How the Wilpon Stole Metsmas

How the Wilpon Stole Metsmas

by Dr Z

Every Met fan
Down in City-ville
Liked Metsmas a lot…

But the Wilpon,
Who lived just North of City-ville,
Did NOT!

The Wilpon hated Metsmas! Every Metsmas season!
Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be that his head wasn’t screwed on quite right.
It could be, perhaps, that his Brooklyn Dodgers jersey was too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his wallet was two sizes too small.

But,
Whatever the reason,
His heart or his jersey,
He stood there on Metsmas Eve, hating the fans,
Staring down from his SNY fancave, making expensive ticket plans.
At the warm lighted windows below in their town.
For he knew every fan down in City-ville beneath
Was busy now, hanging a Mets-branded wreath.

“And they’re hanging their Blue & Orange stockings!” he snarled with a sneer.
“Tomorrow is Metsmas! It’s practically here!”
Then he growled, with his stubby fingers nervously drumming,
“I MUST find a way to keep Metsmas from coming!”
For, tomorrow, he knew…

…All the fan girls and boys
Would wake up bright and early. They’d rush for their toys!
And then! Oh, the noise! Oh, the noise! Noise! Noise! Noise!
That’s one thing he hated! The NOISE! NOISE! NOISE! NOISE!

Then the Fans, young and old, would sit down to a feast.
And they’d feast! And they’d feast!
And they’d FEAST! FEAST! FEAST! FEAST!
They would start on Shake Shack, and rare Keith Mex Burgers
Which was something the Wilpon couldn’t stand any further!

And THEN
They’d do something he liked least of all!
Every fan down in City-ville, the tall and the small,
Would stand close together, with Metsmas bells ringing.
They’d stand hand-in-hand. And the fans would start Cheering!

They’d cheer! And they’d cheer!
AND they’d CHEER! CHEER! CHEER! CHEER!
And the more the Wilpon thought the more he raised price of beer
The more the Wilpon thought, “I must stop those sick queers!
“Why for over 12 years I’ve put up with it now!
I MUST stop Metsmas from coming!
…But HOW?”

Then he got an idea!
An awful idea!
THE WILPON
GOT A WONDERFUL, AWFUL IDEA!

“I know just what to do!” The Wilpon Laughed in his throat.
And he made a quick Santy Claus hat and a coat.
And he chuckled, and clucked, “What a great Wilpon trick!
“With this coat and this hat, I’ll look just like Saint Nick!”

“All I need is a reindeer…”
The Wilpon looked around.
But since reindeer are scarce, there was none to be found.
Did that stop the old Wilpon…?
No! The Wilpon simply said,
“If I can’t find a reindeer, I’ll make one instead!”
So he called his son Jeff. Then he took some red thread
And he tied a big horn on top of his head.

THEN
He loaded some bags
And filled them with Madeoff money
On a ramshakle sleigh
And he hitched up old Jeffy.

Then the Wilpon said, “Giddyap!”
And the sleigh started down
Toward the homes where the Fans
Lay a-snooze in their town.

All their windows were dark. Quiet snow filled the air.
All the fans were all dreaming of championships without care
When he came to the first house in the square.
“This is stop number one,” The old Wilpon Claus hissed
And he climbed to the roof, empty bags in his fist.

Then he slid down the chimney. He weighed a ton.
But if Santa could do it, then so could the Wilpon.
He got stuck only once, for an hour or two.
Then he stuck his head out of the fireplace flue
Where the little Who stockings all hung in a row.
“These Mets stockings,” he grinned, “are the first things to go!”

Then he slithered and slunk, with a smile most unpleasant,
Around the whole room, and he took every present!
Reyes! And Beltran! Niese! Wright!
Ike Davis! The pitchers! Even Duda in Right!
And he stuffed them in bags. Then the Wilpon, very nimbly,
Stuffed all the bags, one by one, up the chimney!

Then he slunk to the icebox. He earned the Fans’ ire!
He took the Shake Shacks! He took Keith’s Mex Burger!
He cleaned out that icebox quick; in a jiffy.
Why, that Wilpon even took the Fans R A Dickey!

Then he stuffed all the food up the chimney with glee.
“And NOW!” grinned the Wilpon, “I will stuff up the tree!”

And the Wilpon grabbed the tree, and he started to shove
When he heard a small sound like the coo of a dove.
He turned around fast, and he saw a small Fan!
Little Cindy Beartran, who was not more than two.

The Wilpon had been caught by this little Who daughter
Who’d got out of bed for a cup of cold water.
She stared at the Wilpon and said, “Santy Claus, why,
“Why are you taking our Metsmas tree? WHY?”

But, you know, that old Wilpon was so smart and so slick
Although he couldn’t run a franchise worth a dick!
“Why, my sweet little tot,” the fake Santy Claus lied,
“There’s a light on this tree that won’t light on one side.
“So I’m taking it home to my workshop, my dear.
“I’ll fix it up there. Then I’ll bring it back here.”

And his fib fooled the child. Then he patted her head
And he attempted to sell her a $20 million share.
And when Cindy-Beartran Who went to bed with her cup,
HE went to the chimney and stuffed the tree up!

Then the last thing he took
Was the log for their fire.
Then he went up the chimney himself, what a cheap old liar.
On their walls he left nothing but hooks, and some Mets Fliers.

And the one speck of food
The he left in the house
Was a crumb that was even too small for a mouse.

Then
He did the same thing
To the other Fans’ houses

Adding fuel
to the fire
For the other Fans’ causes!

