Sandy Alderson and the Mets Baseball Ops Explain the Facts of Life to Season Ticket Holders

January 31, 2013 by 9 Comments

Last night at Citi Field Sandy Alderson, Paul DePodesta, JP Riccardi and John Ricco sat down for a Q & A session with Mets season tickets holders.  Of the season ticket holders in attendance were the first couple of Mets Blogdom Ed Leyro and Taryn Cooper.  On Ed’s Studious Metsimus site he gives a recap of the some of the questions posed to the group and the answers given by the Baseball Ops members assembled. Some of these stood out to me, such as being asked why it’s taking so long for Alderson to make the Mets a contender. And Alderson replied “”We don’t want to be there one year and gone the next.” There is segment of Metsfandom whose craniums are as thick as a milk shake at the Shake Shack. When you inherit a holy mess both personnel and cash flow wise, it’s going to take some time to straighten things out. Alderson and his crew have the Mets on the right path and the impatient Mets fan (who I believe like Chipper Jones said puts a Highlander cap on when the Bronx Bastards play in October)  is either too dense or quite frankly too ignorant to see this. In case you missed it, MLB on its 2013 Prospect Watch ranked three Mets in the top 30 of its top 100 list, Travis d’Aranud  at #6, Zack Wheeler #8 and Noah Syndergaard #29 . Wheeler and d’Aranud will be up by no later than mid-season, Syndergaard in two seasons at least add them to Matt Harvey and you have a nice foundation for the future. Oh yeah I know what you’re saying but the outfield sucks!!!!

Alderson has let it be known in interview after interview that yes, the outfield is a problem spot and yes, I could have spent money to find a bonafide ML outfielder but he wasn’t happy with the sticker price, something he also admitted he has to get over:

  “We understand what the market dictates and we have to be prepared to exist in that market,” said Alderson, who indicated there is an urgency to winning, and that he has not set out on a 10-year plan

Seems Alderson felt there were a couple or three players out there he could have signed but was unwilling to match the price set by the market. I wonder if he could have a do over, if he’d been a little more aggressive in bidding for Ryan Ludwick, Cody Ross or even Reed Johnson as any of those three would be the Mets top outfielder and none of them broke the bank in their newly signed deals. Ross was a player I wanted badly on the Mets as he hits with some pop from the right side of the plate and would have been a big upgrade in right field.  To be fair here as well, there was not much else to choose from in the outfield free agent pool since there was no way in hell Josh Hamilton or Nick Swisher were going to be Mets, nor should they have been and my other wish list outfielder Shane Victorino got a year a couple of million dollars more than I thought he would from Boston and even though he’s born and bred  Phuck Phace  I’d have taken a run at him. Would you be happy with a Duda, Victorino, Ross/Baxter outfield? I would.

The best part of all this is in 11 days Mets pitchers and catchers will report to Port St Lonesome and 5 days after that the full squad will be there and then we can see for ourselves what we have in store in 2013 with our own eyes (and the eyes of those covering the camp) and be done with all this off season speculation.

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Bourn To Be A Met?

January 29, 2013 by 1 Comment

 

So it seems Sandy Alderson and John Ricco took a trip to Houston to have a bite with Michael Bourn and Scott Boras over the weekend. I’m sure Alderson let Bourn and Agent Orange know that, yes I’m interested in making you a Met. No I do not want to lose my spot in line to pick the Next Great Baseball Prospect but if I were to give that pick up I want you on my team at my price and my terms.

Sherman of the Post claims that the Mets could work a deal with BournBoras on multiyear deal with an out clause after one year. Interesting concept and imaginative as well but why would BourneBoras take the risk? Is it because the market for Bourn is more of a gas station mini mart with the Mets and Mariners the only teams mentioned in the running for Bourn’s services rather than the big box store teams like the Highlanders, Red Sox , Cubs or the new and biggest high end store the Rodeo Drive Dodgers?

I’m trying to see where BournBoras have any leverage, we are a mere two weeks from pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training and here’s Michael Bourn still on the free agent ho’ stroll.  It seems the only hold up in the Mets making an offer and signing Bourn is the elusive 11th pick in the entry draft. MLB it seems will not help the Metropolitans out with a favorable ruling of allowing the Mets to receive the 10th and protected pick in the draft over the Pittsburgh Pirates who are being rewarded for their incompetent handling of Stanford RHP Mark Appel in last year’s draft.  

