Bottom line is that there was always a level of journalistic integrity one either did or didn’t abide to. Depends upon the integrity of the organization one works with and the standards they set for their members of the fourth estate. Do they demand the journalist report the news or allow he or she to be the news? Does the publication or station want to go for the facts or for sensationalism to get more readers/viewers and thus more advertising revenue. Is there a political agenda that purposely slants a story to report it in a certain vein?

I think there are so much less restrictions when it comes to sports reporting and leaving opinion in the editorial column as opposed to the story for today one has become meshed with the other more often than not.

But as readers, we also have to understand that there are things that are going to be reported properly without bias that we don’t want to hear for it goes against our own beliefs and thus we shouldn’t kill the messenger.

Just some philosophical approach to the whole Rubin scenario.

It’s a shame, Rubin has talent, but either he’s not capable of thinking of a good topic, so he defaults to negativity, or he’s a mean prick (most people say he’s nice, but they’re ass kissing bloggers hungry for a RT), or he’s still pissed off about the Omar thing.

He’s got a ton of good info, so he’s good to follow.

Believe what you want about the return, But teams saw the second we traded K-Rod for payroll relief and table scraps that We were having a firesale and were dealing from a position of weakness!

They will know it again when it comes time to trade Wright!

Tell me something how is this TRADE STARS plan supposed to work if all you do is trade one KNOWN star for a MAYBE STAR 5 years from now?

How do you get ahead that way?
How do you stock the Minors enough to create MORE TALENT when your losing more talent than you get back and still have to deal with the potential fail factor of what you get back?

When Atlanta lost Chipper again as soon as he got back and McCann went down in the same game Sabean panicked. thought Atlanta would get Beltran and gave up Wheeler and he did it the very next morning.

Money coming off the books is not going to be reinvested. That’s that. If there were to be another opportunity to “buy” a prospect or two in a trade for Wright, Bay or Santana that’s where the remaining salary will go and that’s what should have been being done all along, but wasn’t.

Now it’s an either or and instead of buying another Bay the focus is finding another Wheeler and Nimmo and so on and that’s something we should have been doing all along as well. Putting real money into the draft instead of drafting the cheapest players.

Games changed out of necessity and not by Alderson either. The owners are not taking on any 3-7 year deals until we’re at 40 K per game and that’s that. Regardless of who’s the GM.

Get used to it.

I am a firm believer in Fight Fire with Fire! LOL

but like I said Sandy decided in July he was going to reduce Payroll next year (2012) and as a result the Beltran trade was Born!

He knew he could or would be outbid or that he really didn’t want to make that investment and since he couldn’t get anything in compensation he traded him to get something in addition to the dumped salary!

If we were flush with cash and determined to DUMP Salary from the payroll Sandy probably gets MORE for Beltran than he did!

Reyes is a Salary dump under those TECHNICALITIES too!
The only reason he didn’t HAVE to make the decision on him in July was because he could net compensation!
Both leaving are a result of the decision to DUMP over 40 Mil of Payroll from the books!

K-Rod is the only one that actually SAVED 2011 money…and not much at that!
But 17 Mil is Dumped from the 2012 Books as well!

And if the front office did have faith in the team’s chances, then the moves they made would only prove that winning came secondary to down sizing.

Either way, what was up to that point a very pleasant and satisfying season ended up as a bitter disappointment — no way the team was going to remain competitive being stripped of those two players (Duda would have remained at first so his bat did not replace that of Beltran).

Nor can they expect to draw 40,000 fans each night, not with with the prices they are charging. Even in 2009 when both Citi Field was brand new and the Mets were picked by many to go all the way, they had trouble selling out opening day or any of three games of the subway series.

The Wilpons only concern is holding onto the team and making it through this financial mess. So during this time period, at least, it is they who are not supporting the Mets, not the fans.

The decision to trade Beltran was all about the decision of NOT WILLING to keep him and the expenditure required to do so!!

The DECISION was a Salary Dump!
The Trade was nothing more than an attempt to get something for that DECISION!

Would Beltran have been traded if we had not decided to dump major Salary in 2012?
Maybe he would but that woould only be NOT a SALARY DUMP if it was spent on Beltran or someone else!

The fact that they made their decision to dump salary before Free Agency even opened does not usurp the fact that they decided to dump salary for 2012 and as a result they decided to get something for a guy they had no intentions of going after in FA to facilitate that decision!

Beltran was a much a Salary dump as it would have been in November when we dicided not to sogn him or replace him using the money we no longer had to pay Beltran!

Bottom line is the Salary was dumped from the 2012 budget!
That it was dumped in July doesn’t matter!!

Any way you look at it Joe, this season will be tough, though the few years after Grant demoted Seaver were hard but at least a good GM was brought in, Cashen, to build the team; I don’t know what SA is going to go other than cut payroll and hope the youngsters in minors produce.

Boycotting the team will not do anything to make the Wilpons sell if anything they will cut more payroll, maybe, but I’ll continue to support my Mets despite the negativity and ownership, my team good or bad!

Take Wagner for instance. That was both a salary dump and an avoidance of paying signing bonus dump.

Speaking of which I’m going to take a dump and that’s my final word on the matter.

Not until we are averaging 40K a game.

I know your angry, so am I. That’s the way it is. Pick up a copy of who moved my cheese.

DUMPED!

Yeah they dumped salary in 2012. Tons of it. 50 M or so. K-Rod was dumped for the same reason last year, on the other hand they also dumped two players last year and paid the whole freight to the tune of 18 M and turned a 5 M committment to Bonilla into a 28 M one starting this year 13 years later. None of that changes the fact of the Beltran trade one iota.

It was not a salary dump, period. For once.

“The Mets owed Beltran $18.5 mil in 2011 and $0 in 2012. The Mets paid Beltran $18.5mil in 2011 and $0 in 2012.

If you want to try to twist that into saving money, well, we can all see who manipulates and uses semantics.