In his daily blog, Daily News columnist ( and alleged Brutus to Omar Minaya), Adam Rubin published a statement from uber agent Scott Boras detailing why the Mets should sign his client Matt Holiday – if they choose to make the commitment.
“The Mets have a network and they have an infrastructure there that is, I mean, it’s a juggernaut economically,” Boras said at the winter meetings Wednesday afternoon. “We’ve seen what NESN has done and they’ve become if not a multi-billion, over a billion-dollar franchise. The YES Network is a multi-billion dollar network and franchise. The infrastructure that they’ve built with the SNY network follows. They’ve got a brand new ballpark. They’re in New York City. Their revenues are in the top three or four in baseball. I mean, the New York Mets have a lot of choices. And the Wilpon family is very successful. Sure, the Mets can sign any player they want to if they so choose to.”
Uhh Fred, Jeff, Omar… I think that you have been called out by the most powerful agent in baseball. The proverbial ball is in your court, are you going to stick your head in the sand or are you going to go to war with him and obtain Holliday for a fair price?
“ Does this mean war?!?”
to read Rubins blog go to http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/mets/2009/12/boras-mets-have-resources-to-l.html#ixzz0ZEMFyLSs
48 comments
GravediggerHebner
12/9/2009-5:05pm at 5:05 pm (UTC -4)
I take these pronouncements by Boras and Mike Francesa (who opened his show with his whole ‘the Mets WILL get one of the big three’ speech today) two ways.
Either they genuinely mean it with from the bottom of their hearts, or they are pushing buttons to get a fan base riled and a make the ownership/front office feel uncomfortable.
Since we know neither Boras nor Francesa have a heart, I assume their motivation is the latter one.
darknova306
12/9/2009-5:10pm at 5:10 pm (UTC -4)
Agreed. Which is why I’m hoping Omar is sleeping and hasn’t heard that drivel from those idiots.
I hate having my team used to drive up prices. F&ck Boras.
metfreak
12/9/2009-5:10pm at 5:10 pm (UTC -4)
I think Boras has a point in a way by calling the Mets out they act like a small market team and I am no big fan of Fatcessa but this time I really think that he wants the Mets to make a splash after all The whole Mets F.O went on his show and made it sound like they are going to be big players in the off season we are all just waiting to either praise them of go nuts on them
wannybackstra
12/9/2009-5:10pm at 5:10 pm (UTC -4)
Using the Red Sox as an example as Boras did, the Mets spent about $28m more than the Sox on payroll last year.
So I think the Wilpon’s response is quite simple: “Indeed, you little worm, the Mets exercised their financial strength to the extent that only one MLB team spent more money on its payroll. The problem, Mr. Boras, is that we spent it in the wrong places, in part because we allow ourselves to buy into the crap that player agents like yourself sell.”
GravediggerHebner
12/9/2009-5:16pm at 5:16 pm (UTC -4)
DBacks manager AJ Hinch on mlb.com live feed just said:
“Everything that could go wrong last year went wrong for us but we think we have a solid core and we start fresh at 0-0 this spring.”
It sounded very familiar.
CaseStreet
12/9/2009-5:20pm at 5:20 pm (UTC -4)
“Sure, the Mets can sign any player they want to if they so choose to.â€
Let’s home they choose the right player, Lackey and let Cashman bailout Boras, again.
Just say no, Omar!
fongy2
12/9/2009-5:57pm at 5:57 pm (UTC -4)
Agreed Case.
fongy2
12/9/2009-6:02pm at 6:02 pm (UTC -4)
7/8yrs and 125/150mil
seems like alot for
a LFer(not exactly the
most important defensive position on
the field) who, will
likely give us something like.290/300
25/30&90/100 while playing ordinary defense and not being
a huge threat on the basepaths. Nice player,yes…superstar
I think not. AND
that sounds like superstar,build your team around this guy
money.No thanks Boras.
But hey…nice try.
oleosmirf
12/9/2009-5:20pm at 5:20 pm (UTC -4)
While Boros is absolutely right, its not about how much you spend, it’s about what you spend it on.
I remember reading that the Mets spent less on their draft than any other team in baseball. I mean that’s absurd. While the Mets dont have Yankee money, they can spend much more than they did last offseason. After 3 years of disappointment, the payroll should be going up not down…
To me its more about the Wilpons not wanting the spending reputation like the Yankees, then anything. Although considering how successful the Yankees have been, I think its about time they change philosophy.