I go back and forth on the value of the 11th pick over signing a better than average CF’er. Seems Alderson feels the same way. The shame of it is Bourn and the Mets are a perfect fit both need each other in the worst way but the obstacles in front of them may derail this match made in baseball heaven.

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Is The 11th Pick In The MLB Entry Draft That Valuable ?

January 24, 2013 by 3 Comments

Ok nervous Nelly’s the Mets have signed a major league free agent. Word broke just a little while ago that the Mets have signed RHP Shaun Marcum to a one year deal pending a physical, of course (or unless you’re Omar Minaya and look to save the co-pay. See Putz J.J.)

Marcum isn’t much of a risk as his deal is for just a season and he’ll be relegated to the back of the rotation  (Santana, Niese, Harvey, Gee, Marcum or Marcum then Gee if all breaks right) keeping a spot warm for the arrival of Zack Wheeler something after the All Star break.

Marcum has some injury history with Tommy John surgery (I’m guessing that pitchers a year or two removed from TJ surgery is the new undervalued commodity in baseball at least as far as the Mets front office is concerned) and last year he had some nagging elbow problems but if he can stay relatively healthy Marcum should be a nice addition to the Mets rotation.

Marcum is a real finesse pitcher who relies on his changeup and cut fastball more than more than your standard fastball which coming out of the hand of Shaun Marcum isn’t very fast. He can be prone to the HR and does get a lot of balls in the air which means the Mets outfielders……………Oh Snap……………The Mets are going to need some outfielders………………….Damn!!!!

One guy who is a looooooooooooooooooongshot to be in the Mets outfield in 2013 is Michael Bourn. The only reason Bourn is a longshot is the cost of signing him. Not monetarily but the high cost of the draft pick the Mets would surrender in his joining the Metropolitans.  When looking at the 11th pick in the MLB draft over the last 10 years, the lone stand out is Andrew McCutchen (Pirates 2005), other formable names taken with the 11th pick are Neil Walker, Jeremy Hermida, Max Scherzer and Justin Smoak. Save for McCutchen it’s mostly solid to serviceable big leaguers who’ve blossom from that slot. So should Sandy Alderson hold on to that draft pick as tightly as he has or should he use it as a chip to sign Boune ? Tough choice as we don’t know what the Bourn/Boras contract demands are. Safe to say Bourn/Boras is not really in the driver’s seat since they are at least taking the Mets phone calls. I guess Boras decided to go shopping in the frozen food aisle after finding the shelves bare in the meat department.

Its real tough choice when you add in that Bourn is just 29 years old (he turns 30 in December) he gets on base at a decent rate (lifetime .339 OBP not great not awful) can steal a base and plays a fine centerfield.

When word of the Mets being interested in signing Bourn I thought they  should pass but after looking at the history of that 11th spot in the draft the last 10 years and the Mets desperate need for a bona fided Major League outfielder, I have to say if I’m Sandy Alderson I have to open up a dialog with Scott Boras to see if there is a way to make this a match both money wise and years wise.

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Metscellaneous

January 22, 2013 by 2 Comments

 

Before I get started with some Mets-cellaneous items, a moment of silence please to remember both Earl Weaver and Stan Musial two baseball titans who passed away this past Saturday.

 

 

I would like to congratulate David Wright on the announcement of his engagement to his long time squeeze Molly Beers. I’ll be checking the mail for my wedding invitation

The Bitter Bill got to meet R.A. Dickey last Saturday night at the New York Baseball Writers dinner and found out what everyone who has had the pleasure of meeting and talking to R.A. discovered, he’s not only a gentleman but one of the most interesting people you’ll ever run into in your life.  

It took me awhile to wrangle this but I am proud to announce I was able to purchase the sponsorship of Ed Kranepool’s player page on Baseball-Reference.  The other pages I sponsor are, Ken Boswell, Duffy Dyer, Jay Hook, 1947 NY Giants, and 1977 NY Mets. It’s the least I can do for all the info I pluck from the Baseball-Reference site.

