8
2010
In Defense Of The Wilpons: Are The Mets Heading To The Junkyard?
An article by 
Think back to that first car you owned. Wont it always have a special place in your heart? Remember all the great memories and the feeling of freedom that came with it. Cruising around with your friends, stereo blasting. Driving a bit too fast, too reckless. Finding that one special dimly lit place to make out with your favorite girl.
Then it all begins to change so slowly at first that you don’t even notice. The upholstery starts tearing. Headlights burn out. You need a couple of tires. Brake pads get replaced. Oil starts leaking. The transmission goes. You spend your money to keep it on the road for as long possible until reality sets in. It’s finally time to say farewell to your youth and move on to something newer, something better, something more economical. After all, you cant keep throwing good money after bad.
I’m wondering when the Wilpon’s will reach this point—if they haven’t already.
Fans, sportswriters and bloggers (myself included) have been critical of Fred and Jeff ‘Coupon’ for not spending money the way WE feel they should. To them, the Mets are a business and nothing more. If it’s not good for the bottom line, why bother? To us fans, however, it’s personal. We are Mets fans for life, for better or worse, through thick and thin.
Yes, the Wilpons have been criticized and crucified for not giving us our elusive 3rd Championship. And it sure is easy to blame them. We cheer players, not owners. We buy jerseys with names like ‘Reyes’ and ‘Wright’ and ‘Santana’ on the back. I have never seen a t-shirt with the name Wilpon on it.
But in their defense, do they deserve all the blame? True they should have spent money better, wiser. Just throwing a lot of big dollars at players does not guarantee victory. However, when all is said and done, we have the 3rd highest payroll in Baseball. Tell someone in Pittsburgh or Kansas City that our owners don’t want to win.
They have opened their wallets time and time again. They have put the best product on the field and given us the tools needed to build a championship. It’s the players who have failed us, NOT the owners.
Take a step back. Don’t look at who we haven’t gotten but who we HAVE. Over the past 5 years, they have put together what should have been a championship team. We signed future Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez. Then signed another future Hall of Famer in Tom Glavine, both who definitely know a thing or two about winning pressure games. We locked up 5 tool superstar Carlos Beltran for 7 years in the prime of his career. We acquired slugger Carlos Delgado who, as his career was winding down, had a deep seeded desire to play in a World Series. We signed the best LHP in the game in Johan Santana because he wanted to play for a champion. When our bullpen crumbled we obtained Francisco Rodriguez fresh off his record 62 saves. We brought in Gary Sheffield for his veteran presence and post-season experience. In a free agent market with limited hitting, we signed Jason Bay after he hit 36 HR’s and 119 RBI’s.
The Wilpon’s also hired Willie Randolph as skipper. Randolph, who by himself, has more championship rings then the entire Mets roster.
And all of this in addition to our own homegrown talent of David Wright, arguably the best hitter in team history, and Jose Reyes, the best lead-off hitter we’ve ever had.
And lets not forget the fact that they gave us fans a brand new stadium to call home.
Despite all of these moves, acquisitions, free agent signings, despite the fact our payroll has increased close to 50% in 5 years, what has it gotten us? One–ONE–division title!!!
The old expression says that if you keep trying the same thing over and over again, you will get the same result. The Wilpons have spent and spent and spent–but not much has changed. The clock is ticking. The end dates to contracts for the heart of our team are on the horizon. Time is running out for this team to win.
Like our first car, I wonder if and when the Wilpon’s may decide to stop throwing good money after bad and try something new, something different. Something more economical.
About the Author: Rob Silverman
8 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 26 | 17 | .605 | - |
| Nationals | 25 | 17 | .595 | 0.5 |
| Marlins | 23 | 19 | .548 | 2.5 |
| Mets | 22 | 20 | .524 | 3.5 |
| Phillies | 21 | 22 | .488 | 5.0 |
Last updated: 05/22/2012
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Oh, man. Baby Al is going to have a field day with this.
Hey, baby al, contact Washington to see if you can get Cash for Clunkers restored. If the Mets are as bad as you’ve been saying, their management should make a fortune on the taxpayers’ backs. I think you and Omar will enjoy treating the clunker players like old clunkers on a used car lot. LOL
What is amazing is that the Wilpons live their money so much and yet pick buffoons to spend it for them
If they are looking to spend,spend it differently?? How about on the draft.in the far east in the caribbean. But just spending everything on 1 free agent isn’t working.I’d love to see the mets not sign 1 big name freeagent. Save the money for the draft.get that guy from japan,and with the big roster use platoon system in right 2nd and catcher.
