The Mets are bringing in one of baseball’s most experienced executives to turn the franchise into a winner. Sandy Alderson became Oakland’s general manager in 1983, when Theo Epstein, Jon Daniels and Alex Anthopoulos were in grade school. Here are some reactions to the Mets’ decision to pass on Josh Byrnes and bring in Alderson:
- Andy Martino of the New York Daily News reports that former Twins GM Terry Ryan and longtime GM Pat Gillick had some interest in the job. Martino also notes that Mets assistant GM John Ricco wants to be a GM at some point.
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post praises the Mets' decision and suggests the team can work through bad contracts and reach the top of the NL.
- Sherman and Mike Puma say the Mets were impressed with Byrnes, "but not enough to ignore their strong feelings about the instant credibility and sense of direction that would come with hiring someone with Alderson's gravitas."
- The Mets made an "excellent choice," ESPN.com's Keith Law writes (on Twitter).
- Jon Heyman of SI.com says he would have hired Byrnes, but admits the Mets' decision is tough to criticize (Twitter link).
- Last week, 78% of MLBTR readers said they believe Alderson was a better choice than Byrnes.
fingers crossed and hope that Alderson can vault the Mets to becoming a powerhouse in baseball!!!
Not with the Wilpon’s in charge.
i have been saying that for a few years, but Alderson commands more respect from the Wilpons than Minaya could ever get. Also, this is the first hire (since Frank Cashen) from outside the organization and that might give him more leeway to run baseball operations. The organization can only go up from here.
Worry about your franchise full of front running “fans”. Empty ballpark all season, then ya’ll show up in the playoffs tomahawk chopping. What a joke.
You do know that the Mets only averaged 2K more fans per game, right?
u do know the mets play in a smaller ballpark and were out of the race since july right?
What does the size of the ballpark have to do with anything?
the mets actually fill out a bigger percentage. ( 77% )
the braves only do 61%.
thats the smallest percentage of any NL team in the playoffs. and of almost any playoff team except the rays. sometimes i think its a south east thing. football rules.
But Braves can fit over 55,000 people. The size of the stadium has nothing to do with it. If ATL wasn’t such a metro area, they’d have a lot more people come to each game.
When the Red Sox have 23021043290 consecutive sell outs…
Maybe the Mets and their fans should worry about the fact that they cant get to the post season with the 5th highest team payroll in baseball and stop worrying about how many fans show up to a Braves game. Mets averaged 32,401 this season, Braves averaged 30,989…not a big difference
Your team was competing all season long and your fans still failed to show up at the park. Playoffs comes, and ya’ll come from under your rocks. Definition of front runners.
Competing ?
there were in 1st place all the way til September !
bwahahahahahhahaha
if the Bulldogs and Braves play on a Saturday, u could probably find more people in Pathmark than u could at Turner Field.
You do realize that most of us Braves fans actually live nowhere near Atlanta, right? Myself, I go to 6-8 Braves games a year – in Washington and Philly (and occasionally Baltimore). It’s the TBS effect.
You do realize the Braves play in ATLANTA…where there is a dense population of ATLANTA residents.
So imagine if they had to play in the same backyard as the Yankees. The Mets are lucky that they get 500 people to go to a game.
Split New York’s metropolitan area in half and you have 4 million more people than Atlanta’s. Or about the population of the state of Georgia.The Braves drew 30k with a Metro area around 5.5 Million. That’s 1 in every 183. The Mets drew 32k with half a metro area around 9 Million. That’s 1 in every 281. The Yankees drew 46k with that other half of it, for a rate of 1 in every 196.
yeah but split the amount of bandwagon Yankee fans in the tri-state and ur
lucky if u have 500K Met fans.
half the people who came to Citi-field were probably fans of the other team.
Well this is to all the Braves fans. What you saw this year was a team sending Bobby Cox off with a great deal of respect. Now that he’s gone, lets see just how good they do without him. I like Freddy Gonzalez but he is not Bobby Cox. The team is no better than the Mets.
I rather have an $84 million payroll and suck, then have $132 million and suck.
