Category: Latest News

Mets’ Wilpon Trying to Avoid Jury Trial in Madoff Case

Bernard Madoff's mugshot
Image via Wikipedia

Mets owner Fred Wilpon filed papers with the Federal District Court in Manhattan attempting to avoid a jury trial against Irving Picard, the trustee for the Madoff victims. According to a report in the NY Times on Friday, the issue at hand is that the two remaining charges against Wilpon are generated from bankruptcy law according to Wilpon’s legal team. Generally, a bankruptcy case wouldn’t contain a jury component. The judge would render verdicts.

Wilpon and his legal team were emboldened by Judge Jed Rakoff dismissing nine of the eleven charges against Wilpon last month. So they want the same judge to render a verdict during a trial for the remaining two charges.

Picard filed a motion claiming that the victims of fraud in this case are entitled to a jury trial against the alleged perpetrators of fraud like Wilpon and his brother-in-law Saul Katz.

The Madoff fraud case is a stench that’s been hanging over the Mets for far too long. This is going to be the second offseason that the Mets have had to walk a financial tightrope when negotiating with free agents. Although the highest potential verdict against Wilpon in now $386 million instead of $1 billion, it still inhibits the Mets ability to re-sign Jose Reyes and negotiate with other free agents.

I’ve heard so many Mets fans tell me that they wish Wilpon would sell the team and go away. It’s hard to argue that point when the Mets are in the midst of one of the darkest periods in team history. At least the early 1960’s Mets had the excuse that they were an expansion team. The current crop of “stars” like  Jason Bay are playing in a brand new park and still can’t draw a decent crowd. It’s a sad state of affairs for this team.

Mets First Batting Champion and Finish in Last Place?

NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 09: Jose Reyes of the N...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

This was quite the interesting year for our New York Mets, from the worst start in club history to HatGate… with 9 games left to the season there are still a few things to look forward to. Hard to believe a team who has been out of playoff contention for months can have so much riding on the last 9 games of the season but it’s more about hope for the future than anything else.

Will Reyes Win the Batting Title?

Our first batting champion in Mets history? Although it won’t help our prospects of resigning him, but if the Mets do manage to resign Jose Reyes this will be a huge reason, maybe the only reason, why the fans will come back next year… to see our homegrown Batting Champion lead a new round of youngsters to a winning season.

Will the Mets End Up in Last?

I actually picked the Mets for last this year. They are 4 games out of last with 9 to play. They also happen to play a series against the Phillies and Cards before they end the season against the Reds. Will the Phillies cruise and give the Mets a break or will they go all out and try to bury the Mets? The Cards are in full blown Wild Card race mode so they will be tough to beat.

My Spring Training Prediction: Dead Last. A successful season would be if they take 3rd. 4th place and the season is a wash. So I’m hoping for 3rd. Last is not really looking like a possible outcome. Continue reading “Mets First Batting Champion and Finish in Last Place?”

Mets Trying to Sell Smaller Stake in Team

NEW YORK - AUGUST 06: New York Mets Chief Exe...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

According to the NY Post, the Mets owners had a conference call with the group of banks that have approximately $500 million outstanding in loans to the team. Fred Wilpon and banker Steve Greenberg expressed confidence that they would be able to sell several “smaller” shares of the team by the end of 2011 after David Einhorn pulled out of deal to invest $200 million last week. [The picture at the right is Wilpon and Einhorn in happier days].

A couple of months ago, JP Morgan sent a tersely worded letter to Wilpon stating that some covenants of the loan had been breached by Wilpon. The letter didn’t say Wilpon was in default. But you know where this was headed.

During the call, Greenberg also told the lenders that their potential exposure to the Madoff lawsuit had been reduced recently. And it came out that Wilpon and Saul Katz had kicked in some amount under $50 million of their own money to keep the team running.

It sounds like the tone of the call was that everything was great as far as the Mets owners are concerned. They’re still going to take on minority investors by the end of the year, the Madoff lawsuit isn’t as bad as it could have been, and the lenders should be assured that there aren’t any immediate financial problems. We’ll see if that turns out to be the case.

Report: Mets Will Field Offers for David Wright

David Wright
Image via Wikipedia

ESPN’s Buster Olney writes today that he expects the Mets to listen to offers for David Wright in the offseason. It’s the perfect time contractually to trade Wright because he only has one year left on his contract plus a team option for 2013 that is eliminated if he’s traded. Next season he’ll make $15 million and the 2013 option is for $16 million with a $1 million buyout.

