Much of this preference for veterans is an organizational thing, signing Slappy, Alou Duque, Anderson, etc. But those represent only 6 particularly egregious examples of Willie blatantly ignoring his younger players in favor of has beens; I’m sure there are more. I’ll give you the point of Valentin being a career shortstop; but your grasping at straws with this next one. And truly, well you needn’t.

And all of this has nothing to do with the fact that our man ‘Stache, while we love him, can no longer contribute to MLB team and we have Pascucci, who is tearing AAA apart, as well as options such as Bonds, Tatis, and even Chavez, or even possibly Evans, who would be better than ‘Stache, with Evans being a possible exception. Nonetheless Metsblog voters went for yet another ineffective geriatric out of a misguided belief that he will bring such vagueries as “grit” and “fire” and on and on over people who can actually hit, and field (sort of, in Valentino’s case).

Oh, and by the way, who wants to write to Matt Cerrone to ask him how the object of his man-crush, Paul LoDuca, is doing? I can tell him about his .200/.300/298 line through 50 ABs and his extended time on the DL, and his ineffectiveness as a starter, as well as his unique ability to make Brian Schneider look like a stud, but perhaps Matt can give me the update on the more important grit quotient, or ejection rate.

Maybe Metsblog posters will start clamoring for him next.

And where is this “Willie loves the veterans” garbage coming from? Or did you forget how “in love” he was with Endy Chávez for quite a long time? Endy’s more of a journeyman than a veteran. And I don’t see Willie being too hard on Wright and Reyes, who are really the only two “youngsters” on the team other than Mike Pelfrey.

Good options for the poll would have been:

Starting outfield minus Church and Alou…Select 3

Pascucci
Nick Evans
Endy Chavez
Barry Bonds
Fernando Tatis

And that’s pretty much it.
Valentin starting in the outfield when he is a career 2nd baseman, can’t hit, is immobile, and is finished as a player is spectacularly ignorant. Wasting a roster spot on a “clubhouse influence” who cannot contribute either on the field or at the plate, and who will take crucial at-bats from better options (’cause you know Willie will give his “proven veteran guy” (with a 95 OPS+ for his career, which is far worse now) clutch at-bats regardless of performance.

Meanwhile, Pascucci is hitting .300 with like 12 HRs in 80 at-bats for New Orleans

This is so dumb, that I cannot even imagine the stupidest and most ignorant of the WFAN hosts (Russo, Francesa, Benigno, Roberts, and Malusis…wow, that’s an all-star lineup of stupid right there) advocating it, although I could be wrong. It is nearly impossible to underestimate sports-talk hosts…and 60+% of Metsblog readers who voted voted for this.

There is no hope for the human race, much less the Mets.

plenty of reason for hope that a new manager can turn it around and the Mets can win the division.

Beltran, Church, Alou, Pagan, Chavez.

He snuck away with Church and Pagan, and created the depth that the team needed with Alou starting. I can certainly live with it.

More than that, they made a strong effort to play the best hitters in the minors in LF so if there was need for someone, they could get a complete player.

without assuming that Alou, Church, Pagan, and FM would all be injured at the same time, what more should Omar have done?