Do No Harm

Okay, so I'll go ahead and float an idea out there, you tell me if I'm way off: this team isn't very good.

Has the idea at least crossed your mind at some point this season? It must have. Perhaps even over the last 24 or so hours, as you watched, surprised but, at this point probably not shocked, as they lost to the Pirates, and then the Nationals in the most lackluster fashion.

This team isn't good. It was a niggling little thought, at first, in the recesses of my mind, a whisper that has slowly grown louder and more insistent: at this point, it's almost a mantra. I try to talk myself out of it sometimes: yes they are, they're ___ games over .500. They're in first place. Look at the lineup, Wright, Delgado, Beltran.

And just you WAIT until Pedro comes back!

Sure, here and there this season they have looked like they could beat just about any team around. Those moments, however, have been fleeting.

More prevalant has been a feeling of doom, a sense that disaster is just up ahead a little ways. Unfortunately, this team hasn't shown me a will to win, they haven't given me any indication that they have the collective fortitude to do special things this season. Frankly, they look disinterested most of the time. They really have been a collapse waiting to happen, and I don't see the 2007 campaign ending well.

So, as we approach the July 31st trading deadline, I would encourage the Mets braintrust to resist the temptation to make any deals whatsoever, unless they involve dumping Shawn Green, Moises Alou or Damion Easley. To trade Kevin Mulvey, or Carlos Gomez, or Lastings Milledge, or Pelfrey or Humber, or any of the top prospects in the system, to acquire a guy like Mark Loretta, or Chad Cordero, is, in light of the way this team has played, shortsighted and foolish as far as I'm concerned.

And, I would also hope that the team realizes the opportunity it has to let the Milledges and Pelfreys and Humbers and Gotays get a taste of a pennant race: play them. Stop wasting time playing Green and Alou and Easley, who won't be here next year and aren't contributing much this year anyway. Put Jorge Sosa in the bullpen where he belongs - clearly the clock struck 12 on that fairytale anyway. Let's see what the young guys can do.

Am I suggesting that the Mets concede the division and the season? Not at all. What I'm hoping is that the front office admits that the model for this season has been a failure, and decides not to make matters worse by throwing good money after bad, as it were.

Do no harm.

The team loaded up on wily veterans in the offseason, retaining Green, Valentin and Franco and signing Easley and Alou, and it hasn't worked. The production out of these guys has been spotty, and I think a clubhouse filled with old guys can sometimes be a quiet, "professional" and ultimately listless place. Too much jazz, not enough Jay-Z.

So, why not take the organization in a different direction, and why not start now. Don't trade young talent for more old guys in a desperate attempt to prop up the team up: keep the prospects, play the young guys who are ready to play, and maybe good things will happen.