By taking the Mets out of the bidding wars. The players salaries will drop. Good for the owners. Not letting the Mets sell off players…good for the owners.

Alderson looked into Latin performance enhancing drugs. Sandy let Reyas and FMart go.

For starters if you actually read the whole article the author said, “General manager Ruben Amaro gets some heat for giving Jonathan Papelbon such a large contract (four years, $50 million)”. So it is not just me making that assertion and he pretty much admits they paid too much. And yeah I would still say it is a bad move because they let Ryan Madson go who was just as good as Papelbon last year and he only got one year $8.5 mill. That’s not smart business.

Okay if you want to play that way the Padres got Volquez (former All-Star) to replace Latos in the deal, granted he has had trouble staying healthy but that is why he was just one piece in the deal, AND still gained at least one, if not two, hitters who should contribute this year (and at the latest next year) so if that is not putting your team in a better place to win than having just one pitcher I don’t know what is.

Shall we take a look into the A’s two biggest moves?

They sold high on Gio, replaced him in the rotation with Tom Millone for this year, and it looks like Peacock could and should make the team as well so that’s two arms in the rotation for one THIS year. Then at the same time they got pieces to build for the future with A.J. Cole who’s still far away and Derek Norris who could contribute late THIS year or early next. Yeah definitely didn’t help make them better at winning now. As a Mets fan you should know how important depth is.

Then with Bailey the A’s probably produce closers better than any other team and already have Brian Fuentes so it is not like he was needed on the team and Josh Reddick will be their starting right fielder THIS year and he had a pretty good half a year with the Sox last year, while also getting a pitcher and hitter with extremely high ceilings. So they don’t lose all that much at closer while gaining a guy in the starting nine. Explain how that doesn’t help them win either?

You just make assumption that anything/anyone that can be connected to Alderson/DePodesta or their style is a bad move without anything to back up your claims. You need to lay of the haterade and take a look at things before you make statements like that.

So that’s what’s going to determine the best off season for you? Value & prospects. Too bad the best offseason has to do with who has done the best to put their teams in a position to WIN.

Remember WINNING? I think that’s what Cafadro was thinking about (as he should) when he gave his opinion on this. It also doesn’t matter if The Phillies overpaid (in your opinion) for Papelbon. It’s their budget and they work with what they have. What if he has a great season and helps the Phils in the post season? Then did they overpay. Overpaying is relative so I suggest not worrying about what other people pay for players, like Sandy publicly did – meanwhile his judgement is terrible.

But in all seriousness this was a plain and simple AWFUL list by Cafadro.

He has the Cardinals 4th they lost the best player and manager in baseball (IMO) and added Beltran who can’t stay healthy. No way that is 4th best.

The Phillies overpaid for Papelbon and replaced by Ryan Howard with Ty Wigginton and that is a better offseason than the A’s completely revamping their farm system, which he failed to ignore?

The A’s and Pads both actually had good offsasons (Pads made a great trade with Latos and A’s as I said got great value on Gio as well as getting nice pieces for Bailey and no way they were the 2nd and 3rd worst.

Pretty much everything this guy wrote was completely off base so that connection really doesn’t matter.

Years ago they ran the Padres and the A’s. I guess they left their legacy over there and set the standard, now it’s the Mets turn.

That is it in a nutshell.

I think the media has an ax to grind with Alderson, everyone knows he had a tremendous offseason. :-/