This past Thursday I had the honor to conduct a phone interview with Evan Robers, co-host of the Benigno & Roberts midday show on 660 WFAN here in New York. We discussed everything about his growing up a Mets fan, his views on the blogosphere and the current Mets off season. Evan is a down to Earth guy and answered every question as candidly as he could with the insight of a rabid Mets fan. So enjoy !
Rustyjr : Thank you for granting me this interview.
Evan Roberts: No problem at all.
RJ: So what are your views on blogs – especially those geared towards the Mets ?
ER: I like blogs, because you get different opinions on them,Cerrone ( Matt of Metsblog.com) does a good job with Metsblog, but overall I think it’s fantastic.
RJ: Do you also see us as being more positive than the mainstream media?
ER: well it matters what blog you read, the fans are going to be positive and negative. You listen to sports talk radio and you hear mostly the negative which I understand because who is going to sit on hold for forty-five minutes to be like ” everything’s great I’m happy and I’m excited !” – you know people are going to take time out of their day to say be negative so I think blogs may be positive in general but I think there is some negativity out there.
RJ: Yeah of course, especially with the way this off-season has gone so far. Are you surprised that the fan base hasn’t been so negative – except from the minority of fans that I call the ” lunatic fringe” who calls into the Fan?
ER: (laughing) Uh I’m not surprised, but it is tough to really figure out how many Mets fans are negative overall. I think the problem is when you are in a division with the Phillies and you are in a league with the Yankees, and the Mets were doing something on the level of those two teams, people were going to be upset. Obviously when you think about things rationally -which I try to do occasionally, and in this case I think I am being rational because I am cool with what the Mets are doing. You have to take a step back and realize what they are doing is long term smart as opposed to knee jerk reaction- which is what alot of fans want. But it doesn’t surprise me that Mets fans are negative, jealous. We are jealous of the Yankees, we are jealous of the Phillies and I will even admit that the night Philadelphia signed Cliff Lee – I’m jealous, I;m ticked off, I’m cursing. I’m thinking to myself ” why is our payroll only at $130 million. But when I think about it and I come to work the next day , i think about it rationally and I know there is a plan in place, and I know that my team is not close to winning, what do I expect them to do ? Spend irrationally ? But I totally understand where the negativity comes from because I want us to be as good as our division rival as well as out next door neighbor. Now the Phillies and the Yankees are the two best teams in the sport so it is easy to be very jealous.
RJ: Well you are doing a 180 degree turn from last year. Last year you were killing the Mets – so was I for the most part during the last off season when the big acquisition was Bay and the rest of the roster was filled out by Blanco, Dickey and Barajas.
ER: Yeah I wasn’t happy last year. I think the thing that made it easy to be unhappy was I thought the Mets were closer to winning than they really were . I think now if you take a step back Icould say I don’t know how really close they are and also you still had Omar Minaya making the decisions. I think most of us had lost faith in him. We can’t give Omar the benefit of the doubt last year – which is tough to do while this year it is eaier to look at Sandy ( Alderson Mets new GM) and say “I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt” . So even though they are spending less than they spent last year – and I wasn’t a big Bay guy – I was more into Matt Holiday and even though his contract turned out to be ridiculous – So I think the Mets made the right decision not signing him, but a I think Holiday was a better player than Bay and not going after pitching like John Lackey, I thought they were closer to winning than they really were and the faith that we had in Omar – we didn’t have any. It is a different year , I was negative last year, but I think it is a very different situation now.
RJ: Do you see Omar as a sympathetic figure or do you feel he made his bed and he had to face the consequences?
ER: I think it was his time to go . It is kind of like presidents. We like to judge presidents right away but the truth is you’ve got to wait a couple of generations maybe to judge how good a president was , and I do think it will take a couple of years to judge how bad or how good a job that Omar has done. I think it was his time to go, he gave out a lot of bad contracts – but – what if Wilmer Flores turns out to be a superstar ? What do we say about that then ? That’s not a Sandy Alderson thing , thats a Omar thing . What If Jennry Mejia turns out to be the best ” homegrown” pitcher we have seen since Doc Gooden ? I mean won’t we have to go back and look at Omar’s regime and conclude maybe it was better than we thought? We all know that the Ollie Perez contract was bad. We all know that the Luis Castillo contract was bad . What happened with Adam Rubin ( then Mets beat writer for the Daily News , now with ESPN.COM) was embarrassing But the jury is still kinda out on him because this farm system was pretty much built by Omar Minaya . if these guys turn out to be superstars what do we say then? So you have to be patient when you determine how good his administration was , but I think it was his time to go at that point after last year.
