Wright's Wrehab

[Frayed Knot]

It appears to lack the magic "best shape of my life" quote, but Kernan at the Post checks out what David, as well as several other Mets, are up to lately.

[Centerfield]

On this day, Lucas Duda, Jon Niese, Bobby Parnell, Travis d�Arnaud, Jeurys Familia and Rafael Montero, among others (including the Indians� Michael Brantley), went through the session with music from the likes of Naughty By Nature.

Maybe we can finally retire "TCOB" as the after-win song.

You down wit OBP? Yeah you know me!

[Zvon]

Nice Post article. It pumped me up a lil bit. It said a slew of Mets were doing the workout but no mention of Grandy.

[dgwphotography]

Centerfield wrote: On this day, Lucas Duda, Jon Niese, Bobby Parnell, Travis d�Arnaud, Jeurys Familia and Rafael Montero, among others (including the Indians� Michael Brantley), went through the session with music from the likes of Naughty By Nature. Maybe we can finally retire "TCOB" as the after-win song. You down wit OBP? Yeah you know me!

Please God, make this so. I am so sick of TCOB - this team has made me hate that song.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

And of course this turned into Coupons-clipping, right?

Think an agent told me they asked $1,000 from minor leaguers.RT @SaltyGary: is it true players are paying for this out of their own pockets?

They're pushing envelope of what's permissible in terms of sponsored offseason workouts. Almost seems like there's penalty for not attending

[Ceetar]

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/01/mets-charge-players-workouts-1000-dollars-mlb

Basically, Barwis runs a respected program that many players, including the Mets, have gone to in the past (like last year, when they also paid for it)

Previously this program was in Michigan.

The Mets, noting that they were using Barwis anyway, figured why not hire him and bring him to PSL? I hear players prefer to spend winters in Florida than Michigan and a few of them have houses down there anyway.

Oh, and there's some evidence that the Mets may be splitting the cost with the players. This isn't a Mets program, Barwis is a consultant running his own thing, he pays rent to the Mets to use PSL. I don't really know what the precise arrangement is between them.


so yeah, make a prized program more accessible and maybe even help pay for it? Seems decently proactive to me.

[Zvon]

They're pushing envelope of what's permissible in terms of sponsored offseason workouts. Almost seems like there's penalty for not attending

WTF does that mean? It almost seems like Rubin is an idiot. In the article opening the thread Jeff Wilpon says:

"They believe in this program. It�s very satisfying to see the buy-in because I didn�t push this."

[Edgy MD]

This is the pile-on scandal of the day in the Metsophere.

Suddenly everybody forgot Ian Desmond.

KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE PRIZE, MISERABLE MET FANS!

[batmagadanleadoff]

