rather had the Red Sox and Twins complete that Santana trade so that there was no longer any false pretense that the Mets can significantly upgrade their roster between now and April, instead of having this ray of sunshine hovering over us until the Red Sox or Yankees or Twins close it up by having Santana wearing a uniform other than the blue and orange "NEW YORK" on it. I prefer my demise to be quicker and less painful, thank you.

Maybe the most depressing point out of all of this is that ever since the Scott Kazmir trade, the Mets have been looking for that ace to numb the pain. And one by one, every available ace that has been rumored to become a Met has been taken from the wish list, whether it be Barry Zito signing with the Giants, or Carlos Zambrano signing an extension with the Cubs, or Roy Oswalt (who was one Peter Angelos phone call away from becoming a Met in '06) signing an extension, or even Daisuke Matsuzaka signing with the Red Sox. And now, with the possibility of Johan Santana becoming a Met on life support, Billy Beane asking for too much for Dan Haren, and the smart money on Erik Bedard going to a team with better prospects than the Mets have, the list of possibilities grow shorter, and that elusive ace that the Mets have been yearning for will most likely not be delivered for a good long time. That, my friends, is what the winter meetings have brought us. Not an ace, just misery.

Good riddance, winter meetings. See you next year.