It was quarter past dawn…
All the Fans, still a-bed
All the Fans, still a-snooze
When he packed up his sled,
Packed it up with their pitcher! The catchers! The gamers!
The hitters! And the defenders! The coaches! The players!

Three thousand feet up! Up the side of Mount Flushing,
He rode to the tiptop to dump it!
“Poo-poo for the Fans!” he was wilpon-ish-ly humming.
“They’re finding out now that no Metsmas is coming!
“They’re just waking up! I know just what they’ll do!
“Their mouths will hang open a minute or two
“Then all the fans down in City-ville will all cry BOO-HOO!”

“That’s a noise,” grinned the Wilpon,
“That I simply must hear!”
So he paused. And the Wilpon put a hand to his ear.
And he did hear a sound rising over the snow.
It started in low. Then it started to grow…

But the sound wasn’t sad!
Why, this sound sounded merry!
It couldn’t be so!
But it WAS merry! VERY!

He stared down at City-ville!
The Wilpon popped his eyes!
Then he shook!
What he saw was a shocking surprise!

Every Lawyer down in City-ville, the tall and the small
Were litigating, They were after the payers after all!
He HADN’T stopped Metsmas from coming!
IT CAME!
But this time the lawyers said, it won’t be the same!

And the Wilpon, with his wilpon-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?
They came not for hitters! They came not for pitchers!
“They didn’t even come for my butt scratchas!”
And he puzzled three hours, `till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Wilpon thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe money can’t,” he thought, “just come from a Clubhouse store.
“Maybe next Metsmas…perhaps.. I won’t have any more!”

And what happened then…?
Well…in City-ville they say
That the Wilpon’s small wallet
Shrank three sizes that day!

And the minute his wallet started feeling more tight,
He whizzed his bladder’s load throughout the bright morning light
And he borrowed money from Bud, and from banks he did resort
And he…

…HE HIMSELF…!
The Wilpon knew his time was short!

—

Merry Xmas to all
Happy Hannukah too
To all Mets fans, Christian, Atheist, Muslim, Jew.

Take light from this parody this holiday season
but know a more joyous one is soon to harken

The Wilton story is tragic, Saul Kats is too
while we make light, remember they’re human too

They made mistakes and are paying, with us along for the ride
the Mets may not be solvent, but they may take it in stride

In time past with his expectations
the results ended with us in deflation

Perhaps this year the opposite will be true
we expect so little from our orange and blue

perhaps a change is coming, then again perhaps not
what’s on the field matter most, so let’s see our lot

take joy one and all, and maybe you can conceive
that tomorrow is a mystery, YA GOTTA BELIEVE!

MERRY METSMAS!

from Robert Z & the entire KinersKorner.com gang

Filed under: Robert Z

Do They Know It’s Christmas?

By Taryn “The Coop” Cooper

Credit to Sharon Chapman

Being a season ticket holder with the Mets has its “perks.”  I can get club access no matter where I sit in the park.  I can get a discount on parking (if I only had a car and didn’t prefer taking mass transit there anyway).  I can get a personalized jersey.  I take CitiField tours for free.  Last year, I was able to take the field with a player, and Scott Hairston was chosen for me.  I took the field for batting practice before a game.  I know some people who TOOK batting practice with some of them.  I’ve had meals with players and Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins in the same room.  I could even win things like a luxury box game with Tom Seaver and his vintage wines, or a seat the Mets Welcome Home Dinner. I’m sure if I ask, I can get things like special access at spring training games.

 

Even by just going to games, I have things like access to Mr. Met at the Kiddie Field area!

Hubby, me and Mr. Met on our anniversary this year

And if I spend $20 million for a minority share, I don’t get much more than that.

I knew when this story with the NY Times hit the wires last night, mountains would made of molehills.  In a way too, the Mets kind of have a bullseye target on them for anything they do.  In a sense, with this whole minority purchase auction that is going on, from David Einhorn to backing out of that deal to getting Yankee-like “silent investors” (whom I pretty sure don’t have personalized business cards from Office Depot that say “Owner” on them), it’s hard not to scrutinize.  We can either say “they’re not getting the interest in the deal” that Jeff Wilpon is so certain there is demand for, or for all we know this is par for the course for these types of investors.

Call me crazy though, if I’m throwing $20 million into a black hole, I’m sure it’s not going to be so I can get a picture with Mr. Met or take batting practice with the team I am invested in.  No, if I’m an investor, I want a RETURN ON MY INVESTMENT, and not to bail out a bunch of idiotic rich dudes who got fleeced by a Ponzi scheme.

The reason WHY the Sterling consortium holds the Mets is simple: they want to be cool.  His whole life, Fred Wilpon has been cool by proxy.  His best friend growing was some dude named Sandy Koufax who played for the “neighborhood” team and became a Hall of Fame pitcher.  He was a real estate investor who was fortunate enough to have a successful enterprise with his business partner and brother-in-law.  He could have stopped there, but then he got involved as one of these minority investors in the new neighborhood baseball team, the Mets.  Wilpon had the worst syndrome of it all though: he started to believe his own hype.   He truly believes he IS the Mets.

But here’s the thing, okay: Fred Wilpon his entire life has tried to remain “cool,” so by being the majority owner of the team and keeping it in the family, he’s the coolest kid of them all.

I am not an investor nor do I have $20 million lying around.  What I do know is that if I did have access to this, I wouldn’t want to do this to be “cool.”  And I’d certainly want a few more “perks” than what a schmoe season ticket holder will get by spending $5000 a year.  Big difference in amount of zeroes there, right?

