Ah, similarities.

The Old Backstop has a new entry up, and touched upon something I've been thinking about recently. The free agent market is pretty stocked this year, but while going through it and looking at names, it's hard to see more than one or two guys that would possibly consider signing with the Mets. The Mets just aren't what they used to be, and the desire to play in New York just isn't that great when all you get is losses and boos.

But the Backstop brings up a solid point: Our best chance at acquiring top players is by force ... through trades (the same way we picked up Keith Hernandez and Gary Carter).

Back in the early eighties the Mets were lousy, with records comparable to the kind the Mets have been putting up recently. Fred Wilpon and Nelson Doubleday, the new Mets owners, came in looking to right the ship, and hired a man by the name of Frank Cashen. Cashen, who was considered one of the better general managers at the time, agreed to come on under one condition: Fred and Nelson be patient and leave him alone.

Sound familiar yet?

They agreed, and gave him a five-year deal.

How about now?

The similarities between Cashen and Minaya don't end there however. In order to build his team, Cashen filled his rosters with young, talented players through trades and solid drafting. Then, when he felt ready, made deals for top players. Minaya, when taking over the reigns of the Montreal Expos did one of the two (although, contraction will usually take the stress off of builing a strong minor league foundation) and went out and got top players when he felt the need to compete, by trading for guys like Bartolo Colon and our good friend Cliff Floyd.

While I appreciate the intent, I have to agree with Cashen's way of going about building a team with young guys, and then when ready to compete, making deals for players, whether they want to come or not.

The other problem I have with dealing for guys right now is, really, who's out there? Alfonso Soriano, perhaps, but it would take Jose Reyes, and I'm just not ready to give up on the little guy. A possible trade could happen with the White Sox for the inconsistent Paul Konerko, whose power would slot in nicely at first for the Mets. Possibly a deal for the monster contract of the hitting savant Manny Ramirez (which, honestly, I would have no problem picking up off waivers).

The fact remains the Mets aren't ready to compete, which isn't that bad in the way of trades, because there's just not that many out there to make.

Although, if the Mets are looking to pull a trade like the one for Benson, and get a future free agent and convince him New York is the place to be, there's no harm starting off here.