My good buddy Ed “Rusty Jr.” Marcus over at The Real Dirty Mets has a very good column posted this morning on the patients Mets fans will have for the team this coming season. Ed asks the questions will fans show up at Citi Field, if the team gets off to a slow start will fans call for Terry Collins and Sandy Aldersons head and how much more cat calls will we hear from the stands of Citi Field for the Skill Sets to sell? All very good questions.

This off season has been as dormant of any positive Mets news in a long long time. The specter of the Madoff trustee law suit and the teams financial straits have overshadowed any baseball move made by the club as all the moves and non-moves have been money driven. That being said, I can’t wait until training camp opens as we can finally get back to discussing hitting, pitching and defense and hopefully some baseball related story lines.

The die hard “the Mets are in my blood” fan will come out to Citi Field no matter what this coming season brings.  With all the talk of boycotts and protest and insurrection by a part of the fan base, let me say don’t count on me for support. Am I pissed off about the way the Skill Sets have run this franchise and besmirched the good name of the New York Mets? Oh hell yeah! Do I wish they were gone from their seat of power as owner of the team? Double oh hell yeah? But will I abandon my Mets fandom? Infinity hell no!

If Terry Collins can continue to move this team in the direction he has and improve on how they fundamentally play baseball, then this could be a very interesting season. Two major things have to happen for the Mets to play above all expectations this coming season, they must master the fundamentals of baseball and they have to stay healthy, those two aspects of the game will be the difference in whether the dormant Mets fan will come out to Citi Field or will stay home. The Mets do not have the raw talent to be a contender for a division or a wild card berth, but if they limit the mistakes on defense and on the bases along with staying healthy, especially the very fragile starting pitching, the Mets could be the big story of the 2012 baseball season.

If the Mets do become this out of the blue story ,no one in the fan base will give a rat’s ass about the owner. We care about the Skill Sets now because we’re bored and angry, bored because there hasn’t been anything baseball related to discuss thus we’ve started to turn on ourselves (just check out Twitter any afternoon) and angry because we want to have a team we can be proud to call ourselves fans of.  What the Skill Sets have to worry about is that the die hards don’t become the minority among the fan base.

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Well, Freddy Skill Sets came pretty close to being truthful with the fan base when he was interviewed by Brain Costa of the WSJ. Fred was in Arizona (wow Bolt goes to Phoenix?) for the quarterly owners meeting.  When asked about his financial struggle and the toll it is taking on him, the Mets organization and its fan base, Freddy Sez:

“How could anybody deny that it’s been a challenging time?” Wilpon said. “But I came from nothing. I meet the challenges. So does Saul and Jeff and our whole family. We’re meeting the challenges and I think we’ll be fine.”

“I think we’ll be fine”? Really?  How so Freddy ? What’ch ya keepin’ on the down low from us? The new minority shares are a band aid on a gaping wound but you know what, maybe the Skill Sets luck is changing as his Guardian Angel, Bud Selig is staying on for 2 more years as baseball czar and Wilpon enabler and as always has Freddy’s back:

“He’s been a great owner,” Selig said. “Loves his team. He’s everything you’d want in a local owner. He’s had some economic problems, not caused by himself, and I have a lot of faith in him that he’s working his way through them.”

And he’s oh, so good,

And he’s oh, so fine,

And he’s oh, so healthy,

In his body and his mind.

He’s a well respected man about town,

Doing the best things so conservatively.

Then Freddy was asked about Jose Reyes and his thoughts on Reyes:

“Reyes was 17 years old when I met him,” Wilpon said. “He spoke pretty good English at that time, too. He said to me, ‘Can you give me some advice?’ I said, ‘Yeah, never wipe that smile off your face.’”

Humm, “never wipe that smile off your face” looks like Freddy eats at Wo Hop like I do. Thankfully for Reyes’ sake Freddy didn’t hit him up with “Kid, I know a guy who can make you rich beyond belief”

Here is a nice picture on a rainy, windy, cold New York afternoon

Years before we would get to the 50^th Anniversary of the NY Mets, Dana Brand was all pumped up about putting together a symposium at Hofstra University where he taught, on the history of the Mets. As you all know Dana passed away last year but his dream of having a conference at Hofstra will become a reality on April 26-28. Please check out all the details here and hopefully we can all meet up at Hofstra that weekend and celebrate not just the legacy of the NY Mets but of Dana Brand as well.

