Daily Archives: August 31, 2009
Yesterday, on SIRIUS-XM, Jim Duquette said the Mets have canceled their fall instructional league in an effort to save roughly $300,000.
“The Mets have made a decision, and some organizations do this,” Duquette explained. “The rumors within scouting circles are that they can’t afford it.”
The Mets later issued a release saying the team is instead shifting their instructional league to their academy in the Dominican Republic, as several teams have done, writing:
“We believe that by housing our minor league players in the Dominican, we will have more opportunities to have competition against opposing teams that have training facilities nearby. Over the past few years in Port St. Lucie, the competition has predominately been among our own players as a result of other teams leaving the area. This year’s approach will bring approximately 75 prospects to train and compete at our Academy and against players affiliated with other Major League clubs.”
In a post to his blog for the Daily News, Adam Rubin says a team official told him there is a lack of opposing teams in the Port St. Lucie, with the Cardinals purportedly no longer fielding an instructional league team Jupiter.
…i realize people will read this and deduce, ‘Oh, Mets must do this to save money because they’re broke, Maddoff, etc.,’ but it is possible for people to want to save money just for the sake of saving money, especially in an economy like this… i mean, i used my Stop & Shop card to save a few bucks on groceries this weekend, and it wasn’t because i lost millions of dollars in a Ponzi Scheme… this is not to say the Mets aren’t doing this because of Maddoff, i’m just saying, Maddoff cannot be the end-all, be-all of every single thing the team does… or doesn’t do… that’s all…
…the question is, like rubin suggests, how many other teams have moved their camps to the DR, like the Mets are doing… it sounds like it’s a decent-size number… if this is the case, and the Mets want their young players to compete against other team’s young players, then, sure, it makes sense to move south… and, if they happen to save $300,000 in the process, great…
…my advice to the Mets would be, any time there is a situation that could be interpreted as Mets are Broke, Must Save Money, it might be wise to frame it yourselves, get out in front of the story and set the agenda, before someone like duquette does it for you…
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