Things That Make Me Go Hmmmm…

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• Chris January 12, 2012 at 12:34 pm

  can’t complain about the weather compared to last year. It had already snowed like four times by now last year.
• XtreemIcon January 12, 2012 at 12:42 pm

  Don’t forget, the Phillies have to give Boston picks. You want smart? Boston traded extra pieces for a real solid closer, plus got picks back for the overpaid/overrated one they let go. Sure, Philly gets picks from the Reds, but they ship them right back to Boston. Boston actually gets #31 and #37, much beter picks tham the Phillies get.
  • Wally Backman January 12, 2012 at 12:52 pm

    Doesn’t Type A Roy Oswalt have to sign before the first round is actually official? Also the Phillies pick last in the draft, so didn’t they upgrade by losing their pick to Boston but gained the Reds pick?
    • XtreemIcon January 12, 2012 at 1:07 pm

      Wally, they didn’t gain the Reds first round pick because it was protected. Oswalt officially needs to sign before the first round is complete, but the top fiftenn picks are protected. Maybe the Phillies can jump into the mid 20′s?
    • Alex68 January 12, 2012 at 1:12 pm

      isn”t oswalt a type B free agent??
• trs86 January 12, 2012 at 1:16 pm

  Actual payroll counts everyone on the 40 man roster and other commitments.
  • any January 12, 2012 at 1:39 pm

    bobby bo, the gift the keeps on giving!
• Mr North Jersey January 12, 2012 at 1:19 pm

  There is no arguing that the GM did say the payroll projections was in the $100M to $110M range but he also said he probably would not spend all that money this off season for reasons I can’t recall. Which left speculation of the possibility the payroll could be under $100M to start the season but $10M less is not a number I would of expected.
  • Alex68 January 12, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    Mnj, he’s a f’ing liar, he also said we were gonna get franchise players… yeah ok.. keep believing in this loser. he saved the crooks $45 million while feeding the fanbase crap.. is funny, guys like jesse, craig, agee and others will die for this man… pathetic and embarrassing!@
    • K Maxx January 12, 2012 at 1:32 pm

      Yeah right, franchise players. Who in their right mind ever believed that? The last line on this post says it all, My new motto is “Never trust a GM when his lips are moving.” That says it all. Whatever Alderson has said has been the opposite of what he has done. Actions speak louder than words.
      • srt January 12, 2012 at 2:22 pm

        Anyone who takes anything any GM is telling the fans at face value just isn’t paying attention – or hasn’t been a fan of baseball long enough to realize much of it is just spin for that same fan base. If you’re hanging your hat on every GMs quotes, you’re bound to be disappointed or angry.

        This is the first year in a very long while I’m going into the season with absolutely no expectations whatsoever. That ought to make watching a team going nowhere this year a little less disappointing.

        In years past, the expectations were we would compete – or could possibly compete – then headed into the dog days or stretch before realizing that wasn’t going to happen. Or last year when I knew it was over by the ASB.
        • trs86 January 12, 2012 at 2:29 pm

          GM’s are like politicians in general.

          Also, who in the world thought the Mets would sign a franchise player THIS off-season?
          • srt January 12, 2012 at 2:38 pm

            Unless some where holding out hope they would sing Reyes – NO ONE should have expected any franchise type FA signings. Broke is broke is broke.
            • trs86 January 12, 2012 at 2:57 pm

              And we still don’t know if they thought they had a chance at Reyes. This is between to logical thinkers here but I am still not sure what Sandy’s confidence on re-signing him was. Personally I had already said that unless he was signing for 4-70-80M
    • Alex68 January 12, 2012 at 1:36 pm

      Kmaxx, the CORE salutes you.. i know is a small group who see this buffoon for what he is, but is enough to confront the sabergoons/moneyballers who like him and view him as a godsend..
    • Mr North Jersey January 12, 2012 at 1:40 pm

      Well I doubt anyone would die for the man (I know you meant that figuratively) but that said I would say all GM’s at some point or another may to use your word “lie” that doesn’t mean one should condone it but I can understand where sometimes trying to walk the line of how much can one actually share with the public without being totally evasive can at one point or another find you in what turns out to be a lie.