The date on the calendar may be December 21, but leave it to Mets news to provide us a little Christmas Eve-Eve-Eve-Eve festivities by having this story leak to the public.  Let’s be fair: the Mets will only allow news that they think makes them look favorable, only to see it blow up in their face.  Again, I have no idea who minority investors are for other teams, nor do I care.  I only want to know how it effects my team.  Seriously, are they going on a PR campaign to say “You TOO can have a Shake Shack Burger* with Mr. Met!”

*That you’ll be paying for

So when I first read the NY Times article, I thought it was satire.  Was Richard Sandomir really a journalist disguised as Jonathan Swift?

Is this who is writing about the Mets these days?

I just thought to myself, “Why on earth is this news?”  I guess I wasn’t the only one.  The Christmas-Eve-Eve-Eve-Eve festivities have come in the form of Twitter and instant gratification type of ideas called #metsminorityownerperks.  Some of the favorites have been by our own Hemingway of the Mets world, Greg Prince, who said “If you misspell ‘Horwitz’ as ‘Horowitz’ Jay promises to spell it your way #metsminorityownerperks,” or “You’re the answer to Acela trivia, you present the prize, you’re the recipient, you must use by 5th inning  #metsminorityownerperks.”  Of course, Greg regales us over at his site Faith and Fear in Flushing with his own satirical piece Mets Fan Club For Minority Owners.

Rusty Jr from Real Dirty Mets had “Mets trainer Ray Ramirez will personally diagnose your medically related symptoms #metsminorityownerperks.”   Steve Keane from Kranepool Society: “Lawn care tips from recently retired Mets head groundskeeper Pete Flynn #metsminorityownerperks.”  Our own Rob Z: “Attend Ritual Book Burning of Howard Megdal’s “Wilpon’s Follies” at Wilpon Estate. (Note: Just Deleting File) #metsminorityownerperks.” From Brad J @BlueandOrange: “Make unlimited dugout to dugout calls from the bullpen phone. #metsminorityownerperks.”

Some of the best reactions have been on Facebook, such as Rob Z who said it was like a “diamond club perk.”  Poster YaGottaBelieve says, “$20 Million Can Buy Quality Time With Mr. Met???? It’s like they’re offering a free balloon animal with every purchase. Good GRIEF just sell it ALL already.” Metscellaneous Dee? “The only thing they’re perking is bad cup of coffee.”  Lastly, Gal for all Seasons (aka, me) says “They can’t afford me,” to concerned fan Senor Solly when he suggests that Coop should be GM.

So yes, we’re four days away from Christmas, but leave it to the Mets to give us something to laugh about and make us even closer as a tight-knit community of fans.  We’ve all survived a lot of things together, and it’s this deep in the trenches humor that has allowed me to stay over the years, even when stupid stuff like this hits the wires.

Filed under: Taryn "Coop" Cooper, Fred Wilpon, Mets 2012, Sterling Equities, Jeff Wilpon, Saul Katz, Mets Perks, Amazin Perks, July at Christmas

Mark It “9″, Duda

By Taryn “The Coop” Cooper
Terry Collins has let it be known that he intends to start Lucas Duda as his right fielder in 2012.  Well, it’s not like he has much of a choice these days!  Duda had some big shoes to fill when Carlos Beltran left in a trade at the deadline.

Most of all, fans took the Duda, though.  We liked his name, and the play on Big Lebowski field day we’d have every time his name was mentioned.  Twitter would blow up like a Lebowski Fest when he did something good.  “The Duda Abides,” among others.  Heck, even my title here is a nod to the cult-favorite movie.

What wasn’t to like about Lucas Duda, the 6’4″ blond California kid?  He just LOOKS like a “Duda,” right?  And my philosophy on Mets fans is that if we’re gonna lose, we may as well do it with the young guys.  Young guys who are home grown and we can get behind.  Unless they’ve overstayed their welcome and we eventually turn on them.  Like Bobby Jones or David Wright, underrated Mets in their own right.

But what happens when we overrate our own players?  Steve Keane from Kranepool Society has said this several times and even said it on our podcast a few weeks ago.  I can pretty much put up a dartboard and put any names of Mets whose bodies have littered the Roosevelt Avenue of Broken Dreams.  See: Milledge, Lastings or Jefferies, Gregg.  Duda, to me, is a low-risk/high-reward kind of guy, in that he’ll give you plate production and decent fielding.

When Richie S detailed our mid-winter board meetings (essentially, Monday Morning GM-ing), he found himself to be in the minority about The Duda.   From his board meeting minutes, he transcribes: “Is he a RF or trade bait? I was surprised at how many want to give Lucas a shot in RF. I want to give Lucas a shot to be what I think he is, a DH. I say use him in a package to get a RF who can lead off. I was out voted.”

As I said during our many diatribes about the Mets Saturday evening, I was prepared for losing Jose Reyes, since I had all season to prepare for it.  Now, that doesn’t mean I was happy about losing him, but it was what it was, and it was easier for me to move on.  Trading someone like Ike Davis or Jon Niese (though it seems like the Mets are asking for the moon for them, which is the RIGHT thing to do) would make me more upset AT THIS TIME because a) I wasn’t prepared for it and b) I like those two players specifically.  Also because I wasn’t prepared for it, plus liking them.  That would not make for a happy Coop.

