Reyes Signing In A Nutshell

For those of you with a short attention span like me here is the Reyes signing in a nutshell.

• The Front Office had a clear line in terms of what they could afford to pay Jose.
• This number was floated to Jose’s agents in a ballpark manner.
• The Marlins blew the number out of the water.
• The Front Office was very comfortable with letting Jose go and taking the compensatory draft picks rather than grossly over paying him.
• For the record the compensatory picks include a sandwich pick between 1st & 2nd round, as well as pick 9b in round two.
• It will suck to see Jose play for the Fish and their gaudy uniforms, but I am fine with how this transpired.

Showing Love Is Lame

I cringe when professional athletes start blathering on about teams showing them or not showing them love as far as criteria for signing is concerned.  The fact that Jeffrey Loria showed up at Jose’s doorstep at 12:01am on the first day of free agency had very little to do with #7 winding up in Miami.  The six years at $102 million had everything to do with it.

Love ya Jose, thanks for all you did for us, but come on man…you’re not fooling me.  Besides, I don’ t blame you for signing with the fish, no one else in their right mind would have turned that deal down.

At the end of the day, money talks and bullshit walks (I sound so tough don’t I?).  So let’s dispense with the notion that this decision was based on anything else but the very generous number of years and dollars Miami offered.

Something tells me Sandy Alderson has a similar point of view, and I dig it….

“If you’re asking whether I should have sent him a box of chocolates, perhaps I should have done that. On the other hand, the box of chocolates wouldn’t have cost $106 million either.”-Sandy Alderson

History Repeating Itself

A quick thought about the fish.  This franchise has a history of overspending on free agents for a short successful run, dismantling the pieces, then being irrelevant for a number of years.  Why is this current mad dash any different?

For the record, I’m not knocking it.  I don’t prefer it as I would prefer my team to build a franchise of long sustainable success.  But whatever floats your boat man.

That’s All I Have To Say About That

At this point, the Reyes drama is resolved.  Ruben is my shortstop now.  In the immortal words of Coach Norman Dale,

“My team is on the floor.”

Blame the Wilpons…

The Difference Between Omar & Mr. Alderson

“I think our biggest priority when we came to these meetings was to try to strengthen our bullpen.  We knew we had to rebuild it. To get it done the way it happened today, I’m amazed by it. Those were three very, very good arms — power arms. It’s going to give us huge depth down there now. And I think it’s going to make a difference. – Terry Collins

We all remember the end of 2008, no matter how hard we try to forget it.  Another chance at the playoffs wasted, due largely in part to an inept bullpen.  General Manager, Omar Minaya, fixed the problem by throwing $38 million at Francisco Rodriguez for three years.  Although Rodriguez was somewhat effective, no one can argue he was $38 million effective.

Flash forward to 2012.  The Mets again are dealing with bullpen issues.  Instead of investing 12 plus million on one player, Sandy Alderson invested almost the same amount on three arms (when comparing the single season salaries).  Granted, Ramon Ramirez, Jon Rauch, or Frank Francisco aren’t the same caliber reliever as what K-Rod was back in 2008.  However, I argue the combination of the three improve the Mets bullpen ten fold compared to the K-Rod fix.

Before you start to think this is a post about how much smarter Sandy Alderson is compared to Omar Minaya let me stop you.  I don’t believe this to be the biggest difference in the two.  Just like anything in baseball it eventually comes down to dollars and cents.

Omar Minaya filled rosters during the “who gives a shit about fiscal responsibility, let’s invest a bunch of money with Bernie Madoff, and spend frivolously on free agent band aids” era of the Wilpons.  Sandy Alderson is doing his job in the new era of “holly shit, we are broke and need to stop the bleeding” era of the Wilpons.

Keeping this all in mind, I don’t have a lot of patience with people who bitch and moan about “small market Sandy” and he didn’t make a solid offer to Jose.  Look at the reality of what the Mets are now.  Once I did, I feel the front office is doing everything they can to be as competitive as they can with the budget they have to play with.

