Ricco: It's Zobrist or dick for us this winter

[Benjamin Grimm]

Centerfield wrote: BG is like me, except like, he's a grown up and shows maturity and self-restraint.

I wonder how and when that happened??

[TransMonk]

Centerfield wrote: The payroll should be commensurate with industry standard for the market you play in.

This is where you are going to bang your head against the wall every time.

Should? Maybe. But payroll is set by the payee based on their business plan for making maximum profit on their investment. Championship optional.

[Edgy MD]

I don't believe the owners aren't interested in winning/are solely interested in profit. The real profit in sports ownership doesn't come so much revenues as it does from appreciation. I believe reality has made clear that they have to pursue this while trying to get the organization out from under its debt burden.

Please don't read that as me liking them. I don't, apart from the occasional bike.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Centerfield wrote: I think considering the incompetent ownership, the lender-appointed management team has done a fantastic job managing this franchise, making the right decisions with the resources they have, changing course when necessary etc. Not every move has worked out but most big decisions have, and the goofs aren't killing us like they did under the previous moron to have run the team. Regarding 2010, taking it up the ass from the league when the best players you could afford were Shawn Marcum and Jon Rauch sucked but was part of the process of unraveling all the ridiculous and poorly thought out contracts Wilpon Okayed while they went broke. Oh, and I disagree with Batmags often but I think he's swell and a great member of our community. Funniest guy here some days, and that's saying something. Great summary. I can't tell if you're kidding or not, but do you think the management team really is lender appointed?

Sort of. Really, Fred deferred to Selig for blessing of the last 2 Mets GMs: I think in appointing Minaya, the objective was in carrying out Bud's minority-hiring mandate on a visible scale. It was admirable in some ways but not great for us inasmuch as it came at a time when smart organizations were getting rid of old scouts as GMs and hiring young geniuses. When the time came to appoint his successor the Mets were in deep financial trouble including a $25M debt to MLB. Alderson was working for MLB at that time and so needed Bud's okay to take the job.

It thought of this as the kind of situation you see in business when a poorly run company gets an activist shareholder who appoints a new board and installs new management, but it probably wasn't that way since all Bud had to do was ask and Fred said sure, I'm sure.

[Edgy MD]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I think in appointing Minaya, the objective was in carrying out Bud's minority-hiring mandate on a visible scale.

This, to me, is the real Wilpon/Selig conspiracy thingie the would-be Megdals should be chipping away at.

[Centerfield]

TransMonk wrote: Centerfield wrote: The payroll should be commensurate with industry standard for the market you play in. This is where you are going to bang your head against the wall every time. Should? Maybe. But payroll is set by the payee based on their business plan for making maximum profit on their investment. Championship optional.

I'm not sure I understand your post. I think payroll is set by the payer, not the payee. In any case, the point I was trying to make is that larger market teams should be at the top of the list. You'd expect smaller market teams to round out the bottom.

[Edgy MD]

"Fred."

"Bud, how's it going? Great meetings this year by the way."

"Thanks. I thought people were very receptive at the last meeting to the minority hiring policies."

"Great policies, Bud. Great policies. Very bold of you."

"You think so? The problem is, where does it leave us? Forcing people to interview the same guys over and over because so few minority guys have made it up the pipeline."

"I guess the fruits of this won't be immediate."

"I'm kind of hoping they are."

"Really? Who's your man?"

"You are."

"Sorry?"

"I'm talking about Omar."

"Hey, um, slow down a bit. I'm just getting control of this team. We're coming off a World Series, Bud. We have a GM, and he's riding a pennant with us right now."

"But you like Omar ..."

"I love Omar. But Bud, I have to be frank. I don't see him that way. He's got a great eye for talent. Sammy fucking Sosa, yeah, but goofy talent too, like Timo and Melvin Mora. But running a hundred million dollar budget? Building a development staff? Setting policy? That's just not his skill set. We've had him in the organization since he was a teenager. No college. No experience."