Yet, as Richie says, use him in a package, I can get behind that.  I actually like Duda, and possibly my feelings about him being the starting right fielder for the Mets in 2012 doesn’t bother me that much.  I mean, someone Sandy Alderson should be trading (Daniel Murphy, whom I also love) is scheduled to be the starting second baseman.  I’ve detailed why I think defense is schmefense, but Murphy would be a quintessential DH.  Duda doesn’t strike me as such.  However, as Richie once said to me at a game, Duda as a right fielder “Scares the beejeezus out of me.”

I never forgot about that.  I never felt strongly about Duda either way which means either I think we can do better or there is no one else I’d rather have (translation: the devil you know, etc etc).  Yet, I can sympathize with Richie’s stance on being in the minority on something.  The non-vocal minority was out there about trading Angel Pagan prior to the 2011, and I was one of them.  People told me I crazy, I was nuts, I didn’t know what I was talking about.  Believe me, I realized that a young-ish dude who was under team control and cheap was a better option that most at the position he played.  But it was just that: he had a career year and under team control.  Trade his ass when his stock is high!!  I guess Sandy Alderson might have seen it that way too: under team control, and maximizing his value.  He took a risk, it didn’t work out.  But I had the last laugh when we got a warm body for him.

That’s how Richie is about Duda right now.  And I can’t say I blame him, and that it doesn’t give me pause that maybe he’s someone that we can sort of trade “up” for, kind of like Pagan this off-season.  True, the crown jewel of the Pagan deal with Ramon Ramirez, but a potential every day player (till Kirk Nieuwenhuis arrives) came in the form of Andres Torres.

For now, we’ll be marking Duda in at “9″ for every day, but I don’t think it would hurt Alderson to look into seeing what the market is for a young studly DH for an American League team who can be fleeced for young pitching.  As we all pretty much agreed on, trading Jon Niese would be a bad idea for a young lefty whose best years are presumably ahead of him (and cheap and young and under control and etc).  Duda-rino is a guy you shop around, at least for the sake of shoring up weaknesses on the team, which there is no shortage of on this team.

Hop to it, Sandy.

Filed under: Taryn "Coop" Cooper, Big Lebowski, daniel murphy, Jon Niese, kranepool society, Lucas Duda, Mets 2012, random mets thoughts, RF, Sandy Alderson, Terry Collins

Join the Podcast Krew at 8 pm Tonight!

Join the Kiner’s Korner Kast of Kharacters at 8 pm EST tonight for some out of the box thinking, fun times and overall nutty Mets thoughts.  Join us in the chat room and who knows…we may accept some callers at some point, who knows?

Always expect the unexpected with the Kult of Mets Personalities…see you then!

Filed under: Kiner's Korner Podcast, Taryn "Coop" Cooper, kiners korner podcast, kult of mets personalities, Kult of Mets Personalities Podcast, Mets 2011 Offseason

Bridge to Nowhere

By Taryn “The Coop” Cooper

I feel the need to address the Mets recent situation and most specifically the financials of this team.  This team is as close to being a “public trust” as it could be, in that we as fans and consumers put money into it and take to forums such as this to air our grievances and think we can control the destiny of our team.  Yet at the same time, because they are owned by a private equity entity (The Sterling Equities group) and realistically, the team does not have to disclose it’s financials, a lot of information that’s based on what the public can see (like corporate bonds that are filed with the SEC) and some things are leaked out in the media, it’s a lot of connecting the dots that’s going on, and we’re left to figure out what’s going on by speculation based on the information we’re given.  There’s a little push and pull here.

There are a few variables to the equation I want to bring up before addressing the news that the Sterling ownership group has taken out yet another loan, this time a bridge facility from an actual financial institution Bank of America, when they haven’t paid their $25 million loan from MLB granted by Bud Selig on behalf of all the MLB team owners.  (That was long).  One is the payroll restrictions that clearly Sandy Alderson has imposed on the team for the time being (now in the neighborhood of $95-$100 million).  Two is this great schematic that Amazin Avenue has brought up yesterday, with two glaring eyesores in Johan Santana and Jason Bay in the current payroll.  Yowch.

A few things that jumped into my head as the loan news hit.  One is that I think it’s great that Selig thinks that the Mets will have no problem paying the $25 million loan they have taken out. Has he asked the other MLB owners about this? Are they concerned about it?  The other is that if Bank of America is granting a loan — granted, a bridge loan which typically isn’t the best type of loan to take out due to higher interest rates and quicker turn-around for payment times (the only place I have found a “due date” for this loan is March, according to Howard Megdal’s piece today).  Bridge loans can be good for cash-strapped organizations that need a “bridge” to cover the gaps in payroll or operating expenses or whatever.

It’s hard for me to say that it doesn’t “look good” for the Mets though because a financial institution (that is reluctant to dole out money in this day and age) extended them a loan.  They could be paying their bills for the most part, but right now it’s robbing Peter to pay Paul, the type of money they’re getting involved with.

"I'm the Barber of Seville...Figaro! Figaro!"

Jeff Wilpon may have told us a few months ago that their minority investor process was “none of our business” but it could be going along okay for all we know.  To be clear, I could personally give a rat’s ass who is a 1% owner in the Mets, let alone the 25-1% pieces they seem to want to sell (at least that’s how it’s being pitched for now).  But I do want to know if someone like a David Einhorn was coming in at 25% total.  That stuff interests me because it’s one guy.  The Wilpons knew, though, somehow Einhorn wanted to sweep in if they couldn’t pay their bills.  Until checks start bouncing and players aren’t getting paid, we have nothing to worry about…well, let me rephrase that.  The Sterling ownership group has nothing to worry about.  We know that for the time being, we’re stuck with these idiots running our team into the ground.

