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Regis Courtemanche

Links: Stadium Costs, Mariners, Ibanez
By Regis Courtemanche - Nov 6, 2008 12:30 pm

Charles Bagli at the New York Times pens an important article on the ever-increasing costs to the public and New York City, as Citi Field and Yankee Stadium 2.0 are built, writing:

“The city is also spending about $35 million for roadwork and sewer connections for the stadium and $30 million more on design and planning, items that were not mentioned when the project was announced in 2005.”

Over at Ya Gotta Believe, Eddie D’Anna argues against signing Raul Ibanez, saying, “I know Ibanez hit .305 vs. lefties last season, but this is no slam dunk. His average against them over the last three seasons is .269, and was as low as .243 in 2006.”

For you Jets fans, the Optimistic Mets Fan relays a photo of what Shea looked like on football game days.

Lastly, Willie Randolph and Bobby Valentine may be in the mix for the Mariners managerial job, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Newsday.

32 Responses to “Links: Stadium Costs, Mariners, Ibanez”

  1. toomanyuniforms says:

    Just one more step toward the Mariners’ inevitable departure from Major League baseball to join a Japanese league?

    Anyway, re: towering infrastructure costs: Duh.

  2. Cactus says:

    The Mets and Yankee stadiums are a joke, they are costing taxpayers over a bilion dollars now, the Mets are actually getting paid to build Citifield, and yet they’re still charging outrageous prices with significantly reduced capacity, effectively shutting out many of the people who are actually paying for their construction.

    • rM teM says:

      think that’s bad, how about the poor giants and jets fans!

      • Cactus says:

        that stadium is 100% privately financed. the mets are actually getting paid by taxpayers and a bank to build their stadium. big difference.

  3. d-murph says:

    *Moves*
    - Trade Delgado for Putz
    - Trade Heilman for a 5th SP
    - Trade Castillo for Guillen
    - Sign Lowe to a 3 yr deal
    - Sign Dunn to a 3-4 yr deal
    - Sign Cordero
    - Sign Biemel
    - Bring in 2-3 other new arms

    Reyes – SS
    Murphy – 2B
    Wright – 3B
    Dunn – 1B
    Beltran – CF
    Church – RF
    Guillen – LF
    Schneider – C

    Santana
    Lowe
    Pelf
    Maine
    Neise/whoever we trade Heilman for (Sonnanstine?)

    Putz
    Cordero
    Biemel
    Dirty
    Parnell
    Sho (**only against Lefties)
    Joe Smith (** only against Righties)
    Minors: (Muniz, Figgy, Kunz, minor leage deals)

    That shores up the BP. Gives us a sold rotation. And a very solid line up. Any thoughts?

    • losmets7 says:

      Oh. My. God. And I thought I was bad at offseason plans. Whoosh!

    • Cactus says:

      you aren’t gonna get putz for delgado.

      you might get someone like nate robertson from the tigers.

      • therealsince86 says:

        They don’t want Delgado either. They already have an expensive DH.
        Delgado’s best possible places would be, Jays, Rays, O’s, A’s, Angels if they don’t resign Tex, Yankee’s….
        Help me out here, that’s about all I can think of.

        • Tidewater says:

          I think Delgado’s best place would be with the Mets.

        • therealsince86 says:

          It just depends. I am not sure I want to gamble that much on him. As I said yesterday if I could get Figgins and Morales for him then so be it. If I could get Ryan for him then sign Ibanez for 1B then fine.

    • mark4212 says:

      Don’t want any part of Guillen. like the Putz and Biemal. Want schneider gone. Like the Dunn signing, and like the Idea’s of trading Delgado and Heilman. Don’t think your returns are correct there.

      I don’t know who Dirty in the BP is. Also i personally don’t want to have another BP full of guys who excel at Lefty/Right matchups. I was BP guys who can pitch 1 inning and 2 if asked and get both lefties and righties out. No more of this matchup’s use guys for 1/3rd of an inning. Feliciano was terrible towards the end of the year getting out lefties, which he was supposedly great at.

      List of guys i want gone. Castillo, Heilman, Show, Feliciano, Delgado, Schneider. I’m up for keeping Sanchez if he’s not guaranteed anything. And I don’t want to rely on Neise to start the year. I want him to be the 6th starter/1st call up if a SP gets hurt.

    • Tidewater says:

      “Trade Heilman for a 5th SP” And what quality of starting pitcher do you think we’d receive in exchange for Senor Heilman?

  4. kingman 26 says:

    Well, Putz, Cordero and Beimel make sense.

    But there is 0% chance the M’s would want an aging, expensive first baseman.

    And I would be afraid to think of who we could get for Heilman….we certainly would not get Sonnanstine even up….I would let Heilman be the 5th starter before giving him away.

