I'll take 20-20 hindsight for $400 Alex

[Frayed Knot]

Bart Hubbach - NY Post:
In a season full of missteps by the Mets, arguably their biggest mistake will be staring them in the face tonight.
Pedro Martinez, who wanted nothing more than to re-sign with the Mets, will instead take a 4-0 mark for the arch-rival Phillies into this evening's conculsion [sic] of a day-night doubleheader against his old team

Spelling mistakes aside, I suppose it's possible that Hubbach was screaming for the Mets to re-sign Pedro this year ... but count me among the skeptical. I believe the meeting of pro-Pedro advocates is meeting this afternoon in a phone booth near Times Square so maybe someone's who's in that area today can swing by and if he's there you can let us know and I'll apologize. But absent a high-noon spotting (or a link to an early season column showing otherwise) this bit of second-guessing stands out even in a business where second-guessing is the norm.

[Frayed Knot]

Exhibit #2 is NYDN's Bill Madden telling us how the Yanx are back on top after "rediscovering their formula".

What horseshit! Madden has been killing the Yanx for years over not having a good enough feeder system to supply fresh blood and therefore being forced to rely on over-priced FAs while having their lunch handed to them by the smarter, system-oriented Red Sox. But now that the Sox are a million games out the Bronx boys are suddenly doing things the right way. After all, "The erosion of the Yankees' championship mantra could be explained by their big acquisitions since their World Series appearance in 2001: Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, Randy Johnson, Carl Pavano, Jared Wright, Kevin Brown."

So, Bill, just what is the difference between those big-money acquisitions and the current crew of Sabathia, Burnett, & Teixeira? ... aside from hindsight I mean.
He tries to claim the change is that this winter Cashman got tried-and-true 'AL pitchers' (as was major failure Jeff Weaver who he conveniently left off his earlier list) but that's a little too easy. The real difference is that not only the after-the-fact evaluation that the new guys playing well (Sabathia, Teixeira & Swisher anyway, Burnett only sometimes) but, at the same time, the team is getting bounce-back years from virtually the entire lineup: Jeter, Posada, Matsui, Damon, Cano, Cabrera and, although maybe to a lesser extent, Pettitte.
On the other hand, If the new guys were struggling (or injured) while all those 35+ holdovers (at SS, C, LF, DH, LHP & closer) were showing their age instead of inexplicably finding the fountain of youth there'd be no end to the potshots being taken at Cashman for not learning his lesson of 2001-08 about over-paying for outside talent while their drafting continues to flounder.

Classic case of bending the conclusion to fit the circumstances.

[ashie62]

I fail to remember an "outcry" to sign Pedro.

[metirish]

I haven't bought the NY Post in a few years so maybe Hubbach was leading the charge to sign Perdo but I don't believe it for a second.

In a season full of missteps by the Mets, arguably their biggest mistake will be staring them in the face tonight

And making a statement like that is beyond idiotic.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Oliver Perez's contract still seems like a much bigger mistake.

[Guest Kong76]

These high profile columnists, like Madden, have to be aware that
they often write things one month that totally contradicts what they
wrote last month. I've seen him many times on the tube and he's not
stupid ... I think it's just an unwritten code that they can write what-
ever the fuck they want and they laugh all the way to the bank. My
guess is that 98.736% * of the people who read a whole Madden column
are not even aware that it's full of crap.

* - according to a scientific study

[Guest Edgy DC]

Omar: "I'm off the hook for Bernazard? Whew!"

[RealityChuck]

I wouldn't have minded signing Pedro, but you'd have to be crazy to think that would have made a difference this year.

[Frayed Knot]

I wouldn't have minded signing Pedro, but you'd have to be crazy to think that would have made a difference this year.

[metirish]

IIRC too there was talk in the media about where Pedro would fit in the rotation , at the his asking price he wasn't a back end guy.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I supported throwing five biggies at Pedro.

Weren't my biggies. But I never buy the notion that a guy who has been great and is fading and might have something and might have nothing is too big a distraction. A distraction from what?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I supported Pedro biting me and I stand behind that still.

[Centerfield]

I wouldn't have minded signing Pedro, but you'd have to be crazy to think that would have made a difference this year.

[MFS62]

Oliver Perez's contract still seems like a much bigger mistake.[/quote:14wr365i]

Oliver Perez's contract may be the biggest mistake since Hitler invaded Russia.

Later

[stevejrogers]

I supported throwing five biggies at Pedro.
Weren't my biggies. But I never buy the notion that a guy who has been great and is fading and might have something and might have nothing is too big a distraction. A distraction from what?[/quote:3hqev575]

Sure you can give me the Lima example of the Mets cutting bait with a guy rather quickly, but at the same time, that sort of example of a team admiting a mistake and biting the bullet is an exception to the rule. Generally a team is stuck with that bad contract and crummy player for the duration. Hence it becomes a distraction because the team is forced to keep plugging away with the guy, despite him having nothing left.

Why keep trotting "Proven Crap" out there when the results are going to be the same, and you could be trotting out other options that could either be usefull players down the line, either as trade chips or actual contributors to the team.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Hence it becomes a distraction because the team is forced to keep plugging away with the guy, despite him having nothing left.[/quote:2fpp5b25]
That's a very different issue. If a guy demonstrates that he can't help the team win as much as another guy, he can certainly be discarded.

[soupcan]

That's the thing. Even in hindsight, it's not the right move.

In this lost season, we're better off saving some money and finding out what we have in Parnell than we are in getting 10 great starts from Pedro.