Look, Ma: No Madoff:
____________________

Player-funded workouts are latest P.R. debacle for the Mets

By Howard Megdal 7:20 a.m. | Jan. 16, 2015

It probably seemed like a good idea on paper. But the latest P.R. initiative by the Mets is not going to end well. The Mets haven't had what you would call an active offseason. They signed Michael Cuddyer, a mid-grade free agent, but have done almost nothing since. (An MLB agent pointed out to me that they haven't signed a pitcher at any level all winter.) So with the fans and writers alike grumbling about the team's failure to add a shortstop, or another lefty reliever, both things the front office has made clear were areas in need of upgrade, thanks to ownership's financial limitations, it was time to change the subject. Accordingly, the Mets gave the Post's Kevin Kernan access to their off-season workouts in Port St. Lucie. Kernan, who has been critical of the Mets in the past, excels at writing the craft piece, and this one focused on David Wright's recovery from a shoulder injury that greatly curtailed his 2014. The story pointed out that the workouts, supervised by an outside trainer named Mike Barwis, had expanded significantly from last season, when a handful of Mets, such as Lucas Duda, trained with Barwis in Michigan. Barwis first came to the attention of Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon back in 2007 when Barwis was working with the University of Michigan football team, and Wilpon was attending a practice at the school his father attended, according to a story of last year's Mets workouts with Barwis that ran in the New York Times. This time, the group met at the team's spring training headquarters in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Not only the players were on hand. Mets general manager Sandy Alderson told Kernan the workouts are for players "to reach their full potentiality," which certainly makes it sound like the workouts�which must be voluntary or run afoul of the collective bargaining agreement with the major league players attending�will be used by the organization to measure player effort. Remember that participation in last season's workout by Ruben Tejada and Wilmer Flores came up repeatedly during the season, with front office members citing their participation as cause for better play and more opportunities. And Jeff Wilpon, largely out of sight this winter, was there too, telling Kernan he's "very excited for the season and this just adds to it. We have another six weeks before the team reports, and these guys are already down here working. Mike is doing this for the entire organization." So Barwis was running these workouts, but not gratis. How grateful are the Mets players? �We�re all paying to do this," Wright said. "To see the dedication of all the guys throughout the organization is pretty impressive." How much are they paying? Adam Rubin said an agent told him $1000 from their minor leaguers, a number I've since confirmed is what each player is paying. I reached out to the Mets on the subject, and a spokesperson responded to my questions by urging me to "Check out [Andy] Martino's column," referring to the ownership-friendly baseball writer for the Daily News. "It's a very accurate depiction of this." Martino wrote in his column that the Mets told him Barwis pays the Mets to rent the space, and the $1000 apiece from each player goes to Barwis, not the Mets. (One presumes Barwis pays the rent to the Mets out of his operating income, which in this case comes from the players.) And here's where we run into a problem of perception, and one of potential rule violations. The P.R. bump the Mets were hoping a big "best shape of their lives" piece would provide got shoved aside quickly by media outlets covering the embarrassing idea that the Mets were charging their own players $1000 to attend pseudo-voluntary workouts at the team's own complex. I spoke to a number of industry professionals, both on the team and agent side of things, and here's what I found out: Teams routinely split the cost of, say, housing with players who come in early for voluntary workouts. No one had heard of a team charging players for the workouts themselves. No one had heard of a team doing it on this scale in terms of number of players, with the greater number of participants increasing the pressure to attend the so-called voluntary workout. Garrett Broshuis is a former minor leaguer and attorney currently suing Major League Baseball over unfair working conditions and low pay for minor leaguers. His entire case revolves around the premise that this is systemic, a problem for all 30 teams. He's been collecting minor league horror stories for this case for the past several years. "It's not uncommon at all for teams to open up spring training early, and say you can work out here," Broshuis told me in a Thursday phone interview. "It's also not uncommon to make players pay for accomodations. I know a lot of guys who sleep on someone's couch." But what about charging players $1000 for the privilege? "This seems a lot more uncommon," Broshuis replied, saying he'd never heard of something like this. "'Deplorable' is the word I'd use." The Mets, by opening this up to players throughout the organization, and having their decision-makers present, are taking the voluntary part out of an activity taking place during time the players aren't paid. Worse yet, for minor leaguers who generally make very little money at all, coming up with $1000, plus housing, during the period of the offseason they're usually earning money at various jobs just to afford playing baseball is an enormous hardship. "Also, what if a senior sign wanted to go?" another MLB agent said, referring to the drafted college seniors who are usually given signing bonuses of around $1000 and are usually eager to prove their worth to a new organization. "He has to forfeit his signing bonus to attend?" As for the major leaguers, paying for the right to attend the workout is less of a financial hardship than it is a possible violation of the collective bargaining agreement they have, thanks to the advantage of a working union. (The minor leaguers are unrepresented by anyone.) Multiple people in baseball I spoke to described this workout as a potential violation. "Paying for workouts has got to be a CBA issue, right?" one agent said. "There are rules in place for 40-man [roster] guys." Issues raised ran the gamut from the length of the workouts (no more than seven days in a row permitted) to who can attend (only members of the 40-man roster) to the issue of just how voluntary they are. I reached out to Greg Bouris, spokesperson for the Major League Baseball Players Association, who said, "We are aware of this and we're looking into it." So in an effort to gin up excitement for the team, the Mets replaced the more traditional winter pastime of other teams, the acquisition of new players, with the more cost-effective one of showing the players already under contract working out early, possibly in violation of league rules. Which makes sense, apparently, only to the Mets. "I know everybody wanted Sandy to do this or do that to get something," Jeff Wilpon said in Kernan's piece, "but keeping your strength is important as well."

