Patchy's All-Inclusive Guest Thread

[patchyfogg]

We had Newsday�s Neil Best on with us on Thursday night. He is now writing their �Sports Watch� column focusing on sports media, sports business and being an advocate for sports fans. For the last 10 years, he was Newsday�s Giants beat writer.

We had a nice discussion on the new Mets Network.

Mr. Best kicked off his initial Sports Watch column by getting dueling quotes from Jeremy Shockey and Mike Francesa last week (in one of them, Shockey said that �Francesa will die of a heart attack soon.�).

Mr. Best also broke the DirecTV not showing local hockey games on Tuesday�s Opening Night. This came after listeners called into Newsday�s offices that night.

The interview is divided into 2 parts (because it was on 2 different minidisks). Part I is 19+ minutes, and Part II is 17+ minutes.

You can find the interview here:

http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg

Here�s what is covered:

Part I
--Shockey and Francesa
--Why not all CBS and Fox NFL games are not yet shown in HD
--The DirecTV Opening Night fiasco
--Why some NY newspapers (News and Times) are not initially covering road hockey
games
--OLN�s coverage of the NHL
--The New Mets Network--The announced Jets/Giants Stadium
--The Jets� future at Hofstra
--Neil�s farewell to being a beat writer
--Dave Brown (some funny lines there)

Part II
--A discussion of all things Eli Manning
--Baseball Playoff Ratings, and the teams involved
--Covering football vs. baseball
--Plaxico Burress
--The relationship between Strahan and Coughlin
--A discussion of all things Tom Coughlin
--Being there for Jim Fassel�s famous �on the table� speech
--Sid Rosenberg�s status
--A discussion of whether or not the Meadowlands is too far from Long Island
--Why the Jets could never have gone to Queens
--The relationship between Mara and Tisch

[patchyfogg]

Just as we did in July, we had Buster Olney on with us again on my 100% commercial-free, no one makes a dime from it, Long Island Sports Talk radio show last week. Close to 50% of it (you do have to tread through some Yankee talk at the beginning) is Mets-related. It's 18 commercial-free minutes long. I hope you enjoy!

Olney thinks that Omar "panicked" in the Nady deal--calling it "stupid," among other things. It was recorded before the Delgado deal, but he alludes to it, as well. He does think that they will wind up with the best Winter of any team, though.


http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg


As always, thanks.

P.S. Daily News Mets beat writer Adam Rubin will be in-studio with us in a week or two taking your calls. I'll let you know either way.

[patchyfogg]

As a little holiday gift to my fellow Mets fans, we�re having New York Daily News Mets beat writer Adam Rubin live in-studio tonight for our entire show taking your calls and discussing all things Mets.

As you know, my radio show is 100% commercial-free and no one makes a dime from it. While we�re not yet webcast, I do post the interviews as soon as humanly possible at http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg

The show runs from 9PM to 11PM Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9PM to 11PM on Nassau County�s public radio station 90.3FM. Adam will be on for the entire show tonight.

Given that a lot of you have started to download our past interviews (much appreciated, by the way), I hope that you�ll all call in. Adam is the writer who Anna Benson threw under the bus last week in denying her recent inflammatory quotes, so that will make for good conversation. Plus, he�s got a book on the 2005 Mets coming out in the Spring.

The call-in # from 9PM to 11PM is 516-572-7440. If you should get a busy signal, just call back (there�s only 1 line in).

As always, thanks. And, I hope to hear from you tonight.

P.S. If you call in, feel free to mention CPF.

[patchyfogg]

Part 1 is now up. It's 74 minutes long. Great for your long holiday trips!

http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg

[Frayed Knot]

Boiling down Rubin's take:


* Team is holding the line on payroll for now - mainly as a result of the big deals to Wagner/Delgado, etc. - something that'll affect the pen more than anything. The fear of getting stuck with a steep tab is essentially the reason for no arbi-offers to Looper & Hernandez and also for staying away from multi-year or high-priced offers to the likes of Tavarez/Dotel. The back end of the pen will likely be filled with vet scrap-heap pickups or camp invitees. Royce Ring is rapidly falling off the team's radar ... may not even get a ML camp invite in ST.

