The big news out of Citi Field today was the settlement of the lawsuit between the Mets' owners and Irving Picard, the trustee for Bernie Madoff's victims. Here are some more items about the team, including fallout from the settlement…
- The Mets have sold 12 minority ownership shares in the club for $20MM each, reports Teri Thompson and Michael O'Keeffe of the New York Daily News. The deals were settled last week, with the buyers of seven of the shares (four for cable company SNY and one each for Saul Katz, Jeff Wilpon and Steve Cohen) publicly known. The $240MM generated by the sale of these ownership shares will go towards covering the club's operating costs for the 2012 season. The Mets have also paid back several team debts, including a $25MM loan from Major League Baseball and a $40MM loan from Bank Of America.
- "So while the Wilpons may consider themselves the day’s winners, it’s the fans that emerge as the losers," writes Bob Klapisch for FOX Sports. Klapisch outlines the several hundred millions in debt that the franchise still owes and predicts the Mets may face several more years of low payrolls and uncertainty.
- Scouting reports on Scott Kazmir "were not great," which is why the Mets passed on a reunion with the left-hander, writes MLB.com's Anthony DiComo. This mailbag piece also covers such topics as the Mets' training and medical staffs and center field prospect Kirk Nieuwenhuis.
- Earlier today, MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith reviewed the Mets' offseason.
I thought it was a sure thing that Kazmir would get an invite to ST with maybe a minor league deal struck between himself and an interested club as he worked his way back to the Majors, but it’s beginning to look like his career is going to end without any return at all. Hard to believe that a guy like this who led the league in K’s and pitched against the titans of the AL East will see his career fade away into oblivion just like that.
Rick Peterson will fix him, oh the irony would that be…
Rick Peterson will fix him, oh the irony would that be…
Sell the team.
Fred and Jeff Wilpon wouldn’t know competence if it got up and shook their hands.
Well, that’s not going to happen anymore. Let Sandy rebuild the farm and get the players we wants to succeed with. David Wright staying looks probably now too.
They aren’t going to sell the team if they can help it. It may not be all bad. If they aren’t going to compete right away, it gives them a chance to clean up the organization, to give playing time to those who might otherwise be blocked by a mediocre vet, and maybe to convert some of their assets into prospects. I think it’s harder to run a team that projects to .500 ball than one that hopes to break 70 wins, because you can be much more realistic.
Sell the team.
Fred and Jeff Wilpon wouldn’t know competence if it got up and shook their hands.
Why does it not surpise me that Fox is the only mouth peice that s hits on the one bit of good news that I’ve had about the Mets in a long time.
With one of the highest payrolls in the National League, you would expect more than a pennant from 2000 and a ring from 1986. Teams with smaller payrolls have had more success in the regular season and playoffs than the Mets. Look at the Braves or Cardinals or Giants. Even the Dodgers had ownership issues and still finished above .500 last season.
This is why the Wilpons should sell. Poor drafts, bad personnel decisions and wasted resources. How can you not win with the massive resources of the New York media market at your disposal?
If you’re the Wilpons and you can’t win with what you have, there’s got to be something wrong with the Wilpons.
I credit Doubleday with the ring. Since the Wilpons have been majority owners from 2002 to now, they’ve done very little to make us Met fans proud. They’ve been nothing more than an embarrassment.
if you “expect” wins in sports, you most not have any faith in true competition. I’m glad money has not equaled wins, I’m sorry it had to be our side of town that demonstrated that.
I credit the ring to Doc, Darryl, Davey, Keith, Mookie, Kid, and and Sid among others.
I don’t think they’re good owners, far from it, but in that period of time, they bought two Hall of Fame pitchers, a borderline HoF outfielder, developed two franchise superstars, and built a team that contended for four years, even though nothing seemed to go right at the end of the season.
No one ever thought that Omar was a good GM or that the ‘pons were smart for hiring him, but man, if you miss the postseason by one game in consecutive years, there has to be a point where you stop blaming the people upstairs and start blaming the guys on the field and dugout.