"I can take care of that last part."

"Come again?"

"The Expos, Fred. I'm the de facto president of that club, and as long as we own them, I intend to use them as a lab. An experience factory."

"So he gets an internship with the Expos, and I'm supposed to hire him a few years down the road."

"When you have an opening."

"If I have an opening and I still don't think he's ready?"

"Hire an interim. We'll have him ready."

"I don't know, Bud. This team is finally going to be mine. We're finally getting out from under that stupid cable deal we were locked into..."

"...stupid..."

"...and we have a real chance to blow the budget back up for the first time in a while. Do I really want a neophyte running the show that we hired for, I'll be frank, non-business reasons?"

"He'll be ready. And so will the league."

"Come again?"

"Fred, someday you're going to need a friend in the league office. Maybe even soon. Your purchase of the team isn't even complete yet."

"I'm confident that will go through."

"You can be absolutely confident. But... can I be similarly confident in you?"

"Let me think about this."

"Of course. Take all the time you need. I'll talk to you again in an hour."
______________

That's the real Fred Wilpon miss to me.

[Guest d'Kong76]

This thread may never end.
Ya know what I'm saying?

[TransMonk]

Centerfield wrote: I'm not sure I understand your post. I think payroll is set by the payer, not the payee.

Yes, payer. I'm a dope.

[batmagadanleadoff]

If you're tired of Howie Megdal telling you about the Mets paupery, then read it in the New York Times. Michael Powell mocks Zobrist as a Plan A and writes, essentially, that the Wilpons should sell the team if free agents like Yoenis Cespedes are out of the question and beyond reach.

[fimg=444]http://a1.nyt.com/assets/article/20151208-125316/images/foundation/logos/nyt-logo-185x26.svg[/fimg]

