Ceetar

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: Heyman reports "mystery team" in on Cole are we supposed to buy that?

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=28029 time=1575937691 user_id=68] Here we go again. Every Met who sucked last season is gonna be great in 2020. And every Met who was great is gonna be even greater. And no, David Wright won't hit 50 homers next season. Don't be ridiculous. But Yoenis will.

Mets are still better than the Phillies. The Nationals are claiming they can't afford Rendon, they're certainly not just going to 'get' donaldson who's gonna sign a big contract too. 'all of Atlanta's signings'? meh. There's really no expectation the Mets are coming back with the same roster either. Hell, even Lowrie and Cespedes are starting at least much healthier than last year. A full year of Stroman and no disaster Vargas April.

looks like it's only three years of deferred money this time, right after the end of the contract.

14.2 IP with the Mets, but would've been his lowest BB% ever. Seems like the Mets basically instructed him to just throw strikes.

sweet.

We'll know more when it's finalized. The forbes piece about control is just speculation, based on the finances/control stuff, but not really based on sources. It does make sense though, you can't exactly rollback the sale 5 years later. Especially if he's been rolling along fine with no drama for that time. And what happens then? Jeff just keeps running it cause Cohen can't? But that's what I pondered originally, that we'd go to some sort of 'board of investors' and they'd just keep voting Jeff to run the team. But again, that's just another approval person in a game of telephone to get additional approval for funds. Especially of Cohen wont' "actively" manage to investment, his company will. BVW wants to sign a big guy, asks Jeff, who asks Fred, who asks the Cohen group, who hold a conference call...bleh. Everything we hear about Jeff seems to indicate it won't be a "token" leadership thing, but I wonder if he'd be more cavalier with someone else's money (mostly?). He's still going to be hanging around Flushing and in all the big meetings. He's not just gonna eat the free donuts and observe.

That column is heavier on snark and insults than on facts. Travis was cut because of one bad game? Really? The things they actually do are damning enough without having to embellish. Your take is more honest. Travis was cut because they decided they didn't need him and he wasn't going to add anything. They tendered him a contract as sort of a safety net, but they decided they were fine and moved on. That's how I read it. yeah, that's a more apt take. They also do just enough to ameliorate the frustration at their mistakes, but rarely reverse them. Not enough Mets stuff in the park when it opens, open a museum and slap up some paint. Fine, but you could do so much more. maybe training/medical stuff ain't up to snuff? Write some corporate buzz words and hire a few people you know in that buzz. Great start, but feels like they might've just crossed it off the list as done while other teams are Sabermetricing sleep regularity and delving into biometrics (Mets could be doing this, no one really seems interested into digging into this stuff) Analytics dept only big enough to keep up, not to innovate. Jury's still out. They hired a bunch of guys. the right guys? are they doing stuff? Every once in a while you get hints about things like a system that lets managers replay decisions, but then no one elaborates. Toxic misogynist work culture? I mean, I dunno how to tell. They settled with Leigh and later on fired Alex Anthony for making misogynistic jokes, so they probably put some policies in place? but then they employed Jose Reyes and he wasn't even like, "oh at least he's good so we'll live with it". Could mention Familia too but that seems less cut and dry. Spend top tier money? I mean, they spend, they kept Cespedes extended deGrom, etc, but they're still *wink wink*ing insurance money and the difference between luxury tax # versus actual payroll. (Of course, so do the Yankees, who flat out try not to pay contracted money) According to https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/tax/https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/tax/ they're 5th in Luxury tax payroll and 6th in 40 man 2020 payroll. Of course this is a little bit of baseball-wide issue, that doesn't give them a pass though. The Nationals are crying poor too, basically letting Strasburg go (and Rendon), and they just won the damn series. They probably made enough extra money just in ticket sales to pay both their salaries for 2020 and 2021. Fans clamor for a fanfest. they ignore them. basically deny that fans want it. Group of fans run an unofficial one, even get SNY sponsorship, and finally they're all like "maybe we could have a fanfest now do you guys want to have a booth here? And please don't have yours in January that's when we want to have the official one" Probably a bunch of others.

Edgy MD wrote: I think the Wilpons are, like, the fifth-worst ownership group in the New York area, so I'm not so sure the chances of doing worse are that low. depends if you count Dolan twice or not. Also I have plenty of hope. Hell, Diaz locates his slider a half inch lower on average and the Mets might've made the playoffs last year. And again, we know almost nothing about the proposed deal or what will happen in 5 years precisely. . What's to say Mr "too busy to play GM" doesn't just say "oh, I guess let's just let minority owner Jeff Wilpon continue to be at the helm"? And how do we know he's smart? Specifically smart about things like baseball?

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=27782 time=1575572329 user_id=68] =Ceetar post_id=27779 time=1575572040 user_id=102] I didn't say I wouldn't take Cohen, I said it's impossible to know what a Cohen-run franchise would look like. Hell, we've already seen a rich, 'committed to spending', alpha type owner run a franchise in NY. poorly for the most part. There are richer owners all over baseball, doing worse jobs.