Steve Popper, the Mets beat writer for the Bergen Record is leaving the Mets beat and will become the Records man at MSG following the NY Knickerbockers. Not only is this a big loss for Mets fans but a huge loss for Mets bloggers like myself and other bloggers who have had the privilege of meeting Steve at various team functions. Many of the beat writers and media folk won’t even give us a response to a hello but Popper (as well as Adam Rubin and Kevin Kernan ) has always been friendly to us and has been gracious in sharing his thoughts with us about the Mets. Good luck Steve and thanks.

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When it comes to the Skill Sets financial situation it seems we Mets fans are better off ignoring what they say and instead focus on what they do. From the outstanding reporting of Eno Sarris of Amazin’ Avenue,  we discovered that the Skill Sets have hired  CRG Partners , a firm that works with businesses swimming in red ink and tries to either help them turnaround their business or it they are too far gone, file for bankruptcy. From reading the story, it looks like the Skill Sets are ready to be made comfortable for the inevitable, their loss of the Mets.

Sure, as Mets fans we should be rejoicing that the end of the Wilpon/Katz reign of ownership is closer to a conclusion than ownership as led on, and that has been the primary problem with the Skill Sets, their inability to be truthful with their fan base. If there is one thing indisputable about the Mets fans base, it is loyal and forgiving but it you take their kindness for weakness, you will feel their wrath. I truly believe if Fred Wilpon came to Mets fans with honesty over  the  grave financial situation that has alter severely the way the Mets have done business, instead of the “keep moving nothing to see here, we’re doing great ” deny, deny, deny spin, he would have had the backing of the fan base in trying to keep the team in his and his families stewardship, instead the constant false reports of selling minority shares, or tickets selling like “hot cakes” , or reports of a payroll north of $100 mil with money left for taking on a big contract for a pennant run which in realty is a payroll struggling to reach $90m and the only players signing are non-descript bush leaguers grateful for employment. No one ever learns, the cover up is always worse than the crime.

So due to the disrespect of the Mets fans intelligence, we have a mob with pitch forks and torches at the ready to run the Skill Sets out of Queens. One silver lining in all this though is the emergence of the of writers like Sarris and Howard Megdal, who dig and do the dirty work to bring Mets fans the truth behind the shell game being run at Citi Field. 

I wonder if the news that Bank of America has put notice on small businesses they lend money to that they are calling in the loans on those businesses they feel is a bad risk.  Mets have just taken out a $40 mil note from BOA, what would happen if that loan was recalled?

As much as we all want the Skill Sets out of the way and a new owner with deep pockets to take over our beloved Mets, how can we as a fan base be happy with all this financial bullshit that has had a negative effect on our beloved baseball team? My wanting the Wilpon’s out of the owner’s box at Citi Field is not due to personal malice, it’s due to the destruction of the core of my favorite baseball team. I don’t want to care about the Wilpon’s financial straights but I have to as it has an adverse effect on something I love, The New York Mets. That pisses me off to no end.

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Lots of Mets news today to look at and I want get to it quick so I can read Howard Megdal’s new book “Wilpon’s Folly. Megdal has done what no other journalist s has attempted, he has conducted a full investigation into Wilpon’s involvement with Bernie Madoff and how December 11, 2008, the day Madoff was shown to be a world class thief and the worst day of Fred Wilpon’s life could rival the June 15, 1977 as the worst day in NY Mets history. After I finish reading “Wilpon’s Folly” I’ll have more on the book but if you are a Mets fan and want to know the TRUTH about Madoff and what the Wilpon’s knew and when they knew it and where all this will leave our beloved Mets, you really need to get this book.

Sandy Alderson has been named to International Talent Committee that was formed to study if MLB should institute a draft of International players. Just one step closer to the Commissioner’s office for Alderson

What’s this? The Mets are looking at dealing for Gio Gonzalez? It would be a feather in Alderson’s cap to pull this one off and if he feels parting with Jon Niese, Ike Davis and a minor leaguer or two is worth it, it still may not be enough to land Gonzalez.