Good News: Mets Lose Out on Ben Zobrist

Sports of The Times

By MICHAEL POWELL DEC. 9, 2015

Ben Zobrist, the apple of the Mets’ eye this off-season, decided to spurn the family Wilpon and sign with the Chicago Cubs. Chicago’s proximity to Zobrist’s family home in Nashville was said to play a role. That would have made sense when paddle-wheel riverboats were the preferred means of transport, but less so since Orville Wright and the advent of winged flying devices. (Chicago is 1 hour 20 minutes by plane from Nashville; New York City is 2:20.) More likely, the fact that Cubs Manager Joe Maddon and Zobrist enjoyed many years together with Tampa Bay was the deciding factor. And Theo Epstein, the Cubs’ president, has displayed a willingness to spend and spend again. The Wilpons have displayed no willingness to do any such thing. Still, this is a good test for the Mets. Zobrist, who will be 35 in May, was the wrong player at the wrong time for the Mets, who offer a peculiar mix of fuzzy-cheeked youth and the creaky-boned aged. By the spring, this team will have a 37-year-old left fielder, a 35-year-old right fielder and a sore-backed 33-year-old third baseman. It did not need to pay a new second baseman until the cusp of his fifth decade. Instead, the Mets, blessed with an abundance of strong pitching arms, need to pursue a genuine power hitter, like that fellow Yoenis Cespedes, who patrolled the outfield and led the team during its stirring pennant run last season. If not Cespedes for the rest of us — the Mets pretend to have all but lost his telephone number — then two other top free-agent outfielders loom: Justin Upton, 28, and Jason Heyward, 26. To type this is to risk marking yourself as an unserious man as so many fall over themselves to explain that the Mets cannot possibly afford to compete with the likes of Chicago, Boston, the Dodgers, the Angels and, perhaps, even Kansas City. On Wednesday, the Mets traded for a second baseman, picking up Neil Walker from the Pittsburgh Pirates for an expendable starting pitcher, Jon Niese. It was a nice trade and perfectly small-bore Mets. It was a cash wash. Later that night, they continued to reshape their infield, adding Asdrubal Cabrera, a former All-Star who ranks among the poorest defensive shortstops in baseball, on a two-year deal believed to be worth a modest $18 million. Still, however much Sandy Alderson, an astute baseball man, enjoyed Oakland and San Diego, and however much the Wilpons might enjoy visiting Milwaukee, the Mets fit no definition of a midmarket team. Flushing, Queens — for better and worse — is not Cleveland. The Mets’ claim of sackcloth poverty seems worth interrogating. The Wilpons trusted their grifter friend Bernard L. Madoff, and so fell on hard times. And the debt service on their new stadium is pretty high. But as Howard Megdal of Capital New York has noted, somewhere between $45 million and $60 million rained down upon the Wilpons in this autumn’s baseball festivities. Ratings and ad rates are up significantly on SNY, in which the Mets own a majority share. And as my colleague Richard Sandomir has noted, ticket sales are up. Then there’s the fact that Alderson and Mets management insisted for years that if only fans came out in greater numbers, the team would spend more. Typically in American capitalism, you produce a better product, and sales rise. Whatever; it worked. Baseball’s commissioner, Rob Manfred, seems intent on responding as Bud Selig did to his old friends the Wilpons: Manfred is playing the avuncular enabler. “I think clubs should and do spend commensurate with the revenues that are available to them,” Manfred said recently. This is silliness. New York City’s veins are clotted with young masters and mistresses of the universe who would love to own the bauble known as a major league franchise. The Wilpons could put the team on the market Monday and count their billion-plus dollars by Friday. As for free agency, the Wilpons would do well to start with what they had: Cespedes. The Mets lack many coaches who can speak Spanish, but in a city nearly half black and Latino, you might expect a black Cuban to present the team with intriguing marketing possibilities. As to his play, Cespedes is not Willie Mays. He is like a hound after a hare to high fastballs. He swings at a few too many curves off the low outside corner. (These are not disabilities unique to him; Fangraphs has documented that Mike Trout has the same weakness for high, hard stuff.) Nor was Cespedes spectacular in the postseason, although he did hit two home runs and knock in seven runs in nine playoff games before the World Series. Like most of the Mets, he had a bad five-game stretch in the Series. His fielding in center field in the postseason bore a resemblance to soccer. That said, he is a natural left fielder, and for his work there with the Detroit Tigers in the first half of 2015, he just won a Gold Glove. His arm is like a javelin in the hands of Achilles: deadly. As Fangraphs wrote, if he stayed put in left field, he would rate “among the best full-time players.” Mets management tells reporters — sotto voce — that were it to give Cespedes his desired long-term contract, he would be 36 at the end of it. This is a curious plaint, as the team offered a four-year contract to an infielder who would have been 38 when the deal ended. The Mets have reached an inflection point. They have a phalanx of terrific young starting pitchers who can toss nasty curves and dial fastballs at close to 100 miles per hour. The actuarial odds are that one of them might tear an elbow tendon, and the economic odds are that one or more might leave for free agency. As the Mets learned in the soporific days of June and July, baseball teams cannot live on pitching alone. Someone has to hit. Catcher Travis d’Arnaud might stay healthy all year, although he has not managed that feat yet. And Michael Conforto, in his second season, might blast more home runs. But after 174 regular-season at-bats in the major leagues, Conforto will confront pitchers who have studied his weaknesses. Let’s say he hits .260 with 24 home runs. That is a nice sophomore year, and no shame there. He might not be ready to carry the team. The Angels are circling Upton. God only knows how many general managers are whispering sweet things into Heyward’s ears. One World Series is no guarantee of another. You wonder if the Wilpons realize they are not running Tampa Bay.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/sports/baseball/yoenis-cespedes-the-key-for-new-york-mets.html

[Centerfield]

