Lee? please. He wasn’t coming here at probably double the cost.
Werth? again, please. Did you see what the Nats paid him? We didn’t need a RF that bad. Not this year, and possibly not next either depending on the talent coming up.
Crawford? Not likely with the Bay contract.

I keep reading many pointing out the problems, but I’ve yet to see anyone post a better solution than what we have right now. Throwing good money after bad for 2011 is a bad idea, IMO.

The RA Dickey signing, buying out next year and reserving the right at a small cost for 2013 shows that he is looking beyond this year despite being forced to go with some hold for the fort guys for right now.

Compare the situation that Minaya walked into. The only soon to be revealed bad money on the books was Kaz Matsui’s 14M. Alderson could be looking at as much as 180M (Castillo 6, Perez 12, Beltran 18, Bay 66 and Johan 80) and that’s not counting K-Rod who has pitched well but would clearly be overpaid by a lot if his option vests (30M)over two years.

Minaya had 14M in bad contracts and spent 172M on Pedro and Beltran, attempted to spend another 60M on Delgado before settling on Mentkavage.

Alderson had basically the complete opposite. He could have as much as 180M in bad contracts and only 14M or so including new acquisitions, arb raises and incentives.

The two situations could not possibly be more different. They are the total opposite of each other.

Despite these polar opposite conditions the Mets will have the highest payroll in their entire history this year even if 90%+ of it was agreed to before Alderson took the job.

There are also plenty of other teams that will be interested in Reyes though.

Also, they spend more than 8.1 mill this off season. The rotation alone (counting Young and Capuano, and assuming they reach ~1/2 of their incentives)they invested at least 10mill, when you factor in it cost almost over 6 million to retain Dickey and Pelfrey.

and who exactly were all the 200 inning locks that were available for $5mill, that sandy turned his nose up at?

as to all your stuff about the Wilpons financial situation, let’s just say you have a flair for hyperbole.

1) The Wilpons did not lie about the Madoff thing not affecting day to day operations. They are possibly selling up to 25%, well bellow controling interest. Right now, Sterling Mets is their most attractive asset. So, they sell off enough to guarantee you seats behind home plate and a day of golf with David Wright.

2) The free agent market was pretty shallow. Outside of Crawford and Werth (who both got outrageous contracts), and Lee (which would have been a bad deal for the Mets), who would you have liked them to get?

3) “Madoff, the lout, who declined to attend his son’s funeral after he hung himself from an exposed pipe in his high-priced Tribeca loft”

By “declined” you must mean “the judge didn’t let him out to do so”

4)”So when Reyes flees to the Yankees he can offer his explanation in dulcet tones. Moreover, it would be a perfect fit for the Bronx Bombers. A chance to add a dynamic leadoff hitter with the built in excuse of playing the same position as Derek Jeter. The Captain will realize the team is improved offensively and defensively, and at 37 quietly move to the outfield. Brian Cashman and the vindictive Steinbrenner boys will consider it an extra bonus that they stole him from the hapless Mets.”

I have a whacky idea: Why don’t we let Reyes’ agent and the FO figure out the contract thing before we ship him off to your Bornx wet dream, okay?