Never inferred that Bryn had no experience or wasn’t the right man for the job – he might very well be. Though the moves are not related to each other, during work force reductions to me it appears as being indifferent to those being put out of work and hiring one’s own son (who is still working) at the same time. Recognize it is business and Byrn might very well have been the best candidate, but call it the Studs Turkel in me.

Bryn has been the coordinator of scouting for Oakland and while I’m not suggesting he’s some no brainer hire based on experience, I am suggesting he has experience to get a job as a scout.

Yes, it does. You said he is here to cut payroll. Why did he bring them here then?

“And don’t forget, Sandy also fired ten percent of the club’s administrative staff while hiring his son Byrn as a scout. ”

Admin staff aren’t scouts. A lot of companies are outsourcing their logistical work now because it is an easy way to save money. Not very nice, but efficient.

“So often private interests take the place over professional duties,.”

And so often personal agendas and bias make people say nasty things with no evidence.

“But to separate theory from fact regardng the team’s goal over the past 20 months to cut roster payroll,”

No, the goal was to build up up the franchise to respectability. Cutting the bloated payroll is a painful first step to that.

“attached are a few of the many articles from the time frame which quote both Sandy and the Wilpons along with summarizing the reality of the financial situation at hand. ”

Oh, look, a bunch of articles all written before Spring Training. And one by Medgal.

Has anything important happened since all of those articles were written?

“And then there is this interview Sandy had regarding his feelings about fiscal responsibilities when with San Diego:”

So what? Oh my goodness, a GM wants to be mindful of team finances and make sure they are getting what they are paying for. What a travesty.

You did not prove that Alderson is here just for cutting payroll at all. You just stated things well know happened and added your own unfounded interpretation to them.

Of course even the Wilpons are not better off with the payroll being cut. I just mentioned that it was another one of their short-sighed objectives and I am sure just one of a series of overall organizational cuts being made.

Found the attached which you might have read but indicates that we are both right as far as increased attendance in relation to how much it can have an impact on the team’s financial struggles and (in my own words) “frugal spending”.

Joe

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-02/new-york-mets-main-financial-challenge-may-be-fielding-competitive-team.html

I don’t think Podesta and Ricca are on the 40 man major league roster payroll so that has nothing to do with the conversation. And don’t forget, Sandy also fired ten percent of the club’s administrative staff while hiring his son Byrn as a scout. So often private interests take the place over professional duties,.

But to separate theory from fact regardng the team’s goal over the past 20 months to cut roster payroll, attached are a few of the many articles from the time frame which quote both Sandy and the Wilpons along with summarizing the reality of the financial situation at hand.

Note there are also indications that Sandy was unprepared for the reductions he was told would have to be put in place But the bottom line is the goal was to reduce roster payroll.

http://blog.nj.com/mets/2012/01/the_mets_low_payroll_could_be.html

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=6590444

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/592010-sandy-alderson-states-this-years-payroll-is-significantly-higher-than-they-want

http://www.metsfever.com/2012/02/fred-threw-sandy-under-bus.html

http://nymag.com/daily/sports/2011/11/mets-shifting-payroll-projections.html

And then there is this interview Sandy had regarding his feelings about fiscal responsibilities when with San Diego:

http://www.utsandiego.com/sports/sullivan/20070823-9999-1s23sullivan.html

All three errors were horrific not sure why you would give Duda a pass because he is not that good anyhow. Am I misunderstanding your point?

One error should not get more attention than the others but I know why it is

Three errors in four plays is uacceptable.

No?

Then they reduced Salary by getting rid of him!

One I think he is fatigued. Remember he just came off of another knee injury and you get your power from your legs. That could explain the lack of power this year so far.
He has only played 1 full season of baseball and that was two years and two knee surgeries ago in 2009. And he is playing a much more physically demanding position at 2B than 1B. Your pretty much running all over the place on every play which is why you never see a really fat infielder!

Second (and I mentioned this about Ike Davis recently) when you have so many left handed batters who require a different type of approach than RHBs do, The pitcher get a lot more work on thier LHH approach and start to become more effective against our LH hitting batters.

Since we don’t have the ability to put any power hitting RHHs into the lineup all of our LHHs are suffering.
All of our LHHs are hitting below .269 and teams are taking advantage of our lefty hefty lineup! And guess who the best BA LHH on our team is? Thats right it’s Murphy!

Add to that the fact we certainly aren’t hogging all the lefty pen help from the rest of the league we are much more easily nullified by lefties from the pen!

Tejada will help us a bit now that he is back. Hairston is usefull when we play a LHP but totally useless vs RHPs and the truth of the matter is when you look at hairstons splits they are as good as they are from his PHPAs and when played regularly not all that good!
He is not an everyday player! He is a role player and does better when he is in that role.