If you're tired of Howie Megdal telling you about the Mets paupery, then read it in the New York Times. Michael Powell mocks Zobrist as a Plan A and writes, essentially, that the Wilpons should sell the team if free agents like Yoenis Cespedes are out of the question and beyond reach. [fimg=444]http://a1.nyt.com/assets/article/20151208-125316/images/foundation/logos/nyt-logo-185x26.svg[/fimg] Good News: Mets Lose Out on Ben Zobrist Sports of The Times By MICHAEL POWELL DEC. 9, 2015 Ben Zobrist, the apple of the Mets’ eye this off-season, decided to spurn the family Wilpon and sign with the Chicago Cubs. Chicago’s proximity to Zobrist’s family home in Nashville was said to play a role. That would have made sense when paddle-wheel riverboats were the preferred means of transport, but less so since Orville Wright and the advent of winged flying devices. (Chicago is 1 hour 20 minutes by plane from Nashville; New York City is 2:20.) More likely, the fact that Cubs Manager Joe Maddon and Zobrist enjoyed many years together with Tampa Bay was the deciding factor. And Theo Epstein, the Cubs’ president, has displayed a willingness to spend and spend again. The Wilpons have displayed no willingness to do any such thing. Still, this is a good test for the Mets. Zobrist, who will be 35 in May, was the wrong player at the wrong time for the Mets, who offer a peculiar mix of fuzzy-cheeked youth and the creaky-boned aged. By the spring, this team will have a 37-year-old left fielder, a 35-year-old right fielder and a sore-backed 33-year-old third baseman. It did not need to pay a new second baseman until the cusp of his fifth decade. Instead, the Mets, blessed with an abundance of strong pitching arms, need to pursue a genuine power hitter, like that fellow Yoenis Cespedes, who patrolled the outfield and led the team during its stirring pennant run last season. If not Cespedes for the rest of us — the Mets pretend to have all but lost his telephone number — then two other top free-agent outfielders loom: Justin Upton, 28, and Jason Heyward, 26. To type this is to risk marking yourself as an unserious man as so many fall over themselves to explain that the Mets cannot possibly afford to compete with the likes of Chicago, Boston, the Dodgers, the Angels and, perhaps, even Kansas City. On Wednesday, the Mets traded for a second baseman, picking up Neil Walker from the Pittsburgh Pirates for an expendable starting pitcher, Jon Niese. It was a nice trade and perfectly small-bore Mets. It was a cash wash. Later that night, they continued to reshape their infield, adding Asdrubal Cabrera, a former All-Star who ranks among the poorest defensive shortstops in baseball, on a two-year deal believed to be worth a modest $18 million. Still, however much Sandy Alderson, an astute baseball man, enjoyed Oakland and San Diego, and however much the Wilpons might enjoy visiting Milwaukee, the Mets fit no definition of a midmarket team. Flushing, Queens — for better and worse — is not Cleveland. The Mets’ claim of sackcloth poverty seems worth interrogating. The Wilpons trusted their grifter friend Bernard L. Madoff, and so fell on hard times. And the debt service on their new stadium is pretty high. But as Howard Megdal of Capital New York has noted, somewhere between $45 million and $60 million rained down upon the Wilpons in this autumn’s baseball festivities. Ratings and ad rates are up significantly on SNY, in which the Mets own a majority share. And as my colleague Richard Sandomir has noted, ticket sales are up. Then there’s the fact that Alderson and Mets management insisted for years that if only fans came out in greater numbers, the team would spend more. Typically in American capitalism, you produce a better product, and sales rise. Whatever; it worked. Baseball’s commissioner, Rob Manfred, seems intent on responding as Bud Selig did to his old friends the Wilpons: Manfred is playing the avuncular enabler. “I think clubs should and do spend commensurate with the revenues that are available to them,” Manfred said recently. This is silliness. New York City’s veins are clotted with young masters and mistresses of the universe who would love to own the bauble known as a major league franchise. The Wilpons could put the team on the market Monday and count their billion-plus dollars by Friday. As for free agency, the Wilpons would do well to start with what they had: Cespedes. The Mets lack many coaches who can speak Spanish, but in a city nearly half black and Latino, you might expect a black Cuban to present the team with intriguing marketing possibilities. As to his play, Cespedes is not Willie Mays. He is like a hound after a hare to high fastballs. He swings at a few too many curves off the low outside corner. (These are not disabilities unique to him; Fangraphs has documented that Mike Trout has the same weakness for high, hard stuff.) Nor was Cespedes spectacular in the postseason, although he did hit two home runs and knock in seven runs in nine playoff games before the World Series. Like most of the Mets, he had a bad five-game stretch in the Series. His fielding in center field in the postseason bore a resemblance to soccer. That said, he is a natural left fielder, and for his work there with the Detroit Tigers in the first half of 2015, he just won a Gold Glove. His arm is like a javelin in the hands of Achilles: deadly. As Fangraphs wrote, if he stayed put in left field, he would rate “among the best full-time players.” Mets management tells reporters — sotto voce — that were it to give Cespedes his desired long-term contract, he would be 36 at the end of it. This is a curious plaint, as the team offered a four-year contract to an infielder who would have been 38 when the deal ended. The Mets have reached an inflection point. They have a phalanx of terrific young starting pitchers who can toss nasty curves and dial fastballs at close to 100 miles per hour. The actuarial odds are that one of them might tear an elbow tendon, and the economic odds are that one or more might leave for free agency. As the Mets learned in the soporific days of June and July, baseball teams cannot live on pitching alone. Someone has to hit. Catcher Travis d’Arnaud might stay healthy all year, although he has not managed that feat yet. And Michael Conforto, in his second season, might blast more home runs. But after 174 regular-season at-bats in the major leagues, Conforto will confront pitchers who have studied his weaknesses. Let’s say he hits .260 with 24 home runs. That is a nice sophomore year, and no shame there. He might not be ready to carry the team. The Angels are circling Upton. God only knows how many general managers are whispering sweet things into Heyward’s ears. One World Series is no guarantee of another. You wonder if the Wilpons realize they are not running Tampa Bay. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/sports/baseball/yoenis-cespedes-the-key-for-new-york-mets.html

