Joe at Mets Today wonders why the Mets are acting like a small-market team this winter, writing:
“The Mets are based in New York City, own their own superstation, and have attracted a loyal and rabid fan base that numbers in the millions. But they haven’t been able to make the most of those advantages in terms of dollars.”
At the blog Priced Out Of The Citi, Mackie comments on the retiring of Jeff Kent. Also, Metstradamus expresses no sympathy with his must-see illustration of the former Mets second baseman.
Watching ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball just got better, as former Mets GM Steve Phillips is slated to join Joe Morgan and Jon Miller.
Phillips, as quoted here said:
“Jon and Joe have set the standard for baseball telecasts over the last 19 years, and I look forward to being a member of their team.”
…to me, and stop me if i’m being too harsh, they only set the standard for how to be boring broadcasters…
The ‘Ropolitans thankfully forward along useful information regarding Delay Play, which syncs your radio broadcast with TV programming so that the ESPN crew is silenced.
The Mets are not acting like a “small market” team- they do have a top 5 payroll. Rather they are acting within a budget hampered by a boneheaded GM who has wasteful contracts littered throughout the roster. Castillo’s $6 million, Schneider’s $6 million and Cora’s $2 million immediately come to mind.
How can you call a Cora 1 year 2 million dollar contract a Wasteful contract when he hasn’t played an inning for the Mets.
Castillo, El-Douque, Pedro, Alou, Schneider, Mota YES!
i agree…ask any red sox what they think of cora because they loved him..hes going to end up one of the best signings we have this offseason..hes going to eventually start at 2nd and be able to spell jose some days..hes a younger better version of easley..cant c how anybody wouldnt like that deal..not everybody can make the bare minimum
He is a career .249 hitter. That is the definition of minor-league contract “see if you can make the team out of spring training” type of mediocre player.
i agree.. but for some reason we gave him the same deal NOW when noone was remotely interested.. if the red sox love him sooo much why didn’t they signed him..
when our GM loves a pitcher like perez over lowe AND sheets that tells you his baseball knowledge.. when i read the post before this one i didn’t even wanna comment..
cmon i know the guy isnt tony gwynn but hes plays solid defense at 2nd and SS..maybe the sox had a younger cheaper version?? who knows..for 2 mil hes a great pickup..especially with the amt of playing time hes most likely going to get once castillos knees snap on the field
Well alex,
Omar actually liked Lowe over Ollie. For all the right reasons. He just though “Hey a pitcher who’s barely over 500 every season with decent peripherals, who’s 36 years old doesn’t deserve to be the 8th highest paid pitcher in baseball or get a 4 year deal.
Big difference. I guess you were a fan of the Jim Douquette days or the Steve Phillips (Mo Vaughn Robbie Alomar) days. Or the Gm’s of 90′s team, who outside trading for and signing Piazza long term never made one sound move.
MARK:
if you follow my post you’ll see i have never liked lowe to come to the mets, but to think as a pitcher (forget the years ok) perez is to be liked over lowe or sheets is crazy..!! sorry for the exclamations..
Don’t you know there is no need for bench players, there is no need for guys who can come of the bench and do any number of things. There is only room for signing studs. Just becaus a guy hit .249 doesn’t mean that he should be signed to a minor league contract. There is more than one way to win a baseball game (see Endy Chavez), but you knew that already Alex. I find it hillarious that you question Omar’s baseball IQ. It’s not like he runs a major league baseball team and has been in baseball for close to 3 decades. Give me a break.
you are right..
Right and Norv Turner has been coaching NFL teams for decades. What’s your point?
fiya:
don’t bother.. this guy is mr met blog…
My point is that even though someone might not have had that much success (your Turner argument) doesn’t preclude them from knowing a lot more about the sport than the fans. Why is that? Well because that is their livlihood and they have spent year and years of their life to get to the point where someone would trust them with a 100 million dollar investment.
LOL.. careful fiya.. there’s a couple of guys in mets blog who are the defenders of omar..
The Mets should hire you as GM, as you obviously are more knowledgeable about baseball than Omar…
Oh, and Cora had a .270 AVG and .371 OBP last year, which amounted to a .720 OPS, which isn’t great, but that’s a lot higher than Ecksteins’, Castillos’ or Easleys’. He probably isn’t worth 2 million, but it’s not like he was complete garbage last year..
But what do I know, I’m just a blind homer…
did you check hi career average… and they should hire you as a GM.. maybe you’ll get the job done.. like mota when he signed that 2 year contract that omar gave him.. huh..
.249… which is just a tad under Easley’s terrific .253…
easly with the mets last 2 years and injured.. 16 hr’s..
cora in last 4 years 17 hr’s..
