If you ask Mets fans how they feel about the next three-to-five years, most would be optimistic. It’s not in any way an unreasonable position to take. But things don’t always work out the way they’re supposed to in real life. Angels fan Matt Welch points out how things can go off the rails:
“The Angels in 2009 won 97 games, made the playoffs for the 5th time in 6 years (and 6th in 8), finished two wins away from the World Series, featured a decent amount of young talent (Kendrick and Aybar were 25, Santana and Weaver and Morales were 26, Napoli was 27), and then made 5 selections among the first 48 draft picks & 6 of the first 80, netting them Mike Trout, Garrett Richards, Patrick Corbin, Randal Grichuk and Tyler Skaggs.
They haven’t won a playoff game since.”
Source: Baseball Think Factory
FWIW – that 2009 team also traded for 25-year-old Scott Kazmir in mid-season, too.
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Is the cautionary tale that if you give out a monster contract to a cleanup hitter you wont have money left to keep the rest of the team intact?
I’m not sure what the moral of your cautionary tale is? The Angels finished one game out of the playoffs– one. They are not a small market club and in fact enjoy the second biggest attendance in the AL behind only the Yankees. Their owner, per Forbes– is worth $1.4 billion. Their TV revenue package is so large that it literally pays for their entire team payroll before they ever sell a single ticket, hot dog, or rally monkey. The majority of their constructed team is derived from their development system, or trades. Trout is the best player in baseball and is entering only his age 24 season. CJ Cron (drafted/age 25), Cole Kalhoun (drafted/age 28). Perez age 25, Simmons age 25, Richards, Heaney, Skaggs, Santiago, Tropeano– all young players. Every team has entered into bad contracts– every one of them. Weaver and CJ Wilson’s salaries come off the books next season to the tune of $40MM. The following season another $28MM is gone from Josh Hamilton. The problem with the Angels is that their owner has become frightened of being on the hook for another Josh Hamilton type contract. But to suggest the Angels are the same as Philadelphia, stuck in no man’s land is absurd. And the Pujols contract is not bad until it is– the man hit 40 homeruns last year and overall has produced– not to the level he did in St. Louis, but in comparison to other first baseman. They will be fine.
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So if you asked 1,000 Mets fans how many playoff games you expected the team to win the next six years, how many do you think would answer zero? My guess would be … zero. So, if no one expects it, wouldn’t a team that was both young and successful in the immediate past that did just that be a cautionary tale?