Olney expects the Rockies and Angels to be in on the bidding for Wright. I’m sure there would plenty of other teams that would contact Sandy Alderson if they knew that Wright was available. His contract is very much aligned with his on-field value and with only one year left, there’s almost no down side for a team to acquire him. If the first year doesn’t work out let him to free agency for, presumably, Type A compensation.

The problem for the Mets is that if they trade Wright, they need to re-sign Jose Reyes or the team will be in danger of completely cratering for seasons to come. If the Mets trade Wright and don’t re-sign Reyes, it will clearly be a salary dump move to help alleviate the Madoff situation. And that won’t sit well with fans like me.

Timing could be an issue as well. Free agency starts five days after the World Series ends and Reyes will be one of the most valuable players in free agency. He may sign a new contract quickly, which wouldn’t give Alderson much time to work out a trade for Wright.  That could be the most difficult aspect of this.

Thanks to MLBTradeRumors for the tip.

Johan Santana Rehab Start for St. Lucie Mets

MIAMI GARDENS, FL - JULY 24: Johan Santana #5...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Mets starting pitcher Johan Santana made his second rehab start for the St. Lucie Mets today. He pitched two innings, facing 9 batters, and gave up 1 run on 3 hits. He had 2 strikeouts and no walks in the game. He was scheduled to pitch 2 innings or 40 pitches.

Time will tell if it was a successful rehab start. If you remember, he made a start for St. Lucie on July 28 and hasn’t pitched again in more than a month now. Coming back from shoulder surgery is tricky and the Mets have to be careful. Not only because he’s coming back from an injury, but also because he’s the most costly resource in the entire Mets system making $22.5 million without even throwing a pitch.

His salary escalates to $24 million in 2012 and $25.5 million in 2013 with an option for 2014 at $25 million. If the Mets can’t get Santana healthy enough to pitch in 2012, they’ll be in big trouble combined with a decreasing payroll. The simple fact is that they just can’t have a guy on the disabled list taking up nearly 25% of the team’s payroll. It’s impossible to win that way.

Mets Have a Real Shot at Last Place

The Mets Could Win the Anti-Pennant Race…

After reading Yahoo Sports this afternoon, I wasn’t surprised to come across an article reporting that the Mets had a real shot at finishing up in last place. To me it seems for the last 4 years they have always had a shot at finishing up in last place. Coming into Spring Training I thought this looked like a last place team and now they may actually be that team.

Will they rise to the occasion this year and stay out of last, giving us hope for the future? Or will they wither from the dog days of summer and end up in last, right where I predicted they would be…?

Only time will tell but the Mets, Nationals, and Marlins are all within 2 games of each other.  So, for the next 6 weeks there’s sort of an anti-pennant race we can all watch. The race to the cellar!

The Mets schedule for the rest of August is brutal. Milwaukee, Phillies, and then Atlanta. Then they’ll finish off with a strange series against the Marlins.

5 Game Series with Florida

The Mets have an interesting 5 game series with Florida coming up the end of this month. They then go on to play the Nationals and Marlins on the road.

They still have series against Atlanta, the Phillies, St. Louis and Cincinnati in September too. These will all be tough series to take. They have 12 games away and 14 games at home. This year home field advantage has not been an advantage at all.

It’s very possible they continue to play sub .500 ball while all the teams in a Pennant race beat them up. Continue reading “Mets Have a Real Shot at Last Place”

Reyes, Murphy Injured in Mets 6-5 Loss To Braves

NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 03: Jose Reyes #7 of the N...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

As if it wasn’t bad enough that Bobby Parnell blew the game in the ninth, there are major injuries to talk about. Jose Reyes left the game in the second inning with a mild hamstring strain. Unfortunately, the last time this happened he was out of action for three weeks. Maybe the recurring injuries will keep his contract down in the offseason.

Daniel Murphy was injured more severely in the seventh inning when he took a spike from Jose Constanza in the lower leg at second base. Murphy had just come into the game as a pinch hitter in the inning. The Mets have already put Murphy on the disabled list and called up Ruben Tejada to replace him.

If Reyes goes on the disabled list too, it’s going to be a severe hit to an already under-manned team. The faint glimmer of hope for a late season miracle will be completely out the window with Reyes and Murphy out for any lengthy period of time.

Terry Collins said after the game that Murphy indicated when he was coming off the field that the injury was pretty serious. He was telling them “Get me off the field” as they helped him off.