RJ: I definitely agree. Switching gears here with your interview of Carlos Beltran the other day were you surprised about some of the revelations that he made ?
ER: You know I think Joe was definitely more surprised than I was because I have always liked Carlos, I think he has gotten a bad rap in this town for whatever reason. I don’t know if it is because of his facial reactions or because he is so smooth in the outfield that people don’t think he cares . So when Carlos Beltran says to us ” Hey I just want to win” – that doesn’t surprise me – it surprised Joe . He has a very different take on Carlos and we have fought about it over the last couple of years , but it doesn’t surprise me because Beltran is a classy guy , he likes New York and I think he gets a terrible rap . That final out in ’06 is going to haunt him for his entire Mets career and there is alot of people who will never forgive him for that, and I think he is a team player. I think he is being very genuine when he says I want to play center-field – but I will play right field if necessary. I think that is basically what anyone of us would say if we had a job. It’s like if they said to me Evan we are going to move you to overnights.My honest answer would be “Well I like doing mid-days but whatever’s best for the team” , I have a job you know what I’m saying ?
RJ: What about the fact that he kinda threw JerryManuel under the bus ?
ER: Yeah that’s not surprising either ( laughs). I don’t know how popular Jerry was with his players, but I think when he made that comment about wanting Beltran to come back for that Yankee series, we all though he was joking. Nobody was taking him seriously. I though that was just part of his sense of humor. But when a manager is out , it is alot easier to for players to – I don’t know if it’s throwing him under the bus but – be perfectly honest about him, and we have seen this from a few players this off season.
RJ: Other than Chris Young, who do you see the Mets importing this off season?
ER: As much as I say that I am okay with the Mets not spending money, Ill give you one area that would annoy me is that if the Mets stayed away from a guy like Matt Garza because he could make more than five and a half million and he is arbitration eligible. I think that is a guy who I would likely target because he helps the rotation this year and he helps the rotation in the future. He’s a really young guy, I think he would be good in New York, I think he would be good in this ballpark. I don’t know what they would have to give up . It would be easy for me to sit here and say get Matt Garza . The Rays may say give me Wilmer Flores or Jon Neise, and I’m not jumping for that. Or give me Ike Davis – and I ‘m not jumping for that. But that’s a guy who I think would excite the Mets fan base.He is a money kind of pitcher and I feel he is a guy who helps you short term and he helps you long term. The problem with Chris Young is that it is probably to a one year deal .He’s already in his early 30′s and if lets say this is how a reclamation project works., and let’s say he has a great year, well then he is a free agent after the year and he is probably going to get paid elsewhere so I think if I were a Mets fan I would like to see something that helps us today and also helps us for the future.
RJ: It’s funny in one of my previous columns I suggested that the Mets trading Angel Pagan because I don’t see him as being anything more than a fourth outfielder to be quite honest and if you can get something back for him , maybe you could get back a Garza if you packaged Pagan with a few other players.
ER: I agree with you on that. The only problem is that we don’t have alot of depth in the outfield, I don’t think that Lucas Duda can be a everyday outfielder or if a Kirk Nieuwenhuis is ready to be a everyday player butI thought that last year when Pagan was having that year that he was having , but by the way it sounds , i don’t think they are going to trade Pagan. They will probably trade Beltran before the July 31st trade deadline and the Mets just don’t have that much outfield depth but . But hey if I could get anything significant back for Pagan, i would have no issue trading him.
RJ: In your gut do you think that either Luis Castillo or Oliver Perez will be on the Mets roster once the break spring training?
ER: I really believe what Sandy when he said that those guys would have to perform , and I was thinking about this the other day. I have a problem with Castillo being on the roster than Perez , because it is really easy to hide in the bullpen or make him a left handed reliever, and we don’t have to see the guy everyday. We don’t want to see Luis Castillo everyday. We have other alternatives for second base. I know they are ruling out Ruben Tejada- which is fine. It can be Brad Eamus who they got in the rule v draft, Justin Turner who I’ve heard many good things about him in winter ball or even Daniel Murphy , But I don’t want to see Luis Castillo , and I believe Sandy that if Oliver Perez comes into camp with a 9.50 ERA Sandy is going to get rid of him.I think the same thing with Luis Castillo but the hope is that they can have good camps and that maybe somebody gets desperate – maybe there is a injury to a second baseman and that team says ” hey we should take a flier on Luis Castillo”, but I really do think it will be determined by how well these guys do in camp.
