Saturday News and Notes
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 pure comedic value. It would also mean nothing short of Waterloo for the franchise. At some point, after we’ve traded David Wright and Wilmer Flores for Jeff Francoeur and David Eckstein, installed Wally Backman as player-manager, and held Carlos-Beltran-Effigy-Burning day as a promotion, well, you think Selig’s ticked off now; the Mets will probably be terminated for giving the rest of the National League East an unfair competitive advantage.
It’s hard to envision such a phenomenon, although in my imagination, the decision-making process would probably look something like this.
In other news, the Mets hired Brad Andress as their new strength and conditioning coordinator, replacing Rick Slate. Andress has had a similar role with the Rockies, Tigers, and the University of Michigan throughout his career. Now, I don’t want be one of those fans who celebrates every move Sandy Alderson makes (beware the confirmation bias). However, if the Mets well-documented injury issues the last few years are any indication, the team’s medical staff were basically broscientists under the Omar regime.
Last but not least, Adam Rubin has an interview with some dude- Evans Nicholas or something like that- who’s apparently competing for a spot on the big league roster. I’m guessing they saw something in him at Mets Fantasy Camp over the winter and decided to give him an invite to Spring Training.
The only community-owned sports franchise is the Green Bay Packers. See how they turned out.