Wallace Matthews writes a pretty darn accurate piece for Newsday, which you may or may not be able to click through to, because of Newsday’s crazy subscription policy.  The gist of Matthews point is that it is unlikely that the Mets can fill all the holes they have in this off-season with the pieces that are out there, and that the Mets ownership should just speak honestly to its fan base (something it has never done before) and ask for their patience and understanding.

The team was supposed to make it deep into the post-season.  On paper they were unstoppable in 2009.  But that’s why they play the games.  Matthews is right, the Mets have a lot of holes to fill, and though they have money to spend, filling those holes with free agents this off-season may not be the best use of resources.  Waiting until next off-season would be a smarter use of money.

Matthews is also right that the Wilpons should make a mea culpa to the fans for 2009.  They should acknowledge how bad it was. But the  Wilpons don’t do that.  After the 2003 season, the team finished with below .500  for the second year in a row, the Wilpons raised ticket prices, kept Art Howe and Steve Phillips, and said nothing.  They thought no one would notice.  They are doing that again.

Matthews suggests that Mets fans are adults and can grasp the concept of using money to make sound baseball decisions, but the Mets ownership doesn’t ever seem to want to give those fans credit.  Some of that is because there is 7 major newspapers with 2-3 writers each waiting to pick apart the words of any press statement. But they need to ignore the reporters and speak directly to their fans.

Mets ownership needs to ask itself if their fans want another Mo Vaughn situation though?  That’s what can happen this off-season, if the business-as-usuall/win-at all-costs mandate is maintained.  Money will get spent to fix last season’s debacle, instead of planning how to avoid next season’s.

The real point though is that Mets ownership clearly needs to recognize that the fans can see what is happening with or without the 7 newspapers in the middle.  Explain the situation- let them know that you recognize last year was a failure on many fronts, but that you are more interested in maintaining the respect of the fans, than in selling an inferior product.  Its the elephant in the room. To not address it, is to insult those that have been most loyal to your brand.

There has been much written in the past few weeks about how the Yankees bought the World Series.  The Mets are pointed to, time and time again, as the reason why money doesn’t guarantee anything. The Mets could spend a lot this off-season on mediocre players. Again proving that money can’t guarantee anything.  With a longer term plan though, plugging holes this off-season with an eye  on 2011, the team surprise everyone.  Just as we had to play out 2009 to find out how bad it could get for the Mets, we might have to play out 2010 to find out how good it can be with lowered expectations.

Those expectations come from the top however.  The Wilpons need to position themselves clearly out front.  They can’t just let their GM hang himself by giving him a large budget.  And they can’t fool themselves into believing that Mets fans equate spending money with building a better team.  That’s the other New York teams fan base.  Spending wisely should be the mantra.  And the fans should hear that from the top.