RJ: Do you believe everything that you hear from Jeff Wilpon?
ER: I don’t believe everything that I hear from Jeff. But I do believe what I hear from Sandy though. I don’t think that Sandy is b.s.ing – but you know what ? Maybe it’s me and I want to give these guys the benefit of the doubt . Sandy hasn’t b.s.ed us yet . The Wilpon’s kinda have at times – so of course we aren’t going to believe them. But until Sandy lies to us – and he hasn’t yet – I’m going to believe him. If Luis Castillo hits .090 in spring training, and he is the Opening Day second baseman and he is still on the roster, then you know me , Joe and I will be screaming about what was Sandy talking about. As of now – maybe it’s just being naive but I’m going to believe Sandy until he crosses us – and so far he hasn’t crossed us.
RJ:Your thoughts about Pedro Feliciano possibly signing with the Yankees ?
I like Pedro – I really do . h e has been a very consistent Met for the past couple of years, I hate to see him in a Yankees uniform but with all of that said I think it is wise for the direction that this team is going to let him walk and get the draft picks for him.
In the finale of my interview with Evan, we will discuss The trade of Billy Wagner, how to handle Francisco Rodriguez and Evan’s childhood memories of the Mets.
28 comments
njstuckintx
12/20/2010-7:57am at 7:57 am (UTC -4)
His comments on Garza are spot on.
stickguy
12/20/2010-9:07am at 9:07 am (UTC -4)
good interview. Better than what many of the “professional” guys do!
add me to the list for supporting a trade for a guy like Garza. I understand if they can’t spend a fortune on a 1 year guy for 2011, but someone that can be an obvious core guy for 2-3 years past 2011 is a no brainer IMO. And that could go for a 2B too, maybe an OF. but mostly pitching.
oleosmirf
12/20/2010-9:56am at 9:56 am (UTC -4)
would you trade one of Mejia, Flores, Davis or Niese for him?
kistics
12/20/2010-10:02am at 10:02 am (UTC -4)
The only one I would trade out of the 4 is Ike. I know he’s the most popular with the fans out of the 4, but his production would be easier to replace.
stickguy
12/20/2010-10:04am at 10:04 am (UTC -4)
mejia or flores would be in play for a trade like this.
Ike and neise at this point are ML players, and worth more than prospects. Trading neise for another SP is just a lateral move anyway, and makes no real sense (and eats up a large chunk of budget to boot).
njstuckintx
12/20/2010-10:05am at 10:05 am (UTC -4)
I’d ship Mejia wrapped in ribbons and wearing a bow.
oleosmirf
12/20/2010-10:17am at 10:17 am (UTC -4)
Garza is a good solid pitcher but if i’m gonna trade my #1 prospect, its gotta be for a dominant pitcher and as much as i like Garza, he isn’t an ace…
kistics
12/20/2010-10:21am at 10:21 am (UTC -4)
I agree. Outside from Mejia, Mets don’t have much pitching prospects (we don’t know much about Harvey yet). Mets need SPs at the major level right now, but also need depth in the farm system too.
oleosmirf
12/20/2010-10:55am at 10:55 am (UTC -4)
exactly, blame Omar and co. for ignoring the draft…
njstuckintx
12/20/2010-11:07am at 11:07 am (UTC -4)
Well, you then need to address one or another. For Garza, knowing he’d be in the rotation for 3 years, That is worth losing a Mejia for. by then you will have at least started replenishing the system through the draft and have Harvey (hopefully) knocking on the Major League level.
njstuckintx
12/20/2010-11:04am at 11:04 am (UTC -4)
The Mets #1 pitching prospect may be the number 5 or 7 in another organization. Being #1 can’t be used to truly evaluate a prospect for trading purposes. There is surely a difference in Mejia and Bumgarden, and they were both the top prospects in the mets/Giants organization. Mejia I would trade for Garza. Bumgarden I wouldn’t.
oleosmirf
12/20/2010-11:44am at 11:44 am (UTC -4)
Mejia is considered one of the best pitching prospects in baseball. Our next best trade-able pitching prospect probably falls in another teams 10-20.
you cant trade your only real pitching prospect unless you are getting an absolute stud…
njstuckintx
12/20/2010-2:48pm at 2:48 pm (UTC -4)
Can you point to me where this information is coming from?
