The most well spoken person in the Mets organization talked to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. He talked about what Memorial Day means to him as an American and a former Marine. He talked about his experience in Vietnam and the different attitude Americans have toward military service now than they did in the 60’s and 70’s.
As expected, Alderson didn’t reveal much about the Mets plan for trades in 2011. He said that they’re still trying to understand what kind of potential the Mets have for this season. Of course, he’s not going to tip his hand this early. So there’s no surprise that he was exceptionally vague.
ESPN is reporting that the real motivation for David Einhorn to invest in the Mets is coming to light. We were all wondering what Einhorn was really getting for his $200 million dollar investment. Apparently, he doesn’t get much, if any, say in the running of the Mets. That will still be up to the Wilpon whether we like it or not.
The report states that Einhorn is buying 33% of the Mets for his $200 million. In three years, Einhorn will have the option to increase his percentage of ownership to 60%. But the Wilpons can block that move by giving Einhorn his $200 million back while allowing him to maintain 33% ownership.
If the ESPN story is true, it sheds some light on Einhorn’s real motivation. He’s allowing the Wilpons to use his money for three years and if they can’t pay it back at that time, he can take over the team. It’s a nice move by Einhorn and a risky one for the Wilpons. That lawsuit by the Madoff trustee should be settled within the next three years and determine the future ownership of the Mets.
The Mets honed in on the hedge fund guys right from the start as a particular sector of people that have enough disposable cash to make an impact on the Mets organization. David Einhorn is making a $200 million investment in the Mets as a minority owner with, apparently, no say in running the team. He’s satisfied to leave the daily operations to “The Schmuck” and his offspring.
There are several takes on this story that have been delved into all over the Internet. But the angle that I’m most interested in is that Einhorn is another one of Bud Selig’s cronies that has been placed within the Mets organization.
It’s a well known fact that Fred “The Schmuck” Wilpon and Selig are close. But over the last year Selig has effectively placed Sandy Alderson as the team’s GM and now Einhorn as the minority owner. Einhorn was born in Jersey but moved to Milwaukee as a child and has been there ever since. He even grew up as a neighbor of Selig’s.
You can hear the full conference call that Einhorn had with reporters below. But it’ll probably leave you dissatisfied. He really doesn’t say much since the deal hasn’t been consummated. Maybe it’s better to have Selig running the Mets now? The Schmuck certainly hasn’t been winning championships in the last 25 years. So maybe it’s time that we give Selig a chance to turn the Mets into winners again.
The Mets are now 22-24. A .478 winning percentage which leaves them about 4.5 – 5.5 games out of the wild card. At this rate the Mets will end up going 77-85. They will need to reverse this record to compete for a wild card. Maybe? So even after this weekends Subway Series we just have to find between 5 & 7 wins. Somewhere. It’s do-able but who will be doing it is the even bigger question.
Some Tough Decisions for Sandy Alderson.
If your team is only 5 games out of the wild card coming into the trading deadline what do you do? Your taking a big risk by holding onto free agents to be Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes. Trading Beltran and Reyes now may be the most logical thing to do although your telling the fan base your giving up on the year.
The loss of Reyes will be taken hard by the fans but we’ve never won with these players anyway. Now may be the time to unload them when their value is high. I wouldn’t want to be in Sandy’s shoes. Although, if it was me, I would make the tough decision to trade Reyes. I would really need to be overwhelmed with the package though, but if I could rebuild the starting pitching staff now…
My feeling is, Sandy Alderson, the former Marine, will pull the trigger on a trade for Reyes regardless of what the fans think. Reyes will never be more valuable than he is now. He brings energy to the club, is fun to watch and helps fill the seats but so does winning. I think we’ll forget Reyes pretty quickly if the Mets make a playoff run without him. Continue reading “Mets Early 2011 – Next Few Weeks Could Impact Team For Years”
Mets owner Fred Wilpon decided to do an extensive interview with Jeffrey Toobin on New Yorker magazine to rehabilitate his image. Obviously, he’s been under fire financially and painted as a crook by the Madoff trustee. That may or may not be true. I don’t know.
What better way to clear your good name than doing an extensive profile with a respected magazine journalist? Well, sometimes it’s better to just keep your mouth shut if you don’t have anything good to say. This just appears to be another example of the bumbling Mets owner being disconnected from reality. Or maybe living in his own reality that nobody else ever gets to visit.
The profile is about Wilpon’s rise from rags to riches. Frankly, it’s a pretty boring story. If you go directly to page 7, you’ll see that it isn’t so boring when it comes to his feelings about some prominent Mets players. David Wright isn’t a superstar. Jose Reyes won’t get Carl Crawford money in free agency. Wilpon was a schmuck for signing Carlos Beltran to the contract they agreed on and isn’t the player he used to be. And Ike Davis is a good hitter on “a shitty team”. Continue reading “Fred Wilpon Trashes Mets in Interview”
The Mets announced that tonight’s game against the Florida Marlins is rained out and will be played on Monday July 18th at 7:10pm. The field was a mess last night and the weather has been a mess here for days. They did the right thing because the field didn’t look like it was in playing condition. There were bad hops and sliding looked like going into a sand pit.
In this week’s video weekly Mets Report with Kerel Cooper of On The Black we first talk about R.A. Dickey and the disappointing season that he’s having. It’s only the middle of May but Dickey hasn’t won a game in more than a month. He signed a 2-year deal before the season but certainly isn’t living up to the expectations that the Mets had for him when they signed the deal.
We also get into Daniel Murphy playing first base with Ike Davis on the disabled list. Kerel asks if this is going to hurt Murphy’s defensive development at second base. He’s definitely made some strides defensively but Murphy is probably the best backup corner infielder on the team.
The last topic that we touch on is Carlos Beltran and the resurgent season that he’s having in the final year of his contract with the Mets. The timing is great for Beltran and the Mets if they’re planning to trade him, which you have to assume that the Mets are. Beltran does have a full no-trade clause but the Mets haven’t done anything yet this season to appear to make a run at the playoffs. So he would probably waive that clause for a chance to get into a playoff race. Maybe he could even do some major damage like he did with the Astros in the ’04 postseason.
The Mets Report 