Workplace Confidential: “We’ve Become The Oakland A’s”

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• mike January 9, 2012 at 10:54 am

  Good. I love the Oakland A’s.
  • METS62FAN January 10, 2012 at 9:46 am

    IN A WAY THEY’RE ACTIONS ARE MORE REMINISCIENT OF CHARLIE FINLEY’S A’s THAN BILLY BEANE’S AS I DON’T DISCERN TOO MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHARLIE’S ACTIONS TO DISMEMBER HIS TEAM FOR COST CUTTING MEASURES THAN FRED’S CURRENT ACTIONS OR LACK THEREOF. CHARLIE’S WERE INTERPRETED AS “AGAINST THE BEST INTERESTS OF BASEBALL” BY THEN COMMISSIONER BOWIE KUHN; PRESENT COMMISSIONER BUD SELIG IS SILENT OR IS IT COMPLICIT AS A DEBTOR HOLDING A $40M NOTE MAKING HIM A DIRECT BENEFICIARY OF THIS RECONSTRUCTION TO AN 80M PAYROLL, 2 ME A PURE “CONFLICT OF INTEREST” & AS SUCH, SELIG SHOULD BE FORCED TO HALT THE DISMANTLING UNDER THE GUIDELINES SET BY HIS PREDECESSOR. IF THE OVERALL INTERESTS OF BASEBALL COULD BE DAMAGED BY THE ACTIONS OF A VAGABON FRANCHISE(PHL,KC,OAK) THAN SIMILAR BEHAVIOR BY ONE ENSCONCED IN THE BASEBALL”HEARTLAND” IS DOUBLY DAMAGING!

    THIS, MY FRIENDS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, THIS IS UNMITIGATED DUPLICITY BESET UPON THE HOTTEST MLB MARKETPLACE IN EXISTANCE.
• Donal January 9, 2012 at 10:57 am

  There’s no real insight there. It sounds like a lot of stuff you see in the comments section here and other places.

  I’d guess someone on the club house level. Someone who works with the players and coaches. Training staff, club house attendants, maybe promotions people etc etc.
  • jessep January 9, 2012 at 11:31 am

    Yeah reads more like an angry fan than an angry employee.
    • Donal January 9, 2012 at 11:47 am

      It definitely isn’t in the tone of someone who would be privy to the higher end of decision making. It doesn’t offer any view of the inner workings or behind the curtain stuff. It just restates a bunch of things we already knew or have already heard.

      Granted, it may say something about the overall emotions running through the company, but half the writers here have given us better info than this.
  • metsaddict77 January 9, 2012 at 10:59 am

    it’s true.
    • Tommy2cat January 10, 2012 at 12:42 am

      Since Nelson Doubleday departed the Mets front office, it has been characterized by financial mismanagement off the field and impatience on the field. For me, as a fan, things began not to make sense when Bonilla was offered that insane deferment of the 5.9m owed to him so that he could received $29m in one-year increments in 2011. That arrangement alone creates something of an inference that I’d rather leave alone.

      The part that rankles me, as a fan, is the absolute impatience – to a level that approaches immaturity – in the FO’s reckless desire to field a collection of stars without any notion that it must first have a core group of young, strong prospects from within the organization.

      Ii know that Fred Wilpon wanted to succeed as owner of the Mets. But, I think his methods were distorted and disproportionate – in all likelihood by all of the money he was raking in from the Madoff investment. Fred Wilpon called his attachment to the Mets “an emotional investment”. Well, sometimes the heart has reasons that reason itself does not know, such as greed.

      Feels like Fred got wacked in the caboose by the karma train, sadly, to the detriment of Met fans everywhere.
  • Ghost of omar January 10, 2012 at 8:32 am

    Of corse donal says no real insight. anything critical of his lordhip and the lords masters has no insight, just like all of your pathetic posts donal.
• Alex68 January 9, 2012 at 10:59 am

  The new york pirates… pathetic and embarrassing. front the owner to the guys in the front office, all of them have converted this franchise into a pathetic laughing stock… at least the pirates personall and front office don’t lie to their fanbase, they from the get go let the fans now they won’t spent. they won’t increase the budget, they’re rebuilding and will be hoping for the young kids to developed and hopefully fruit into good players, unlike sandy and co who keeps acquiring crap and have the nerve to tell us he’s looking for franchise players, that we’ll be competitive etc… this is a last place team with owners that are broke for being crooks and the GM is thinking small market hell and keeps lying to the fanbase as if we’re stupid. although whoever likes this guy and his sabergoons might very well be…
  • Ghost of omar January 10, 2012 at 8:35 am

    Actually alex, the Pirate front office lies also. they tell the fanbase the exact same BS alderson is spewing; that the next wave of prospects will turn the team around and the next stars will be kept. Alderson just steals their lies… for an ivy league genious you’d think he could make up new lies wouldn’t you..
    • Alex68 January 10, 2012 at 8:38 am

      Omar, you’re wrong… the pirates hope that the prospects that BA rank very high on their list became good and produce, is not the pirates fault that they’ve been burned time after time by the BA people.. they draft a player based on “high ceiling” and how good is ranked by BA, too bad they’d never get an apolgy from BA on their ranking…
      sandy is the worst GM in the history of the mets.. a guy who will never win anything, hell, not even will finish with a 500 record as the GM in charge, pathetic…
      • jessep January 10, 2012 at 8:50 am

        Alex: So you’re saying you think the Pirates (and the Mets) DRAFT players based on their Baseball America rank?