    And Guillen is a disease disguised as a soso outfielder.

    But if we got rid of Delgado, Dunn would be OK, considering his extra base hits and walks.

    And I do like the pen, but in my opinion, Show is worse than Castillo…he is absolutely horrible….I like your pen a lot if we can release Show or let him pitch in Binghamton.

    • kingman 26 says:

      Meant this for DMurph…

    • therealsince86 says:

      The pen makes sense. Gullien does not when we could just sign Bradley for less than he is getting most likely. Dunn is fine whether trading Delgado or not. I would try and get Sonnanstine with a package of Heilman, Evans and Carp. (Most likely not enough)
      I don’t want to see Feliciano, Show, or Heilman in the pen next season.

      • d-murph says:

        I agree. Obviously Heilman would be the starting point for a deal for Sonnanstine. Don’t want to see Feliciano or Heilman pitch for the Mets again.

        But for Shoenweis, look at his numbers against lefties. He had the lowest OPS against on the team (.520). As long as he never pitches to a righty I’m fine with him on the team.

  5. boozermetsfan says:

    NO IBANEZ!!!!!!!

    • therealsince86 says:

      Agree. Unless you are signing him for 1B and trading Delgado.

    • mark4212 says:

      I don’t want him either. Want a Righty to play there if at all possible. Would rather someone younger also.

    • kingman 26 says:

      Yes Ibanez.

      Excellent offensive player in virtually all respects, excellent clubhouse/veteran guy, native New Yorker who wants to play here, good clutch hitter, plays every day, would not be outrageously expensive, and the lefty thing is pretty irrelevant.

      And he is 36, in great shape, and has no history of injuries.

      • therealsince86 says:

        If we can get Molina then I can live with Ibanez. Without him then I am not so sure. I am very intrigued by his ability to play 1B as he has played 135 games there with decent results. That could free up Delgado as they are comparable offensive players at this stage. Delgado more HR and Ibanez better average and more consistant.

      • mark4212 says:

        The Lefty thing is pretty relevant as the mets could barely hit right handed pitching last year and adding a lefty who’s career average against righties is in the 260 range isn’t going to help.

        That being said, as a fall back option to other things i wouldn’t mind him on a 2-3 yr deal at a reasonable price of like 7-8 mil a year.

        • therealsince86 says:

          Huh?
          He’s a LH, he struggles against LHP normally. We hit LHP just fine last season.

  6. robmenna says:

    Raul Ibanez had had 338 RBIs the past three years which are more than Ramirez (311), Teixeira (336) or Vladimir Guerrero

    • fongulalou says:

      Again, my friends(In my best John McCain) I can’t understand the number of “fans” on this blog who want
      to get rid of the guy who was our MVP and think his production can easily be replaced in an already weak
      line-up.

      • PAPDOG67 says:

        that “already weak line-up” was 2nd in the NL in runs scored last season??? Can you explain how they did that with a “weak” line-up??

      • 2009_believe says:

        I agree completely, Delgado performed extremely well last season and yes, nobody knows what will happen in 2009 but come on, can’t we deal with Delgado, is he really the problem here? Even if he puts up less than his best numbers next season he still will be better than a lot of people out there and we lose a big bat with him gone and it opens another hole we are forced to fill unless we can trade for somebody else to play first or use Murphy there, but then there is still LF and 2nd. Plus from the way they talk it seems as if Delgado will be a Met in 2009

  7. whenslydale says:

    can’t they finish the stadium without roads and sewers?

    I knew it was too good to be true when I was
    yelling at yankee fans “the mets are building their
    own stadium , while the Yankees won’t stop begging
    for public money.

    So if we pay for this as taxpayers we get compt’d how many tix
    per season each, or do we just get to use the sewers?

  8. matthew says:

    Thanks for posting a link to the NY times article. I always appreciate it when you guys write about things that put baseball in a context, politically and economically.

    It’s a wonderful game with a fascinating role in our world.

  9. robmenna says:

    Raul Ibanez 3 yr averages:

    Runs: 92
    Hits: 173
    HR: 25
    RBI: 106
    BB: 63
    KO: 104
    BA: 0.2864
    OBP: 0.3526
    SLG: 0.4785

    Manny Ramirez 3 yr averages:

    Runs: 92
    Hits: 150
    HR: 33
    RBI: 111
    BB: 84
    KO: 104
    BA: 0.3030
    OPB: 0.4054
    SLG: 0.5677

    Also consider that Ibanez plays in Safeco field which is a notorious pitcher’s park and has had the likes of Richie Sexson and Adrian Beltre batting around him in the lineup. Ibanez also plays hard every game.

    So make your pick

    Ramirez for 4-5 yrs at 80-100 million

    or

    Ibanez for 2-3 yrs at 20-35 million