Mets Go Nuts!
Never mind what the Marlins are doing — nothing compares to the madness of the Mets at the winter meetings!
Sure, the Mets lost shortstop Jose Reyes, but Sandy Alderson is not one to let grass grow under his feet. The genius GM made a whirlwind of moves guaranteed to make the Mets almost as good as they were in 2011 — and at minimum, assures them a fifth-place finish in the NL East.
Sit down, because the plethora of moves will knock you backward if you’re standing.
First off, the Mets signed Jon Rauch to a one-year deal. As you know, Rauch is Gulliver to the Lilliputians, an absolute giant at 6’10”, 300 lbs. Remember Chris Young was similarly huge, and he was a great pitcher, too. Rauch slots right into the back end of the bullpen, where R.A. Dickey‘s 7-inning efforts have a chance to become victories. Rauch is coming off a poor season that can probably be blamed on a knee injury that required surgery in the offseason, so you KNOW this was a brilliant move. Look at how well the Mets did signing pitchers coming off injuries last winter. Woop woop!
But they didn’t stop rebuilding the bullpen there, because the Mets also signed Frankie Francisco — to a two-year, $12M deal (who said the Mets weren’t going to be big spenders this winter?). He collected 17 saves and struck out 9 batters per nine innings for the Blue Jays last year, and likely will fight Rauch for the closer role. Two closers in one bullpen … wow … just … wow.
And yes, those crazy Mets made yet another deal to bolster the bullpen, swapping Angel Pagan to the San Francisco Giants for reliever Ramon Ramirez and centerfielder Andres Torres. Ramirez had a sparkling 1.16 WHIP and 2.62 ERA through 66 appearances in 2011; he solidifies the seventh inning. Meanwhile, Torres steps right into Pagan’s role in centerfield, bringing with him much better defense, better baseball IQ, and very little offense. But who needs offense when you have these three guys shutting the door in the final three frames?
All this excitement has made me completely forget about losing that All-Star shortstop to Miami. What was his name again?
I suppose we can assume that the other so-called available relievers on the market weren’t much better.
Meantime, the media call to trade Wright continues, probably because they want the fans to literally march on Citifield with pitchforks and torches after that happens. Oh what the hell, trade him too…forget that he’s the face of the franchise and don’t try to keep him around so that he can be one of the valuable veteran pieces in a future rebuilt team….just get rid of him for some prospects. We love those now. Wooo hooo…love those prospects…
I feel sick…
😉
I have to go now. The attendents are taking me back to my “room” now.
Hey…it just occured to me….finish last for the next five years and oh what prospects they’ll recover! That’s a plan!
Of course, our luck, Alderson finally stocks the system, then he retires and the next idiot they hire goes out and starts the same shenanigans (trade all prospects, sign high priced free agents) that supposedly got us into trouble in the first place.
I’m still feeling sick…
No matter which way I try to put it together, I can’t for the life of me attach logic to the plan of cutting payroll in NYC and expecting it to come out OK. It became even more complicated with the new CBA, which more or less penalizes teams that try to build through the draft and international signings. The more I think about it, the more this story becomes an overbearing, complex monster that turns into a Bud Selig conspiracy theory to create an unofficial salary cap / artificially lower player salaries while also completely destroying MLB as we know it with the ridiculous interleague play, transfer of the Astros to the AL< etc. In short, it's not a simple answer / blog post -- it probably requires a several-page essay. Eventually, I do plan to address this madness at some point this winter, and look forward to your feedback. Meantime, let's keep our fingers crossed that the Mets can cut a few more dollars from their payroll so the Wilpons can keep the team!
If you have an ESPN “Insider” subscription then I recommend Keith Law’s breakdown here:
http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog?name=law_keith&id=7270031&_slug_=mlb-new-collective-bargaining-agreement-does-more-harm-good&action=login
A free breakdown is here: http://mlb.sbnation.com/2011/11/22/2576566/mlb-labor-deal-cba
What I can provide is this: per the new CBA, teams are heavily taxed if they go over set budgets for international signings and the draft. So in other words, everyone has a limit they can spend — and it’s not a high ceiling. Without getting into the details, what it comes down to is this: the strategy of building a team thru the draft and amateur signings — such as done by the TB Rays, Oakland A’s, and others — is no longer a tactical long-term advantage. Bud Selig couldn’t ever get a salary cap in place with existing players, but it was easy to create one with players who aren’t yet anywhere close to joining the MLBPA (i.e., current amateurs). Selig is doing all he can to turn MLB into a socialist ideology, where everyone is equal and the owners make as much profit as possible. Marvin Miller must be spinning in his grave.
On the topic of what the Wilpons can afford: This business about “losing $70 million” may be somewhat bogus. I get that the attendace has dropped around 35% over 2 years, which is a huge hit to food and merchandise sales, in addition to the tickets themselves. But they hold the TV rights in their separate sports network, so we don’t know what revenues and profits the Mets generate into Fred’s pockets from that. This suggests that the combination of post-2008 reversals in their real estate holdings (the original source of their wealth) and the loss of around $500 million they thought was safe in Madoff’s funds (not to mention the enormous legal fees in fighting Picar’s remaining $300 million claim against them) may be much more of a factor in their financial dilemna than the overall financial performance of the Mets. With the FA market getting stronger next year, and the Mets shedding some big contracts this year and next, they have to make some intelligent “buys” net year. If they can’t, then maybe Bud will finally be ready to tell Fred it’s time to sell (for you who remember, he could go to Fred with the other village elders, like Goldwater did when it was time to tell Tricky Dick to resign).
2010 (Omar’s last year) the Mets won a pathetic 79 games (4th place, ahead of only the lowly Nationals).
2011 (Sandy’s first year) the Mets won a pathetic 77 games (4th place, ahead of only the lowly Marlins).
That’s right, the Nationals and Marlins are the competition now. Not the Phillies and the Braves.
This team is a joke and an embarrassment. Now we are asked to be patient and wait for rebuilding? Come on!
I love this blog, but sad to say, my love of the Mets is fading fast. They are not “lovable losers” they are just losers.