Kingman 26
12/9/2009-6:05pm at 6:05 pm (UTC -4)
Then go root for the damn Yankees, who could not compete if they spent as the Mets, Red Sox, Phils, Angels, Cubs, etc. do.
Boras is right about nothing, and is a disgusting, pathologically selfish snake, who could care less about anything other than his players getting grossly overpaid.
oleosmirf
12/9/2009-6:51pm at 6:51 pm (UTC -4)
i dont want to root for the Yankees. Im not a yankee fan but it is ridiculous that I cant afford to attend games anymore but ownership refuses to reinvest that revenue into the team.
Increasing the budget by 6 mil to get Lackey instead of Piniero can add at least 5 wins to our record…thats all i ask…
Kingman 26
12/9/2009-6:58pm at 6:58 pm (UTC -4)
I totally agree with this.
Prices are completely out of control, and when combined with the absolutely revolting plastering of Citi Field with corporate logos everywhere, the Wilpons surely are making some money.
Still, they do not have the revenue stream of the Yanks, and never ever will, so if they are the 2nd highest spending team in baseball I can live with that.
And Lackey surely gives us at least 5 wins more than the Marquis/Wolf/Pineiros of the world, and again, I really think we will wind up with one of Lackey, Holliday or Bay.
PLEASE come back and ream me if we don’t; I will deserve it.
oleosmirf
12/9/2009-7:15pm at 7:15 pm (UTC -4)
noone is aking for the Mets to compete with the Yankees. Im just asking for them to not just be satisfied with adding one top FA.
I am 100% confident that Halliday, Holliday, Lackey or a player of that stature will be acquired.
I am also 100% confident that Omar will still leave major holes unaddressed like last season and/or try to fill those holes with bad contracts like Piniero or Marquis.
GravediggerHebner
12/9/2009-5:47pm at 5:47 pm (UTC -4)
Speaking of the Daily News, it horrifies me that Bill Madden gets elected to the HOF in the same week in which he publishes an article with the sentence “they’re (the Mets) only interested in signing low-budget latin players.”
As a fascinating aside to that, the word “latin” has since been edited out by the Daily News.
fongy2
12/9/2009-5:56pm at 5:56 pm (UTC -4)
Ahhh, the mainstream media in
America. Gotta love them.
CaseStreet
12/9/2009-6:00pm at 6:00 pm (UTC -4)
I saw that headline on SportSpyder, but then couldn’t find it
GravediggerHebner
12/9/2009-6:07pm at 6:07 pm (UTC -4)
this link goes to the now edited article, but you can tell from the comments at the bottom what was there originally.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2009/12/05/2009-12-05_gentlemen_start_your_wallets_gms_rev_their_engines_with_baseball_winter_meetings.html?page=1#ixzz0YuS9nQOE
CaseStreet
12/9/2009-6:00pm at 6:00 pm (UTC -4)
Looks like Bill Madden is vying for Omar’s job
Kingman 26
12/9/2009-6:07pm at 6:07 pm (UTC -4)
Disgusting.
I noticed that too, and if I was Latino I would be really angry.
It still is offensive, on several levels.
metsfan4decades
12/9/2009-6:17pm at 6:17 pm (UTC -4)
You know, during the baseball season I routinely watch Daily News Live, Wheelhouse and Loud Mouths on SNY. And I sometimes wonder just how most of these guys have come to be labeled ‘knowledgeable baseball analysts’.
Half the time, they’re barking up the wrong tree and the other half of the time, just flat out wrong. Only occasionally do I hear any point being made that makes sense to me.
The regular posters on this blog seem to do their homework b/c 99% of the time the facts are correct. And a good portion of the time, opinions on where the Mets are/should go, make sense. But to be fair, I guess it’s b/c we spend the majority of our time being ‘experts’ on the Mets and not so much the other teams and/or sports….
Kingman 26
12/9/2009-6:23pm at 6:23 pm (UTC -4)
MF4D, I again cite an example someone else pointed out—Heyman, on air, once said that Pat Burrell could never succeed away from Philly, due to him hitting all his HR at home, when he hit MORE HR on the road.
These guys are, for the most part, just like us, but lazier, and they don’t really care.
35 years ago, jobs like these were coveted, as there were handfuls of them available. Today, there are 8 zillion news outlets, and a guy like Matt Cerrone, who literally cannot write a paragraph without some sort of error, and has zero knowledge of baseball before 2000, has THE leading Mets blog.