Wayne Hagin, we hardly knew ye. Looks like Hagin’s days as Mets radio man are over. Hagin never clicked with the fan base because we Mets fans are very provincial when it comes to announcers.  I’ve met Hagin a few times on the 7 train going back to the city after a Mets game and found him not only a gentleman but a great storyteller as well, but all that just didn’t translate into the radio booth during games. A great hire to join Howie Rose in the radio booth would be Boog Sciambi.

I’m a little late with this and I apologize as you need to check out Ed Marcus and Kerel Cooper’s video’s of Tuesdays Mets Christmas Party and the Q & A’s with Sandy Alderson, Justin Turner, Daniel Murphy and Jon Niese. Yes that’s me asking Alderson about the catching situation.

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I would think by now every player on the Mets has gotten the message, you can be replaced, to that I say, it’s about time.

I know there is a segment of the fan base who get their balls in a uproar when they hear of their favorite player mentioned in trade rumors and we can see by the group whose pissed off that Jose Reyes is now a former Met,  who will miss Reyes by the way not for his baseball prowess but because they love his dreads or he helps them sell t-shirts and don’t have the capacity to look at it as solely the baseball move that it was. It’s the same way some have reacted to the scuttlebutt that Ike Davis and Jon Niese have been dangled as trade bait. I know it’s been awhile since the Mets have had a true general manager running their team but I’ll let you kids in on a secret this is how you run a baseball team.

Now before you call me an asshole (if you haven’t already) let me make it clear that I am not advocating that Ike and Niese be dealt but as a Mets fan you should be encouraged that Sandy Alderson is doing his job in trying to build this wreck of a franchise into a contending team for the long haul.

I get it that the Mets fan base is quite diverse but you can’t keep sucking year after year and keep players just because they were drafted by the organization or have nice dimples you need players who can actually step up and win some baseball games. Give me a flat ass, pimple face baseball player who can get on base, knock in runs or pitch seven innings a start any day of the week.

It’s quite obvious that Alderson feels there is not one player on his current roster he cannot live without and as a fan of the TEAM that should make you happy. When Alderson was first introduced as Mets GM he was asked about relationships with players, he let it known from the jump that he’s not here to be their friend but he would do whatever he could to help them if they needed his assistance.

I’m sure Alderson thinks David Wright is as fine a young man as he’s met in baseball but that won’t stop him for dealing him away for a front line pitching prospect or a top flight center fielder.  It’s not personal its business.

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I know we of the Blue and Orange persuasion are not patience but to get bent out of shape over the lack of moves made by Sandy Alderson so far this off season is really off base and this is coming from a guy who is not known as patient. To fillip your Mets cap over Jonathan Broxton signing with the KC Royals is very shortsighted and again this coming from a guy who wanted to see a back end of a bullpen of Broxton and Joe Nathan.  The Texas Rangers really over paid for Nathan and his Tommy John repaired elbow and his diminishing WAR at 2yr/$14 mil as did the Royals taking on Frenchy’s new BFF at a $4mil tab for the sore armed Broxton.   As much as I would have like to take a flyer on both Nathan and Broxton it wouldn’t be worth it at the price. Sandy Alderson felt the same way.

We all know that relievers are as unpredictable as a house full of Kardashians, that’s why instead of being so damn jumpy, Mets fans need to sit back a bit and let this off season play out. If I could give Alderson some advice I’d feel out the Royals about a deal for Greg Holland and talk to Texas about a deal for arbitration eligible reliever Mike Adams.  I’m sure Alderson will speak with Chisox about a deal for Matt Thornton who would fit nicely as well in Flushing pen. There are options out there for the Mets fans and Alderson and his staff know it and have a plan of attack.

Let’s just stay calm and let the man do his due diligence and if on reporting day at St. Lonesome this team is not improved on the overrated “paper”, then we can have a mass melt down, this is not pie in sky horseshit and I understand that the fan base is not in a positive frame of mind, and believe me I don’t fault you for that, but let’s just see what this front office has up its sleeve before we light the torches and converge on 126^th St and Roosevelt Ave.