      That said in this case in which i originally commented I would not qualify it as him lying but that is just my take. I know others see differently.
    • Chris January 12, 2012 at 2:56 pm

      How do you know he’s not going to get franchise players? Can you see into the future? wow that’s pretty cool..

      ooooooh its because he hasn’t done it in one year. that’s cute.
  • trs86 January 12, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    Keep in mind payroll counts more than just the 25 man roster. Thus they still have to actually finish those arbitration signings and fill out the 40 man roster. I would expect it to be between 95-100 by the time it is done.
• 86mets January 12, 2012 at 1:24 pm

  The only hope on Carrasco is that they simply want to give him a chance to rebound in ST before cutting him since they owe him $1.2 million for ’12. Remember, they did the same for Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo last spring and when they inevitably stunk it up they dumped them. With any hope the same will happen with Fiasco, um, I mean, Carrasco.
• K Maxx January 12, 2012 at 1:30 pm

  You know a couple of Mets sites spinned the F-Mart thing as Hariston over F-Mart which I can swallow. But now I see your point and it’s a valid one, it’s really Carrasco over F-Mart and that is totally a boneheaded move.
  • trs86 January 12, 2012 at 2:13 pm

    Bullpen’s are so fickle though. The guy had decent stats before forgetting how to pitch last year. Maybe they think he will rebound, at least in his case he has something to rebound to… unlike Fmart.
• Alex68 January 12, 2012 at 1:39 pm

  https://twitter.com/#!/Mets/status/157531284275597313/photo/1
  • srt January 12, 2012 at 2:43 pm

    Oh, what might have been….

    Here’s hoping Johan is healthy, can start the season and does win us some ball games this year.
• Vinny B January 12, 2012 at 2:03 pm

  After looking at what Madson signed for, couldn’t you say all the NL East teams that signed closers overpaid?

  Papelbon 4Yrs 50M

  Bell 3Yrs 27M

  Francisco 2Yrs 12M

  Madson 1Yr 8M

  Madson is a better pitcher than Francisco, and would have been a great trade chip to have at the deadline, and Madson signed for one less year and only cost 2M more than Francisco – So you can say the Mets made a mistake too.
  • trs86 January 12, 2012 at 2:11 pm

    Yeah, I agree they should have waited but who in the world would have expected Madson to fall that far? Also, you think he would want to come and stink with the Mets for the same price?
  • srt January 12, 2012 at 2:27 pm

    I’d only call it a ‘mistake’ if you actually believe given his choice of teams Madson would have actually came here. I’m doubting that – especially if he knew he’d very possibly be used for a trade chip come mid season.
  • jms January 12, 2012 at 2:43 pm

    Could’a/Should’a/Would’a ….

    Couldn’t we have traded Martinez for a bag of balls instead of waivers?
    Should have converted to a phillies fan after I relocated to Philly area in 93!
    Wouldn’t Madson (8.5 mil) be better than Francisco/Rauch (9.5 mil)?
    • trs86 January 12, 2012 at 2:59 pm

      I agree with your number 2…
      • jms January 12, 2012 at 4:48 pm

        Couldn’t do it. I love my Muts no matter what.
        Let me tell you though, 07/08 down here was brutal for a mets fan.
        Man, did the local yocals let me have it.
        I’m gonna need therapy for decades
  • Joe Diaz January 12, 2012 at 3:43 pm

    If you believe Madson would’ve come here on a bad team for one year then yeah I would’ve preferred Madson over Francisco.If you told me 6 weeks ago tthat Madson would sign a 1 year 8.5 m deal I would’ve told you you’re nuts.If I’m not mistaken Vin you had Capps and Francisco on your wishlist so I’m sure you didn’t think Madson would settle for a deal like this.
    • Vinny B January 12, 2012 at 4:42 pm

      Right, I like both Francisco and Capps.

      But the point I’m making here is that if we are saying the Phillies signing Papelbon is a bad move because Madson signed for so little, wouldn’t that make us signing Francisco an equally bad move?
      • XtreemIcon January 12, 2012 at 4:49 pm

        I’m just guessing here, but I think the bad move signing Papelbon is independent of Madson. The money they paid and the years they committed to Papelbon is ridiculous, but at the time the signing went down, it was only slightly more ridiculous than what Madson was demanding. Regardless of what Madson wanted then or signed for now, the Papelbon deal was just killer.
      • Joe Diaz January 12, 2012 at 8:21 pm

        I don’t think it was equally as bad Vinny.Francisco only got a 2 year deal at 6 mil per,That was a fair deal.Papelbon got 50 mil for 4 years I believe.That’s a lot of wood for a closer.The Reds played it smart.They got a very good pitcher on a 1 year deal for decent money.If more Owners/GMs were smart they could get a lot more guys on 1 year deals but they panic and overpay far too often.
• srt January 12, 2012 at 2:26 pm

  According to Rubin, there was at least one executive of another team who told him there was ‘zero’ chance they’d take a flyer on Martinez when he was removed from the 40 man. Reason given was health/medicals.

  I can only assume the Mets saw the same thing. Apparently his mobility in the OF had noticeably been decreased since the arthritic knee was diagnosed. Couple that with he’s yet to play over 90 games in any one season and his initial skillset never improved on, has to be the reason the Mets decided to cut him loose. I can’t wrap my brain around it being they wanted to save the likes of Carrasco…..
  • trs86 January 12, 2012 at 2:32 pm

    If you assume he can only play the corners, aren’t the Mets really over-saturated there?