Good  Bye Angel

A quick thought on the Angel Pagan trade.  I dig it.  Pagan wasn’t happy playing for the Mets.  I don’t really care why, but it was pretty obvious.  This unhappiness probably lead to all of the mental errors we saw during his tenure.

Andres Torres isn’t anything to write home about, but he is serviceable and at least won’t consistently miss the cutoff man or make little league-esque base running errors.

My Take On The Mets

I’m bummed Reyes is gone, but surprisingly enough, I am pretty much over it.  I’m glad the front office stayed true to their plan and improved the bullpen rather than committing mass suicide because they don’t have access to trillions of dollars like the Miami Marlins.  Pitching will always outweigh hitting in my opinion.

I can’t say I’m expecting a playoff caliber team.  However, I believe the Mets will be competitive (middle of the pack competitive).  Who knows?  Maybe Johan Santana miraculously comes back as a true ace, David Wright plays like he did in 2006-2008, Ike Davis will pan out to  be the slugger we have desperately been missing, and Mike Pelfrey will be a consistent #2 (enter double entendre jokes here).

The bottom line is I am genuinely interested to see how this team will perform with an average team and a solid manager.  One thing is for sure, I’m not going to spend time whining about the Mets not spending money they don’t have.   Regardless if they are from New York or not, facts are facts and they don’t have the dough.  Blaming the current roster or the front office for anything wrong with the franchise is a mistake.

Blame the Wilpons, because the shit associated with this franchise has clearly rolled down hill.

Audios #7

Losing Jose Reyes as a New York Met kind of sucks.  Not gonna lie.  However, a six-year contract is too long in my humble opinion.  It is  probably too much in terms of money as well when considering the financial situation of the Amazin’s.

I am 35 years old.  Exactly the same age Reyes will be heading into the last year of this contract.  I can tell you first hand that my body is a wee bit slower these days compared to when I was 29.  Now I don’t spend nearly as much time as Jose does preparing his body for a 162 game marathon.  I also don’t have the chronic hamstring problems he does either.

Investing a large amount of dough so you can secure a player heading into the last third of his career that relies heavily on his legs is not a sound business decision. Add the fact that said player has had well documented issues with his legs and we are teetering into “no brainer” land.

People are going to be upset that the Mets never gave Jose a concrete offer.  My thought is, why would they if they knew their competition already went well beyond what they were willing to or could afford to spend.

Dignity

For those of you that are so upset you are wishing for torn hammies, and making plans to boo Jose mercilessly….. stop, retrace your steps, and find your dignity because apparently you misplaced it.  The “oh woe is me” attitude doesn’t sit well with me.  You can’t undo what has happened, so why focus on things that cannot be changed?

There isn’t a person reading this that wouldn’t take 102 million dollars to play baseball in Miami over 90 million dollars to play baseball in New York.  As a matter of fact, there isn’t a single person reading this that wouldn’t take 102 million to play in Indianapolis rather than 90 million in New York.

Keep in mind there is not a state income tax in Florida, so that 102 million is somewhat misleading.

How?

As much as I wanted Jose to stay, I possess the ability to be a grown up and understand how this all played out.  The bottom line is that we are in this mess because the money simply isn’t there.  It isn’t there because of two things:

1. The Wilpons’ participation in the Madoff Mess.
2. The Mets investing poorly in the past, over spending on players that haven’t performed or have been injured.

Who’s Fault Is This?

So if you are someone who is upset and needs to assign blame, point your fingers at ownership rather than the front office.  They have the unfortunate task of trying to clean up this mess.  Presently, I feel they are making the right decisions, even though they may be extremely difficult.

Moving On

If I happen to catch a game in person featuring Jose I will clap politely in my seat, remembering the time he spent with the Mets fondly.  I will clap loudly when he strikes out, makes an error, or is thrown out attempting to steal.

No offense my man, you are now on the other team.