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Boy oh boy, it’s the 3^rd day of November and already the Mets fan base is restless. Between the outfield renovations, Jose Reyes freedom walk, the Skill Sets crumbling financial situation and the total lack of optimism among those live and die all things Mets ( not that we’re a Mary Sunshine bunch to begin with) has given me a Back to the Future kind of feel to it. I really, really hope this organization is not reverting to the De Roulet-M.Donald Grant Destroy a Thriving Franchise style of management. At least back then I had places like Max’s Kansas City and CBGB’s to go to forget my Mets sorrows all I have now is shots of Milk of Magnesia.

Thanks to Mike Silva, I had to pop TWO high blood pressure pills this morning.

Mark Healy speaks for all of us long (and I mean LLLLLOOOONNNNGGGG) time Mets fans with his piece in Gotham Baseball.

Joe DeMayo of Pt St. Lucie to Flushing has his Top 25 Mets prospect list out and I’m happy he added LHP Jack Leathersich to his list.

Seems that the Skill Sets have settled with the pensioners of Sterling Equities in losing their retirement money if the Madoff nonsense. You know, when all these law suits are settled, maybe we Mets fans can file a lawsuit against the Skill Sets for abandonment.

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Last night I tuned into the Mets post game show right in the middle of a Bobby Ojeda rant. It seems Bobby O feels the Mets should  (if I heard this right) forget about re-signing Jose Reyes to a big contract and instead focus on obtaining pitching both starting and relievers that the team sorely lacks. With Reyes latest revelation that his hammy is still tight and the comments by Ojeda, where I was once sure the Mets and Reyes would find a way to make a deal, I’m not as optimistic now and I’m kind of leaning in Bobby O’s direction.

There is not a stronger lighting rod subject among Mets fans that the status of Reyes and David Wright. Even in the MSM and amongst the bloggers, if you take the names of Reyes and Wright in vain, expect a shit storm of negative comments to come your way. We love them same as we love R.A. Dickey and Daniel Murphy and Nick Evans and every single prospect from Bingamton down to Kingsport. There is no in between with Mets fans toward Mets players we either love you or loath you.

But we are also sick of losing, of being mocked and for being treated like this is the worst organization in baseball. With all the mismanagement and gullible owners, this organization is not the disaster it’s portrayed to be. But maybe there comes a time where a GM has to make the decision that the fan base will not only be unhappy with but claim they will secede from the fan base, maybe Sandy Alderson should tell Reyes and his reps that the two draft picks the Mets get are worth more than five years of sore hammy’s and second division finishes. Maybe Alderson has to make it known that Wright can be had in the right deal? Maybe it’s time to blow this up and stop fooling ourselves the Mets will contend ion 2012. For what , the top pick in the armature draft in 2013? Surely not a pennant.

All you hear is fans saying “if Reyes is not re-signed I’ll never set foot in Citi Field again” Same thing if Wright is dealt. But these same “fans” stay away because the team falls out of contention but the middle of August. Ok which is it?

Fans are not going to Mets games now as it is, when you have to have a night for cancer awareness, Star Wars, a salute to the Philippines and set aside a section for people to come knit, yes I said KNIT then your problems are deep and need a serious attention.

This is not at all a rant against Reyes or Wright as they are not at all to blame for the last few years of dreck in Flushing, but if your team has awful pitching and defense and a stagnant offense is it worth it to have a $20 mil a year shortstop with sore hamstrings and a $15 mil 3^rd baseman you has lost his way offensively and defensively?  If you say yes, then get your Darth Vader suit and knitting needles ready for 2012 and beyond.

Here it is September when pennant races should be the topic of conversation but we as Mets fans have a Star Wars night and old ladies knitting in the ¼ filled stands. Well, I’m fucking sick of it and another thing ,what the hell is Terry Collins thinking having Willie Harris bunting with Angel Pagan on 1^st with no outs in the 6^th inning of a 2-2 game? Are you serious? That was right out the Jerry Manuel Too Cool For Baseball School Handbook.  Agggggggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrr who cares. Knit one, Pearl two.