You cannot defend the Wilpons. Blindly spending money is not an excuse. The team itself needs to be constructed by a qualified baseball man, something they have yet to hire. Money needs to go into the minor league system, not just the major league roster. The way to trade for front line players is to have prospects people want. But the biggest problem is the the organization itself. The Mets are a laughing stock. The medical staff is a joke, continually misdiagonosing and mis-treating injuries. The clock and daggar stuff is laughable. Let’s not forget Citifield. Fred Wilpon is and always has been a Dodger fan, not a Met fan. He buld a stadium with a tribute to a player from the Dodgers and didn’t have any Met history in it when it opened. Green seats, black walls, no blue or orange anywhere. Only after massive negative feedback from the fans were these things added this season. The Wilpons are spoiled, clueless, rich kids who don’t have a clue how to build and maintain a well run, classy, successful organization.
Truth the ONLY resemblence I see between Ebbets & Citi is the Rotunda which doesn’t effect play here’s a depiction of Ebbets’1957 dimensions…
LF 348′
cf 393′
rf 297′
The final Citi design comparative dimensions…
LF 335′
CF 410′
RF 330′
LAST VERSION OF Shea…
LF 338′
CF 410′
RF 338′
Certainly the “Great Wall of Flushing” compounds the issue; but it must be pointed out that the final Citi design was the purvue of Jeff Wilpon who reportedly traveled extensively to borrow from other stadiums those features he wished to emulate. I haven’t read of any trips to China. lol interesting note I found was Ebbets Field’s original design had a LF distance of 419′ WOW! I guess the wall was to be the equalizing compromise.
In my opinion, the misperception that NYers won’t tolerate roster rebuilding teams is the biggest issue. Perhaps Omar’s most eggregous sin was too early success in second yr of a 5 yr plan.
Omar Minaya is the first talent savy GM we’ve had since Cashen whilst Phillips & Duquette were much more contract negotiation savy as is Ricco. It’s nearly impossible to determine how badly Omar compromised in order to meet the financial restrictions placed on him. Fact: he inherited a 4th place team already devoid of tradeable vets for youth as well as a Farm system mostly resembling the Sahara than the “Breadbasket” Fact: there was only one apparent avenue for improvement, free agency. Inheriting a roster of once weres & never will bes. only 1 certifiable “STAR” (PIAZZA) to go along with his 1 borderline prospect(MILLEDGE)left a course of action that not only cost $$$; but also top draft options for years to come. 1B in ’04 began with Zeile & ended with BRAZELL, 2B, MATSUI, LF FLOYD, CF DUNCAN, RF HIDALGO,DIAZ
Does anyone envy that task? That’s what he inherited from Phillips/Duquette. Pedro? Beltran? bidding against Boston & Houston? considering the NYS/NYC combined income tax rate for the highest bracket is 16%. Massachusetts’ 5.3% & Texas’ lack of any local income taxes certainly dictates a need to overbid substantially just to equalize. Since Omar’s first 1ST round pick was exercised on Pelfrey, his next didn’t come along for a few years due to losing ’06 pick in Pedro,Beltran signings, ’07s for Wagner deal the advancement of non-first rounders on a fasttrack curve is generally dicey at best. The generally unacceptable policy of choosing cheapest,easiest signings over best available players had us wasting our next first round turn on Kunz( a reliever?) who does that? I consider myself a reasonable, mature fan willing to offer the benefit of the doubt to anyone; but in this case, I haven’t a doubt that with or without Maidoff, the degree of Wuilpon riches while significant to u or I is borderline pauperish in regards to owning a significant sports enterprise in the 21st century. Besides each of the current 9 partners in NYM ownership are all reliant upon Sterling Equities for their livlihood.
The only way this franchise can recover is through more intelligent investment in young amateurs, draft or international signings. Gil Hodges reaped the reward of 7 consecutive very early round draft positions while Davey made similar hay out of the futility between ’74-83. There was only one free agent acquisition of note on that openning day roster in 1986(George Foster) It’s well documented how mnuch Frank Cashen abhored the F/A process.
Wow, where do I start? It’s near impossible for me to back the Wilpons’ play because I don’t believe they care like we do. Owning a business and owning a beloved franchise tied to a bevy of fans hungry for a championship is clearly apples amd oranges. They made investments with all those names you mentioned but no baseball expertise. I don’t know why anyone thought Pedro and Glavine alone would bring a title. The Wilpons are not convincing as competent ownership. They spend to pacify the fan base and to try to get a return on their investment but their baseball IQ is questionable. One reason ignored by most lately is a primary reason the Mets are buried in 4th place and not going to a playoff series again. The same reason that reared its head in the 2000 World Series against the Yanks: Offense go bye bye! You simply can’t win big by playing so small when it counts.
The Truth said it very succinctly:
The team itself needs to be constructed by a qualified baseball man, something they have yet to hire. Money needs to go into the minor league system, not just the major league roster. The Mets are a laughing stock. The medical staff is a joke, continually misdiagonosing and mis-treating injuries
To me it seems, over and over these same issues arise. I cant stand the Coupons, but they do spend. They just dont spend it on long term fixes. Minor League Growth, and Medical Competence it seems. The overall bench or second string isnt nearly there on a consistent basis during the playoff pushes either. They are simply overmatched in baseball intelligence.