Sandy's Got a Brain

There are many reasons for Mets fans to be excited about having Sandy Alderson as our new GM. Though some will start labeling him with labels such as "he's a numbers guy" (whether that makes you happy or not) and "he is not afraid to go against the grain," his main asset is that for the first time in my life (and probably yours too) the Mets have a GM with a brain! The problem we had with the last few GMs is that they did things that were clearly dumb! It is so frustrating as a fan to see your GM throw out money to Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo and Jason Bay and then not have money left for players who are actually good. It is so frustrating to see your GM dump quality bullpen arms (Heath Bell, Matt Lidstrom) for nothing just because he can. It is so painful when he rushes prospects (especially Latinos) who are clearly not ready through the minors so that they will be able to join the Mets when they can't yet hit. This also destroys their ability to be patient and have good pitch selection, and as a result their batting average and walks are unacceptable. It is so painful when your leader puts your top pitching prospect into the bullpen which stunts his development and gets him to free agency two years earlier. It is painful when he demands that his mistakes and washed up bench veterans play over players who are clearly better than them. This frustration is now gone with the hiring of Sandy Alderson as our new GM. Over the next few seasons we will see how his wonderful philosophies build a championship team, but right now, we will first begin to appreciate a departure from stupidity.