“I don’t have any concerns about the Mets, as I’ve told you before,” Selig said during a World Series news conference in October. “They are working on an alternative financing plan and they seem to be very encouraged, and I’m encouraged. I do have a lot of worries today, but frankly, the Mets are not one of them.”

An “Alternative Financing Plan” (the emphasis is mine, above).  Isn’t that what got the Mets into trouble in the first place? From Bobby Bonilla’s annuity pay-out after he left the team, from using fictitious profits from being involved with Bernie Madoff all those years to buy out Nelson Doubleday in 2002, to using MLB as their personal piggy bank, isn’t “alternative financing” or “financial voodoo” more aptly, what the Wilpons are all about? No, this should not surprise us because like many things in their lives, the Wilpon/Katz consortium has once again tried to help a little too much.  Help themselves, that is.

So let’s break this mofo down.  The numbers that the ownership group owes, on paper that we know of at least, consist of this new $40 million bridge loan, plus an overdue $25 million loan from MLB (which was also supposed to tie them over, clearly not enough).  Concurrently, their advisors at Allen & Company are running an auction for several stakes of the team for “minority investors” so they don’t have to worry about sharks coming in and feasting at the sight of blood in the water for the owners.  Then at the same time, as Megdal stated on the Happy Recap podcast two nights ago, the ownership group has a $430 million debt due against the team and $450 million due against SNY, total of $880 million due by 2015.  Did I mention they owe $600 million against the stadium?  Throw away the Madoff decision, which hasn’t even been figured in but actually may work out to Wilpon/Katz favor (since this Irving Picard dude lost his getting a billion out of them suit), but we have no idea what legal fees are being owed in conjunction with that.  Theoretically though, that could come out of the Sterling Equities coffer, not just the Mets, since that’s who the lawsuit is against.

Now, to play devil’s advocate here…the Wilpon/Katz consortium is incredibly visible because of their stature in a large market and as owners of a baseball team.  A few things have come to mind in this so-called witch hunt (for lack of a better term) of finding out how badly the Mets ownership group truly is.  As an example, I know that the Yankees operate in the red and they are seen as a “profitable” team.  Truly profitable teams are also seen as the smaller markets because the owners just pocket the revenue sharing and don’t realistically go to improve the team.  Sadly, every time the Mets team has tried to invest into doing better, it’s failed miserably.  This was also way before the Madoff news ever hit.

But I don’t think it’s an unrealistic question to see how many other teams operate like the Mets do, taking out loans but don’t live in a fishbowl where fans are disgruntled and want to know the why of things?  I know that $880 million on top of $600 million on top of $65 million that we KNOW of doesn’t look good.  But comparatively to say, the Los Angeles Dodgers who are now under bankruptcy, how was their debt strategy?  Is it comparable?  Or are the Mets ownership team a lot more worse-off?  I can say this: many teams may take out muni bonds to finance a stadium build…but the Mets financed it by that and by thinking their fictitious profits would continue to sustain them.

Quite frankly, I think that Selig being an enabler for this bad behavior is disgusting.  It was evident he had an axe to grind with Frank McCourt and disallowing him from trying to better the franchise with a potential saving deal with FOX.  The New York National League franchise is too big to fail, in his eyes, and doesn’t want panic in the streets.  Clearly, this man does not read Twitter.

Right now, the Mets are in limbo as long as this ownership is allowed to keep on keepin’ on.  Say what you want, but they owe a lot of money, but are not entirely cashed-in as they are being kept afloat by the powers that be.  After all, they are still paying their bills for what it’s worth and no paychecks are bouncing (yet, anyway).  We might see more unfold in March, but for the time being they are being kept afloat.

ALL IS WELL!!!!!!!

Yet at the same time, they are not able to sink more money into making this a winning team.  This is large market team, with lots of potential streams of revenue that were supposed to be depended on, yet are not to be relied on. Alderson may have thought he had more wiggle room for the payroll but is obviously the front-and-center guy taking questions from the media about the team’s operating expenses.  He’s not about to throw ownership and his bosses under the bus but the reality is, he’s being kept from making moves that he needs to make.  Such as: getting a backup catcher.  A backup catcher would break the proverbial bank he has in mind for the team’s shoestring budget.  A flippin’ backup catcher!

So what does this all mean?  At the root of it all, we’ve got an ownership group that’s not completely broke but not wealthy either.  They claim to “love” the team, but if they loved it so much they’d find a way to make it successful again.  Putting Sandy Alderson and his FEMA Dream Team analysts on the job is one way (but they were forced by the hand of Selig to do at least that).  Yet, things that could be construed as being a potential future star, such as Jon Niese, may need to be put on auction block to get more prospects.  Or Ike Davis’ name was floated around.  We can argue till we’re blue in the face about who is untouchable, but the reality is, if Ike Davis is traded, they better be in serious talks with Prince Fielder to play first base at CitiField!!  My point is, Jon Niese and Ike Davis are the types of players you build around.  We can argue about the long-term effects of Jose Reyes playing for the Mets and the benefits of a long-term contract for him.  Yet there is never anything wrong about building around young cheap players who are under team control for awhile.

I’m tired of trying to look at this from every angle because quite honestly, it’s exhausting and all it’s done is create infighting amongst the Twitterati.  I know the team is not broke.  But things are not looking up right now, from a fan’s stand point.  Not right this very minute.  Doesn’t mean we can’t be excited about the long-term future of the team because there is an adult in charge of the team operations at least.  Yet, I won’t shed any tears if the current ownership group is forced out by whatever measures.