* Nady seems to be the team choice to get the majority of the time in RF, he's much higher on their priority list right now than Diaz

* Yates & Lydon - the recently released minor leaguers - almost certain to look for work in a new org.

* Matsui will be the starter at 2nd (assuming he's still here on opening day) but be on a shorter leash with Woodward & Valentin in the wings

* Pedro's toe issue could be being played up a bit in order to be used as an excuse to get out of the WBC. An injury reason for not pitching for your home boys would be a face saving mechanism over saying you don't want to or that your daddy (team) won't let you. Remember, the recent comments about it still hurting were said during a dinner [u:1d9affed2e]in the DR[/u:1d9affed2e].

* Manny almost certainly not in the cards for all the usual reasons: money, lack of match up w/Boston, etc. It's too big a ri$k to add to the ones we already have for '07-'08. see also [url=http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/story/377165p-320419c.html]today's article[/url]

* Touched a bit on the future Reyes arbitration issue.
Doesn't think Omar & co will be automatically as arbi-adverse as previous admins neccesarily. May deal with Reyes one year at a time when that time comes depending on how things go, yyybbb.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

Frayed Knot wrote: May deal with Reyes one year at a time when that time comes depending on how things go, yyybbb.

B-b-b-but I thought you said--oh, never mind.

[patchyfogg]

And, Part 2 (45 commercial-free minutes) is now up.

Happy Holidays, I hope you enjoy.

Please let me know what you thought.

Thanks.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

While a pile of blank checks might be preferable, in a way we're sorta lucky that Omar spent himself into a position where he'll have to work harder and more creatively to find solutions in the bullpen.

This is where "Whatever The F Happened To" Ben Baumer earns his paltry paychexx.

Go Ben, Go!

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Bret Sabermetric wrote: B-b-b-but I thought you said--oh, never mind.

I don't understand this comment.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

Frayed Knot has been patronizingly assuring me that the Mets will do almost anything rather than take a player to arbitration, and I'm overracting outrageously by suggesting that's a likely outcome with Reyes. Now that Omar's making noises suggesting otherwise, I'm sure Frayed Knot has no memory of implying any such thing. Pay attention, Yancy.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

All we've seen is that Adam Rubin and Frayed disagree.

[patchyfogg]

These are my interpretations, not Adam's quotes at all:

On the arbitration front, Adam said that the Mets would like to avoid arbitration as is their wont. He added though, that as we've seen with Omar, he might be doing things differently than has been done in the past.

Adam said that the current 3 guys will probably avoid arbitration as their market value is fairly easy to peg. He also added that only about 4 different agents represent the bulk of the Mets roster, so they're constantly talking anyway.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

The argument doesn't appear to be with Rubin, who acknowledges FK's statement the Mets have been averse to arbitration in the past. Not ffor nothing, but they also have yet to go there since Omar took over.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

I agree with FK's bold assertion about the Mets avoiding arbitration in the past.

Also that water is wet. I agree there too. And that up is higher than down.

Now, whether the Mets' policy has, in the main, helped them or hurt them, there is where we have room for disagreement, and where FK and others don't like to commit themselves.

For my money, there's very little difference, monetarily, between an arbitrated one-year contract and a negotiated one. Both sides come up with a figure that they believe represents the player's true market value, and usually each side gives in and they reach an agreement, rather than risk the other side's fugure being chosen. If one or both are being unrealistic, they arbitrate.

The real distinction is between those two routes and a LT term contract. I think what FK's arguing is that there are three separate and distinct routes, of which I'm overlooking the Mets' preferred choice.

[Frayed Knot]

"All we've seen is that Adam Rubin and Frayed disagree"

I don't see where I'm disagreeing with him at all.
I've never said that an arbitration buy-out deal is the only route to take so to avoid the arbitration process, only that it's an option that has several advantages as long as it involves a player where there's confindence in steady growth.
I have no problem if they decide to take things a year at a time and Rubin thinks they might go that route and simply added that he doesn't think the current administration would eliminate taking things to arbitration as an option.

[Frayed Knot]

"Adam said that the current 3 guys will probably avoid arbitration as their market value is fairly easy to peg. "

Those current 3 eligibles being Castro, Zambrano & Woodward.
There's not really going to be a whole lot of salary range for those 3 nor any reasons to offer anything more than 1 year, meaning that the '06 numbers will probably be some easily reached agreed upon figure.