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2015/01/8560323/player-funded-workouts-are-latest-pr-debacle-mets

[batmagadanleadoff]

"Wanna see what the Mets new post-game smorgasbord buffet's gonna look like from now on"?

[Frayed Knot]

It would seem to me that players would be required to pay for workouts during times that they're NOT on club time in order to be compliant with the CBA.
Players working out in the off-season and in the company of trainers -- whether just on an individual basis at a local gym or via some larger operation like that sports institute in Arizona that was all the rage for a while -- is nothing new and those costs are certainly on the players. A situation where the club pays is where things seem to start to move into the realm of those "voluntary" workouts and mini-camps that the NFL has all the time in which the players are officially not required to attend only to have coaches and/or mgmt publicly criticize, question the effort of, and threaten the playing time for the ones who aren't there, even when the player in question is making it quite clear that he's getting the work in elsewhere.
IOW, the line between when the players are on their own vs when they are on the clock should be as distinct as possible.

This arrangement does get a bit murky in that it has the feel of something sponsored by the club as it uses their facilities ... BUT
- unless the cost is outrageously higher than what one could get on his own
- or there's some kind of kickback arrangement where the trainer's money winds up in the club's coffers
- and there's pressure being put on by the team, particularly towards the younger players, to use THIS workout rather then one, say, near their off-season home or simply a different one of their choosing ...
then I don't quite get the outrage here.

[Edgy MD]

Frayed Knot wrote: It would seem to me that players would be required to pay for workouts during times that they're NOT on club time in order to be compliant with the CBA.

That's the way I saw it. But I don't know.

[Guest Mets Guy in Michigan]

Howard's getting loopier and loopier.

The Mets haven't had what you would call an active offseason. They signed Michael Cuddyer, a mid-grade free agent, but have done almost nothing since. (An MLB agent pointed out to me that they haven't signed a pitcher at any level all winter.)

Why would they sign a pitcher when the one thing they have in abundance, outside of players with names starting with lower-case ds, is pitchers?

I reached out to the Mets on the subject, and a spokesperson responded to my questions by urging me to "Check out [Andy] Martino's column," referring to the ownership-friendly baseball writer for the Daily News. "It's a very accurate depiction of this."

Tracky is an "ownership friendly" baseball writer? Does that make Howard an ownership-hostile baseball writer? I love it when writers turn on each other.

This is from Mets Blog:

However, according to reporter Mike Vorkunov, the program is 100 percent voluntary and run completely by Barwis, who rents the space from the St. Lucie Mets (Bergen Record, Jan. 15). Indians OF Michael Branetly is attending the clinic, which is open to the public and not affiliated with the Mets The team told Vorkunov that, while each player is paying $1,000 to participate, the money goes to Barwis Methods, which is only a consultant for the organization, an independent contractor and not an employee. �It�s a good deal, they pay for his food, supplements, a hotel room, and it is a good value for the camp,� the father of a Mets minor-leaguer attending the clinic said (MetsMerized, Jan. 15). �Typically, a trainer would cost us $300 to $1,000 dollars a month. I believe we are getting bang for our buck.�

So the $1,000 includes food and the hotel? That's not bad.

[Ceetar]

'supplements'

[Guest d'Kong76]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: "Wanna see what the Mets new post-game smorgasbord buffet's gonna look like from now on"?

This made me laugh

[Ceetar]

I believe there was a line in Moneyball about the As having vending machines or something right? See? A double tie-in!

[Edgy MD]

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: Howard's getting loopier and loopier. The Mets haven't had what you would call an active offseason. They signed Michael Cuddyer, a mid-grade free agent, but have done almost nothing since. (An MLB agent pointed out to me that they haven't signed a pitcher at any level all winter.) Why would they sign a pitcher when the one thing they have in abundance, outside of players with names starting with lower-case ds, is pitchers?

They've signed several pitchers --- to minor league deals (how about some Buddy Carlyle up in you, MLB agent?), because their major league staff is close to set. And you know, if Tracky is "owner-friendly," is the word of an MLB agent somehow bias-free?

Off season isn't over yet, but I certainly didn't go in hoping the Mets would spill open the purse on pitching.

