TGIF!
Today let’s discuss…
-The Mets’ stomping over the Marlins 10-3 Thursday afternoon
-The Yankees rooster-blocking (this is a family site) the Mets’ acquisition of Chris Carter
-Still no update on Matt Murton
-The upcoming series in Wrigley – Misch starts this afternoon!
Oh, and via Metsblog … Erin Arvedlund, writer of a new book about Madoff’s ponzi scheme, believes the Wilpons will sell the Mets as soon as a year from now.
“You can quote me. It’s a matter of when. It could be as soon as next year.” – Arvedlund
Check out this article for more quotes and details.
16 comments
trs86
8/28/2009-9:10am at 9:10 am (UTC -4)
So if the Wilpons are going to try and sell they may as well put everything into this next year and make a run at it. Investing money in short term fixes with short contracts. Example Millwood, Pena, Molina, Wiggy, etc.
Kingman 26
8/28/2009-9:16am at 9:16 am (UTC -4)
Wow! OK let’s get the collection going! The Real Dirty Mets they can be renamed after our consortium buys the team!
I know Rusty is very wealthy, so he can be principal owner a la George Steinbrenner.
TRS clearly will be in charge of baseball operations, and will start by firing Omar, Jerry, and everyone in the medical offices right down to the guy who restocks the shelves with bandaids.
Dirty will be GM, after legally changing his name to Dirty Sanchez, which will send most of the NY area scurrying to Google for a definition.
Grave will clearly be PR director.
Case will be team lawyer/consigliere.
MRose will be eminence grise and be ready to take charge when we need to abandon the team and start a brand new one with just the cool players.
Mr North is obviously in charge of all graphics for team publications.
Prismo will, quite obviously, be team weatherman.
QnsNative will pose for all team pictures while preening.
Ceetar can be team hypnotist by quietly repeating ad infinitum “The Phillies are soft…the Phillies are soft….”
trs86
8/28/2009-9:27am at 9:27 am (UTC -4)
Don’t sell yourself short Kingman. Your can be our friend in the media that Dirty can accuse of wanting Grave’s job.
Kingman 26
8/28/2009-9:33am at 9:33 am (UTC -4)
LOL! Sounds good!
saltygary
8/28/2009-9:41am at 9:41 am (UTC -4)
Can I be the guy that Raises the Apple?
Kingman 26
8/28/2009-9:43am at 9:43 am (UTC -4)
Absolutely! As we will rarely hit home runs, the Apple will surely need some exercising, so you are officially nominated.
metsfan4decades
8/28/2009-10:31am at 10:31 am (UTC -4)
Too funny!
udontmesswthejohan
8/28/2009-9:29am at 9:29 am (UTC -4)
Well, I guess you can put me in the “I’ll believe it when I see it” category, but the Madoff situation is something that has concerned me ever since the story broke. I don’t care how rich you are, losing $200 mill is going to put a dent in your wallet. When they released the names of the investors, Sterling Mets were all over that thing.
udontmesswthejohan
8/28/2009-9:35am at 9:35 am (UTC -4)
My prescience formally memorialized for all to see forever on that interwebs…I then apparently spent the rest of the day arguing with that Alex character:
udontmesswiththejohan says:
February 9, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Add the fact that the mets have become embroiled in this Madoff fisasco and it is totally understanable why they don’t want to expand the budget any more than is already the case. I know jeff Wilpon has said that the madoff money was not intermingled with “Met†money, but if you did a quick search of all the names that came out last week, you will see that accounts with the name of “Mets†came up a lot. Although the orginaization will never admit it publicly, this could get ugly.
trs86
8/28/2009-10:24am at 10:24 am (UTC -4)
Yeah, I still think Madolf or not the Mets never had any intentions of rasing payroll in a recession, just like 99% of the teams, and they respect the Luxury Tax threshold.
saltygary
8/28/2009-9:38am at 9:38 am (UTC -4)
Would it be appropriate to say “South Carolina GameCock Block”?
stickguy
8/28/2009-10:04am at 10:04 am (UTC -4)
Well, I’ll ramble on a it about the state of the Union, and the Wilpons (all wild speculation of course, and totally MHO about ownership, and getting what you ask for!)
Couple of points.
1, the big money these days is in corporate ownership (soetimes headed by a name/face, but still a consortium of come kind). 1970 era steinbrenners aren’t just sitting around with a couple billion dollars, waiting to buy a team and spend like drunken sailors just to have fun.
Any new owner, especially if they had to take on massive debt, is going to want to make a profit, and now. And a logical way to do that is to cut the payroll (even the Cubs were facing this).
I just don’t see someone coming in and immediately juicing up the payroll to 200mill like some posters dream. More likely they chop 25mill off!
Now, you could just hope for same $$, but a new attitude and FO, and sure, maybe that could happen, but the transition might not be pretty!
2) the numbers in the Madoff scandal are also often bogus. That is, people invested say 1 mill, and he showed on paper huge gains to 4 mill, then boom, nothing. But, what did the investor really lose? 1? 4? something they should have had if invested in a market fund?
3) If the Mets are profitable (and they would have to be for those who dream of keeping or raising the payroll, since they are a big market team with an unlimited revenue stream, as I heard many times!), why would the need or want to sell? Wouldn’t this be supporting them?
Unless they need to raise cash to pay off other debtes, but that has not been reported anywhere.
4) logically, the madoff money must have been with him for a while, and that is not the kind of place a business puts operating capital. more likely it was extra investments (like your retirement or long term savings fund). so even losing it all does not neccessarily mean that they don’t have the capital to run their business (just like they have claimed to still have).
besides, who knows how much other money or assets they have? if they were “worth” 1bill and “lost”700ill, they are still worth 300 mill!
prismo
8/28/2009-10:13am at 10:13 am (UTC -4)
The most exciting thing about getting new ownership wouldn’t be an increased payroll (because, like you, I doubt it would increase), but the willingness to change how the front office and team is run.
Kingman 26
8/28/2009-10:15am at 10:15 am (UTC -4)
Good points…but as for number 2, perhaps the Wilpons borrowed a lot more based on what their supposed Madoff accounts held? Maybe they are in tremendous debt now partially due to what they THOUGHT they had with Madoff, and now they have zero way to pay off that debt or get its terms renegotiated….
stickguy
8/28/2009-10:07am at 10:07 am (UTC -4)
There is actually a much more important question about the Mets (sterling mets actually) than how much madoff took: what is their debt situation?
Is the team (thanks to citifiled most likely) mortgaged up the wazoo, or does SM own it free and clear? COuld make a big difference when determining the need for operating cash, and having to sell (or being worth selling)to cover losses elsewhere.
I have to imagine the Mets make money. COmmercial real estate right now? Not so sure!
trs86
8/28/2009-10:26am at 10:26 am (UTC -4)
Yeah, I still think that the Mets can cover their current budget and they would have never raised it anyway.