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=27763 time=1575568201 user_id=68] =Ceetar post_id=27758 time=1575567376 user_id=102] go ahead, derail the baseball talk with nonsense ownership bathering. This was a reasonable move for a reasonable 5th OFer.

I didn't say I wouldn't take Cohen, I said it's impossible to know what a Cohen-run franchise would look like. Hell, we've already seen a rich, 'committed to spending', alpha type owner run a franchise in NY. poorly for the most part. There are richer owners all over baseball, doing worse jobs. It'd be like hearing Chris Christie was going to be the next president.

Wheeler is better than Bumgarner. He's just only really done it for two years, but those years were as good as any Bumgarner's had since 2016. Madison did have a bit of a bounceback last year, but his numbers have all been worse the last three years, and it's not easy to expect it's part of a decline. Last year he did get his contact numbers back down, some more swinging strikes, and even a bit more velocity than 2017,2018. Lots more value from his fastball, per norm. There's some speculation that maybe he wasn't 100% those two years, but still some risk there. the improve velocity isn't back to pre-injury levels and it's not something you really think will get there at this point. Still be happy to have him around though, just not for that length of contract.

go ahead, derail the baseball talk with nonsense ownership bathering. This was a reasonable move for a reasonable 5th OFer.

finances are all hidden and secret and all. I imagine Katz' kids just want the payout more than they're worried about Jeff, no matter what they think of him. You can't really argue that the franchise isn't constantly increasing in value making you richer and richer. Do we have any inkling of what the breakdown is at Sterling? Like if Katz actually own/control more of the company? It's not like they're really going to be divested of Wilpon, he'll still be mucking around there right? And I saw someone insinuate that Cohen had 20% already..did he buy out the other three minority owners at some point? I didn't think so. Sterling owns 68% (they bought back the SNY shares, which was just a fancy way to pay for the Mets while Sterling assets were frozen), Fred, Jeff, Katz each have a 4% share individually. That's the reported 80%. I'd guess they'll sell Katz 4%, plus the Sterling 68, bring it to 76?

=Centerfield post_id=27739 time=1575563601 user_id=65] Blake Taylor is a hard throwing lefty reliever no? Why give up anyone if Pillar is available for just money?

=Centerfield post_id=27635 time=1575499955 user_id=65] I wonder if SNY suddenly turns on the Wilpons the minute the check clears.

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=27626 time=1575497328 user_id=68] =Ceetar post_id=27599 time=1575493057 user_id=102] And of course, there's no real reason to think Cohen would make things better. He does seem better at crime at least.

Word from Sox fans is that the White Sox reportedly offered Zack Wheeler more money than the Phillies and he turned it down. Wheeler's wife is from New Jersey, so they wanted to stay closer to family. I have zero linkable evidence for this, but as our president says, "people are saying", "I hear", etc. I saw some of that too. Could be just them saving face. Could be peanuts. Could be a tax thing. Could be a back/front loaded thing. more buyouts, who knows.

Healey tweeting now that Cohen will be the 'owner' after the 5 years now, fwiw. Of course, Cohen is not a good person either. Will he run a baseball team better? perhaps. He does seem to be a _better_ criminal, as I said.

There's at least half a dozen worse owners in MLB already, to say that 'it could get worse' isn't a stretch. It absolutely sounds like that. The only thing they explicitly confirmed was literally that the Wilpons would retain control for 5 years. Also Sterling doesn't quite own 80% of it by themselves, so there's all sorts of other moving parts to ponder after.

80% would be different, but it sounds like switching to a more standard 'board of investors' type thing. So no saying Jeff couldn't just continue doing 5 year terms until he dies. Especially if Cohen's stake is still group managed by his group and he doesn't take an active role. And of course, there's no real reason to think Cohen would make things better. He does seem better at crime at least.

Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: "Sandy Alderson was a tool of the Wilpons" Granted this statement is made by only the most ignorant of fans but loudly and often enough to gain it some currency. Everyone forgets Sandy was foisted upon the Wilpons and that as soon as they got their alleged financial footing back they couldn't wait to throw him overboard. That he was foisted on the Mets in the first place.

Chad ochoseis wrote: Am I the only one who thinks that maybe, just maybe, 5 years at about $24 million per is a little rich for an almost 30 year old pitcher who has never had an ERA below 3.30 in a pitcher friendly park? no, that's all true. and pitchers, injuries, etc. but you still don't have one of the best pitchers of 2018-2019 in 2020 AND he's on a rival. The Mets DO need another good pitcher. And it makes sense to get the best that they can get, but hell, go grab Ryu for less/shorter and I'll be over losing Wheeler real fast.

With A-Rod, i do think if the Mets had gone hot and heavy at him, right out of the gate, they probably can net him for a _little_ less than what he got. also he was worth ~8 more wins than Rey Ordonez and the Mets finished 6 back in the division.