So Sandy Alderson made a funny at the baseball writer’s dinner:

There’s been a lot of talk about our outfield. And I want you to know that I’m in serious discussions with several outfielders I met on the Internet. There’s one I really like. He says he played at Stanford.’’

 and some folks are upset that he made a joke about the Mets outfield situation. Really? Seriously? Lighten up!

The San Francisco Giants honored their New York roots this past weekend by bringing not only the 2012 World Series trophy to town but the great Willie Mays as well.  By the way, with all the debate over retiring numbers that we Mets fans seem to love argue about, how a dialog about retiring #24 to honor the greatest player in baseball history?

You should also read this column by George Vecsey on the Giants World Series trophy tour of NY.  I let out a big “SIGH” when I was done reading.

Oh the Cubs had a FanFest over the weekend. Tip O’ the Mets cap to Mets Police for the linkage and for putting me in a more pissed off mood about the baseball team I love.

Hey look whose back, Perpetual Pedro all recovered from shoulder problems and full of Highlander bucks has come home albeit with a minor league deal. Feliciano will join Robert Carson, Josh Edgin, Darin Gorski, Aaron Laffey, and post-op Tim Brydak as the Mets attempt to form the first all left handed bullpen in history of baseball.

My podcast mate on Mets Kult of Personalities Tayrn Cooper, has penned a guest column on Jeff Pearlman’s website, taking up the cause for Mike Piazza’ enshrinement into the Hall of Fame and calling out the voters for short sightedness in not voting Piazza in his first year of eligibility. Pearlman will also be guest on Coops Gall For All Seasons Podcast this week as well.

 

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Sandy Sez

January 18, 2013 by 1 Comment

Mets GM Sandy Alderson was on with Mike Francesa yesterday to answer some questions about where the 2013 Mets currently stand. The team stands in the same spot as it stood since the R.A. Dickey deal, stalled. The picture Alderson gave of this upcoming Mets team was not very rosy but seriously what did you expect?  Some of you in the fan base love having smoke blown up your ass, all you want to hear is positives and unfortunately for you the GM is not the smoke blowin’ type. Others are shocked; SHOCKED when the Alderson is candid and tells you the truth, that the outfield is not one he wants to put on the field and that he is having a hard time constructing a bullpen that doesn’t contend for the worst in baseball. He also is on the level when he tells you there isn’t much out there in either trade or free agency that would make a whole helluva lot of difference so why just spend precious Skill Sets Bucks to prove that he has precious Sill Sets Bucks to spend.

Let’s look at some of the highlights from Alderson’ call with ’ ZAUN:

On what his ball club looks like right now and how he’ll improve it going forward Alderson said:

Well I’d say right now it’s an incomplete. But there’s still time in the semester, to give an educational metaphor. We’ve been watching the market, we know what’s available, we’ve known what’s available. We reconvene and review periodically, meaning every couple of days. There are a number of things that we’re currently involved in pursuing. But we’re hopeful we’ll have some additions before spring training starts, and I expect that we will have some additions, but at this point to say we’ve been patient is probably an understatement but that’s what we’ve been.

I get the idea that Alderson would have loved to have made further renovations to this roster but the over value of many of this year’s uninspiring free agent class and unreasonable trade options have hinder that plan.  Would Alderson like to trade for Justin Upton? Sure. Would he deal away Zack Wheeler for him? Hell no. Would he like to bring in a veteran outfielder? Of course. But  would he go 3years/$39mil (Shane Victorino to the Red Sox) or even 3 years/$26 mil (Cody Ross to the D’Backs) ? Nope, and if he did you know you’d scream holy hell.

On Travis d’Arnaud making the club’s opening day roster:

Yeah, I think it would be unfair given his situation, the level of his development to say, look, he can’t make the team out of spring training, but we had a somewhat open situation with Matt Harvey last year, too, and he had a fairly good spring training, and yet he opened the season at the minor league level. I just don’t want to rule anything out. At the same time, I don’t want to create false expectations on the part of our fans or any sense of pressure on Travis himself. But look, he hasn’t played since last June, he was out all the second half of last season with the knee injury. He would have been in the big leagues last year had he not been injured. Had he not been injured and played last year, I doubt he would have been available to us in a trade. So you take the good with the bad. But as far as Opening Day is concerned, he could be with us, but we do have a very capable veteran in John Buck as well.      