    Honestly, I think there is a better chance of DJ helping us this year than Fmart. How low on the depth chart would he have been for a corner OF spot?
    • srt January 12, 2012 at 2:41 pm

      I think Rubin said that as well (or read it somewhere else this morning) – that a couple of minor league OFs have jumped over FMart on the depth chart. So I’m sure that added to the decision as well.

      Just goes to show you that the once FMart-Gomez-Milledge future OF the organization was contingent on prospects actually translating to the major leagues. And in this case, only Gomez did. Not that I’ve paid much attention to him but I think he’s still a light hitting OF.
• Hodges14 January 12, 2012 at 2:48 pm

  Reese Havens will be next to get cut if he doesn’t avoid the DL this season. I’m tired of all these oft injured players, better to move on.
  • Chris January 12, 2012 at 3:11 pm

    agreed. not missing Fernando one bit. especially when injuries have basically been our downfall since 2007. Very tough to build a winner when you don’t have players you can count on.
• Mr North Jersey January 12, 2012 at 3:18 pm

  One question regarding Rubin’s projections. He is counting 26 players in his projections. I know the new cba allows for 26 man rosters but I thought it was only in cases of double headers. Will rosters be from now on 26 man rosters throughout the entire season?

  01. Johan Santana, $24 million
  02. R.A. Dickey, $4.25 million
  03. Jon Niese, $500,000
  04. Mike Pelfrey, $5.5 million (arbitration estimate)
  05. Dillon Gee, $500,000
  06. Andres Torres, cf, $2.75 million (arbitration estimate)
  07. Daniel Murphy, 2b, $500,000
  08. David Wright, 3b, $15 million
  09. Ike Davis, 1b, $500,000
  10. Jason Bay, lf, $16 million
  11. Lucas Duda, rf, $500,000
  12. Josh Thole, c, $500,000
  13. Ruben Tejada, ss, $500,000
  14. Scott Hairston, of, $1.1 million
  15. Ronny Cedeno, if, $1.15 million
  16. Mike Nickeas, c, $500,000
  17. Justin Turner, if, $500,000
  18. Mike Baxter/Adam Loewen, of, $500,000
  19. Frank Francisco, $5.5 million
  20. Jon Rauch, $3.5 million
  21. Tim Byrdak, $1 million
  22. Ramon Ramirez, $2 million (arbitration estimate)
  23. Manny Acosta, $1 million (arbitration estimate)
  24. Bobby Parnell, $500,000
  25. Long man/second left-hander, $600,000
  26. D.J. Carrasco, $1.2 million
  • Alex68 January 12, 2012 at 3:21 pm

    $9 million between raunch and francisco… wow…
    • Brian January 12, 2012 at 3:26 pm

      9 mil for Rauch and Francisco or 8 mil for Madson?
      • any January 12, 2012 at 6:06 pm

        at the time (hell, 2 days ago) Madson was not signing with the mets for 1 year a 8mill.
• Pedro January 12, 2012 at 5:23 pm

  I’m short of with Joe on F-Mart. I would have rather seen someone else sent packing. However the kid couldn’t even play Winter Ball because of the knee. That said I trust Alderson’s judgments more than Omar Minaya’s when it comes to talent evaluation.
• DaveUpstateNY January 12, 2012 at 6:00 pm

  Keeping Martinez on the 40 man roster would probably have cost them more money. Then they would have gotten some double a prospect in return. So they just dumped the bum. I never saw anything out of the guy, a true 1 tool player. I don’t even know what that tool was.
• Alan January 13, 2012 at 11:05 am

  It seems to me that almost all of the posters on this website as well as many of the steady comments are constantly forgetting one very simple idea. Because of the financial situation of ownership there is not much that can be done by the GM other than continue to trade what few blue chips we have that are earning huge dollars. Before all of the Madoff scandal came into play our owners spent lots of money to improve the team. No doubt many of these improvements failed to deliver. The Wilpon’s are not going to sell…. period! They don’t have to at this point as their “sheriff” has cleaned up town a bit and will continue to do so. It is going to be a few years of intense struggling but the idea is for the young pitchers in the minor leagues to be ready by next year and for our youngest players like Ike Davis, Ruben Tejada and Lucas Duda to continue their development. If David Wright rebounds with the changes to the ballpark dimensions he could bring back some major prospects. Same idea for Jason Bay except he will probably be here till later in the season and be more of a late season pickup because of injury to a contender. Mets would be sucking up some of his salary.

  We are paying the price for our mistakes both in player assessment and for financial woes!
  • trs86 January 13, 2012 at 11:26 am

    O48… Bingo we have a winner.