Mike Cameron: The Morning After

We've all had a night's sleep to digest what happened yesterday. This was obviously just the opening salvo in a series of moves. I'm already flashing back to the Steve Phillips era where players came and went through this organization in a dizzying blur.

You can count me among the many that don't even feel that Xavier Nady will play an inning for the Mets. He'll be a chip in one of Omar's other moves, and Cameron's biggest contribution to the Mets' off-season plan will be taking his contract to San Diego with him. This one was about the money more than any other factor. Given what Omar seems to be doing this off-season it was a logical move.

Greg at Faith and Fear in Flushing has some interesting thoughts on the short-lived rebuilding plan of 2004 that brought Cameron to the Mets. I won't argue at this point whether Omar's plan is better than the youth, speed, pitching and defense plan of 2 winters ago, when the Mets were committed to building a team through their farm system. Once again, like the squirrel in the road, the Mets change direction.

At Metsblog, Matt Cerrone has some inside information in a feature called What are the Mets Doing? that's a great read.

We'll hear more about Delgado, Manny, Soriano. We'll hold our breath awaiting Billy Wagner's decision. And I won't lie to you, this stuff is exciting even for me. Whether I agree with what Omar is doing or not -- and frankly, I'm not quite sure at this point -- I have to respect him for having the b-lls to act on his vision. I'd like to see this organization get away from a dependency on bringing in high-priced mercenaries to take the Mets to the promised land of October. For this year, I won't get my wish.

I understand the importance the Mets are placing on getting to the post-season. They're making a lot of moves and spending a lot of money to get there. I don't know if it will be Heilman, Milledge, Benson, Seo, or someone else -- but others will leave this off-season in moves that will generate even more controversy among Mets fans than the Cameron trade. We'll be debating these moves; I'll probably hate one or two of them. Once April rolls around, it won't matter. I'll be rooting for whoever is wearing the uniform. I just hope that someday we can try to build a team a different way. I don't want to root for the Yankees.

Get it Right
Thanks to Biased Giants Fanatic for pointing out to me yesterday that the Mets acquired Xavier Nady and not Xavier Nagy from the Padres. I used to go to school with a guy named Nagy -- he couldn't hit at all. Mets fans would have been really pissed if Omar traded Cameron for him.