Ok now Alderson is blowing smoke up your ass. d’Arnaud only breaks camp with the team if Buck gets hurt, otherwise his arbitrational clock is more important than early season big league at bats. Last season’s knee injury and lack of playing in the second half of last season will come in handy to justify this decision.

The next topic to come up from ‘ZAUN was the outfield:

Well, the outfield is not a strength at this point, there’s no question about that. There’s a need for an upgrade at almost every one of those positions. Some of it could come internally. We may see Lucas Duda substantially improve defensively and offensively.

Or we may not see Lucas Duda substantially improve defensively and offensively. Duda is a liability in the outfield and would be a perfect DH if he could…you…know….HIT! Is it me or does Duda also strike you as a guy you makes playing baseball a chore?

Alderson then laid out what the outfield could look like on opening day:

We’re looking at him(Duda) in left. Center field right now is probably [Kirk] Nieuwenhuis and a player we obtained from the A’s, Colin Cowgill, who I think will be an interesting player to watch in spring training.

Ah yes Colin Cowgill. I too am interested in seeing Cowgill play as he looks to be the player that Mets have been waiting for the Alderson regime to bring in, the under the radar AAA to AAAA player who gets a chance to play regularly and makes an a strong contribution.  From looking at Cowgill’s minor league numbers he’s shown the ability to get on base, to steal a base and not get caught hit with a bit of power and his defense is a major plus and he bats right handed. Cowgill is an upgrade over Scott Hairstion and speaking of Scott Hairstion he is the exchange between ‘Zaun (‘Zaun is a play on the name of Francesa’s show Mike’s On but when the singers of his theme song make it sound like “MIKE ZAUN”) and Alderson:

 Francesa: You expect to have a Hairston back or another player in the mix before the season starts?

Alderson: Oh, we’re working on it. Yeah. And I think there’s been speculation about Scott. I think that…

Francesa: That he asked for too much money…

Alderson: You know, money’s always an issue and I wouldn’t deny that, but it’s also a question of playing time and he wants to play — we understand that — and one of the things that exists for us right now, the dynamic is, that in order for us to sign Scott we want to be able to commit a certain amount of playing time. This is where you balance two or three things going on at the same time. If one or two other things were to happen, it might affect his playing time. So it’s not just about the money, it’s also about playing time and what we can readily commit to Scott.

Francesa: You want to see what you can pull off before you commit to him?

Alderson: [Pause] … Uhh, yeah.

Francesa: Okay, that’s fair. I think that’s fair. I mean, it is fair. I mean, so it’s not a case of it just being a price, it’s also a situation of a couple other things actually can still happen or not.

Alderson: Yeah, absolutely.       

Trying to read between the lines here, it seems Alderson is waiting and hoping that some GM out there (Kevin Towers) panics and will trade from an over stocked outfield for some fringe prospects.   It goes back to the Upton talk I think Alderson believes he still has a shot at Upton and at his price but it’s going to take some more time and some more patience’s to pull it off. Even if it’s not Upton he gets it, seems before he commits those precious Skill Sets Bucks to Hairston, he leaves no options uncovered. No one is giving Scott Hairston 2ys/$8mil.

Alderson goes on in the rest of the interview to talk about how he sees both Johan Santana and Dillon Gee bouncing back from injury, how he hopes the younger bullpen arms he has will make an impact, how he has an eye on 2014 but his ‘dominant eye” is on 2013, and how he’s not happy with the way the Mets have finished that lase few seasons.

Big tip of the Mets cap to Amazin’ Avenue and Eric Simon and Steve Flanagan who posted a transcript of Francesa and Alderson’s conversation. Great job guys !  

 

 

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I Have No Fear Of The Beard

January 14, 2013 by 5 Comments

 

So we get word that Sandy Alderson headed to the West Coast to watch former Giants closer, Brian Wilson show that his right elbow is sound after his second Tommy John surgery. So what’s the first thing Mets fans say? Oh his shtick won’t go over well in NY. Are you kidding me? If Wilson can bounce back to his pre-TJ ways he can wear a tutu and Jimmy Choo’s what difference would it make?

