Any Day Now, Omar

Hey, look at that, this is the inaugural post. Lucky me. Onto business!

There was much eye-rubbing and head-scratching when word came out that the Mets had dealt young outfielder Lastings Milledge for decidedly older outfielder Ryan Church and offensive sinkhole/catcher Brian Schneider. What purpose did that serve for the Mets, we all wondered. Why trade away a promising young talent with significant upside for a fourth outfielder/platoon player already in his unremarkable prime (and getting no better) and a defensive-minded backstop with a weak stick whose overall skills have already begun to decline? Further, why take on significantly more salary while doing this? Surely, we thought, Mets General Manager Omar Minaya was obtaining these two rather pedestrian pieces because they were to be included in some future deal for the front line starting pitcher Mets fans so desperately crave.

Well, the Winter Meetings near their end (indeed, some GMs have already gone home), but still no new ace for the Amazins. What's worse, all reports out of Nashville indicate that the Mets simply lack the available talent to come through with a winning offer for pitchers like Johan Santana or Erik Bedard, giving little hope to fans of the team from Queens that any major deal could possibly happen before Spring Training.

Is this the end of the world? Probably not. The Mets still have a better collection of players than almost all of their National League adversaries, and there is still plenty of time to retool the mayday bullpen that no amount of Jose Reyes high-fiving could overcome down the stretch last season. Additionally, the return of a healthy Pedro Martinez and another year of maturity for John Maine and Oliver Perez probably mean that next year's starting rotation will outperform last year's even if no trade for the much-cliched "#1 starter" is made. To speak the truth, there is really no reason why the Mets shouldn't win 90+ games in 2008. So why is there a very significant collective case of indigestion going on in Orange and Blue territory?

The culprit is expectation. Rather than downplay the Mets' chances of landing an impact starting pitcher via the trade market, Mr. Minaya decided to stoke the fires of optimism in every Mets fan, declaring,

"All those guys that are being mentioned in the market, as far as trade market, we've been in contact with these guys, on a regular basis."

The common Mets fan could not help but assume that their fearless GM would never say such a thing unless he was certain a big-name arm was coming to Shea. So as Mr. Minaya's working vacation in Nashville ends and he returns empty-handed (or perhaps lighter in the hypothetical wallet for having given away a useful trading chip in Milledge), legions of faithful Wilpon customers can only groan and hope that Kevin McHale takes over a rival Major League Baseball franchise sometime soon.