Think of how many TV spots there are today–when we were kids, the Mets’ network had 3 employees—Bob, Ralph, and Lindsey. How many do they have today, between the pregame, postgame, Met-related shows, etc? Multiply that by 30 teams, all of the sports, ESPN and its networks, SI, CNN, Fox, CBS Sportsline, and 12 billion blogs, and how many of these people would have been qualified for one of the few jobs available, say, 35 years ago?
metsfan4decades
12/9/2009-6:32pm at 6:32 pm (UTC -4)
But you know what really gets my goat, Kingman? These guys are probably getting a damn fine salary to be lazy, or obnoxious or inflammatory. It truly is a mindset among many of them that I will never understand…..
Now Cerrone….he’s just on a whole different level – LOL.
Sort of a ‘wannabee’. I think it was TRS who said last year that MC’s success could be attributed to starting that blog at just the right time – more so than for any other reason. The more I thought about that, the more sense it made to me.
And you’re right. For me at least, I had so much more respect for the likes of guys like Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner.
Kingman 26
12/9/2009-6:37pm at 6:37 pm (UTC -4)
Yep, I agree totally.
I had said that Cerrone is there for precisely two reasons–timing and persistence. Now, of course, those are VERY valuable things to master, and are why Matt is where he is.
However, the fact that he does not use spell-check and has people write for him who know zero about baseball, and post 7-man lineups, mystifies me.
But I just cannot watch Olney or Heyman anymore, as they are just a joke. Olney makes up something, talks about it for three minutes, then sometimes openly says it is just an idea he had. Heyman surely makes good money, and cannot be bothered to take 5 seconds and check Burrell’s splits at baseball reference before going on air and yapping about him.
Bob and Ralph and Lindsay lived the game and loved it, and were clearly not there to be pressed and blow-dried TV stars–especially Murph and Ralph! They LOVED the game, and, most important, respected the game, its history, the players and the fans.
I don’t think Cerrone really respects much of anything, with the way he writes. And the military time thing is still there with PM!
I honestly believe that Jon Heyman is simply a vessel for agents and GMs to get info out to the public anonymously.
CaseStreet
12/9/2009-6:03pm at 6:03 pm (UTC -4)
wonder if Omar’s called upon the Reds this week.
Harang or Arroyo + Phillips
What’d it take?
manicmcreynolds
12/9/2009-6:53pm at 6:53 pm (UTC -4)
Yup, he’s gotta knock on that door. If you want my guess, I’d say Mets lose Niese or Parnell, + Pagan or a decent minor leaguer.
Even if he can only get one of those pitchers, he’s gotta knock.
Now, if Omar asks KC about Meche, he should know they have a 26-year old 2B who slugged a cool .457 in 09. If KC wants Pagan, do it.
I’m not a Castillo basher–it’s hard to gripe about a .390 OBP on a team that lost 90 games–but, if Omar wants to spread the 15+HR pop around the lineup, which is what he’d be doing by signing Bengie Molina to catch and/or plugging someone like Cameron in LF, then upgrading 2B must be attempted. And I’m sort of afraid signing Hudson to a multi-year deal will be Castillo redux.
CaseStreet
12/9/2009-7:08pm at 7:08 pm (UTC -4)
agreed all around
manicmcreynolds
12/9/2009-6:55pm at 6:55 pm (UTC -4)
I meant “one of those pitchers” as in trading for Harang or Arroyo without Phillips. Not “one of those pitchers” as in the Mets would want both of them.
I’m more intrigued by Arroyo; I think he has a higher ceiling.
manicmcreynolds
12/9/2009-6:56pm at 6:56 pm (UTC -4)
Crap! I meant Harang. I think Aaron Harang has a higher ceiling than Bronson Arroyo. *phew*
GravediggerHebner
12/9/2009-6:08pm at 6:08 pm (UTC -4)
Apparently Harden to Texas for the same money Brad Penny got from St. Louis, 1yr/$7.5 mil
CaseStreet
12/9/2009-6:29pm at 6:29 pm (UTC -4)
would you take Sheets or Bedard at the same price?
Kingman 26
12/9/2009-6:32pm at 6:32 pm (UTC -4)
Sheets yes, Bedard no way.