To say the Mets bullpen sucked last year would be a compliment. The pen was beyond suck, more like the Mets relief core sucked the life out of the team and the season with late inning collapses and blown saves.  While many wring their hands over the outfield and debate whether the players slated to man the lush lawn of the Citi Field outfield could possibly be the least talented trio in Mets history, there has been a memory lapse that the Mets relief pitchers were a disgrace to pinstriped, snow white, road gray or hideous black uniform.  

Wilson has all the attributes Sandy Alderson likes  in a player, shunned from his former team, coming off injury, and will work for a pay for performance contract. The last one is what Alderson is banking on. Alderson would love to sign Wilson to a minor league deal with a make good bump in pay if he makes the club out of spring training. I doubt Wilson and his agent will accept that.  If Alderson feels that Wilson is close to being ready for opening day and if his velocity has returned to somewhere near the mid-90 mph he was at in 2010, why not make an offer of 1 year +an option for 2014 with a base salary of say, $2.5 mil with incentives to go up to about $4mil (if he makes those incentives it means he’s not only pitched great but the Mets are winning games as well) which would tie into health and performance.  Oh and let’s not worry about Frankie Frisco’s fragile ego because if Wilson is signed he will be the closer and FF goes to set up with Bobby Parnell and Josh Edgin working the lefty/right 7th inning tandem, you’ve jump up your bullpen status from blood suckers to much improved with this move.

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Seems Mets Are In An Unmovable Situation

January 8, 2013 by 1 Comment

 

 

Every day I sit down to write a post about the Mets and every day I just stare at the screen, which is as blank as my mind.  At the end of another disappointing Mets season, I felt this was going to be the off seasons of off seasons, heads rolling down Roosevelt Avenue and more of a purge of the losers personality that has permeated the Mets clubhouse the last few seasons but so far, other than David Wright committing to the club for the rest of his natural baseball life and R.A. Dickey getting exported to Canada, this Mets off season has been more a fart in the wind than a lion’s roar in the jungle.

I can see how and why many Mets fans are totally pissed off and feel the team is tanking the 2013 season and I guess I am too but for some reason I’ve comes to terms that this Mets team as put together right now will not be very good as I am buying in to the plan set forth by the baseball operations unit of the team. There is a plan in place and it’s to get younger and not be reliant on building the team via free agency. The Mets are the only team that hasn’t signed a ML free agent. Some fans are annoyed by this but me? I’m totally fine with it. I advocated the pursuit of Cody Ross, Shane Victorino and AJ Pierzynski but being that the supply of talent in the free agent market hasn’t met the demand those three players received more money and years than I ever thought they would.

No one can disagree that the outfielders on the Mets 40 man roster are less than major league caliber and I’m sure no one knows than better than Sandy Alderson and I’m sure Alderson will make some type of move to add at least one quality major league fly shagger before opening day.  So while we wait for that move to be made, we can while away the time venting our outrage when we find out Mike Piazza has not been voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame due to the ineptness of the Baseball Writers Association of McCarthyism.

Another distraction has been my monitoring of the other teams I root for. Last night was as bad of a night I’ve had as a fan since Adam Wainright broke off that nasty curve to Carlos Beltran. I wasn’t confident that Notre Dame was going to beat Alabama but never did I think they would tank like they did. There’s not much more to say about the game other than it was an embarrassment but one thing I will address is the amount of Catholic bashing that I saw in my Twitter timeline last night. It’s one thing to attack ND as an institution but when you use the hashtag #CatholicsSuck that’s just shows what kind of  person you are and most likely it’s not just Catholics you hate but figure it’s the one group you can vent your hatred about without repercussion.

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Mets Minutia

December 21, 2012 by 3 Comments

While I have some quiet time, I figured let me sit down and knock out a post because the next few days will be quite hectic. So in no particular order rhyme or reason here are some of my Mets Musings:

Seriously, how do you put out a holiday video of the best moments of your season and not included R.A. Dickey in it? This beyond petty and stupid it’s indefensible.  No mention of his winning the Cy Young Award, no mention of his back to back 1 hitters (6/13 vs. Tampa and6/18 vs. Baltimore) where he K’s 25 batters in 18 innings, no mention of the great atmosphere at Citi Field on the final home game for his 20th win??????  And you want to know way the vast majority of the Mets fan base scream SELL THE TEAM!!!!!!  Are the Skill Sets this clueless and numb to public perception that they signed off on this video?????