HR for Michael Powell.

[Ceetar]

"Waah, the Mets signed Cabrera who hit like Cespedes in the second half and plays a better position, that must mean they're cheap because they didn't do what I wanted them to!"

[Edgy MD]

I'm more chagrined at trying to sustain they're too cheap to outbid the Cubs on Zobrist which would have been stupid anyway. Which is it?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Good job on the smartiness, needs work on the fartiness.

[Centerfield]

Edgy MD wrote: I'm more chagrined at trying to sustain they're too cheap to outbid the Cubs on Zobrist which would have been stupid anyway. Which is it?

I don't think he ever said that they were too cheap to outbid the Cubs on Zobrist.

He says that pursuing Zobrist was misguided in the first place. I agree.

He says that the Cubs are showing a willingness to spend even more (they have been linked to Hayward) while the Mets have not. I agree with that as well.

He surmises that this may have influenced Zobrist's decision. I don't know about this. I think only Zobrist can answer that.

[Edgy MD]

OK, too cheap to impress Zobrist with their ability to outbid all comers on him and then spend more and more on others.

I think only Zobrist can answer that.

[fimg=400]https://heavyeditorial.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/julianna-zobrist-8.jpg[/fimg]
I WILL SPEAK ON BEHALF OF THE ZOBRIST FAMILY, HUMAN!

[Guest d'Kong76]

Centerfield wrote: He says that the Cubs are showing a willingness to spend even more (they have been linked to Hayward) while the Mets have not. I agree with that as well.

The Cubs smelled success and want to sniff it some more next year.
The Mets want to sniff the cash they got in late Aug, Sept, and the post
season and their champagne farts.

[Edgy MD]

Hard to tell how much is Sandy at the stick right now and how much is Ricco*.

I'm also curious how much commitment I should show to the idea that Ricco is the designated successor, rather than Ricciardi or DePodesta.

