Category: Latest News

Mets Hire Sandy Alderson as GM

The Mets will announce the hiring of Sandy Alderson at a press conference today at 2pm. He beat out Josh Byrnes for the job and I think you could call Alderson the “safe” choice. The Mets have little room for error with this hire and the reports are that Alderson is getting a 4-year contract. It’s a long term commitment to Alderson and the Mets really need to get this right.

The last two seasons have seen the Mets fall to a second league team with little for fans to get excited about. It’s Alderson’s job to change that. I don’t think it’ll be easy.

There’s some good information written about the direction that Alderson could be headed with the team:

  • MLBTradeRumors – Their usual excellent work of summarizing news articles on Alderson
  • ESPN– Ron Darling’s thoughts on Alderson after playing for him with the A’s
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Poll: Fans Choice for Mets GM

Logo of General Motors Corporation. Source: 20...
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Jeff Wilpon sent an email to everyone subscribing to the Mets email list that they’ve cut their GM candidates down to two people. Josh Byrnes and Sandy Alderson are the two candidates left standing. Allard Baird, Rick Hahn, Dana Brown, and Logan White were informed that they’re out of the running.

I still can’t understand why Wilpon won’t wait for the Rangers season to end to speak with Jon Daniels. But it looks like the Mets are intent on making a decision this week.

I would like to know who your choice is for GM. Both guys have experience, although Alderson’s is much deeper. Do you prefer Byrnes, Alderson, or someone else? Answer the poll below.


Who is your choice for Mets GM?online survey

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Mets Should Wait for Jon Daniels

Texas Rangers' GM John Daniels watches as the Rangers prepare to take on the New York Yankees in the ALCS at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Texas on October 14, 2010. Game one of the best of seven series will be on October 15, 2010 in Arlington. UPI/Ian Halperin Photo via Newscom

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.jsIf you’re a Mets fan and you’re not aware that the Mets have interviewed Allard Baird, Rick Hahn, Josh Byrnes, Sandy Alderson, and Logan White for the open GM position, you’ve been living under a rock. The Mets also were denied permission to speak to Tigers assistant GM Al Avila.

Before making any final decisions, the Wilpons should wait to talk to Jon Daniels, the current Texas Rangers GM. He’s only 33 years old and has been GM of the Rangers since 2005. Oh and by the way, he grew up in Queens as a Mets fan.

I’m not saying the Mets should hire him. But Daniels has an out clause in his contract if the Rangers are sold, which they were this season. So he can bail out on the Rangers at the end of the Rangers playoff run.

It took him five years to build a winner in Texas. So it’s not like he instantly changed the team there. But you could see that the Rangers were moving in the right direction with second place finishes in 2008 and 2009.

I certainly haven’t loved everything that I’ve seen from Daniels. He’s the GM that made that awful trade sending Chris Young and Adrian Gonzalez to the Padres for nothing in 2006. And in 2007 he sent John Danks to the White Sox for Brandon McCarthy. Another bad deal.

He’s had some good deals as well though. He got Neftali Feliz and Elvis Andrus from the Braves for Mark Teixeira. And he got Josh Hamilton from the Reds for Edinson Volquez. Most of his other trades have landed somewhere in the middle. But he did build the farm system into the number one rated system in 2008.

It’s been a mixed bag with Daniels, as it is with most GM’s when you look back at their trade histories. But it’s worth it for the Mets to postpone a decision to see if they can talk to Daniels. At worst, they’ll spark a bidding war with the Rangers for Daniels.

The Mets should bring in some people that have a personal connection to the organization. It isn’t a required attribute for a candidate but it would mean something to us as fans. I would love to see a combination of Daniels at GM and Wally Backman managing. That’s something that we all could get behind for the 2011 season.

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Mets, K-Rod Postpone Grievance Hearing

New York Mets pitcher Francisco Rodriguez is escorted by police for his arraignment on assault charges at Queens Criminal Court in New York August 12, 2010. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton (UNITED STATES - Tags: SPORT BASEBALL CRIME LAW IMAGES OF THE DAY)

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.jsThe Mets and Francisco Rodriguez were scheduled to have a hearing before an arbitrator today but canceled as negotiations are ongoing. I’m sure you recall that K-Rod is accused of beating the crap out his girlfriend’s father at Citi Field.

The Mets unilaterally decided to put K-Rod on the disqualified list for the rest of the 2010 season which allowed them not to pay about $3 million that they owed him. The Mets also unilaterally decided that K-Rod’s contract for 2011 wouldn’t be guaranteed, despite the written agreement they had in place.

Everyone knew the Mets wouldn’t get away with what they were trying to do. It was completely ridiculous. The MLBPA immediately filed a grievance on behalf of K-Rod, as they should have.

If the Mets and the players union are negotiating a settlement, there’s no way that K-Rod’s contract for next year won’t be guaranteed. The MLBPA is the most powerful union in sports. They won’t take this lying down. I’m sure they’ll agree to a relatively small fine for K-Rod. Maybe he won’t get paid for the $3 million for 2010 that he missed. That’s not too big of a deal. It’s less than 10% of his total contract anyway.

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Chat w/Adam Rubin- Mets GM, Manager Positions

Manager of the Brooklyn Cyclones Wally Backman gets vocal during a game on July 31, 2010 in Brooklyn, NY (Photo by Jack Shea / Meet The Famous) Photo via Newscom

http://view.picapp.com//JavaScripts/OTIjs.js Today, (Oct 12th) I was able to jump in on a chat that was hosted by Adam Rubin, ESPN.com, that was held, lunchtime, earlier today. He was actually conducting the chat from Yankee Stadium where the Yankees were having a full squad workout. The whole chat can be found here…. I’ve posted a screenshot of one of my questions regarding Beltran but I found many of the questions asked during the chat were excellent, including the questions before and after mine. Screenshot of chat w/Adam Rubin Although I think that the Mets GM search could essentially be over before it starts because Sandy Alderson is interested in the position, Mr. Rubin also reminds me that this is a too simplistic approach to searching for a GM and there are so many other qualities that should be considered.

  • In regards to another question as to whether Adam’s interview for the GM position has been setup yet, he did state that he was “under contract“.

Sounds like he’s still “Lobbying” for a position. Where’s Omar?

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Mets GM Search is Over Before It Even Starts

The Mets GM search is over. Sandy Alderson, currently fighting corruption on behalf of MLB’s commissioners office in the Dominican Republic, has thrown his hat into the ring with the full backing of commissioner Bud Selig. Basically the commissioner’s office is telling the Mets “Get your act together and if you can’t we’ll do it for you”.

Here are the GM names that have been thrown around this past week as candidates for the Mets GM position… Sandy Alderson, Pat Gillick, Gerry Hunsicker and Terry Ryan. Three of them don’t want the job. I’ll give you a hint who the three are… none of their names are Sandy Alderson.

Sandy Alderson’s current position is working as commissioner Selig’s new point man to address the issues of the corruption of baseball in the Dominican Republic, the largest supplier of Major League Baseball talent outside the United States. ~wikipedia

The Dominican Republic also happen’s to be the largest supplier of talent to Los Mets. Continue reading “Mets GM Search is Over Before It Even Starts”

Video: Fred Wilpon on Minaya, Manuel Firings

Here’s some video from Fox Sports from the Mets press conference yesterday. Fred Wilpon takes responsibility for the team’s lack of success over the past few years, since 2008 really.

Wilpon talks about the job of the new GM and manager being to win games and how the Mets haven’t been doing that successfully recently.

If you have trouble viewing the video with Internet Explorer, try Firefox or Chrome.

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Video: Mets done with Minaya, Manuel