One reason to be happy - He's not on the team anymore !!"
There has been a lot of fall out over the lack of moves the Mets have made during the first few days of the winter meetings. That isn’t to say that Sandy Alderson hasn’t imported any talent to Flushing this summer. So far he has signed two arms for the bullpen( Corrasco and Bosner) a back up catcher to Josh Thole ( Paulino) as well as a insurance policy catcher tucked down in Buffalo , ( Dusty Ryan) as well as re-signing minor league infielder Russ Adams.
Are these sexy moves ? No but they for the most part are solid moves which will help compliment the bigger named players on the roster. These are the guys our team was lacking last season when both Barajas and Blanco were injured. Or when the bullpen was melting down in the middle of the season. These guys are organizational depth. They are here to balance out the roster, and who knows maybe one or more of these names may surprise us with a break out year.
The hot stove season has yet to be wrapped up and there might be a mid level trade that Sandy can swing to help bolster the roster even more, and don’t forget that the rule five draft is tomorrow , in which such luminaries from previous seasons were Johan Santana and Albert Pujols.
So instead of getting depressed or angry at the lack of available funds that the Mets can spend, just remember that most of our injured players should be back at 100 percent, Jonathan Neise should be one year better, Mike Pelfrey is set to have a monster year and Ike Davis will show that he is deserving of a Golden Glove – as well as a Silver Slugger Award !!
And with that said…. HERE COMES THE INFAMY !!!!
Mets Alumni celebrating birthdays today are:
One time Mets third baseman/ shortstop, Tim ” Crazy Horse” Foli is 60 (1950) .
New York Mets purchased outfielder, Richie Ashburn from the Chicago Cubs on December 8, 1961. He would go on to become the first All Star in Mets history.
New York Mets traded infielder, Elio Chacon and pitcher, Tracy Stallard to the St. Louis Cardinals for outfielder, Johnny Lewis and pitcher, Gordie Richardson on December 8, 1964.
New York Mets traded pitching stud, Jon Matlack and first baseman/ outfielder, John Milner to the Texas Rangers for first baseman, Willie Montanez and outfielders, Ken Henderson and Tom Grieve on December 8, 1977. This was definitely one of the most overlooked bad trades in Mets history.
New York Mets traded beloved starting pitcher, Jerry Koosman to the Minnesota Twins for minor league non-prospects, Jesse Orosco and Greg Field on December 8, 1978. Mets fans were outraged when this trade went down. But it turned out to be a good move eight years later when Jesse struck out Marty Barret to win the ’86 World Series.
New York Mets traded utility infielder, Bob Bailor and starting pitcher, Carlos Diaz to the Los Angeles Dodgers for pitcher Sid Fernandez and back up third baseman, Ross Jones on December 8, 1983. This was possibly Frank Cashen’s best under the radar trade during his entire tenure as the Mets general manager.
Florida Marlins signed first baseman,Dave Magadan of the New York Mets as a free agent on December 8, 1992. I still feel that Magadan was the heir apparent to Keith Hernandez, but the Mets front office felt Mike Marshall was a better fit . Obviously the Mets front office was WRONG !!
Florida Marlins signed pitcher, Al Leiter of the New York Mets as a free agent on December 8, 2004. This marked the end of the Phillips/Duquette regime and ushered in what could be considered at times the brightest and darkest days that the franchise has seen in a long while.
And just remember while you are boycotting listening to the mindless rants of Mike Francessa , there are just there are just 114 days until the Mets open the 2011 season against the Florida Marlins in Miami and 121 days until the Mets 2011 home opener against the Washington Nationals at Citi Field.
Mo Vaughn is said to be livid when he found out that he wasn’t a finalist for any of the available positions on Terry Collins coaching staff !!
37 comments
Mr North Jersey
12/8/2010-10:10pm at 10:10 pm (UTC -4)
Yes, I think Mets fans should definitely take a deep breath, hold it for 10 seconds, and exhale.
Let Alderson do his thing and if he has to tear down what Minaya built b4 he can build so be it.
In other news I had the privilege to finally talk to Rusty as we did a remote session to get to the bottom of his Blackbird twitter pasting woes and I am glad to say that Rusty was indeed doing everything accordingly but for some reason (i am guessing browser based) he indeed seems to simply just be unable to properly see proper tweets after using blackbird.
The only solution would be to have him install Firefox but even then that is not a guarantee that the same issue won’t surface again and why have him do all that just for a freakin tweet anyway?
Ceetar will be happy to know that Rusty may have found the solution as far as no longer having broken twitter links.
