Category: Latest News

Mets Release Luis Castillo

Luis Castillo with the New York Mets on June 2...
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There wasn’t much doubt that this was going to happen at some point this spring, it was just a matter of when it was going to happen. Today, the news came out that the Mets finally released the chronically under-performing Luis Castillo. It came out from the beat reporters that Castillo asked for his release today, unhappy with the assemblage of talent trying out at second base to replace him. Even the $6.25 million left on his contract for 2011 wasn’t enough to save him.

Castillo’s contract was inexplicable from the start. The Mets picked him up from the Twins at the trading deadline in 2007 and went on to one of the greatest late-season collapses in baseball history. At 31 years old, he appeared to be on the downside of a former speedster’s career. His legs didn’t look fresh and he couldn’t cover the same ground in the field that he did in the late 90’s with the Marlins when we saw him steal bases against Mike Piazza at will with his running mate Juan Pierre.

Of course, Omar Minaya rewarded him with a long-term contract. 4 -years/$25 million. It was hard to believe that was really true. But it was. Continue reading “Mets Release Luis Castillo”

Video: Mets Injuries, Santana, Beltran, Perez

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 27: Johan Santana #57 of...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Kerel Cooper of On The Black and I address the Johan Santana rumors about him not pitching in 2011 in this week’s video on the state of the Mets. We also talk about Carlos Beltran and his current status and the Oliver Perez move to the bullpen.

We talk about the effects on the team that the Santana and Beltran injuries could have for the season. Check out the video and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Report: Mets’ Johan Santana Out For 2011 Season

Johan Santana won’t be back to pitch in 2011 according to a report in The Record by Steve Popper and Bob Klapisch. The report states that Santana’s throwing sessions haven’t gone well and that the Mets are considering pulling the plug on his rehab and re-evaluating the work that he should be doing at this point.

Originally, Santana was supposed to be doing rehab from his left shoulder surgery last September with an eye towards return in early July. Santana himself even reiterated that timetable in a Feb. 17 radio interview with Mike Francesa of WFAN New York.

The Mets already thin starting rotation is pretty much in shambles without Santana coming back this season. Let’s face it, nobody wants to see Chris Capuano getting 30 starts this year and that’s the painful reality of today’s news.

You never know how a season is going to go for a team before it starts. I think most people are predicting the Mets finishing third or fourth in the NL East. And I believe that’s a fair assessment of the team and the division. Without Santana, the team’s best player and highest paid player not pitching at all in 2011 those predictions could be lowered. It’s going to be a sad state of affairs for this team going through the fourth year of a seven year contract without Santana pitching at all.

In addition, Mets ownership can’t be happy with the prospect of Santana’s $22.5 million salary going up in flames either, considering their financial situation. Presumably, the Mets have insurance for all or a portion of Santana’s salary in case of injury. But given this ownership group, I wouldn’t put it past them to be forced to swallow the whole salary because of a bad insurance policy.

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Mets’ Carlos Beltran Moves to Right Field

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 28: Carlos Beltran #15 ce...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Carlos Beltran told manager Terry Collins today that he would accept a move to right field so that Angel Pagan can take over center. Beltran is still slightly hobbled by the knee surgery he had just over a year ago. Although he played center field in the second half of last season, he really couldn’t move very well and was playing more on reputation than skill.

At first blush it seems like an altruistic move by Beltran. He puts the team first and moves out of the way for the young buck, Pagan. Apparently, Carlos Delgado and Scott Boras helped him come to this conclusion. You know if Boras is involved that there’s more to it than putting the team first.

I have to think that there’s a strategy here. Beltran said that he thinks he can still play center and if he had more time that he’d be able to get in shape to play a solid center field. Since this is a contract year for Beltran, I believe that this is a strategic move to maximize Beltran’s value for another contract.