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I have no idea what kind of scheme Mortimer and Randolph Duke Freddy Skill Sets and Uncle Saul have up their sleeve but I’m sure it’s destined to fail.  I don’t know if it’s some boost of confidence that the Madoff fiasco won’t hurt them as much as first thought, or they sold off some real estate from their Sterling Equities properties, or they finally realized that David Einhorn was ready to pay them $200 mil to be a minority owner but read the fine print that tilted everything in favor of Einhorn taking total control of the franchise, but something has stopped the Skill Sets from checking that box that says I agree to the terms of this contract.

What does this all mean? I have no clue and we won’t have a clue until the season ends and Sandy Alderson sits down with Jose Reyes’ representatives to talk contract. Just when I thought the Mets had the upper hand in the Reyes negotiations, the advantage has swayed back to Team Jose.  All the talk of finding more investors at a $15-$20 mil price tag to make up for the money the Skill Sets told Einhorn to put back in his pocket, better be used in part to re-sign Reyes or it won’t matter which uncle, aunt or next door neighbor ponies up the dough, the Skill Sets have put the bulls eye right between their eyes with the fan base.  If the Jose Reyes signs with another team at a price and contract terms that are not outlandish, you might as well as turn Citi Field into a permanent soccer pitch.

I have ZERO faith that Freddy and Uncle Saul have a plan to save the franchise, this latest scheme of selling more shares in the team has FAIL written all over it, especially when the say they will sell to “friends and family” isn’t that how they got into this mess in the first place?

The clandestine ways of this ownership is why there is such a disconnect with them and the fan base.  I believe nothing that comes out of the mouth of Freddy Skill Sets and his incompetent son.  I’m sure I’m not alone.

What really sucks about this whole ownership in an uproar news, is the focus had finally shifted from the owner’s box to the dugout.  The recent winning streak after such a poor showing against the Phuck Phaces shows that Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins have changed the culture of the clubhouse. The malcontents and slackers who Omar Minaya protected instead of eradicating are gone and players who are committed to winning have been replaced. Sure the record is not pretty but that will come, the biggest obstacle with this team was the acceptance of being lazy and just not being committed to winning baseball games that had been festering like an untreated infection, is gone and that is the biggest story of this season.

Who wasn’t excited by Chris Capuano start last week? Who doesn’t enjoy watching R.A. Dickey pitch and then hear his post game comments?  Who isn’t excited watching Lucas Duda and Ruben Tejada? Who can’t wait to see Matt Harvey, Jeurys Familia, and Zack Wheeler make their way to Citi Field? Let’s just hope that the Skill Sets, as is their way, don’t fuck this up.

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The word that David Wright was put on waivers and claimed by the Colorado Rockies is no big deal. For now.

Every team puts its players on waivers and when they are claimed either work out a deal or pull them back. Wright was pulled back but that doesn’t mean that Sandy Alderson won’t call Dan O’Dowd during the off season to talk trade.

Why not? Look, we all love D-Wright and this is no indictment on Wright but this team has some huge holes, pitching and defense to name two in general and these deficiencies  have to be address this off season or August/September 2012 will be a mirror image of August/September 2011.

The difference between the second half of this season as opposed to the last two seasons is this team still plays to win unlike the last two Mets teams of 2009 and 2010 and that is a compliment to the manager who deserves to have his 2013 option guaranteed after the season.

Sandy Alderson and his staff have a lot of work to do this off season with re-signing Jose Reyes a top priority. As we see, this is a much different team without Reyes not just his bat and defense but his personality as well ignites this team.

Alderson has no allegiance to any of the players on this roster but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know that Reyes and Wright are fan favorites same as he knew the venom the fan base spewed at Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez, which is why he will try very hard to sign Jose Reyes and I’m sure he doesn’t want to deal off Wright but he knows it’s his job to make this team better and if dealing Wright makes the team better then he’ll trade him.

This off season will be about acquiring pitching, pitching and more pitching as well as finding players who can play defense. You can be feisty and hustle and play balls to the wall baseball but if you can’t pitch or defend then you are a second division team and if dealing David Wright brings back some pitching I can see Alderson pulling the trigger.

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