Here are some of the highlights from Mets GM Sandy Alderson’s interview today with Mike Francesa of WFAN.
- Expects Santana to be in the rotation when the team breaks camp but also notes it will be hard to fully predict what is going to happen when he gets on the mound and throws his 1st bullpen and throws his 1st 2 or 3 innings in a game.
- Believes Torres is a defensive upgrade in CF The issue will be will he hit the way he did in 2009,2010 or revert back to what he did in 2011.
- Prefers High on base over stolen base potential at the top of the lineup so from that standpoint he is not sure he has anyone that is perfect for the leadoff spot.
- While believing Duda will be better in RF also doesn’t expect him to ever be Roberto Clemente out in RF but at the same time says sometimes you have to give up a little bit (on defense I suppose) with his kind of offensive potential.
- Acknowledges depth is an issue with the starting rotation. Says they will keep an eye on other teams and believes a lot of players will be available because the new cba rule that states that any major league player that signs a minor league contract has to be paid $100K to continue with same team on a minor league contract once the season begins.
- Says they are looking at the young arms (Harvey, Familia, Wheeler I am guessing) in 2013,2014 as being “critical” additions to the Mets.
- Says there is a lot of interest in Duda among other teams.
- Says he didn’t come here to operate the Oakland A’s and doesn’t expect to do that on a long term basis and not doing it currently.
- Says he would not have handled the Reyes situation differently.
- Says the best opportunity to trade Reyes was to the Giants and they were already engaged with them on Beltran and got what they were hoping to get with Reyes with Beltran and it wasn’t clear he could make 2 deals with the same team.
- Says regarding his tweets by no means he is making light of where they are as a franchise and that he is trying to inject a little humor into the last couple of weeks of the offseason.
8 comments
MetsFan4Decades
2/14/2012-5:20pm at 5:20 pm (UTC -4)
Tuned into this interview.
I chuckled at the end when Francesa thanked Sandy for his honesty – when so many fans are claiming he does nothing but lie.
Don’t know that he said anything I already didn’t know or assume.
Found the conversation on ‘would you have done anything different with Reyes’. interesting. Bottom line is they made the decision to hold onto him b/c they thought there was a chance to sign him, however small that might have been.
I’ll give SA credit – he thinks quick on his feet.
gategem
2/15/2012-6:24pm at 6:24 pm (UTC -4)
It’s not outright lying. In DC they call it “spin.”
“The truth is always an insult or a joke, lies are generally tastier. We love them. The nature of lies is to please. Truth has no concern for anyone’s comfort” – Arturo Binewski.”
Hazmet
2/15/2012-7:01pm at 7:01 pm (UTC -4)
Great quote, never heard that before.
It’s not a lie if you believe it’s true. – George Costanza
MetsFan4Decades
2/16/2012-8:25am at 8:25 am (UTC -4)
LOL….nice.
Stickguy
2/14/2012-6:36pm at 6:36 pm (UTC -4)
my guess, a combination of no decent offers after he came up lame, and thinking the offers might stay low enough (probably for the same reason, the hammy!) that they would be able to resign him.
of course, I also think he wanted to go to Miami all along, and that those wheels were already in motion. But that is just my gut talking.
Oh, if they trade Duda? I am done. Over. Out. Unless they get some stud pitching prospect and a starting catcher for the next 6 years. And even then I may boycott for a while.
MetsFan4Decades
2/15/2012-7:53am at 7:53 am (UTC -4)
Trade Duda? Have you been seeing some rumors about that?
The only way I could see them trading Duda is if his bat is lethal, his fielding is awful and they’ve got a prospect coming up for RF who can hold is own with a bat and is a far better fielder. Even then, I’d have to assume that would be a few years down the road.
That or Duda turns out not to be a real liability in the OF and his bat doesn’t hold up to what’s currently being projected.
SA did talk a bit about Duda saying he was a bit of a surprise who came out of nowhere.
He said he expected the offense to be pretty good but is concerned about the defense. His exact words were along the lines of hoping they didn’t sacrifice defense to gain some offense. He didn’t state specifics but I can only assume he was referring to Duda and Murphy in the field.
Stick
2/15/2012-1:08pm at 1:08 pm (UTC -4)
Just referring to this item:
“Says there is a lot of interest in Duda among other teams. ”
Not sure he came out of nowhere. He put up a monster year in the minors the year before (2009?) with an OPS over 1.00. So not like he showed nothing.
Ceetar
2/15/2012-3:09pm at 3:09 pm (UTC -4)
the ‘expected’ payroll fell from where they could’ve afforded Reyes AND another SP (along with everything else they did), to the point that it would’ve been just Reyes. Made sense at the time.