You will hear the pundits, or those that pretend to be pundits, start to talk about a collapse when reviewing the 2008 New York Mets. Although its fair to question the “toughness” or “leadership” of this team, to call what you say this year a collapse is pure falicy.

The point I have been making the last two weeks is that this team might have overachieved. Yes I know that is hard to understand just a day after their terrible loss to Florida, but look at the facts. If in spring training I told you that the Mets would:

Lose Billy Wagner after August 1st

Lose John Maine for nearly half the season

Lose Moises Alou for the Year

Lose Ryan Church for 3 months

Lose Pedro Martinez for 2 months and get borderline “5th starter” production when he was here.

Have to relay on names such as Stokes, Tatis, Evans, Murphy, Ayala, Ramon Martinez, and Argenis Reyes

What would you think this teams final record would be? Probably 71 to 75 wins? Now you can counter with the huge offensive production of Reyes, Wright, Beltran, and Delgado. You could counter with the pitching of Johan Santana. Thats good debate for newspapers or radio shows, but in the end reality states the painful truth: The Mets were not good enough.

This off-season will be one of the most critical in the franchise history. They go into a new ballpark which is a fresh start in of its own. Fans will be expecting this “cash cow” to yield resources which should result in signing top quality free agents. I also believe they need to be prudent with their farm system and trust some of the young players we saw this year. Omar has preached a combination of youth and veteran roster construction but, until this year, rarely practiced what he preached. In the end it was the complementary players that failed the Mets.

Its imperative to have a active, but productive, off season. The stench of failure is in full force since the Game 7 loss of 2006. A new stadium will provide the air freshner, very much like Johan Santana did this year, but what this team needs is a cleaning crew. Lucky for them they have the resources and foundation to put together a great product in 2009. The only question is whether Omar Minaya and ownership is up to the challenge?

Tags: New York Mets, Omar Minaya