Filed under: Taryn "Coop" Cooper, Sandy Alderson, Ike Davis, New York Mets, Fred Wilpon, bud selig, Jon Niese, Mets 2012, Sterling Equities, Jeff Wilpon, Saul Katz, Howard Megdal, Bernie Madoff, Irving Picard

Mega Podcast 8PM

We will discuss the state of the New York Mets beginning at 8PM on the Kult of Mets Personalities Podcast  http://bit.ly/uNtcRa

Tonight we are joined by Mike Silva and Steve Keane, and of course, the entire Kult.  Tune in at 8!

Filed under: Kiner's Korner Podcast, Matthew Fazelpoor

The Show You Won’t Want To Miss

After a brief hiatus, The Kult of Mets Personalities is BACK for a jam-packed 1 1/2 hour show tonight (Tues Dec 6) at 8 pm EST!!!

Surprisingly we’re at a loss for topics…KIDDING.  We have tons of fodder, plus we’re being joined by Steve Keane from Kranepool Society and Mike Silva from NY Baseball Digest.  If you know Steve the way WE know Steve…you know then that anytime he rants against the ownership, it’s a version of Mets pornography!

Seriously, join us at 8 pm in the chat room and if we have time, we may be able to accept a few phone calls.  MAYBE.

If there was a show ever to not miss, this would be it.  Talk to you then!

Filed under: Kiner's Korner Podcast, Taryn "Coop" Cooper, Fred Wilpon, Hot Stove 2012, Jose Reyes, kiners korner podcast, Kult of Mets Personalities Podcast, Mets 2012, podcast, Sandy Alderson

How Soon Is Now?

By Taryn “the Coop” Cooper

“You shut your mouth

how can you say

I go about things the wrong way?”

~ Morrissey/The Smiths,

“How Soon Is Now?”

I was a guest on Paul Francis Sullivan’s show on Seamheads radio show, What’s on Second/Sully Baseball, last night, discussing the state of affairs with the Mets and baseball, there was even some Red Sox and 1986 Mets porn thrown in there as well.  (I appear about 60 minutes into the clip)

Sully is a Red Sox fan, but is a keen observer of baseball in general.  He even appeared in the Red Sox documentary on HBO a few years ago called “Reverse the Curse of the Bambino” (and it’s funny because I mostly quoted him and Denis Leary afterwards on the history of the Red Sox, and this was before he and I were ever friends), but he also writes for Baseball Digest on the Dodgers since he now lives in California.

In any case, we talked ad nauseum about the state of affairs with the Mets.  I’ve come to the conclusion that 2006 was the aberration, the blip on the radar, for the New York Mets franchise, and was almost an accident that caused the state of affairs to be all mussed up today.  Well, that and the state of finances for the Wilpon/Katz consortium and refusing the acknowledge that they need to sell the team.  It’s one thing if they are not bankrupted; it’s totally another if they are not cash-flow friendly enough to make this team better.  If their resources are dwindling that much, they need to sell the team if they cannot improve upon it.  Our friend from Real Dirty Mets, Rusty Jr, makes a plea for them to sell the team today that is on the money.  Read it.

Anyway, as Sully and I discussed, he made a keen observation about Mets fans.  He said that after 2009, the Mets should have been blown up.  I said it at the time, but people thought I was crazy.  Yet, having the mentality of “we’re one or two players away from it all clicking” is a bad one to have, in my opinion.  As Sully said, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale in his prime aren’t coming back to that.  But I distinctly remember just saying back up the flatbed to the outfield of CitiField and get everyone on, with Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez leading the way.  Doesn’t seem too crazy now, right?

Here’s the thing: it’s one thing to lose with overpaid and broken down veterans.  It’s another to exploit the farm system and lose with the young guys.  I don’t think this is a Mets-fan specific attitude, but it’s certainly one that I can identify with, is that we’d rather lose with the young guys around.  Look at the year 2003, when Jose Reyes was brought up to placate the fan base during the dark days.  Remember when Jeromy Burnitz and Roberto Alomar were supposed to be the saviors of the team, only to be sold in a fire sale to promote the young talent?  It didn’t matter that team was gawd-awful.  We had something to look forward to: Jose Reyes and little buddy David Wright.

So what was the reluctance to losing with the young guys rather than letting go of the dead weight?  I’m not saying we needed to trade Reyes or anything like that…but would it have been so bad to lose with Justin Turner, Josh Thole or Lucas Duda, as opposed to Carlos Beltran, Jason Bay or Luis Castillo?  Losing is losing, but I feel like we might have been more receptive to it if we could see the talent in front of us and seeing them click together.

A song that helped define a generation of teen angst was The Smiths “How Soon Is Now?”  They never ask that question in the song, but rather try to give an answer.  After all, we’re just souls floating around looking for answers to whatever our belief system is.  Yet, the question could apply to the Mets now.  I feel kind of bad for Sandy Alderson because his bosses keep pulling the rug out from underneath him when he thinks he might have X amount of money to spend, it’s really X-Y.   From his body language and even tone of voice on Sunday night, it was evident to me that he knew letting Reyes walk was a bad idea, but what could he do?  On one hand, I agree that six years is too much right now.  On the other, if he had signed a 10-year deal back in 2006, he’d still be under control for about the same amount of time.  So this is a problem of poor planning.  Now, because of circumstances out of his control, Alderson is once relegated to dumpster diving while the Wilpons eat filet mignon in their luxury box.