"Now, whether the Mets' policy has, in the main, helped them or hurt them, there is where we have room for disagreement, and where FK and others don't like to commit themselves."

Meaning what ... that I'm required to commit myself *Right Now* to being squarely behind one strategy to the exclusion of all others even though it's a year before any such decision needs to be made and having no idea what next year will look like and what numbers the other side will or won't accept or I'm doomed to be labeled forever as some sort of waffling milquetoast?
OK Fine, I'm guilty!

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

="Frayed Knot"]"Now, whether the Mets' policy has, in the main, helped them or hurt them, there is where we have room for disagreement, and where FK and others don't like to commit themselves." Meaning what ... that I'm required to commit myself *Right Now* to being squarely behind one strategy to the exclusion of all others even though it's a year before any such decision needs to be made and having no idea what next year will look like and what numbers the other side will or won't accept or I'm doomed to be labeled forever as some sort of waffling milquetoast? OK Fine, I'm guilty!

Not what you're being charged with. I was expressing mild irritation with your all-purpose response "I don't know that for sure, you don't know that for sure, and we'll never know what's going on."

That's kind of a given, in baseball and in life, and while no one ever has the kind of certainty you enjoy shooting down, people express their beliefs on message boards, and the reasons for those beliefs, without necessarily needing to satisfy your never-ending quest for categorical certainty.

In the Reyes thread, for example I'm asking a fairly straightforward question: If Reyes has the kind of year JD is speculating is likely, do we want to offer him a one-year deal or do we want to make him some kind of LT contract? Among your contributions to this thread is the somewhat redundant point that not all one-year deals are arbitrated (yes, yes, but all arbitrated deals are one-year deals and fairly insignificant in terms of money differences). One point you make is that the Mets have a policy of avoiding arbitration (again, no big deal, except in cases where they've offered LT contracts as a negotiating tool, which I'm not sure they've done so much and which is not so wise, IMO). Another point you make is that all LT contracts don't necessarily equal superstar money, which is technically true, but most of them do, and all of them represent a gamble on the club's part that the player will be productive for the long term, which is far from true.

I'm looking to gather opinions, well before the crisis is here, to try to evaluate coolly how we feel about offering a player (without a whole lot of evidence that he's a big star) the kind of contract that a big star warrants, based on not much more than hopes and dreams. I'm somewhat irritably pointing out that you keep quibbling, in ways that I'll try to answer point-by-point, but which I think most of us already understand, on issues apart from my question: how to avoid a very similar problem that the Mets got into with Rey Ordonez (and do we WANT to avoid that fix)? My underlying theme is that we may not want to avoid that problem, because it's so comforting to tell ourselves that our young talented shortstop is a future star, and you keep answering in effect, "We don't KNOW if Reyes is going to be a star or not," which is kinda my point, and kinda deflective.

You don't want to answer definitively until more evidence is in, but since I'm supplying (or Dickshot is) an example of what the evidence may well prove to be, and asking for your position on what the Mets should do given that evidence, why is it so hard to answer whether a LT contract is better than a series of one-year deals? Could it be that you're uncomfortable stating flatly what you think the Mets should do? I think you enjoy being able to state, whatever the outcome, that you understood the situation all along, when in reality you're as clueless as, or more clueless than, most of us are most of the time, and I hope you don't mind too much that I point out that rhetorical tendancy of yours from time to time.

[Frayed Knot]

]I'm looking to gather opinions, well before the crisis is here, to try to evaluate coolly how we feel about offering a player (without a whole lot of evidence that he's a big star) the kind of contract that a big star warrants, based on not much more than hopes and dreams. I'm somewhat irritably pointing out that you keep quibbling

Not quibbling at all.
In fact I've been about as specific as the assumptions we've allowed for here can let us be about the size and type of deal I think would be worthwhile to both sides given a young player's desire for "security" and the club's want of "cost certainty" for budget planning purposes plus this team's historical reluctance towards arbitration. Not that I'm saying they HAVE TO go that route, only that I think it's one both sides would be agreeable to either after this coming year or maybe after the next.
And - contrary to what you keep repeating - there IS a middle ground between a 1-year deal and a deal commensurate with being "a big star".
Now, if you want to insist that such a deal needs to extend into the FA/major bucks years then that's a much bigger risk and one I wouldn't want to take with this player at this time.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

Can we go back into the Reyes-arb thread and stop messing up Patchy's thread?