Check out the video below to hear Beltran talking about the adjustments he’ll need to make switching from center to right field.

http://espn.go.com/videohub/player/embed.swf

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Video: Mets Spring Training, Secret Loans, Bench

Kerel Cooper of the On The Black and I got together again to talk about the state of the Mets. This week we cover spring training games starting, MLB issuing a secret loan to the Mets, the bullpen, and the candidates for the bench in 2011.

A couple of issues we talked about that are worth discussion are that I love Jenrry Mejia in the bullpen and hate Nick Evans coming off the bench. Check out the video below to see why.

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Buying Mets 2011 Tickets?

Citi Field at Night
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If you’re on the Mets email list, you know that they’ve been sending a constant stream of emails attempting to entice you into purchasing tickets for the 2011 season. I haven’t purchased any yet and I don’t plan to until I get a sense for what this team looks like on the field. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t liked what I’ve seen since 2007 and I’m just not motivated by the slight roster changes this year to purchase tickets.

Ken Belson and Richard Sandomir wrote a good piece in today’s NY Times about the state of the team’s finances, as if we haven’t read enough about that recently, and the Mets tickets sales for this year. They write that ticket sales for this season are going so poorly that the team is literally in a state of panic about it. Apparently, they replaced the long-time head of ticket sales and last week let go of several full-time employees, and aren’t re-hiring several part-time employees in the ticket office.

I hate to hear that people are losing their jobs. I’ve been laid off before too and it’s a terrible experience. So I don’t wish that on anybody. Often, it’s not the person getting laid off that’s at fault either. Poor management decisions can lead to that and the poor managers often keep their jobs for some unknown reason.

The Catch-22 of the situation is that the Mets didn’t make any changes to the roster that would motivate fans, like me, to go out and buy a ticket plan. Fans aren’t buying tickets so the team doesn’t have the revenue to make major player moves.  My strategy this year, as it has been the last several seasons, is to look for a good team and pitching match up and buy tickets on the secondary market for those individual games. I feel that it’s helping the fans that did purchase season tickets to sell some of them. Although I probably end up buying tickets from some horrible broker that bought thousands of tickets. Who knows when you buy on StubHub?

I’m curious to know what you ticket buying strategy is for 2011. Leave a comment below.

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Mets Receive $25 Million Bailout From MLB

The modern MLB logo was first used in 1969.
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The New York Times revealed the existence of a $25 million loan from MLB to the Mets last November. Under pressure from a $1 billion lawsuit by the trustee for the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, the Wilpons reached out to their old friend, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, for a line of funding to keep the Mets operating for a short time.

The loan was so secret that Selig didn’t even tell the other owners that he was providing a bailout to the team one of the highest payrolls in the league and one of the priciest front offices as well. Selig finally told baseball’s executive committee in January about the existence of the loan. A Times reporter asked Fred Wilpon yesterday if he received financial assistance from MLB. Wilpon said he didn’t want to talk about team finances and dashed away quickly. When Wilpon was told that the Times found out about the secret loan, the team issued a brief statement to the media:

We said in October that we expected to have a short-term liquidity issue. To address this, we did receive a loan from Major League Baseball in November. Beyond that, we will not discuss the matter any further.

Last year MLB provided about $40 million in assistance to the Texas Rangers. That was because the owner and team were in bankruptcy. The loan that the Mets received isn’t far off in dollar value and is very telling about the state of the Mets finances compared to where the Rangers were last year.

The issue that concerns me is that the Wilpons haven’t been forthright, whatsoever, with the fans and the media about the real situation. Last year the Wilpons said the lawsuit didn’t have any financial impact on the operations of the Mets. It has. Last month the Wilpons admitted that they’re trying to find a minority investor in the team but there was no issue with operations. Last week the Wilpons arrived in Port St. Lucie and reiterated that the Mets had no financing problems.

The owners haven’t been forthcoming with the fans about the real situation with the team’s finances. Going forward, we have to take everything they reveal about the finances with a grain of salt. They’re being careful not to lie about it, but they’re certainly not talking about the true nature of the problem that this caused for the team.

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