All in all a productive evening.
oleosmirf
12/8/2010-10:26pm at 10:26 pm (UTC -4)
what I like so far is that Sandy is going after cheap MLB players for the bullpen and back end of the rotation something Omar never did.
Omar loved to give out minor league deals but often times he passed up on guys for the pen (like Carrasco) that could have been had for around 1 year 1.5 mil but instead went with more unproven guys like Nieve and Valdes.
kingman 26
12/8/2010-10:12pm at 10:12 pm (UTC -4)
I liked Willie Montanez! The way he would really walk to first base on a walk, and the way he snapped his glove when he caught a popup! But yeah, bad trade!
stickguy
12/8/2010-10:19pm at 10:19 pm (UTC -4)
Hadn’t thought about “the hammer” in years. But willie did have 1 good season.
it is scary to realize how long ago the 70′s really were. Hammered home the other day when I saw that Dave Kingman is now 62.
kingman 26
12/8/2010-10:22pm at 10:22 pm (UTC -4)
Have you not felt ancient with today’s being the THIRTIETH anniversary of John Lennon’s death??
Yeah, those 70s teams were forever ago…but I did love Montanez his one year with the Mets.
stickguy
12/8/2010-10:32pm at 10:32 pm (UTC -4)
I feel ancient every morning trying to haul my carcass out of bed. But hell, at least I am alive!
I liked shea in the late 70s. Always plenty of good seats available for walk up purchase!
kingman 26
12/8/2010-10:33pm at 10:33 pm (UTC -4)
Yes sir, and a buck or two to the truly ancient ushers got you down a level or two!
Shea in the mid-to-late 70s will always be very special to me. My formative Met years.
stickguy
12/8/2010-10:16pm at 10:16 pm (UTC -4)
Nice to see someone post a piece that isn’t full of doom and gloom.
And I still don’t understand what people were expecting that they didn’t get. A huge increase in payroll to allow for signing some big name FAs? earth shattering trades of our high priced players?
I suppose you could still see some lateral ($ wise) rebuilding by shuffling pieces via trade. Hard to do with most of the current roster I would guess.
Since the theme seems to be they have to make moves to win (as opposed the the current overpriced roster doing the job), it must be the first. Since the other (more likely) set of big moves would likely piss people off even more, when the Mets start trading off talent for prospects (reyes, beltran).
I’ll see if I can wake up the dead horse for 1 more beating, and just say that Omar spent this years available cash last off season, so the 2009 team was very much a 2 year group. Sandy just happened to get the charge card bill in the mail.
kingman 26
12/8/2010-10:24pm at 10:24 pm (UTC -4)
You are completely right.
The charge card bill goes away to the tune of $36 million at the end of October next year at the latest.
And to beat my own severely flogged horsie, by then, we will have an infinitely better idea of what we have in Dickey/Niese/Parnell/Ike/Thole/Pagan and even Gee/Tejada/Mejia and DOOOODAAAAHHH.
I give him a year at least.
Mr North Jersey
12/8/2010-10:26pm at 10:26 pm (UTC -4)
You did not just say you wanted to beat your own severely flogged horsie???
kingman 26
12/8/2010-10:26pm at 10:26 pm (UTC -4)
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh man!
Can you edit it for me? I might need to call you to learn how!!
stickguy
12/8/2010-10:33pm at 10:33 pm (UTC -4)
he better not change that.
kingman 26
12/8/2010-10:37pm at 10:37 pm (UTC -4)
I am going to laugh at that for days….damn, you drew it out of me by trying to upstage you with a comment about repeating one’s own words!
Mr North Jersey
12/8/2010-10:45pm at 10:45 pm (UTC -4)
Ladies & Gentlemen,
Brace yourselves for I have video of Kingman beating his severely flogged horsie.
kingman 26
12/8/2010-11:44pm at 11:44 pm (UTC -4)
OMG!!
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
metsfan4decades
12/9/2010-8:17am at 8:17 am (UTC -4)
LOL..too cute.
Hopefully, this is symbolic of leaving sleeping dogs lie. Since just about all have written off the Mets, here’s hoping they do indeed get pissed off at the ‘beating’ they’ve been taking on/off the field for the past few years and come out swinging.
I agree with you all – I have no problem so far this off season with Sandy’s moves.
kingman 26
12/8/2010-10:27pm at 10:27 pm (UTC -4)
I was of course referring to my often repeated idea of giving Alderson a year to evaluate the team while waiting for money to become available…but yeah, perhaps I could have expressed it a tad more elegantly….
stickguy
12/8/2010-10:40pm at 10:40 pm (UTC -4)
I think the 1 year evaluation will be good, even if it happens almost incidentally (being stuck with so many of the contracts).
