The Out of Town Scoreboard

Group think -- not a good thing.

It's as true in baseball as it is in anything else. One minute somebody's suggesting a crazy trade idea, the next someone else is seconding, around and around it goes and before you know it, you've just traded Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano. (Whether this process accurately recounts the discussion leading to the Kazmir-Zambrano swap is beyond me, but really, how far off could it be?).

In sports as in life, it's always important to break out of your bubble and understand how a given situation looks from outside the prism of your own perspective.

As regular readers are aware, I've been pretty down on the Mets all offseason. It's not because of the moves they have or haven't made, it's because I don't think there's any combination of moves that makes them a viable contender next season.

But as I read Jeff Schultz's column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (which originally appeared on December 11), it dawned on me. All that pessimism and negativity I have about the team, in a sense that's the group think of my perspective and about every other Mets blog/fan/media source out there.

To us the situation looks pretty grim, but with the Mets' pursuit of Jason Bay gathering steam, to Schultz the situation looks a lot rosier.

"The Mets have emerged as the top pursuer of free agent Jason Bay, the best hitter on the market," Schultz writes. "Think of this in New York: a starting outfield of Bay in left, Carlos Beltran in center and Jeff Francoeur in right."

!!

He's not being facetious here; he's actually kind of scared of a Mets team with that outfield. For all the talk about the ascendant Braves, a columnist in their hometown paper says the Braves have work to do if they're going to keep up with a Mets team with Bay (and a Phillies team with Roy Halladay).

I know nothing about Schultz; maybe he's a complete quack. But for those few shiny moments as I read his column, it occurred to me, for the first time in months (maybe years), that the Mets still have the capacity to "scare" teams. Their talent, so maligned and fraught with disappointing associations here, actually registers as good in other parts of the country.

In the end it doesn't mean a whole lot, but in an offseason where it's all too often felt like the Mets are going nowhere fast, it's... I don't know, encouraging maybe (?) to hear there are some who still view us as a team to be reckoned with.

Mets blogs/fans/media outlets haven't gotten the memo.

- A.F.O.M.G.