10-11 Offseason

What Are Johan Santana’s Chances of Recovery?

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On Saturday, Steve Popper and Bob Klapisch of the Bergen Record dropped the bomb that Johan Santana’s 2011 season might be in jeopardy.

Well, it’s only a bomb if you don’t read MetsToday; we wrote off Johan’s 2011 way back in early September. But that’s just me being all “gloom and doom” … or a realistic view of the situation, depending on your outlook. Personally, I tend to have low expectations for pitchers returning from serious shoulder injuries, and didn’t see any reason to view Santana’s injury any differently. It made more sense, to me, to plan the 2011 Mets pitching staff without Santana — and if by some small miracle he made a comeback, it would be a wonderful and welcome surprise.

But planning without Santana doesn’t sell tickets, and the Mets are desperate for revenues. So, the team will continue to spin the fantasy of Johan’s return at some point in 2011.

Putting that aside for a moment, we must wonder if Santana will be able to return by 2012 — and if he does, will he be anything near the ace starter he was before shoulder surgery?

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Saturday News and Notes

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Alex Remington over at FanGraphs discusses the thought of the Mets going public- i.e. the team would be run by stockholders (presumably the fans, particularly if there is a cap placed on the number of purchasable shares). Having the franchise run by the collective brain trust of WFAN callers would be priceless in terms of … Read more

Is Wilmer Flores the Rodney Dangerfield of Prospects?

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NOTE: this is a post by Matt Himelfarb

Project Prospect released their top 100 prospect list yesterday. The list included six Mets, ranked as followed:

42: Reese Havens

48: Matt Harvey

53: Fernando Martinez

83: Jenrry Mejia

94: Brad Emaus

100: Wilmer Flores

Yup, you read that right. Brad Emaus is more valuable than Wilmer Flores. Also, according to Project Prospect, MySpace is way cooler than Facebook, Godfather Three puts one and two to shame, and Dane Cook isn’t a total douche (okay, I  made that part up).

When I first saw the rankings yesterday afternoon, it appeared to me as a subtle cry for attention. And by subtle cry of attention, I mean that annoying freshman girl who acts dumber than she actually is. The one who is so beautiful and whom you would love to hook up with, until the moment she starts talking.

Upon reflection, however,

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When Should the Mets Trade Jose Reyes?

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NOTE: this post was written by Matt Himelfarb

Sandy Alderson caused quite the media frenzy last week, following his statement that “stolen bases are a footnote,” when it comes to winning games. In the wake of the Wilpons’ financial debacle, most people construed this quote to mean that Jose Reyes’ days in Flushing  are numbered.

I’m torn on basically every single question surrounding Jose Reyes: Whether or not to retain him, how much do you pay him, when to trade him, etc. For one, there are a lot of questions to consider- how good a player is he, is he healthy, the demand for him should he hit the open market, is dishing out a Carl Crawford-esque contract a good decision, etc.- and either signing him to an extension or trading him right now requires making a whole lot of assumptions regarding those kind of questions. Plus, as a Mets fan, it pains to me to imagine Reyes donning anything other than the orange and blue.

Let’s discuss Reyes’ value first.

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Reactions To News That Mets Are For Sale

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Amazin’ Avenue says the Mets / Wilpons “haven’t been totally forthright with the ticket-buying public” BarStoolSports – NYC wonders if his prayers have been answered MadoffMemoranda finds it hard to believe that Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz never found anything fishy about Bernie Madoff’s operations Geez, even our NL East rivals are getting into the … Read more

Mets For Sale

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So much for the conspiracy “theory” — as it turns out, the Madoff scandal did and does affect the Wilpons and the New York Mets in particular, despite countless denials to the contrary. From last week’s press release: As Sterling Equities announced in December, we are engaged in discussions to settle a lawsuit brought against … Read more

Mets Make Offer To Shylock

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According to various sources, Rodrigo Lopez will make a decision this weekend to accept a minor-league contract and invitation to spring training from one of several teams making such an offer — including the Mets, Braves, and Rockies. The Portugal native and purported Marrano was formerly a physician to Queen Elizabeth, before being hanged, drawn, … Read more