But, I will have a problem with him if they don’t do everything possible to add what they can for 2011 (within reason and budget) to make the best possible run at the playoffs this season. If they are just going to not even try, then might as well start trying to trade guys like Beltran now.
I got no problem though sticking Collins up their collective rears, and seeing if they can finally get back over the top. Especially encouraging were the reports earlier that Beltrans knee is not as bad as often speculated.
Hell, the talent level (with Reyes and Beltran getting ST, and hopefully having normal years) is at least as good as 2007 and 2008, and as we all know, those teams were tantalizing close to being in the postseason! Alderson and Collins alone should be worth that 1-2 extra wins needed.
njstuckintx
12/8/2010-10:37pm at 10:37 pm (UTC -4)
I was upset when Magadan left. Johnny O eventually made me forget about him though. Wouldn’t mind Mags as the hitting coach now. What team is he the hitting coach for now?
kingman 26
12/8/2010-10:38pm at 10:38 pm (UTC -4)
Almost sure he is still the Red Sox hitting coach….
stickguy
12/8/2010-10:41pm at 10:41 pm (UTC -4)
I know he wasn’t here long, but I think it is reasonable to say that Olerude was the best overall Met 1B they ever had?
wannybackstra
12/8/2010-10:47pm at 10:47 pm (UTC -4)
keith?
stickguy
12/8/2010-10:50pm at 10:50 pm (UTC -4)
Keith has longevity, but Johnny batting helmet was also one hell of a defensive guy, and did more with the bat.
that’s why I caveatted it by saying he wasn’t here long, but he probably had the best years.
wannybackstra
12/8/2010-10:56pm at 10:56 pm (UTC -4)
Fair point. Olerud’s 3 mets seasons: .315 .425 .501 (ages 28-30) Not too shabby.
njstuckintx
12/8/2010-10:49pm at 10:49 pm (UTC -4)
i dunno. offensively, you have delgado, defensively you have keith. Ole may be best overall well rounded. To me it’s keith at #1, Ole is a close #2 or even a #1A
stickguy
12/8/2010-10:52pm at 10:52 pm (UTC -4)
maybe a miracle happens, Ike smooths out his hitch, and in 10 years there is no discussion about this!
wannybackstra
12/8/2010-10:59pm at 10:59 pm (UTC -4)
mlbtr says the mets are interested in okajima. wanny says say it ain’t so. hideki has declined progressively in each of his MLB seasons and is either washed up, injured or no longer has that Japanese deception so many times through the league.
gategem
12/8/2010-11:57pm at 11:57 pm (UTC -4)
An interesting article from Newsday:
“Madoff lawsuit targets Wilpon family profits
By ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO anthony.destefano@newsday.com
The special trustee in the Bernard Madoff fraud case took a big swing for the fences Tuesday as he filed a lawsuit against the owners of the New York Mets, including Fred Wilpon, his son Jeff and other members of their family in an effort to take back profits they allegedly received in what turned out to be a big Ponzi scheme.
Irving Picard filed his sealed complaint for an unspecified amount in Manhattan federal bankruptcy court and said his office and the Wilpons, as well as their various business entities and associates, were engaged in what he called “good faith settlement negotiations.”
Because of those negotiations, Picard agreed to file his so-called clawback complaint, known in bankruptcy law as an adversarial proceeding, under seal, but indicated that he reserved the right to ask the court to unseal the records at a later date. A clawback complaint is one which attempts to recoup money believed to be improperly paid out to investors.
A spokesman for Sterling Equities, an umbrella company for many of the Wilpons’ businesses, including the Mets and also a company sued by Picard, said the firm would have no comment while negotiations were under way. At the same time, the company said it had sufficient economic resources for the baseball team’s continuing activities.
“We want to emphasize that the New York Mets will have all the necessary financial and operational resources to fully compete and win. That is our commitment to our fans and to New York,” Sterling Equities said.
Sterling Equities, a Great Neck real estate conglomerate founded in 1972, also owns the SNY regional sports television network and the Brooklyn Cyclones minor-league baseball team, and has interests in medical research and bio-energy technologies.
The lawsuit against the Mets owners came on a day of other developments in the Madoff case. Late yesterday, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said they had reached a settlement with financier Carl Shapiro and his family for $625 million, the largest so far in the Madoff case. Shapiro, one of Madoff’s initial investors as far back as the 1960s, agreed to forfeit the money as proceeds of the Ponzi scheme. The forfeiture amount is in excess of the net worth of Shapiro and his wife and is also more than the fictitious profits they took out of Madoff’s company, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. The Shapiros didn’t admit any wrongdoing, Bharara noted. Defense attorney Stanley Arkin declined to comment.