At the root of it now, we hear about all this talent clogging up the lower rungs of the minors, but AA and AAA are scarce.  Of course one day the bottom rungs will be moving up the ladder and they’ll be Mets some day.  I mean, that’s the way it’s going right now.  For the immediate though, the “now” means we’ll be choosing to lose with the young guys as opposed to veterans.  I guess that might be a good thing.  Once upon a time, the Mets lost with guys like Mookie Wilson and Hubie Brooks who became fan favorites, while the team grew into a late-80s powerhouse.  We lost with the young guys then, but looked forward to guys like Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden coming up one day.  Now, we have to wait for Reese Havens, Matt Den Dekker, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Zach Wheeler and Matt Harvey to someday make their mark, and hopefully not be lovable losers.  But how soon?  Who knows.  They’ll be ready when they’re ready, and it will be time for us to look forward to something.

Filed under: Taryn "Coop" Cooper, David Wright, Fred Wilpon, Jose Reyes, Mets 2012, Sandy Alderson

Aim High

By Taryn “The Coop” Cooper

In a year where the Mets finished in fourth place, having the Nationals of all teams ahead of them in NL East standings, their dynamic shortstop Jose Reyes (who won a batting title in his last year with the team) has gone on to greener pastures…no literally, green as in money, years and the lush green of Miami, Florida…and took his talents to South Beach last night.

Can anyone blame Reyes for taking the YEARS and run? Yes, I said “years.”  Because I don’t think this about money.  We all knew the Mets wouldn’t go over five years, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less.  If you want a well-rounded view of the “blame game” in Flushing, check out Adam Rubin’s piece on ESPN from today.

Jose Reyes was my favorite player in a long time for the Mets.  I try not to get too attached to players because I understand the dynamics of baseball as a business, and that there are rarely any franchise players (especially the Mets).  But it was hard to NOT like Reyes.  And because the other teams hated him, I loved it even more.

At the end of it all, if the Mets can finish in fourth place with Reyes around, they can certainly finish in fourth place without him.  If you think about it, if the Mets continue on this downward spiral, wouldn’t the cries be heard around the world about how Reyes’ contract is hindering their abilities to sign or improve elsewhere?  Oh and that the Nationals and Marlins are finishing ahead of them in the standings.

No one is more disappointed with how the Mets have been playing since basically 2007 than I am.  If you think about how great 2006 was from a fans perspective, be sure to read our blolleague Ed Leyro’s piece at Studious Metsimus on where the 2006 team is now.  It will put into perspective just how flawed this team really is and has been.

Sadly, one man does not a team make.  That doesn’t make this particular situation any less sad.  Is it Midnight Massacre worthy? No.  We’ve been at least prepared for this one for awhile.  As I told our friend Wooo on Twitter last night, Tom Seaver = Franchise, Jose Reyes = Very very very very very very good player.

We’ve overcome a lot as fans…we’ll get over this one.  Yet, the reality is, this team is going to be poorly operated for a very long time.  I was watching highlight reels of Jose Reyes sliding into second, and it just brought back so much of the joy I was able to feel while watching this team since he was a tadpole.

This will take awhile, but it’ll happen.  Eventually. I suppose.

Till then, we’ll be prepared to aim high.  ‘Cause it can’t get much lower than this right now.

Filed under: Taryn "Coop" Cooper, Jose Reyes, Mets 2012, Sandy Alderson

How Much Of This Is on Reyes?

By Taryn “The Coop” Cooper

Sandy Alderson has been the Mets general manager for one year now.  His first year with the team was a lot of a wait-and-see approach, sprinkled in with waiting out some bad contracts to either expire (Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo) or dump (Carlos Beltran, Francisco Rodriguez).  Time will tell what happens with Zach Wheeler, the return on investment for trading Carlos Beltran to the San Francisco Giants, or his staff’s first draft year.

Mostly, 20/20 hindsight is a hell of a thing.  Alderson was unfortunately in a damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don’t situation coming in, especially at the beginning.  While it was evident that Mike Pelfrey might have been better off traded out of the NL East after his overperformance in 2010, or Angel Pagan kept around to continuously brainwash the masses into thinking he’s any sorts of good, Alderson could have traded these guys at the peak of their market and heard the wrath of fans…or risk keeping them around and deplete any kind of value they could get in return.  The latter, of course, is what happened.

What I like to say about this is that we want the best of both worlds: keep around our favorite prospects while getting the best free agents on the market.  Yet, while they can coexist but sometimes you have to sacrifice one for the other.  This isn’t just Mets fan specific, but every fan I suppose. One can argue till they’re blue in the face about the Mets though, about being a big market team which means they should spend at all costs, which to me is a bunch of crap because they’ve DONE that.  Because of reckless spending without a plan, we have the crap cake we’ve been chomping at for the past three seasons, possibly more if you can include how disappointing 2007 and 2008 were.

Now, Alderson had a huge task to basically “re-do” the New York Mets, but throw in the mix at the beginning the potential loss of fan favorite Jose Reyes to free agency after the 2011 season finishes and it’s an even more unenviable task.  There will be some in the camp who believe that Alderson should have negotiated with Reyes prior to spring training or the Reyes-imposed deadline of before Opening Day.  I will admit to being one of them.  For a front office that is supposed to be comprised of the smartest guys in the room, and be so conscious of costs, the best time to negotiate an extension with Reyes would have been prior to April.  He’d been injury-marred for a few seasons, having missed most of 2009 as well.  The flip side to that is with the Carl Crawford and Jayson Werth’s contracts that were given out like Skittles, Reyes had absolutely no incentive to even talk an extension for 3-4 years because all he had to do was play well in 2011.