[batmagadanleadoff]

There might be something to the Mets players pay to work out thing if the NYT is reporting on it about a month after the story first broke:

the money quote:

Asked why the Mets had not subsidized the entire program so that players would not have to pay Barwis at all, Alderson said the club felt that would be counterproductive. �We didn�t cover all the costs because we want the players themselves to be invested in their careers and in their off-season development,� Alderson said. �We want them to have something at risk as far as their commitment is concerned.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/sports/mets-players-pay-for-off-season-training-at-team-complex.html?_r=0

[Edgy MD]

Skin in the game.

But given a month to get their angle, that quote is about the only new thing the Times has.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Before buying that it's another 'Mets are being cheap again'
I'd have to know what the policy of teams like the Yanks, Dodgers,
and Red Sox is. My guess is the players don't have a problem with
paying some of it out of their pockets or the union would probably
complain on their behalf?

[batmagadanleadoff]

The New York Times prints a letter from one of its readers; reader believes that Mets pay to train program might cause its player to tank games.

The Cost of Paying to Train To the Sports Editor: I am amazed to learn that Mets players must pay a fee if they wish to take advantage of the team�s off-season workout facility. (�Raising Fitness Levels and Eyebrows,� Feb. 3.) In the textile mills of Lowell, Mass., at the onset of the Industrial Revolution, women paid for the thread they used. The system gave way to worker protests, and ultimately provided a justification for establishing labor unions. One can only imagine the outcome of the Mets� pay-to-train system. Team productivity during the regular season is one possible outcome. Another is resentment that will diminish the compulsion to play winning ball games. MICHAEL H. EBNER, Lake Forest, Ill.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/sports/letters-to-the-editor.html?_r=0

[Edgy MD]

Rockford, Illinois is experimenting with changing their tagline from "The Forest City" to "The Midwest Capitol of Specious Analogies."

[Vic Sage]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: There might be something to the Mets players pay to work out thing if the NYT is reporting on it about a month after the story first broke: the money quote: Asked why the Mets had not subsidized the entire program so that players would not have to pay Barwis at all, Alderson said the club felt that would be counterproductive. �We didn�t cover all the costs because we want the players themselves to be invested in their careers and in their off-season development,� Alderson said. �We want them to have something at risk as far as their commitment is concerned. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/sports/mets-players-pay-for-off-season-training-at-team-complex.html?_r=0

I have no problem with Barwis charging the players and I agree that his fee shouldn't be the Mets expense, BUT I don't think the Mets should be charging him rent (because then the money from the players is flowing to them), and i don't think anyone from management should have access to the program in any way (as would be true if players stayed home and worked out), to ensure its "voluntariness." By doing it the way they're doing it, they've certainly left themselves open to reasonable skepticism and eye-rolling, from its fanbase, from the player & agent community, from the union, and from the media.

But what REALLY ticks me off is Sandy's quote above about wanting the players to have skin in the game, as it were, when its literally the player's skin in the game already. The notion that they don't have "something at risk" or any incentive to improve conditioning and rehab injury when their physicality is their LIVING is just so condescending and insulting that, if i were a player, i would specifically NOT go to this camp just because he said that. And if i were the kind of moron who needed further incentive, laying out a $1000 when the major-league minimum is $500+k isn't going to do it. And minor-league players desperate to get to "the show" are doing everything they can to do so, but $1000 cost might actually PREVENT them from attending.

This was just stupid on so many levels.

[Ceetar]

worth noting that it's not just Mets players attending this camp.

[Guest d'Kong76]

I think way too much is being made of this. I would have an
easier time not thinking it's just another thing to negatively write
about the Mets if we KNEW FOR SURE that other big market teams
don't operate their various training situations differently.

[Edgy MD]

And since dozens (or more) of outlets have covered this story, and apparently 0% have seriously pursued the (very obvious) angle of investigating the practices of other teams and comparing them to those of the Mets, I'm happy to go with "just another thing to negatively write about the Mets."

[Guest d'Kong76]

d'Kong76 wrote: we KNEW FOR SURE that other big market teams don't operate their various training situations differently.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Hmmm, guess the strike-through thingy is busted.

[Edgy MD]

[crossout:2tqgt2ar]Use the "CROSSOUT" button.[/crossout:2tqgt2ar]

[Guest d'Kong76]

Never noticed that button, I'm new here!
[crossout:q5439fok]Fifty bucks to the first person to respond to this.[/crossout:q5439fok]