Not defenders. If he was fired i wouldn’t have shed a tear or even cared.
But to throw him under the bus for signing Cora for 2 million dollars, or signing cheap outfielders for depth/competition, or signing minor league players, like you and others have is ridiculous.
Omar has made some bad moves, he has also made some good ones. The Mets have been in contention 3 of the 4 years he’s been GM. I can’t argue with that. Have the fallen short the last 2 years.YUP. should he have been fired for it. Probably. But he wasn’t and he has made very good moves this off-season to Date.
is not only the cora signing.. the timing of it was just as ridiculous as the extension that was given to him while the mets (the team he built) was on the verge of another collapse..
The only wasteful contracts are Wagner(10.5), Castillo(6), and Sullivan(.6, but thats only because I think he is redundant with Reed).
I think you really might need to see someone about your irrational obsession with Alex Cora. You’ve cited his paltry $2MM contract as the stumbling blok of the Mets offseason about 75 times.
Let it go.
Ill have to check out that delay play thing. CANT STAND when the mets are on sunday night baseball.
i remember a few times during the season when my gf would ask what time the game was on sunday and i would tell her it was prime time, she would respond with:
“oh…espn? that bites…”
I miss FJM.
Me too. May it rest on peace. Consistent peace.
Thirded. It’s a shame, it just needed more grit and intangibles to stay up…
And maybe Gary Sheffield, too.
the only standard they established was john making joe morgan look like a god, every play, hey joe you used to do that, and then joe goes off for 8 minutes about pop-sliding into second and how he hates head first slides… and that’s regardless of the play…. espn baseball = crapola
A third reason to mute sunday night baseball.
LMAO!! when the mets play i usually go to a bar… sorry for the exclamation.
After watching Gary, Ron & Keith on SNY any other baseball broadcast feels very poor by comparison.
I totally agree 100%.
No doubt they are top notch. Throw Burkhart (sp?) into the mix with his goofball chatter from the stands. Jon an Joe have set the standard for clunky verbose commentary I learn nothing from them.
Yes, the Mets are a big market team. I believe they even set a record for attendance last year and will most likely do the same this coming year, with the new stadium. I understand the market situation and the desire to not overpay, especially since other teams aren’t being aggressive–unless they’re overpaying themselves, as the Yanks and the Braves have done. So while I understand Omar’s–and ownership’s–cautiousness, I believe they can be, should be, and will be aggressive as the market plays itself out in the next few weeks, or by the trading deadline. There’s no rush right now, as it is, since many of these players will end up falling to the Mets I’d think, if indeed they fit for us. The Wilpon’s have every incentive to make the Mets marketable this year considernig that many of their other investments have collapsed as we know. The Mets are like a cash cow in this regard, and they’d be nuts not to improve this product as much as they can to increase cash flow. So, I for one am still willing to be patient with Omar for the time being, and see what comes of new additions. Plenty of time for grousing and catcalls if the dire scenarios of many on this blog come true. GO METS!
I agree except I feel it is being patient with the Wilpons not Omar. Omar does not set the budget. If it was up to him he would sign Manny, you no he would.
Let the Braves take Lowe for that ridiculous contract they gave him. I am glad the Mets did not match that deal.
I still believe the Mets will come away with either Ollie or Sheets. I am one who prefers Sheets for one or two years rather then Ollie for 4 or 5 years. But again Sheets is injury prone and Ollie is not so it is a hard decsion. Go with the guy who is a number one pitcher but gets hurt all the time or the guy who is solid and I feel can still get alot better who does not get hurt.
Steve Phillips blows.
add heilman to the end of that
jon miller is the absolute worst sports broadcaster…next to joe buck that is. and if i have to hear miller say beltran with that spanish flair one more time im going to break my tv
a little late to join the party ive broken every tv in my house by throwing the remote evrytime i think about how stooooooooopid they are. “It apears the foul poul is out of line in Yankee staudium” It apears that you are dead inside Jon Miller.
I can’t stand that pronunciation of Beltran either, its horrendous.
BeltrrrrAn
Just when I think ESPN can’t do anything dumber, they go and do something like this.
don’t they get feedback from the people who watch their telecasts, or are they just so pompous that they do whatever they want.
Yes they are that pompus wich is why they crowned themselves “the leader in sports”. Umm this may sound stoopid but shouldnt the leader in sports be able to even simulcast the WS or Superbowl? Much less show a single base ball or football postseason game? But thats not important i think they have a couple of “college teams” (Not noking college sports but you cant call yourselves the leader when you arent allowed to show the pros and there is a reason they arent allowed to show the pros)
I’ll bet it’s “b.”
