Could 2012 be Jon Niese’s breakout year?

Jon Niese looks to be a future breakout in 2012

There’s one thing for sure on the Kult of Mets Personalities podcast: we love Jonathon Niese.  We may disagree on some players, but Niese is someone we all want to see succeed as a Met.  My husband even wrote a resounding plea to Sandy Alderson to not trade him when rumors showed up that Niese was being shopped around.

I’d had a bad feeling that he might be traded, but it looks like we might be safe to see him on the Mets’ roster on Opening Day 2012.  Of course, I ordered a customized 50th anniversary patch jersey with Niese 49 on the back…so who knows.

Anyway, I hope that Sandy Alderson read this glowing review on Niese called “Sleepers and Busts” on RotoAuthority (hat tip to Mets Fever for the link…starring Denny Terrio…I keed, I keed).  I’ve busted on Dan Warthen, whom I’m convinced has incriminating photos on all Mets front office personnel which is why he’s still around, but I feel his litmus test is Niese.  Niese is a good pitcher, a lefty with a fine arsenal of pitches, who can have potential be a great pitcher.  Our own Gene Anthony categorizes him as “smart,” a pitcher who “gets it.”  And most importantly, a pitcher whom if he was on another team, we’d be saying, “We should get that guy!”  Of course, my husband says if he was doing fantasy baseball this year, he would draft Niese.

Seems like Roto-Authority is promoting the same idea.  See, I feel like Warthen is a coach who doesn’t really try to get the best out of his pitchers.  The good news is, Niese has the confidence to overcome subpar coaching.  I hope so, anyway.  Niese hasn’t regressed, though, like other pitchers (*cough, cough* Mike Pelfrey *cough, cough*), but he’s stayed at a relatively even keel for his career.  Niese could easily become the guy on the staff who everyone wants to take credit for.  If he can stay healthy (and ironically, he hasn’t been injured pitching, it’s been other weird stuff that’s happened to him), it very well could be the year Niese stands out.

So Jon, the time has come to make or break.  Move on, don’t hesitate.

It’s time for Jonathon Niese to Breakout.

Someone clued me in on it.

“Turn on SNY.  The 2011 Mets Yearbook is on.”

Huh?

I know some people can’t stand the Mets Yearbook.  Well, I understand, kind of, because they have so few of them, we see many of them over and over and over again during rain delays and what not on SNY.  But a Mets nerd like me who likes the porn of Mets history, I always enjoy them.  Some years more than others.  Like 1984: good.  1977: bad.

But what was funny is that when they had the marathon on a few weeks ago, the 1977 yearbook was comical.  Then-manager Joe Torre spun the Midnight Massacre as the “Doug Flynn” deal.  (Don’t quote me on the player — it could have been Steve Henderson for all I remember, but it was definitely a player not named Dan Norman).  I laughed my ass off.  Possibly the most horrific deal in Mets history, to summon the post-traumatic Mets disorder of all Mets fans, spun as “Doug Flynn” or “Steve Henderson” or “Pat Zachry” (but definitely not Dan Norman).

Anyway, 2011 yearbook.  Huh.  I had to check it out.  I missed about half of it, but there was a LOT of spin in it.  For a team that finished under .500, for a team that has financial difficulties, for a team that had to trade away top talent midseason and lost their marquee player to free agency…sure, yeah! Let’s make a documentary on one our worst seasons EVAH.

But you know what…?  I kind of liked it.  They got rid of a lot of the crap and they showed a lot of the fun things.  Like the walk off on July 20th.  Yeah, that was about it.  Yet, I still liked it.  I am such a baseball fan, that I can look at the good times and be like, “They weren’t that bad, were they?”

Yes, they were Coop.  But you know what, keep feeding me the blue and orange Kool-Aid.  Cause I’ll keep drinking it.  Like an idiot.

We often hear the term “True Yankee” for that team in the Bronx to define a guy who made his mark with the pinstriped brigade.  The Mets fan, in typical response, roll their eyes.  Thank goodness, we often say, we don’t have that type of legacy, we don’t have that “stuck-up” type of thinking surrounding our history.

The Mets are different.  What the Mets may lack in the department of defining Mets, we make up for in defining moments…or defining Mo-Mets.

Just follow me here.

When CitiField first opened in 2009, the lack of Mets-focused “anything” besides the team stores was astounding.  Some of the harsher critics found that the Jackie Robinson Rotunda, while good in theory, was ass-backwards in celebrating more of Brooklyn Dodger accomplishments rather than the New York Mets.  A team that left over 50 years prior, to the team that was with us here and now.  Combine that with the “Ebbets Club” (now the “Champions Club”) on the field level of CitiField, and it seemed like it was a shrine to Fred Wilpon’s fascination with a time gone past.