* OE: Or Jeff Wilpon!

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: Hard to tell how much is Sandy at the stick right now and how much is Ricco*. I'm also curious how much commitment I should show to the idea that Ricco is the designated successor, rather than Ricciardi or DePodesta. * OE: Or Jeff Wilpon!

I think Ricco's the designated interim guy (he was last time too right?) and the others have more regular duties that you don't want to pull them away from.

But this question might become relevant pretty fast.

[Guest d'Kong76]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Jesus Christ, I'm starting to agree with this fucker.

Hey, be nice!!

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Edgy MD wrote: [fimg=400]https://heavyeditorial.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/julianna-zobrist-8.jpg[/fimg] I WILL SPEAK ON BEHALF OF THE ZOBRIST FAMILY, HUMAN!

The more I hear/see of Sister Christian over here, the more I think we dodged, like, a demon in human drag type bullet.

#NoGuaranteedFourthYearForDaemonConsorts

[Guest d'Kong76]

I didn't want to say it, but since you did, I'll echo that...

[Lefty Specialist]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Edgy MD wrote: [fimg=400]https://heavyeditorial.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/julianna-zobrist-8.jpg[/fimg] I WILL SPEAK ON BEHALF OF THE ZOBRIST FAMILY, HUMAN! The more I hear/see of Sister Christian over here, the more I think we dodged, like, a demon in human drag type bullet. #NoGuaranteedFourthYearForDaemonConsorts

Yeah, she's creeping me out. Neil Walker-remarkably devoid of creepiness.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I WILL KILL YOU IN THE NAME OF JESUS

[Guest d'Kong76]

And a one, and a two... take me out to the....

[batmagadanleadoff]

Here's Howie ...

Sports biz report: Mets take the non-contender road in Nashville

By Howard Megdal 11:30 a.m. | Dec. 11, 2015

The Mets have done the heavy lifting (relatively for them) of the offseason this week at the MLB winter meetings in Nashville, and we have a far better sense of what they will and won't be in 2016. What they won't be, clearly, is a team that in any way takes advantage of the remarkably rare collection of young, cost-controlled starting pitching to build a team best-equipped to challenge for the World Series, despite promises from owner Fred Wilpon and others in the front office that when more fans showed up, the Mets would resume spending like a real team, rather than a Ponzi scheme operating out of a baseball stadium. The Mets went after Ben Zobrist, a utility infielder/outfielder whose price reached $58 million over four years, the contract he signed with the Cubs. Denied Zobrist, the Mets traded starting pitcher Jon Niese to the Pirates for second baseman Neil Walker, and signed shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera to a two-year, $18.5 million contract. The two new infielders will help the cause—the Mets had a pair of shortstops on the roster, Ruben Tejada and Wilmer Flores, and they are currently recovering from a broken leg and a broken ankle, respectively. Walker will replace most of Daniel Murphy's regular season offensive production. But neither move is likely to improve much upon what the Mets received from those positions during the 2015 season defensively, while merely maintaining a status quo that had the Mets last in the National League in runs scored at the end of July. What the Mets aren't doing, it seems, is making the slightest effort to re-sign Yoenis Cespedes, whose offense fundamentally changed the team's fortunes, nor adding any pieces that would allow for a scenario where the hitting isn't reliant on Travis d'Arnaud and David Wright staying healthy all season. The former is a catcher who simply never has, while the latter has a degenerative back condition so serious that the Mets didn't believe he was coming back at all for a significant portion of the 2015 season. A team that plays in New York, with owners who also have a majority stake in SNY, the sports network which shows the Mets, a team that took in anywhere from $45-60 million in extra revenue from the postseason alone—that team isn't making an effort to add Cespedes, or a perfect free agent like Jason Heyward. Heyward is a top-ten MLB talent who will command around $200 million over the next decade, and he is the rare free agent young enough to be signed for mostly prime seasons by whichever team does so. Accordingly, the brightest front offices in baseball, like the Cubs and Cardinals, are after him. In both instances, the Mets' decision to stand pat with relatively little additional talent are in stark contrast to a pair of National League clubs they'll conceivably have to beat to reach another World Series. The Cardinals, with a payroll significantly ahead of the Mets already, won 100 games last year. But they are making every effort to retain Heyward, took on Jedd Gjorko, gave a two-year deal to reliever Jonathan Broxton, and appear to be just getting started. As for the Cubs, they not only won Zobrist at $58 million over the next four years, they also added John Lackey, a starting pitcher, for $34 million over the next two seasons. And to that, they are hoping to bring Heyward at around $200 million into the mix as well. This is what contending teams do. Money spent on talent is a truism in the non-Mets portion of MLB. But it is particularly important when teams are contending—the idea is you are buying wins, and the wins that get you into the playoffs and further along in those playoffs are by far the most important, most valuable ones to purchase. But an ownership group that never tires of diverting revenues from the baseball team and sports network into non-baseball pursuits has made a different calculation, for either reasons of exigency or because baseball isn't putting a stop to it they way it did with Frank McCourt and the Los Angeles Dodgers. So the Mets' pitching is a gift. It's just one that the Mets aren't either inclined or unable to leverage in any real way.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2015/12/8585287/sports-biz-report-mets-take-non-contender-road-nashville

