Offense Appears to be Set
It looks like Andres Torres, Jason Bay, and Scott Hairston will be healthy for opening day (In fact, Hairston started in center field today against the Nationals). In addition, Adam Loewen was reportedly reassigned to minor league camp. With those nuggets of news, the Mets lineup and bench appear to be set, barring any injuries (*snicker*) between now and April 5th.
So, the lineup looks like this:
CF Torres, 2B Murphy, 3B Wright, 1B Davis, RF Duda, LF Bay, C Thole, SS Tejada.
The bench will consist of:
IF Turner, IF Cedeno, OF Baxter, OF Hairston, C Nickeas.
Not exactly the ’27 Yankees, especially as far as the bench is concerned. The lineup has the potential to score some runs if the middle of the order produces the way many believe it can. But if the ol’ injury bug rears its ugly head again, there’s not much backup support, at least on paper.
But, to coin a phrase, that’s why they play the games.
I am sure you are already writing a post on this but I am going to ask the question anyway. I do not understand why the Mets are worth less than the Dodgers due to the fact that the Dodgers can bid out their TV rights soon. I thought that SNY was extremely profitable and that having your own network was the symbol of success? Everyone says that the Yankees are worth significantly more because of YES. Why, discounting everything else, does the fact the Mets have their own TV network not make them more attractive in that aspect than pretty much every franchise in baseball?
Further, Mets ownership — principally the Wilpons and Saul Katz — don’t completely own SNY (they own 65%) and they owe a first right of refusal to the other investors before selling any of their shares. Therefore, it would be very difficult for a buyer of the Mets to also get shares of SNY as part of the deal. Without getting a piece of SNY, and being locked into a set annual fee, significantly limits revenue potential and therefore lowers the value of the Mets baseball franchise.
At least, I THINK this is the explanation. If anyone else can chime in with better info, please do.
I am not familiar with transaction details, but I think Dodger Stadium is in the deal, and based on the age of the stadium the Dodgers have less debt that the Mets do. Once we can get beyond knowing that we are now “stuck” with the Wilpons, the selling price of the Dodgers is great news for Met fans. We try to piece together the profitability based on bits and pieces of public info, but regardless of claims like “losses of $70 million”, the Mets operate in the bigger market than the Dodgers, have a new stadium, and essentially their own TV station. Once they get their financial house in order, and keep Jeffy out of the baseball moves and better spend, the payroll will expand, and on-field product will likely improve. Then the value of the team will go up.
I’m curious- why the Davis-Duda-Bay order… doesn’t this put two lefty’s back to back then a righty? I’d think this would make it easier for opposing managers to bring in their LOOGY. In 1/3 as many at bats against lefties than he had against Righties, Bay hit 62 points higher and have 5 of his 12 home runs on the season. Duda on the other hand hit 25 points lower against lefties and had zero homeruns againts them out of his 10 for the season.
You could leave it that way, but then you have Duda and Thole batting back-to-back, unless you bat Thole 8th and Tejada 7th. That’s not out of the realm of possibility.
I could live with Torres as a fourth or fifth outfielder but you’re right- he’s a poor everyday CF.
I actually see Torres as an okay fourth outfielder