        “not the pirates fault that they’ve been burned time after time by the BA people.. they draft a player based on “high ceiling” and how good is ranked by BA, too bad they’d never get an apolgy from BA on their ranking…”

        Are you totally clueless on what amateur scouting is and what Baseball America is? Baseball America doesn’t advise MLB teams on who to draft. Baseball America doesn’t owe any MLB team an “apology” for ranking a player a certain way. I mean are you absolutely lost right now?
        • jessep January 10, 2012 at 10:02 am

          I’m starting to notice a trend where certain folks just say whatever they want, then when they get questioned… they duck into a corner. This comment by you Alex was easily the most uninformed bias thing you’ve said with regard to Baseball America.
          • trs86 January 10, 2012 at 10:04 am

            Well if that were true then there would be hundreds of MLB scouts who are out of a job. What would be the point, BA takes care of it for them.
            • jessep January 10, 2012 at 10:16 am

              haha right? BA getting credit for how teams draft is pretty funny.
            • Donal January 10, 2012 at 10:16 am

              Funnily enough, BA gets a lot of its information from scouts and farm personnel of the teams.
              • jessep January 10, 2012 at 10:19 am

                Right. It’s not BA provding MLB teams with insight on players, it’s the other way around

                And to take it 1 step further to actually say or think out loud that BA influences who a team DRAFTS like Alex did is so ridiculous
• K Maxx January 9, 2012 at 11:01 am

  Just what a few readers here have suggested and repeated over and over again since Alderson was hired about becoming the Oakland A’s. The only difference is that this comes from a Mets insider so maybe now some people will see what others have been saying all along including myself.
• any January 9, 2012 at 11:23 am

  There is a difference though.

  the Pirate owners are just happy with their revenue sharing and turning a nice little profit each year.

  the Met owners are throwing everything overboard just trying to keep from losing the team.
• Metsr1 January 9, 2012 at 11:23 am

  So I guess when all the kids come up and contribute and do well (hopefully), we can expect to see them all leave before arbritration or walk as free agents. Then we’ll do all over again a few years after we aquire all of the draft picks. Exactly how many championships have the A’s won since 89′? Why are they the model? The Wilponzi’s suck!
  • Alex68 January 9, 2012 at 11:28 am

    Metsr1, is not that they’re saying that the oakland A’s are a role model for the mets, is more like the sabergoon in charge of the mets desiciion is doing the exact same thing beane is doing in oakland, he’s banking on wheeler and co to do the same zito and co did for the A’s back in the late 90′s… he’s basically hoping to strike gold the way the A’s did by doing the same thing here in NY.. difference is, we’re in NY, not in oakland with all the media and demanding fans, is clear sandy will feel the pressure quicker than expected.. except for his legion of fans here and there..
    • jessep January 9, 2012 at 12:09 pm

      “the sabergoon in charge of the mets desiciion is doing the exact same thing beane is doing in oakland, he’s banking on wheeler and co to do the same zito and co did for the A’s back in the late 90′s”

      First, Barry Zito’s career didn’t even start until 2000. So try to get some facts before you start acting like a historian.

      Second, so you’re saying Alderson is trying to do with Wheeler what Beane did with Zito and Company… just to be clear, that was 5 playoff appearances in 7 years with Zito in Oakland. In one of the 2 years they missed the playoffs, they did so by 1 game.

      If your idea is correct that Alderson is trying to copy the A’s from the Barry Zito days then sounds like a pretty nice goal to me.
  • any January 9, 2012 at 12:04 pm

    the only similarity is that they don’t have any money.

    And the “model” the As are in theory trying to follow is to get a core group come up together, start winning, draw fans, then make enough money to keep the players as they hit arbitration time. the problem of course is if they don’t all click together, you have to lather/rinse/repeat.
• Metsr1 January 9, 2012 at 11:25 am

  Fred, Jeff, and Saul are the the guys on the Titanic playing their violins while the ship sinks!
• sarge January 9, 2012 at 11:52 am

  And this is a surprise because…?
  I knew the minute SA was hired, it wasn’t just cause of MLB wanting to protect the Wilpon’s from themselves but the the long run plan was to find a way that the Wilpon’s could keep the team and not have to sell it.

  All the double speak from SA last year and in the coming months is just another slap in the face to a once great franchise and fan base.

  It reminds me of when M. Donald Grant was around, maybe SA is the re-incarnation of this “glorious” period in Mets history?

  That and your “8 points” previously on this blog should just make any Met fan just want to barf and commit to never buying into anything Met’s but we won’t because as a long time fans we won’t give up on our “Mets” despite what outsiders, “SA” do and say.

  The fact things have deteriorated this fast just goes to show that ownership AND baseball had their heads in the ground and did not address this before and after the Madoff scandal came about.

  Now with possibly David Wright, a face of the team, of course his return to form means a lot, is possibly going to be gone then we are supposed to believe that we will return “just” by what our minor league system will produce?
  Not on your life, we will have to pay for a free agent hitter or pitcher cause almost no team has done it just on prospects and minor league players alone.

  More the reason to keep David and have him along with an up and coming Ike, Duda, Kirk and Reese along with pitching to take this team to the next level.
  Letting go of Jose was hard, for me, but I believe trading David will take this team to a dark level that will take years to return from and that is if there is any revenue coming in from this brand new park that is even in jeopardy of losing the AS game, what a joke we have become!
  • Metsr1 January 9, 2012 at 1:21 pm

    Do you think for one minute that the Mets are bringing in the fences to make Wright and Bay smile. They are hoping that the two pound homers simply to increase their trade value. As much as this bugs me, I believe Wright’s days are numbered. Bay on the other would require the Wilponzi’s to eat some money, so he may be around awhile.
• TJ January 9, 2012 at 6:38 pm

  Couldn’t agree more with whoever wrote that piece. Daddy, junior and Katz have made a ‘laughingstock’ out of mine and every other Mets fan’s team. In my opinion the sooner this trio is gone the better, because I believe only then will this team have any hope of getting any better.
  If this suit lingers on and on and the owners keep trying to hang on by their finger nails and the front office keeps ‘adjusting’ the payroll how long will we, the fans, have to wait before Mets are not the ‘laughingstock’ of baseball?… 2012?… 2013?… 2014… 2015?
  At least once Daddy, junior and Katz finally declare the Mets a ‘small market team’ in the biggest sports market in this country at least the ticket prices at ‘Ponzifield’ could be very affordable… if anyone by then will care…
• theonlymaskman January 10, 2012 at 8:38 am

  Very interesting how all the Apologists showed up quickly to pan this article. You can criticize this article all you wish, buit it is actually very informative because it is indicative of the view from the inside of the organization. On the inside, the employess (be they players or staff) see the current situation for what it is. And that is an organization that is broke and unable to operate to the potential of the market it operates within. Ownership is clinging to the team that it can longer afford. Mgmt has no respect for anyone in the organization and is aloof and self-centered. The organization is a alughingstock and that is no news to real Mets fans. Apologists can not accept that and are willing to be cellar dwellers because they like it that way. They believe the genius is leading us to the Promised Land. He is in fact leading us to destruction in a vain attempt to protect the position of the owner. It is a very sad situation all created by greed and dishonesty. The quickest solution to this is for new owners to arrive on the scene. The departure of Randy Niemann confirms this view of the inner workings of the Mets franchise. Without new owners, the light of day will not arrive until 2020; until then the vision will be clouded.
  • XtreemIcon January 10, 2012 at 10:13 am

    Pick a side and stick to it.

    “On the inside, the employess (be they players or staff) see the current situation for what it is. And that is an organization that is broke and unable to operate to the potential of the market it operates within.”

    “Apologists can not accept that and are willing to be cellar dwellers because they like it that way.”

    Aren’t the “apologists” called that because they’ve been the only ones saying that there’s just no money to buy any FAs and it’s the people who call them that that are mad the Mets aren’t spending money they don’t have?

    You seem to understand there’s no money to operate right now. I mean you said so in your post, so you’re an “apologist,” apparently.
  • Nester January 10, 2012 at 10:25 am

    Do you even have a side or do you just like to complain? I’ve seen you call out one person for being optimistic and another for saying to temper your expectations in the space of about 12 hours. What’s your deal exactly?
• trs86 January 10, 2012 at 10:00 am

  This was more of a well duh. Of course the Mets are in shambles and are broke. Is anyone really debating that? What we all debate is if they are taking steps to fix the problem. What is viewed as saber, cheap, idiotic to one is viewed as maximizing resources, finally having financial wherewithal and appropriate for the situation.
  • SaltyGary January 10, 2012 at 10:13 am

    When people continue to be delusional about the “Situation” it makes it impossible to discuss what’s appropriate.
    • srt January 10, 2012 at 10:18 am

      That and the continual harping on the myriad of reasons that lead us to be in this Situation to begin with.

      Reality is it wasn’t just bad decision that has us here. It was Madoff and poor play and injuries and thin farm system and down revenues and……all should get the picture.
• XtreemIcon January 10, 2012 at 10:15 am

  Sorry, I know it’s undeniably absurd, but your comment just made me think of Alderson with an 8-pack and spiked hair.