Santanaclause,
i think of ESPN could televise a world series or superbowl they would. but its not in the interest of the nfl or mlb to have these games played on a cable network. You want to be able to get the highest number of viewers possible.
that was my point sry if was kinda hazy
Steve Phillips makes me want to vomit
lol… el diablo (spanish for damn)
I thought el diablo was a Spanish for a fighting chicken with the claws and the beak.
lol, no.. el diablo is damn.. chicken or rooster is gallo.. o pollo (after el gallo is cooked becomes pollo)
doesn’t el diablo mean the devil?
Diablo means devil, maldicion means damn
Omar is just being smart, if he over pays for a player and they become useless then he will be stuck with him ala Luis Castillo. Also remember Lackey is available next offseason so there’s no point to overpay for mediocre pitching.
Omar is just being smart, if he over pays for a player and they become useless then he will be stuck with him ala Luis Castillo. Also remember Lackey is available next offseason so there’s no point to overpay for mediocre pitching.
then why he’s even considering OLIVER PEREZ at 4 years???
This guy is the biggest bullpen killer from the pitching staff.. no one is safe when he takes the mound in th first inning coz it may be his last.. please.. stop giving this guy credit he doesn’t deserve..
The answer is that I don’t think he is considering him for 4 years unless it is for 10 or less a year. That’s why he hasn’t signed him yet.
Joe Morgan and Jon Miller are the ABSOLUTE WORST commentators. i couldn’t feel more strongly about this.
What if Fran Healy joined them? That would be cosmically bad.
i’d rather have fran drescher, bobcat goldthwait, and dennis miller do the games.
Despite the fact that I enjoy the comedy stylings of the Bobcat, you’ve just described the baseball broadcast team I’ll be watching for eternity should I not be admitted through the pearly gates.
I think Suzyn Waldman and John Sterling would be involved in some way.
That is by far the worst broadcast i have ever had the privileged to listen to.
If the prerequisite is that they have previously broadcast baseball, then I would have to agree with you mark, although with the noteworthy exception of her Roger Clemens inspired orgasm, I think Susan is a decent broadcaster, it’s the blind homer Sterling that I can’t stand except for purposes of mocking him after-the-fact which can be quite fun.
Sterling: “It is high, it is far, it is…caught by Cano behind second base.”
right on the heels of losing firejoemorgan we have to cope with this
: (
I tend to cringe each time i hear SNY called a “superstation”. If it was so super I’d get it out here in AZ
Is the YES network available in AZ?
YES??
oh and dont get me started on Joe Buck. I wish i could punch through my tv to shut him up. baseball, football, all year i have to hear this guy. i wish for permanent laryngitis for him.
I agree, he is a NY hater. I think they shoud ban him and troy aikman from calling giant games next season.
i agree 1,000%
I have sent fox sports an email every time he does a giants or mets game. EVERY SINGLE TIME THE LAST 2 YEARS.
joe buck is madly in love with aikman
Thank god for the SAP broadcast.
Wow. Just when I thought it couldn’t suck more than Miller and Morgan, they through my favorite ex-GM into the mix. I swear, what are the heads at ESPN thinking?
I’m really tired of fans complaining of the Mets’ spending when it was the third larges in baseball last year.
Just look at the failures of the Yankees the last few years as a cautionary tale about overspending.
vcarver,
i kinda agree but the thing is look at the signings that we had last year that were horrible and ballon the payroll to that:
Alou 8 mill
El Duque 7 mill
Schneider 6 mill
Castillo 6 mill
i won’t include wagner’s, but that’s 27 millions worth NOTHING!!!! come on..
Alex,
Please go look look at the Yankee’s Millions worth of nothing the last 8- 12 years.
40 million dollars of Carl Pavano?
ok..what else.. everyone who they sign has pan out very well for them for the most part.
Giambi… Him and Pavano should cover all Mets bloopers combined..
I’m seeing Burnett as another bust
By their own standards, the Yankees are judged on championships. They gave absurd amounts of cash to Mussina, Giambi and ARod, and have zero championships to show for it.
Damon isn’t a jackpot, Posada will be a waste this year, Randy Johnson didn’t work out all that much, you can go on and on and on…
Kei Igawa
What almost everyone here fails to comprehend (or just doesn’t want to) with the exception of last year the Yankees have made the playoffs year after year. Once you make the playoffs the team that gets hot generally gets to the WS. If you read the article in Mets Today Joe clearly outlines the way the Yankees marketing department has used the perennial winning and the acquisition of name stars to increase there cash flow. The Mets Today article discusses other off the field areas where the Yankees, from a business viewpoint, are superior to the Mets and this results in the Yankees having superior revenue sources. From a business and on the field pov the Yankees are the most successful franchise in baseball. I might add they also know how to keep their fans happy.