But see, therein lies my issue with this whole shenanigans.  Douchecanoe Deluxe Dino Costa “reported” (e.g. “stirred up shit” because he wanted to) a few weeks ago that Reyes was all but signing with the Marlins.  Funny, I haven’t seen a press conference yet.  For Reyes’ agents who only vocalize anything about their client is when they say he wants to “shop around,” something struck me funny that he would sign immediately with the first team that offered him a contract, ANY contract.  But also to give the Mets the right of first refusal.

And isn’t it funny that with Alderson’s crew, there’s something else going on: leaks are very contained now, and if anything is leaked, it’s very controlled. You know why?  Because competent people are actually running things now.

Which leads me to this.  Last night, a bit of a kerfuffle occurred because during the day, Adam Rubin of ESPN had reported that Alderson said that he only knows what’s going on with Reyes “in the headlines.”  Which led to an uproar on Twitter and other portals of social media, about how Alderson isn’t trying to sign Reyes and he sucks and he’s awful and he’s playing “Moneyball” now.

You know what we don’t hear, though?  Is how much of this negotiation or lack thereof is on Jose Reyes and his agents.

Think about it.  All we knew at the beginning of the season is that Reyes would have liked to negotiate prior to the start of the season.  Another dude did that too: Albert Pujols in St. Louis.  His team went on to win the World Series…a feat that no one predicted at the beginning of the season.  Pujols has every incentive to stay with his team now.  The only thing that would keep him from doing so would be money or perceived disrespect. Does anyone think that Pujols is going to sign anywhere else?  Probably not. (And Pujols was also offered a contract by the Marlins)

This leads me here.  Jose Reyes IS the Mets.  He has been for several years.  Yet, the Mets are in a precarious position.  They had one of the highest payrolls in baseball with nothing to show for it.  The farm system is in neglect and bottom-heavy for now, while there are still bad contracts that may handicap the team (namely Jason Bay and Johan Santana) short-term.  Sadly, Reyes has become a luxury and not a necessity.  Don’t get me wrong: I love Jose Reyes.  I will miss him if he goes.  The team hasn’t won anything with him, that also means they can lose without him too.

Yet, no one has brought up the other side of the equation: sure, Alderson may say all he knows is what he reads…but where is Reyes and his people in this mix?  If they desperately wanted to either a) stay in New York, they’d be planting more stories or b) his agents could also conversely put negative stories there to make it seem like it wasn’t their fault.  Either way, no one talks about what Reyes might be thinking.  He may say he wants to stay in New York, but if someone blows him out of the water, he’s not going to say no to that too.  And we all know there is a cap to even Jose Reyes, despite what the lunatic fringe may try to convince you of.

When Alderson traded Beltran, there were those of us upset because Beltran was no longer a Met (I was one of them), those who were ambivalent or those who felt that the Mets front office gave up too early on the season, that they still had a “chance” to somehow win.  Yet no one ever brought up that Beltran, in his tenure with the Mets, was demonized by fans, media and even his own team alike for certain perceived behaviors.  It wouldn’t be the first time this team’s front office or local media tried to run a superstar out of town.  Yet, no one brought up that perhaps behind the scenes, Beltran and Alderson may have had a chit-chat, and Beltran may have green-lighted any deal do that he could wash away the negativity that has plagued him since signing with the team in 2005.  The Mets were in no position to do so, especially since they owed him a lot of money and whoever picked him up would not be able to offer arbitration and get their draft picks.  But they did and Beltran went gently in this good night.

What’s to say that Reyes might not be interested in talking to the Mets because in his mind, he’s moved on, or that his agents want him to negotiate with the Mets after they’ve shopped him around?  The fact is no one knows and I think that’s a good thing.  I’ve had nothing to really write about this offseason because all the stories have been bland.  And I swore I wouldn’t write anything else on Reyes until SOMETHING happened.  But really, I had to address the insanity, because it’s only going to get crazier until something happens.  But I’ll make my judgments after the press conference.

Filed under: Taryn "Coop" Cooper, Hot Stove 2012, Jose Reyes, Mets 2012, Sandy Alderson

Nepotism & The NY Mets

On December 1st, 2011 the NY Mets announced a slew of changes to the professional, amateur and international scouting departments. Among those announcement was the hiring of the poorly named Byrn Anderson, a 5 year veteran of the Oakland A’s, as a scout.

Byrn is the son of Mets GM Sandy Alderson. When the Mets twitterverse got word of it, this happened:

To be clear all that I know about Byrn is that he has 5 years experience. I do not know if it is good or bad. However, in a city where James Dolan, Hank Steinbrenner, and Jeff Wilpon are so prominent, many already were imagining the worse.

The visceral reaction strikes me though as very hypocritical. Many Mets fans want Wally Backman as manager. Why? Because he was on the 1986 championship team? Yes, the Diamondbacks hired him before word got out about his transgressions, but it is telling how much people are staying away from him with exception of the NY Mets and a brief flirtation with his ex-manager in Davey Johnson.

This is not the only case. Many fans would jump for joy if Ron Darling was named pitching coach despite having no recent experience in coaching. People would be ecstatic if Mike Piazza was added as a hitting coach. Mets fans were devastated when Mookie Wilson was relieved of his 1b/OF coaching duties, despite the poor baserunning and outfield play of the 2011 NY Mets.

The NY Mets players are like an extended family. If you are jumping for a former player to join the team you are encouraging the Mets to participate in the very same nepotism you are accusing Sandy Alderson of displaying with the hiring of his son.

Posted by Robert Z

Filed under: Robert Z