You think Alderson of all people would accept a GM job if he wasn’t going to be in charge? The days of the Wilpons controlling the GM are over pal…he’s no Omar Minaya. Alderson will run the Wilpons.
I know nothing about Alderson to even know what he would do or even care what he does.
78% on the “bell curve” constitutes all of what we consider to be average (plus ..slightly below and above). Therefore, of the 22% who questioned the Alderson choice, approximately half, or 11% labeled “well above average” (and conversely the remaining 11%..well below average) probably have a better insight into what we might expect during Sandy’s tenure in the Met’s front office. A summary of the aforementioned reasons why Byrnes would be a better choice should be examined in detail, for future reference, and as a yard stick to measure Alderson’s 2011 experience, be it good or bad.
u wont get that summary cuz no one likes being accountable for their decisions. ( talking about arm-chair GM’s and reporters )
Absolute right!
Byrnes did a bad job in AZ. Why would anyone want him over Alderson?
“Finally.”
Perfect. Now pretty please – with ice cream on top – bring in Bobby V. to whip these guys asses into shape.
Not happening. Wally Backman has a better chance than Bobby.
I’m so glad you have the inside word from inside the organization. Can you tell me what Jose Reyes’ favorite color is as well? Boxers or briefs?
“Managers are very controlling. You look at the managers today and the ones that are ‘my way or the highway’ are very few. It’s a remnant of another generation. If an organization is worth its salt – why would you turn that company over to a middle manager? So the attitude (in Oakland) was, ‘We have a philosophy and we’re going to find a manager who is going to implement that philosophy. We’re not looking for someone to tell us how to run the team, or upon which theory it should be predicated. We already have that. We want someone who is going to implement it for us.’ That’s a very different approach – Sandy Alderson
‘my way or the highway’ = Bobby V
Ah, so I see that you not only have the inside word of the Mets organization, but you can also read Bobby Valentine’s mind! If I was a GM, i’d hire you in a second to be my secret weapon. But alas, your talents are wasted in the commenting section of website based off of RUMORS.
Are you retarded? Seriously. You do know Bobby V managed the Mets before? There is a familiarity amongst the fan base. You must be a kid. I don’t have time for games, run along now.
Easy there partner. It’s just that it’s pretty well known that the Wilpons do not get along with Bobby V. Meanwhile they’ve been courting Wally Backman so hard they practically look like they’re about to propose marriage.
By the looks of it Bobby V’s going to be in Milwaukee, and I don’t see how Wally fits in Sandy’s plans…Better chance of being Wally though.
Jon Heyman continues to express his stupidity.
I usually like Heyman’s choices, but Byrnes over Sandy? C’mon…
He also continues to use Twitter too much.
Agreed 110%.
I’m tired of writers using Twitter so much. During the GM meetings, I understand. Things happen quickly and there isn’t time to write an article for every rumor. But for this, you can take the time to write one. You didn’t get an education in journalism to compact stories into 140 characters.
Josh Byrnes has always seemed extremely overrated to me. Other than finding Mark Reynolds, Miguel Montero and Chris Young (and you can debate how valuable Reynolds and Young are), all he did was run the farm system into the ground and make bad trades. I don’t even think you can give him credit for taking Justin Upton in the draft…any GM with half a brain would have done the same thing at #1 overall that year. Never understood what the hype was about w/ him in AZ
Having that said…nice move by the Wilpons. They would have had to overpay like crazy to get Jon Daniels away from TX, and I just said what I think about Byrnes. They could have done much worse than Alderson…have to give them props for a change
Clearly the better choice between him and Byrnes, but it would have been interesting to see what Ryan would have done there. Alderson is not going to be pushed around by the Wilpon’s and should have plenty of resources to improve the team the way he sees fit. Mets are still a long ways away from the Phils or even the Braves though.
I really like Rick Hahn, but Alderson HAD to be the choice for this franchise, given the recent turmoil over the past few years. Hopefully the Wilpons give him autonomy to do his job well.
Heyman said we should have hired Byrnes? Now you know we made an excellent move!