I understand on trading for an absolute stud, but I still want to see where Mejia is a best pitching prospect in baseball.
Prismo
12/20/2010-2:54pm at 2:54 pm (UTC -4)
I haven’t heard that either, and frankly, don’t believe it.
njstuckintx
12/20/2010-3:07pm at 3:07 pm (UTC -4)
That’s my point, Pris. He may be the Mets #1, but where on the overall list is he? He may only be the 30th best pitching prospect. If so, he’s not commanding a huge return, not can the Mets be silly and overvalue their own propects.
I know it’s hindsight, but look at Fmart. For a guy who never tore it up at any level, yet had all this crazy hype, He was the shining star, so no one could see what he really was. I hope, as people coming into the party later, and having no emotional attachment to said drafted players, they (the met’s brain trust) are able to look at all the players with untinted glasses.
stickguy
12/20/2010-3:10pm at 3:10 pm (UTC -4)
F Mart was ranked in the BA top 30 for at least 2 straight years, then #70 the year after (going into 2010 I think). Not sure about the year before that.
so, he may or may ever amount to something in the majors, but he was not a myth of Met fan hype.
kistics
12/20/2010-3:14pm at 3:14 pm (UTC -4)
Even if Mejia is ranked outside of top 30, I still think you would need to keep him. Not because he’s a sure thing, but the Mets need to have some depth in their farm system.
njstuckintx
12/20/2010-3:16pm at 3:16 pm (UTC -4)
Ok, maybe Fmart was top 30, but he was treated as a top 1 or top 2. I’m not trying to role this into an Fmart discussion and I’m sure my point could have been better stated had Heb been here to sum up.
Bottom line, If I could flip Mejia for Garza, I would. Mejia may be wonderful down the road. May. Garza I know can pitch at a high level, is under control and would make this team better today and for the next few years. Worth the risk to me.
kistics
12/20/2010-3:20pm at 3:20 pm (UTC -4)
If you had the choice of converting Ike into Garza versus Mejia into Garza, which would you choose?
I’d say Ike, because replacement for Ike would be easier to achieve via FA than getting a top pitching prospect.
njstuckintx
12/20/2010-3:27pm at 3:27 pm (UTC -4)
Good question Kistics. Currently, i’d keep Ike. I know he can handle the bat at the Major League level. I know he has solid D. While Mejia may be something special, he may not.
It’s all a coin flip. But Mejia’s size & current repertoir of pitches make him a project at this point, and cause me to value him lower than others do. I know i’m in the minority, which is fine, but I’d keep Ike.
wannybackstra
12/20/2010-5:47pm at 5:47 pm (UTC -4)
I’d trade Mejia for him in a heart beat.
kistics
12/20/2010-9:26am at 9:26 am (UTC -4)
Cool interview!
I always liked Evan Roberts. Unlike some other guys on WFAN, he actually knows what he’s talking about.
metsfan4decades
12/20/2010-12:58pm at 12:58 pm (UTC -4)
Very nice interview, Rusty. I’ve often listened to Evan on a rant about the Mets these past few years and his thoughts to you are right in line with what he’s been saying. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard him and Joe ‘good naturedly’ arguing about Beltran. Evan is obviously a passionate Met fan and often times very blunt in his assessment of all things Mets.
Can’t wait to read your second installment.
stickguy
12/20/2010-1:07pm at 1:07 pm (UTC -4)
I always thought he was a lot older than this, unless he looks younger in the picture than he really is.
then again, I am old, so everyone is starting to look young these days.
kistics
12/20/2010-1:10pm at 1:10 pm (UTC -4)
I think he’s in late 20s?
Prismo
12/20/2010-2:04pm at 2:04 pm (UTC -4)
A++ interview Rusty! I’m very impressed – you asked excellent questions, and Evan had very honest and well thought-out answers. Really looking forward to part dos!
Mr North Jersey
12/20/2010-2:27pm at 2:27 pm (UTC -4)
Rusty! Congrats on the interview. It was a very good read. I look forward to part 2.
I would love to see what Joe B would say if you asked him similar questions.
Again this interview is a nice feather in your hat. Congrats!
wannybackstra
12/20/2010-5:49pm at 5:49 pm (UTC -4)
It was nice of Roberts to grant you this interview. But as far as broadcasting goes… he’s not so good. He takes a very unintelligent, emotional position on most things. He’s a good partner for Benigno in that respect but perhaps it would be more interesting radio if these guys were paired with someone a little more analytical than “the average joe fan” they represent.