Meet you there.

[Frayed Knot]

Yo Patchy, I sent you a PM.
Get back to me when you get a minute.

[patchyfogg]

Frayed:

I have passed along the info to the Falcon that flies at Midnight.

[seawolf17]

Patchy-

Just downloaded the Neil Best interview. Haven't listened to it (I'll pop it in the car on the way home), but here's a suggestion: rip it to mp3 at a lower bitrate. 160 is fine, and I'm sure the sound is excellent; but considering it's talk radio, you could definitely go down to 128 (CD quality), or probably even lower (96 kbps), save a ton of file space, and not lose any quality.

Just a thought.

[seawolf17]

Gave it a listen... two quick thoughts: one, Neil Best is a little dry. His insight was okay, but he was a mite boring. Two, you sound eerily like me. I jumped when I heard your voice; it sounded like I was listening to one of my old news broadcasts.

[patchyfogg]

Yes, he was very dry though his columns do bear out his wonderful sense of humor. And, one thing that he does--unlike any other guest that we've ever had--is make a point, stop and wait for a question. So, I had to have a segue/transition ready waaay before I was ready. Plus, my co-host literally said 2 words during the interview. And those 2 words were "Thank God" when he learned that Fran Healy would not be on SNY.

Dr.Z from Sports Illustrated was even more subdued--surprising given his columns, as well.

Thanks for listening, and for the MP3 conversion tips.

[patchyfogg]

Tonight before he leaves for Spring Training, we've got Adam Rubin live and in-studio again from 9PM to 11PM on Nassau County's 90.3FM.

Call-in # is 516-572-7440.

For what it�s worth, Adam should be a popular figure on TV and radio next month, as his book [u:41e79e3006]Pedro, Carlos, and Omar: The Story of a Season in the Big Apple and the Pursuit of Baseball's Top Latino Stars[/u:41e79e3006] comes out on March 1st.

I will post the audio to
http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg
immediately after the show.

If you're phone shy, feel free to post topics that you would like to be discussed.

As always, thanks.


As always, thanks.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

What have they done to Ben Baumer? Can we prove he still exists?

With the introduction of still more special assistants to Omar, what becomes of the Livesey/Goldis alleged Axis of Evil? Was that ever really an Axis of Evil?

Diaz or Nady and why?

Inside track to LOOGY: Who gots it?

[Guest Edgy DC]

How good are Jeff and Fred Wilopon with their Spanish? When it comes time to fly out to the Dominican and Puerto Rico and Venezuela to talk heart-to-heart with these guys, have the Wilpons really been assets?

And, in a similar vein, is there anything to that "Tony Bernazard spoke Street Spanish to me" or is that just smoke? Has Bernazard rubbed anyone else the wrong way?

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I'm curious about the "street Spanish" too.

It rings true to me somehow, but I'd be interested in seeing if it could be confirmed to be true or false.

[patchyfogg]

As soon as the site where I upload the files comes back from "routine maintenance," I'll post the link.

But some answers to your questions, in no particular order:

Mr. Baumer is still there, but they have a lot of statistical guys. Adam did see Ben at the Winter Meetings, fwiw.

The idea of Street Spanish was overblown. Bernazard was the first Met exec to call him after the trade.

He doesn't think that the Wilpons are that versed in Spanish.

Livesey and Goldis are still there for another year, but several other execs have been bumped up.

Nady is the expected RF, because 1) he was traded for Cameron; 2) his defense is better than that of Diaz; 3) there is a thought on the part of Omar and others that he never got a real chance in SD; and, 4) the Mets would trade Diaz in a heartbeat if they got anything resembling value back.

The lefty will be some subset of Venafro/Perisho/Feliciano, etc.

[patchyfogg]

The latest Adam Rubin interview is now up. Part 1 is 63 commercial-free minutes, and Part 2 is 58 commercial-free minutes.

2 hours of nothing but Mets talk that should get you ready for Pitchers and Catchers.

Happy listening!

http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg