What Does $90 Million Dollars Get You These Days?

21 Comments + Add Comment

• Alex68 January 19, 2012 at 2:01 pm

  again, if you take away santana’s salary, this team is $66 million dollar payroll, just like last year who at one point i saw a $52 million dollar payroll on the field.. $90 can buy you good players agree, but unfortunately ours have been hurt (Santana, Beltran) others have just plain SUCKED (Perez, Castillo and Bay)

  But the thing is unlike the NFL you cannot get out of a contract that easily..i contract are petty much guaranteed unless is a minor deal with incentives.. either way, 69-93.. nothing much to see here
  • FP Mets January 19, 2012 at 2:39 pm

    Though I may be wrong, and please correct me if I am, I was under the assumption that insurance covers injury to an extent.
    • trs86 January 19, 2012 at 2:41 pm

      Depends on the player and the contract based on my understanding.
    • Donal January 19, 2012 at 5:50 pm

      Insurance companies stopped covering the full length of the long term deals. Now, they go at 2 years at a time and re-up at the provider’s option. Other than that, teams can self insure. I guess we can call it the Mo Vaughn rule.

      I believe Santana’s deal was insured by an otuside 3rd party, but there is no way that continued after 2009.
      • FP Mets January 22, 2012 at 12:00 pm

        Thanks for the clarification
• Hank January 19, 2012 at 3:55 pm

  It’s not just the money, it’s how you spend the money, and how the money works for you. Unfortunately, we’ve spent money on pieces that haven’t played even close to near their value and our spent money has pretty much been useless for us; it might be useless until contracts come off in 2 years.
• Florida Met Fan Rich January 19, 2012 at 5:37 pm

  About 52 million is tied up oin Santanna, Bay And Wright. Thats pretty much all you need to know.

  I dread watching this year!
• Mets_Rule_NY January 19, 2012 at 7:30 pm

  I can’t wait for the season to start. Baseball is baseball and I can’t wait to see it again! Business and little cry baby fans who aren’t satisfied by the game itself aren’t going to ruin that for me.
• nathan January 19, 2012 at 8:44 pm

  I loved the Santana deal when it happened so I will not criticize it. Johan was arguably the best most consistant pitcher in all of MLB so what can you do. He also projected well, being a change-up pitcher. Bay has been a disaster I was uninspired then and reamin so today. Wright is who he is. What I mean by that is Wright has never been a great fastball hitter. His streaks will come and go and his fielding is up and down. He is not nor should he be expected to be the lynchpin of an offense. I am hopeful that Ike can get his swing down and really carry the offense. This year could be more interesting than people think but you are correct, alot has to go the Mets way.
  • Joe Diaz January 20, 2012 at 12:22 am

    I’d make that Santana trade all over again. We gave up next to nothing for him.
    • nathan January 20, 2012 at 12:46 am

      exactly and hopefully he will turn in some good innings this year.
      • Joe Diaz January 20, 2012 at 1:19 am

        Sad to say Nathan,no pitcher has ever made a full comeback from this injury.Usually this injury cause other shoulder issues.The one ray of hope is that Wang came back after 2 years of rehabbing and looked fairly decent.I’m hoping Wang stays healthy just so I can have a little hope that it’s not always the end of the line for pitchers with a torn capsule.If Johan can come back before the allstar break and stay off the DL from that point on,I’ll at least feel good about 2013.
• jessep January 21, 2012 at 10:28 am

  Cardinals homegrown core: Yadier Molina, Albert Pujols, David Freese, Colby Rasmus, Jon Jay, Allen Craig, Jaime Garcia, Fernando Salas, Jason Motte

  Giants homegrown core: Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval, Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, Jon Sanchez, Madison Bumgarner, Sergio Romo, Santiago Casilla, Brian Wilson

  Texas homegrown core: Mitch Moreland, Ian Kinsler, Elvis Andrus, Michael Young, CJ Wilson, Colby Lewis, Alexi Ogando, Neftali Feliz
  • Metsie January 21, 2012 at 10:54 am

    Any idiot can call up a teams roster and pick 5 homegrowns from it and say thats their core!

    I notice you mentioned CJ Wilson who you thought was a 3rd starter anywhere but at Texas!

    Easy when you make up facts as you go along!
    • XtreemIcon January 21, 2012 at 11:18 am

      What are you talking about? Those are the cores of those teams, the players each respective GM built their pennant and/or WS team around. Go tell a Giants fan Lince, Cain, Bumgarner, Posey, Sandoval and Belt are just a few homegrown guys, not a core.
    • jessep January 21, 2012 at 12:45 pm

      Just so we’re clear, you’re saying those championship or AL Champ teams’ core was not the players I listed?

      Texas good job not even knowing they never won a WS. A core player doesn’t have to be a #1. CJ Wilson was a part of that Texas core, whether he’s a #3 (which he is) or #1.
  • Metsie January 21, 2012 at 10:55 am

    Should also note Texas didn’t win a WS until they went and got Cliff Lee now did they?
    • XtreemIcon January 21, 2012 at 11:10 am

      Texas didn’t win a World Series at all……
      • stick January 21, 2012 at 1:01 pm

        they should have if cruz could catch a ball in RF.
• Metsie January 21, 2012 at 10:13 am

  Back from my month long working tour around the country. In case anyone missed me!

  As for the idea of needing a core to build around, while it may be a good thing to have, way too much importance is put on having one in my opinion.

  Look at the teams who are mentioned as having one:
  Phillies
  Yankees
  Braves

  Between them they have 2 WS Wins and and 3 WS appearances in the last 5 years.

  The Giants really had a rotation not so much a core, Cardinals had two or three good players and pitching but not really a core and their best guy just left.
  Rangers have a solid team that they have supplemented well to stay competitive but hardly have a major core of players they rely on.

  We often look at the 86ers who had a pretty decent core yet only one WS to their credit!
  The Yankees have been the only CORE team that has translated into annual playoff and WS appearances and that core is plenty old considering what is left of it!
  Thier core is hardly the thing that drives them now it’s the Pitching of Sabathia and the few good trades they made like Swisher and Granderson that made them formidable!

  So the assumption that our player do not constitute a good CORE is kind of rediculous at this point in time. They may turn out to be every bit as CORE as anyone on the Phillies and Braves with the exception of Pitching which is currently down in our MiL and if they come up and pitch well then these guys could be more than adequate to become the next great CORE people use to push this CORE BUILD philosophy!

  We look at the longevity of competitive season of the three main CORE teams and give a bit too much credit to the CORE instead of the Pitching that was the real KEY to their longevity!

  While the Yankees, Braves and Phillies seem to have a good solid core to build around the truth is they won as much and as long as they did because of the PITCHING!

  And only ONE of those three actually home grew that pitching!
  The other two started with one good starter and then went and acquired the rest anyway they could even if it meant giving up farm and money to get it!
  • stick January 21, 2012 at 1:00 pm

    A core really IMO means the main talent on the team. It does not have to remain the same for many years in a row. Usually though when it came from inhouse you will see it hang together, at least until FA hits!

    And BB is different than other sports in that (outside maybe of a catcher getting in tune with the pitchers) you can more easily swap guys in and out seamlessly.

    I also don;t care that much if a guy was out of the teams system vs. being brought in from outside, as long as they get the job done.