From a negative to a positive

On a recent post I touched on how my NY Mets have turned things around when it comes to their team perception around the league. Players leaving money on the table to come play for the Mets would never had happen just a year ago, but the culture has changed and these are not you're same old Mets.

Led by the best young staff in the majors, the Mets have found themselves on the right path. These days the mood is good, from the players to the fans to the people who run the ship, to the fan friendly approach around Citifield. But it was not that long ago that there was a cloud of negativity that was always around the Mets.

Yes the Mets have turned things around, from a negative to a positive and it had me thinking...it had me thinking about the 90's Yankee and how they too turned things around and went on to carve a new piece of history after their turnaround.

Now here me out, I'm not trying to compare that Yankees team that eventually went on to have a dynasty with these current Mets, I'm just making an observation that seems similar to me.

So lets go back to 1990.

In 1990 the NY Yankees and owner George Steinbrenner were force to do things differently when MLB jumped in and suspended the Boss for his Dave Winfield shenanigans. For the next 3 years the Boss was out of the way from making baseball decisions and in his place came Gene Michael's to help run the ship until Steinbrenner served his time.

This was a time back when the Yankees were trying to find themselves, they had not made the playoffs since 1981 and had not won a WS since back to back 77 and 78, these were the Dallas Green, Stump Merrill Yankees, the Jesse Barfield and Mel Hall days. Yea you get the picture, these were some bad Yankee teams that threw money at the problem and didn't really believe in their farm system. These were the days of trading the few young players they had for older players, trades like Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps.

It was the George Steinbrenner way and during the 70's it worked but when the 80's came along it didn't. Then came the 90's and the Yankees were still trying to get back to the good old days.

But now the Boss was out of the way and the Yankees had a different direction and after a few years you started to here about a few cats down in the system who were not to far away. By the end of 1993 the BOSS was back from serving his suspension just in time to reap the benefits of his time removed from the game.

Benefits like Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettite and Derek Jeter, all whom came in and debuted in 1995 as the Core 4 was born. For the next 2 decades the NY Yankees had it real good, they had built the beginnings of a dynasty and had ended a 18 year drought of not making the playoffs.

By 2000 the Yankees had won 4 WS titles and the money was flowing in like running water as the NY Yankee brand had peaked. They had written a new chapter to their glorious franchise but as the years went by Steinbrenner began to lose reality with what had gotten him all this success and instead of continuing the blueprint of building from within the Boss went back to his old ways.

What George Steinbrenner did was to throw money around the 4 core in order to maintain and it worked as the Yankees continued to make the playoffs every year. It was really hard to argue with this formula because ultimately the Yankees had won a total of 5 WS titles and had not missed the playoffs for 14 consecutive seasons.

But as the years went by this formula became stale and the core eventually got older as 1 by 1 they all retired leaving the Yankees with a roster full of questions marks and a payroll full of bad contracts.

It was a great run and every team would had probably done the same thing but all good things come to an end.

Now let me bring in the Mets and let me try and make the similarities here, lets start with the Omar Minaya's Mets, just like the Yankees these Mets were big spenders and were usually around the top 5 teams in the majors when it came to their payroll, to me these Mets were trying to emulate the Yankees success and formula by spending big bucks on free-agents.

But the Mets won no titles and instead suffered consecutive collapses following their 2006 playoffs run, after that came the whole Bernie Madoff mess and this is the Mets version to George Steinbrenner suspension.

Now the Mets had no real money to spend and now they were force to do things differently just as it had happened to the Yankees in the early 90's.

Things got real bad for the Mets that eventually Omar was let go and in came Sandy Alderson to help run things in a more cheaper and conservative way, to me, he was the Mets version of Gene Michaels.

Now it was the Mets who had to do the same as the Yanks of those early 90's and build from within in order to get thing back in order. Years went by 2010, 2011, 2012 and by 2013 you began to see some real players come up and I began to get excited about the Mets again.

So this is where the similarities end, and so this is where we are at today, the Mets have build this super rotation and the Yanks are trying to get younger.

For the Mets it's up to them to live up to the expectations, now these are the Mets so I don't expect them to have a run like the Yankees had, plus MLB has changed so much in the last 10 years that having a dynasty has become even harder, but if the Mets can win 1 WS and end their 30 years drought, it will do for me.

As for the Yankees, we are now seeing an efforts being made by them to build from within and for the 1st time in I don't know how long, they did not spend a single dime on free agents. Many true hardcore Yankees fans have been waiting for this, but will the Yankees really stay on this path?

We will have to wait and see what happens after the 2016 season, so far it has been 2 years of cutting payroll and only time will tell if this is for real, because in 2016 money will be freed to spend again.

For now it's the Mets time to live up to the hype and for the Yankees to get younger.

Time for some feedback Ray.