To answer the criticism, the Mets marketing and fan relations folks opened the Mets Hall of Fame and Museum.  The museum focused on great moments in Mets history, along with the great players celebrated who once wore a Mets uniform.  Yet, the joke of it was, if the Mets ever won another championship, they’d have to redesign the whole stadium since everything was focused on the 1969 and 1986 teams.  And the quintessential Mr. Met himself, the “Franchise” player, Tom Seaver.  The so-called Ring of Honor that showcases Mets in the Mets HOF was highlighted again in 2010, when they celebrated four members of the 1986 team: GM Frank Cashen, manager Davey Johnson, players Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden.  While the museum does a fantastic job of celebrating the past players and the championship teams, I started to think recently…what else do the Mets have?  It’s 50 years of Mets history in 2012, and it’s pretty sad that there’s only *one* player whose number is retired, and two managers…one of whom is well-deserved (Gil Hodges, inaugural Met and first Mets manager to lead the team to a championship), the other not-so-much (a crotchety old man who presided over some of the worst teams in Mets history).

This isn’t a rant about retired numbers though.  It’s more of a retrospective of what makes the Mets the Mets.  I would argue that to be a Mets fan, and to root for the Mets, has more to do with stories of the team and times/places of these stories, rather than loving a certain player.  Granted, there are people who gravitate towards the team for one certain player (my husband was always a huge Mookie Wilson fan, and I know a young lady who started to become a Mets fan because of Carlos Beltran).  For me, though, why am I a Mets fan and what makes the Mets more palatable than another team?

The Defining Moments, or rather the Defining Mo-METS, in the team’s history.

Take for example, 1973.  That season wasn’t about the Mets coming from behind in an unprecedented fashion to win the NL East or go to Game Seven of the 1973 World Series.  It was about Tug McGraw, in the middle of a team meeting with M. Donald Grant, shouting, “YA GOTTA BELIEVE!!!”  The tag line that would give every single Mets fan hope and the ability to believe, even in moments when they probably didn’t have a damn good reason to do so.

What about 1980?  This was the season that ownership had transferred over to the Doubleday consortium, and a rebranding of the team took place.  The team sucked, but the “Hendu Cando” walk-off home run gave all Mets fans reason to hope and believe that even after the darkest of years, the light could certainly be shining at the end of the tunnel.

Who here remembers Cubs Busters in 1984 or fights with Cardinals fans over who was exactly “Pond Scum?”

The biggest championship year was 1986.  The Mets were so good that everyone hated them.  At the same time, there was a ton of dramatics that made that team not just a champion, but a force to be reckoned.  What about the Cincinnati Reds game where Ray Knight and Eric Davis got into fisticuffs?  What about Game Six…not the World Series one, but the NLCS against the Houston Astros?

The 1988 team also fell short of expectations, but who here remembers the Tar-Ball game against the Dodgers?

In 1999, the Mets won the Wild Card and forced a Game Six situation in the NLCS that year.  They may not have won a NL Championship, and may have lost to the hated Braves.  What made that team so special?  The stories.  Todd Pratt’s “tank” of a walk-off in Game Four of the NLDS.  Robin Ventura’s grand-slam single, which as a visual is even as fantastic as any story behind it.  It had rained and rained that entire game, and as he rounded first base, after the “go-ahead” run technically scored, he waved off his teammates so he could circle the bases.  The team was so energized and fun and quirky, they didn’t care…they won the game already.

Forget about playing in the World Series in 2000.  The come-from-behind win against the Atlanta Braves on June 30, 2000, remains one of the best people stories that I have ever witnessed.  It was only a foregone conclusion that when Mike Piazza came up to bat in the bottom of the 8th, that he would hit the go-ahead three-run home run to solidify overcoming the seven-run deficit in the 8th inning.

I am a Mets fan.  I love the history of this team.  Yet, there’s something that the museum can’t give us that makes the celebration of Mets history fall just short.  It’s the people stories, it’s the moments that make us all fans, that can make us nod our heads emphatically, as if to say, “Hey buddy, I’ve been there too.”  Like when Metstradamus was at the Terry Pendleton game in 1987.  When Paul LoDuca tagged out two men at home plate during the NLDS in 2006, my dad told me, “I didn’t know how to score that one!”  My dad also made it a point to go to the 1977 game when the Cincinnati Reds visited after the Midnight Massacre (guess who started that game that day?).

During the 1999 playoffs, I was watching those games at my aunt and uncle’s house in Keansburg, NJ.  This house was the place of good memories when the Mets played in 1986, and my dad was over there watching most of the games.  I was over there with all of them, eating dinner most nights, doing Zorba-the-Greek dances after each win.  We watched Pratt’s walk off together, and Ventura’s too.

I guess my point is that the Mets are a lot more than just defining players or defining teams.  Even the teams that didn’t win much have a fantastic story to tell, or stories that may help define those team.  In fact, the night of the Hendu Cando walk off, there was a “Magic Moment” time in the stands.  Everyone there that night was astounded that the Mets, this team that was so horrible could come from behind and make it seem like it was Mardi Gras and the Fourth of July rolled into one.

What makes the Mets so unique and makes them ours are the defining moments that bring fans and teams together in one shot.  Forget championships, forget players.  The moments and stories behind them are what makes them the Mets.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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!