NEW YORK -- The Braves' general manager expressed that simple thought recently in relation to the upcoming World Baseball Classic, the global event that will afford talent evaluators an opportunity to see players from different perspectives -- the same eyes looking at the same players, but perhaps seeing different things. Evaluations may differ as well.

The Mets will have a variation of that theme beginning early next month when their Minor League players assemble for Spring Training -- with a different set of eyes looking at a different set of players from a perspective of, well, ignorance.

Adam Wogan's eyes are unfamiliar with the club's Minor League personnel. It should come as no surprise, since he's been the club's director of Minor League operations for less than a month and has been exposed to little more than a smidgeon of the Mets' Minor League talent. He has been hired by the Mets to do what he did for the Expos/Nationals, hired as the successor to Kevin Morgan, hired as a new set of eyes, and, because of his administrative skills, hired to improve the Mets tomorrow before it arrives.

The Mets aren't necessarily seeking different results, but rather more of them. Their system has had high-end production. The brilliant left side of their current Major League infield -- third baseman David Wright and shortstop Jose Reyes -- is homegrown; so too is pitcher Aaron Heilman. Each made his Major League debut in the last three years.

The highly-regarded, partially-polished pitching prospects the Mets included in deals to import Carlos Delgado, Paul Lo Duca and Victor Zambrano -- Yusmeiro Petit, Gaby Hernandez and Scott Kazmir, respectively -- were club-developed as well. And at some point in 2007, outfielder Lastings Milledge and perhaps pitcher Mike Palfrey will make their first Major League marks.

At the same time, though, the Mets' talent pool isn't seen as particularly deep after Milledge, Pelfrey and surgically-repaired Philip Humber.

It is the responsibility of Wogan, his staff and the club's scouts to change that perception -- and the reality.

The element of chance lives comfortably in the player development process, making every club's Minor League operation more expensive than it is productive. For years, Mets owner Fred Wilpon has sought ways to eliminate some of that element. Now his club has turned to a 31-year-old magna cum laude graduate of Wake Forest who has a master's degree in sports management from the University of Massachusetts, a relationship -- born in Montreal -- with Mets general manager Omar Minaya and the position former GMs Steve Phillips and Jim Duquette once filled.

"I'm not bringing anything revolutionary to the job," Wogan says. "We'll just try to emphasize the things that have to be done and be as efficient as possible."

Those are the words of a schooled administrator, one who readily acknowledges the critical element in sending fully-developed talent to the big leagues is scouting, i.e., having talent in place in the first place so that a comprehensive and consistent program of "polishing fundamentals" allows each player to get the most from all his talents.

Acquiring talent isn't Wogan's jurisdiction. And the department he oversees won't make lemonade from lemons. Instead, it does the polishing, stresses the fundamentals and tries to eliminate obstacles from each player's path.

With the latter in mind, Wogan has begun to familiarize himself with his staff and players, learning where they've been to help them get where they're going. It is a massive undertaking for a man whose only exposure to Mets personnel came last summer during four games between the club's Double-A Binghamton affiliate and the Nationals' Harrisburg team.

Beginning March 5, when more that 150 players report to Port St. Lucie, Fla., Wogan will begin putting names with faces and skills. The teaching, polishing and evaluating follow. And the new eyes are put to use.

"You never know everything about your players, but you hope you know more than anyone else," Wogan says. "You're always learning about you players. If I'm fortunate enough to be in the game when I'm 60, 70 and 80, I'll still be learning."

Sometimes, it's new eyes. Sometimes it's eyes that have seen so much. Al Jackson, an original Met, once the club's pitching coach and a consultant, was not unfamiliar with Heilman last spring when Heilman's Major League readiness was in question. But Jackson detected a similarity between Heilman's old delivery and that of the late Don Drysdale and played a role in the decision that Heilman probably would benefit from returning to the arm slot he used at Notre Dame.

That is a rather dramatic example of unlocking potential -- Heilman was a revelation last season -- but it's the kind of influence those in player development can have. Mostly the input is more subtle. Its cumulative effect is Wogan's domain.

"I'm not looking to find something like that with each player," Wogan said. "There's not always a secret. I'm just a new set of eyes looking for whatever we can do. I'm assuming I don't know anyone. It's a fresh start for everyone."

Wogan's evaluating process begins with a handshake.

"Does the player make eye contact? Is there self-confidence?" Wogan said. He also looks for self-awareness. Then, even before batting practice or PFP -- pitcher's fielding practice -- he makes mental notes about a player's size and physique, his mechanics, athleticism and "how he jogs across the field."

Some of the same concepts are applied to his staff which includes Morgan, Wogan's predecessor. After four years on the job, Morgan has been assigned an on-field position, coordinator of instruction for the Minor Leagues. He is to oversee the continuity and consistency of instruction from the Major Leagues down through the Minor Leagues. i.e., help reinforce the Mets' way of doing things.

Since he began working at Shea Stadium, Wogan has made it his business to touch base with the staff he has inherited and to enhance the rapport that will help create a department that acts with the consistency the club wants.

It's what sports management is.

What a man of letters is doing in baseball hardly is an issue for Wogan.

"It's all that I ever wanted to do," he said.

He enjoyed the game as a player but recognized early on -- his first player evaluation of note -- that his modest baseball skills wouldn't lead to a career as a pitcher. And a rotator cuff injury suffered when he was a high school junior made it easier to accept that conclusion.

But his appreciation for the game was fully developed before that. He is a product of New England who knows where he was when the Red Sox's Dave Henderson hit his ALCS-clinching home run against the Angels' Donnie Moore in 1986 (though not where he was when his Red Sox were undone by Bill Buckner's error in Game 6 of the World Series against the Mets).

Analyzing the different components and aspects of a player's game intrigues Wogan. The challenge of finding a way to make it work motivates him. The ongoing success of the Braves and Twins in player development impresses him.

"It's a necessity for some smaller market clubs," he said. "But there's no reason a larger market club can't do that same thing."