[Guest d'Kong76]

It's the weekend before xmas, I guess they're done for 2015. My
guess is this is what they to spring training with.

Better or worse than what they went with last year? I'd say worse.

[Centerfield]

I think they will add at least one more hitter, likely 2, and will add one more reliever.

I don't think they will add any hitter that I want though.

I think they are already better than they were going into last spring. Conforto is better than Cuddyer. Walker and Murphy are just about a wash. Cabrera is (though marginal) an improvement over Tejada/Flores. I think they will be a good team. And will be favorites to win the NL East.

The thing is, the Mets had an opportunity this year to be great. They could have been great for the next many years. And they could have done it by raising payroll, or even just spending differently.

But they punted on great. They played it safe and went for "good enough" instead.

Get used to it guys. What you see now is as good as it's ever going to get.

[bmfc1]

I agree with CF. The Mets will add Ryan Rayburn or someone like that, a righty reliever, and go to Spring Training as the favorites in the East. I think that they think that they can pull a rabbit out of a hat again at the trade deadline, if needed, but other teams have seen that trick so it will be tougher to pull off a second time. I fear that they are relying too much on anticipated success by d'Arnaud and Conforto and the health of Wright. Getting a better bat for the OF would help prevent such reliance.

Maybe they'll sign Span for a short-term deal. That helps "lengthen" the lineup as he leads off so Granderson can move down.
http://nypost.com/2015/12/18/mets-checking-in-on-familiar-of-as-lagares-replacement/

[A Boy Named Seo]

bmfc1 wrote: I agree with CF. The Mets will add Ryan Rayburn or someone like that, a righty reliever, and go to Spring Training as the favorites in the East. I think that they think that they can pull a rabbit out of a hat again at the trade deadline, if needed, but other teams have seen that trick so it will be tougher to pull off a second time. I fear that they are relying too much on anticipated success by d'Arnaud and Conforto and the health of Wright. Getting a better bat for the OF would help prevent such reliance. Maybe they'll sign Span for a short-term deal. That helps "lengthen" the lineup as he leads off so Granderson can move down. http://nypost.com/2015/12/18/mets-checking-in-on-familiar-of-as-lagares-replacement/

Agreed, agreed.

I suspect they're trying to put the most competent team out without getting crippled by long contracts and I think they're succeeding in that regard. Gotta try and extend these pitchers long-term sometime soon. With Heyward or Upton on the books, it'd be harder for these Mets to do that. I also think they'll lean heavily on a trade or 2 again in July to fill whatever holes have opened up by then. Just how it is.