I am a Mets fan but unlike some of you I will not rationalize the situation and get my point across using intimidation while insulting those that disagree with me.
BTW I see nothing wrong in the signing of Alex Cora and I don’t know why it has exploded into a major issue.
Heard Jeff Kent’s live farewell on MLB earlier. Gave a lot of credit to the Mets, the Wilpons and Dallas Green. Got all choked up about it. Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t remember any love lost between Kent, the Mets, that clubhouse during those years….
Interesting…I think that was overblown. There was an incident in 1992 after he came over when he refused to wear a clown suit or whatever that was part of rookie hazing…but that was just the last chapter in a disaster of a year. Beyond that, I think he plugged away and was a solid player and citizen in his time here. I don’t think he was a NY guy in any way, but I never got the sense that he didn’t like the organization.
Oh and they tried moving him to 3rd to accomodate Alfonzo, which I don’t think he appreciated either. Of course they just moved Alfonzo to 3rd to accomodate Baerga when he was traded.
I am sure at this point, he thinks of the Mets and Dallas Green as the team he essentially broke in with and established himself with, so I don’t blame him for being sentimental.
There’s no reason the Mets should not be making legitimate offers to the two best available pitchers on the market: Sheets and Pettitte.
Ollie Perez is a #4 pitcher. He’s no youngster any more, he is who he is, and that’s a 1.40-ish whip guy who walks way too many guys. His K/BB ratio is right around 2:1, very borderline for what you’d consider a decent pitcher.
IMO, there are two reasons the Mets haven’t spent much money yet:
1. Madoff scandal
2. Wilpon is tight-fisted
They have a TV network and a new stadium which will generate a tremendous amount of revenue.
I’m not saying they should sign bad contracts, but they have a lot of money to spend.
LET’S GET SHEETS!
Right on
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Doesn’t everyone get bored with complaining about the Mets spending money?
Really, the only reason the Mets don’t sign old, injured, steroid-tainted Andy Pettitte, who has NO ONE interested in him including his hometown team and the team he’s pitched almost his entire career for, is because the Wilpon’s are “tight fisted?” Really??
And just to clarify, if the Wilpons were tight-fisted, they wouldn’t invest so much money in a risky endeavor like Madoff’s. So please pick one conspiracy theory and stick with it!
is it true that Ryan Howard wants 18 million dollars?
Joe Morgan AND Steve Phillips.
I don’t understand. This is just bullet through the head stupid. The whole baseball universe of the mainstream media is a bunch of total imbeciles.
I can’t stand Morgan & Miller, but I think a big part of the problem is that Met fans are spoiled by having the absolute best broadcast team. Even good game callers are going to suffer a little by comparison, but when you get down to the level of M&M it’s unbearable. While Miller is very annoying, but it’s Morgan that make me want to turn the volume down.
Former athletes can be good broadcasters, but it seems after a while they start phoning it in. They act like they’re experts in the game just because they were stars when they played. They don’t follow baseball anymore and tend to rely on ‘game notes’ provided to them. I want the guy I’m listening to to be as big a fan of baseball as I am.
Another example is Tim McCarver. I really enjoyed it when he was a Met broadcaster, but now he’s horrible and a perfect example my points above. Doesn’t seem to follow baseball when he’s not actually in the booth calling a game.
Let’s hope it’s a long time before Keith and Ron reach their expiration date.
I can’t stand Joe Morgan, OMG!
I can not stand either Miller or Morgan. Now that idiot Steve Philips is on board too i will never watch Sunday Nigt Baseball even if the Mets are playing
I can certainly understand all the hating on joe buck, and to an extent joe morgan, but jon miller is the man. what national broadcaster would you prefer?
Jon Miller is awesome period. During the ACLS when between the Angels and White Sox in 2005 Orlando Cabrera botched a relay throw and threw it into the crowd behind home plate and Jon Miller screamed “TOUCH DOWN”. It was priceless. Jon Miller makes the games interesting just by the way he calls a game. Joe Morgan, not so much.
THIS FROM ADAM RUBIN FROM THE NY DAILY NEWS:
Freddy Garcia is a Met. The righthander agreed to a minor-league deal with the Mets tonight, the Daily News has learned. It’s believed he can earn as much as $8 million to $9 million if he makes the team and reaches all of his incentives.
THIS IS GREAT. FREDDY GARCIA IN AAA AS AN INSURANCE POLICY.
Now sign Ben Sheets and John Garland
Dude…….