If Sandy Alderson wants to look at Grady Anderson on a minor league or a make good major league deal, I have no problem with that. It’s a low risk/high reward move. Now as for some of the pitchers we hear they are looking at well, that’s another story.

We can scratch Francisco Liriano off the list as he signed a 2yr/$14 mil deal with the Pirates which looks to be a year and about $11mil more than I thought he’d get.  Carl Pavano’s name has been mentioned as well and you could probably get him very cheap and for a guy who would be a 5th starter and place holder for Zack Wheeler he wouldn’t be a bad choice at the right price. Of course we all remember Pavono as a major bust with the Bronx Bastards but he would be coming to the Mets not as a top of the rotation pitcher but as journeyman seat filler.  Pavano is also coming off missing most of last season with a bruised bone in his shoulder that did not require surgery, so I could see offering Pavano a minimum ML contract loaded with tons of incentives.  Aaron Harang makes $7mil for 2013, unless the Dodgers are ready to eat $6 mil of that then he’s a thought but if the Mets can get Chris Capuano back that would be the move. What would it cost player wise in trade is the question and Capuano makes $6mil for the coming season so maybe a B level pitcher and the Dodgers eating at least half the contract would be a nice little re-acquisition by the Mets.

If you have a Hall of Fame vote and you don’t cast a vote for Mike Piazza and then try to write a column where you attempt to justify your non-vote, all you do is prove to your readership that you’re a self-important jerk and you have violated the first rule of reporting, never make yourself the story.

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Dispatches From Mets Holiday Party

December 11, 2012 by 2 Comments

I’m back from covering the Mets holiday party where the club invited about a 100 kids from P.S. 43 and The Scholars Academy both in Far Rockaway to meet Santa (John Franco) Claus and his Elf’s R.A. Dickey and Ike Davis. Also on hand was Mets GM Sandy Alderson.

After spending time with the children and giving out gifts the players and the GM were available for some Q & A time.  After spending some time with all three I have some observations:

R.A. Dickey looked and sounded puzzled, hurt and a bit defiant when he spoke of his situation now with the club. From the way I see it, the Mets first priority with Dickey is to trade him and they are waiting out teams that are interested in trade to offer more in return to the Mets than has been offered now. How long this plays out is anyone’s guess right now but make no mistake for the Mets this is a stone cold baseball business decision and honestly I hate it and from listening to Dickey this morning he understands it’s business but he’s not happy with the way it’s played out so far either.

Dickey also declared that once the season starts he will not negotiate a contract extension, nor should he.  I don’t know which end of the organization is playing by these hardball rules whether its Sandy Alderson looking to fill the massive gaps in personnel this team has or if it’s The Skill Sets looking to nickel and dime the 2012 Cy Young Award winner. If it’s the baseball ops guys being hard ass’s I can understand it, that doesn’t mean I like but if it’s  Jeffey trying to win at a negotiation, then I’ll be totally outraged.

What Dickey is asking is not just more than fair; I believe he’s selling himself short. Dickey’s agent has proposed a 2 year extension for $28 mil, how in the hell is that excessive? Dickey should have proposed a deal well north of $30 mil for 2 years. As much as I want to believe it’s the Skills Sets acting like hard ass’s here I feel it’s more Alderson and his baseball ops who are dragging this out to see if they can get a trading partner who will send back quality and quantity in a trade.  The worst part of this situation is it’s starting to get ugly and could breakout in a lot of nasty if not rectified soon.

It was Ike Davis’ turn to meet with us and as down and dourer as Dickey was Davis was very upbeat and effervescent.  It could be that Davis is 100 % healthy as he said he just had his lungs x-rayed and they are clear so he has no more effects from Valley Fever and his ankle is a good as ever. He was very happy that Wright received his contract extension and he hoped that something can work out with R.A. Dickey staying with the Mets.  You can check out the conversation with Ike by clicking here

Sandy Alderson made his way into the press area and I don’t hide the fact that I’m an Alderson fan. I think he has a plan to rebuild this organization (even though he’s not allowed to utter the dreaded “R” word because it gives any Mets fans a case of the vapors) but I think the reason I admire him is every time I talk to him he comes off very cool and collected. You can’t make him flinch. There is no emotion in how he is running the baseball operation of this organization in that way he’s the anti-Omar.