GravediggerHebner
12/9/2009-6:41pm at 6:41 pm (UTC -4)
I would prefer neither, the way I understand it this is a guaranteed contract, not an incentive laden one. I was hoping to do the smaller guarantee plus incentives.
But that aside, if I’m choosing to guarantee $7.5 mil to one of those two, I agree with Kong and choose Sheets. Bedard has some ‘issues’ aside from just physical health. To the best of my knowledge, Sheets doesn’t.
steveo
12/9/2009-6:35pm at 6:35 pm (UTC -4)
I think panic is setting in with some of these teams with the amounts of money going to some of these below grade type free agents
charlie_s
12/9/2009-6:45pm at 6:45 pm (UTC -4)
I think this is GREAT news. Boras is disparate. Holliday is not getting the love he was hoping for and now he is turning to the one team with a fan base crazy enough to picket the team in the streets in the hope of convincing their team to sign a player (see Manny a year ago).
Obviously, Holliday’s price is down (perhaps even below the offer made by the Cards that they rejected?).
Kingman 26
12/9/2009-6:48pm at 6:48 pm (UTC -4)
Thank you! I agree….a desperate Boras is fun to see, isn’t it!
charlie_s
12/9/2009-6:56pm at 6:56 pm (UTC -4)
It certainly is!
wannybackstra
12/9/2009-6:50pm at 6:50 pm (UTC -4)
I don’t really see where the Ollie Perez market was last year before Omar overpaid for him.
At the same time, he managed to reel in K-Rod for less than the sticker price (to which he also performed).
So in conclusion, I don’t necessarily have faith in Omar to obtain a bargain and then even if he does I’m not so sure he’ll get his money’s worth.
charlie_s
12/9/2009-6:57pm at 6:57 pm (UTC -4)
How many of these guys are worth what they get paid? I mean, even Santana has already failed to meet his tremendous salary. And, he’s a near god.
wannybackstra
12/9/2009-7:01pm at 7:01 pm (UTC -4)
I’m not suggesting that any of these guys could be had for my salary. I’m suggesting that Omar may still make a move that is an abject failure and/or prohibitive of other necessary moves, i.e. a $20m/year deal for a desperate Holliday which means no real pitching upgrade.
charlie_s
12/9/2009-7:10pm at 7:10 pm (UTC -4)
I understand. I’m just saying that if Holliday is desperate, why would Omar sign him to $20m/yr?
I mean, what if the market is such that $16m/yr gets him?
wannybackstra
12/9/2009-7:15pm at 7:15 pm (UTC -4)
The answer to that question is another question: Why did he pay Oliver Perez $36m for three years? Ollie was the last pitcher standing and the big market teams had already had their fill of long-term deals.
Holliday at $16m would be ideal.
charlie_s
12/9/2009-7:21pm at 7:21 pm (UTC -4)
I think we all know the answer. Because he panicked. He missed out on Lowe and probably believed the hype that another team was willing to shell out three years and $12/m per. It’s a valid point. He could be forced into panicking, again.
oleosmirf
12/9/2009-7:39pm at 7:39 pm (UTC -4)
i wouldnt say he missed out on Lowe. He tried low balling Lowe (just like he did with K-Rod) but instead it backfired b/c Atlanta came out of nowhere and overpaid.
charlie_s
12/9/2009-7:49pm at 7:49 pm (UTC -4)
Semantics. He didn’t get Lowe, period. For whatever reason, Lowe went to pitch for another team. So, he was left with nothing but Ollie.
oleosmirf
12/9/2009-7:37pm at 7:37 pm (UTC -4)
because Omar felt, for whatever the reason, that Ollie was that much better than the other options.
rustyjr
12/9/2009-6:58pm at 6:58 pm (UTC -4)
sorry guys I meant this piece to be semi sarcastic – I have failed you all
We all know that Boras is a bottom feeder that tries to squeeze the last available cent out for his clients – I just found it funny that he was channeling his inner mets fan lol
Kingman 26
12/9/2009-7:01pm at 7:01 pm (UTC -4)
You did not fail us!
Boras feeds BELOW the bottom, if he is even human at all, and this was a comical attempt by him, as he is clearly desperate now that he knows he will get nothing near the ridiculous numbers he had mentioned.
You da man!
manicmcreynolds
12/9/2009-7:09pm at 7:09 pm (UTC -4)
Here’s a Boras article some of you might find interesting:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/10/29/071029fa_fact_mcgrath