Fred Wilpon, 74, has risen through the ranks of Mets ownership, beginning Jan. 24, 1980, when he and Doubleday & Co. bought the team from the Payson / deRoulet family for $21.1 million. Wilpon’s stake was a reported 5 percent.
That increased to 50 percent in 1986 when Wilpon and partner Nelson Doubleday bought the team from Doubleday’s publishing company for $100 million. And then 16 years later, during the summer of 2002, Wilpon and his Sterling partners bought out Doubleday’s share, taking full control of a Mets franchise that had been appraised that year at $391 million.
In its 2010 study of major-league franchises released in April, Forbes valued the Mets at $848 million. Jeff Wilpon became the team’s chief operating officer in 2002, beginning the process of passing the reins of the franchise from father to son. He oversaw the construction of the Mets’ new stadium, Citi Field, which opened in 2009.
Over $550 million of the Shapiro forfeiture will go directly to Madoff victims, Orlan Johnson, chairman of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, told Newsday. SIPC is paying all of Picard’s legal fees, as well as those of his law firm Baker & Hostetler in the search for assets to pay back investors. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme cost his customers $20 billion and he is serving 150 years in prison.
So far, Picard has recouped $2.6 billion for Madoff customers and is expected to announce more settlements in the coming weeks.
Sterling and the Wilpons have been guarded about their Madoff-related financial details. But bankruptcy court filings last year said the Mets Limited Partnership, of which Fred Wilpon is chairman, took out more than $45 million more than it invested with Madoff. The partnership invested a total of $522.7 million with him, records show.
With Jim Baumbach”
stickguy
12/9/2010-1:11am at 1:11 am (UTC -4)
well, crawford certainly hit the jackpot. another guy inked for 20mill when he is 35. teams keep thinking you can repeal the laws of physics (er, aging).
has to put a dent in th beltran to th R ed Sox rumors. Oh well. Keep him, and let him help get the team back to the post season.
njstuckintx
12/9/2010-7:51am at 7:51 am (UTC -4)
For sure.
Also saw a note that Mets unwilling to commit 4 million to a starting pitcher. Not that they are worth more than that. Frugality takes time, I guess.
stickguy
12/9/2010-11:51am at 11:51 am (UTC -4)
if they find one that is A) worth it and B) not that old, maybe. But 5 years on a 32 YO is silly.
Prismo
12/9/2010-9:05am at 9:05 am (UTC -4)
And the Yanks offered Lee a 7th year – he might get paid more than CC’s crazy big contract, despite being 2 years older.
Prismo
12/9/2010-9:27am at 9:27 am (UTC -4)
Mets got “2B” Brad Emaus in the rule V first round. Quick thoughts from my twitter account as class is about to start…
That’s all I have on Emaus now…very surprised the Jays would let a top 10ish prospect go like that.
Looks like his defensive skills may be limited though, but haven’t found anything recent yet. Some think better suited for a corner.
Bleacher Report named Emaus the Jays’ 9th best prospect before the 2010 season. With his offensive…have to think he might even be higher.
One year ago Baseball America said Emaus had the “best strike-zone discipline” in the Jays’ minor league system.
Brad Emaus has a really solid offensive minor league career (3+ seasons). Need to find out about his defense…candidate for 2B job?
oleosmirf
12/9/2010-9:46am at 9:46 am (UTC -4)
last season at age 24 in AA and AAA he put up a very impressive line:
.290/.397/.476/.874 with 81 BB and 69 K. 32 BB 15 HR 75 RBI 13 SB
he is, however, considered a below avg fielder
njstuckintx
12/9/2010-10:00am at 10:00 am (UTC -4)
Kind of off the wall, but are we limited to getting players from Toronto?
stickguy
12/9/2010-11:49am at 11:49 am (UTC -4)
if he can hit like that, it may not matter, especially if his competitoin is Castillo, Turner and Murphy.
not sounding though like he can do much with SS, a severe limitation to making the team as the MI BU.
if nothing lese, 1 more guy to add to the ST scrum mix. Might be too much to hope for though that they can sneak him back to the minors without being reclaimed.
Prismo
12/9/2010-11:56am at 11:56 am (UTC -4)
Look at his 2B stats from last season.
Yeah, he was terrible at 3B, but in 170 “chances” for plays at 2B he made 0 errors.
He’s still young, may have improved at 2B.
I expect him to compete for the starting 2B job in ST. Why not?