Alderson was bombarded as expected with question on R.A. Dickey and his status with the Mets. Alderson gave a name, rank and serial number answer saying that he is still speaking to clubs about dealing R.A. and at the same time looking to negotiate contract extention as he said the situation is the same as it was last week. The contrast in Alderson talking about this situation and Dickey talking about it are quite a contrast. Dickey’s answers were of an emotional nature whereas Alderson was from the business end. Alderson has no problem trading R.A. Dickey but he wants a solid return back, he’s not going to give him away.  If he can’t find the right trade for Dickey I think he’ll sweeten the extension offer and get Dickey under contract for an additional two years.

Alderson claims there is money to spend but he’s not going to spend just to spend, he doesn’t seem to care about winning the back pages of the tabloids in December. The impression I was left with is Alderson will not be the first to blink. He’s not tipping his hand on who he’s looking at to sign or trade for.

I’m as confused and frustrated as any Mets fan, in fact coming back for Citi Field today with Ed Marcus we were both in such deep discussion about what we just heard from the Mets GM we kind of forgot what a pain in the ass traffic jam we were stuck in trying to get back to Staten Island.  No matter if you like or dislike Alderson you have to admit he’s one shrewd dude. Now if nothing changes personnel wise between now and spring training I may have to alter my view but I’m trying to stay patient which is very hard for me to do but I’m trying my best.

To hear my chat with Sandy Alderson click here.

To hear the total media Q & A click here.

 

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NY Mets News and Views

December 4, 2012 by 2 Comments

 

NEWS: Mets Still Dangling R.A. Dickey as Trade Bait

VIEW: Sandy Alderson knows his team is dire need of a front line catcher and at least one power hitting corner outfielder. Two get either prize possession will not be easy since he is working with a lack of trade chips and money, so what’s a GM to do? In Alderson’s case it seems he’s using Dickey as bait to lure in the sharks just to see how hungry they are. Reports from Nashville have the Mets talking to about eight teams about Dickey. Some are serious some are just bullshiters, the Red Sox and Blue Jays seem to be the most interested and have the most to give back in trade.

The Jays and Red Sox are flush with catchers, a position that Mets lack major league talent at (sorry Josh Thole) and outfield help again a deficient part of the Mets player personal roster.  Alderson is not going to give Dickey away and in fact he may not be giving Dickey away at all. Like I mentioned above, Dickey could be the bait to get the sharks out in the open to make his pitch for big time talent back in trade. I see where Alderson has asked the Red Sox for their two top prospects, shortstop Xander Bogaerts and center fielder Jackie Bradley. Bogaerts is shortstop that has power on offense and great range on defense. Bradley has great instincts in the field and covers a ton of ground in the outfield, gets on base by any means necessary and has (cover your eyes sabrmetricans) outstanding make up and is an on field leader.  Seems to me it would take more than a 38 year old knuckleballer to pry two gems like that, so maybe if Alderson switched the bait from Dickey to Jon Niese he could land these two trophy pieces?

Could this be the Mets GM plan? Lure teams with Dickey, ask for a major package in return, get rebuffed and then use Niese as the trade chip?    

 

NEWS: Angel Pagan Re-Ups with Giants for 4 Years $40 mil

VIEW: How Brian Sabean has two World Series rings is astonishing. I guess getting Shane Victorino to the Mets is now out of the question as his asking price has to be the same as Pagan’s if not more. FUCK!

NEWS: Jordany Valdespin Suspended For Insubordination From Winter League Team

VIEW: Enough is enough with Valde, he’s not talented enough to get away with acting like an asshole. I’m sure any deal that Mets make this off season Valdespin will be a throw in and if no other team wants him he’ll be assigned to Las Vegas or better yet given his release. If I know anything about how Alderson runs his team it’s he doesn’t put up with guys like Valdespin.

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