I understand starting Cedeno at 2B vs LHPs, hitting .346 and .355 vs LHSPs but the truth of the matter is his power and RBIs this year are all against RHPs and RHSPs.

So we are not getting anymore power out of Cedeno than we were with Murphy.

If I’m right about the fatigue then spelling Murphy now and then to keep him fresh is fine for now.
He will be fine once he gets his second wind. His Power will also start to come as the weather gets warmer and the ball travels a bit further.

The main concern shouldn’t be what we do about 2B it should be about finding a RH Power hitter who can play LF. Bay isn’t it and Hairston is useless vs RHPs

Even a guy like Carlos Gonzalez would be a really nice solution. Not sure what it would take to pry him from the Rockies, probably a lot.

Thats the thing to buy at the deadline…They won’t fix the pen there and should use the MiLs for that, Murphy will be fine with regular rest.

It helped them reduce payroll by…having them pay his 2011 salary anyway? Ya, they sent a boatload of cash to the Giants.

But hey, at least they saved on the money he is making for the rest of that contract! Oh, ya, that was the final year of his deal that included a non-arbitration clause.

So, where was the money being saved on that deal?

And I will again ask the question that no one, including Joey D, alex68 and Metsie has ever answered straight up:

If the goal of Alderson coming to the Mets was all about cutting payroll (this is you theory, not mine), why was he even brought here? Why was he allowed to bring Ricciardi and Depoodesta? And why was he allowed to increase the amount of scouts we use?

If it was all about cutting payroll, why not just have Ricco (who is still the assistant GM) do it himself?

P.S.: Let’s forget about yesterday and play for today and tomorrow. Drowning in a river of tears is just self pity. It doesn’t win baseball games even if it makes us temporarily feel better.

They know the Injuries hurt us in that goal and they were as disappointed as anyone.
It is also true that they saw the potential on the horizon and wanted to be here to be a part of it.

Unfortunatly the FO subscribed to the same beliefs that many of the Moneyballers around here had that the team was a shambles and we had nothing in the Minors to fix it.

Notice how you don’t hear that kind of talk anymore it’s belief has been shattered like candy glass in an A-Team Episode!

They wanted to be here but it takes two to tango and the FO for whatever reason you want to make did not want to dance! So they did what anyone facing unemployment does…Look for another employer!

Niether you or me nor any fan has gained a thing by thier lowered payroll.
The only one who benefitted is named Wilpon and truth is many fans feel they would be better off if they were forced to sell the team…

Any talk of finances is not relevant to the fans being better off. Not unless the money was re-invested in someone like Beltran that would make this season a much better ride right now!

The ONLY reason why some fans like this frugal approach is because 99% of thier enjoyment of Met baseball has little to nothing to do with the game being played and more to do with the armchair GMing they like to play as if it is some sort of Yahoo Fantasy league!

This guy is slumping but normally he is a big bat for you?
In reality you give that guy some time to get himself sorted in Fantasy Baseball you merely replace him in the lineup with some other guy you have because unless there are 32 members in the fantasy league you probably have two potential all stars for each position so it works there….

Does not work in reality!

Moneyballing works for Fantasy leagues and stratomatic but it is proven to not work in the MLB!
Who is the most winningest team in the past 20 years? The guys who spent the least or the guys who spent the most?

And while you can win without spending a lot of money it sure doesn’t last long!
Spending a lot does not guarantee you win either but at least by spending the Fans have hope and continue to go see you until you spend on the right players to win the World Series.

Cause you know Donal and Beltran are texting Buddies so he knows full well what Beltran felt about coming back and it’s a known fact in donal fantasyland that beltran didn’t like it here…despite everything he has ever said to the public!

I had the same reaction seeing that taped thank you.

Never expected to hear him apologize to the fans because he felt he let them down to his injuries. It’s one thing for a former player to thank fans but that…., what class!

The only way we are better off not having Beltran in the lineup is that it helped the front office meet it’s goal of reducing the payroll. That was their number one priority and unless things change, I see us becoming the Oakland of the east coast with great talent being sent off when a big contract looms due to either arbitration or free agency.

How could Beltran be something of a surprise after last season?

He hit an even .300, hit 22 homers while Citi Field and AT&T Park both resembled Yosemite National Park, had a .385 OBP (for those who like that stat), drove in 84 and scored 78 himself in 142 games – which (minus the home runs) means his bat was worth .9859154 runs per game (for those who like to extend stats to the ultimate decimal point ) on rejuvinited, abiet more slower, knees. And despite those knees, he only made one error in right field and still managed ten assists (and who knows stopped how many runners from attempting to advance).

Would we be worse off tomorrow if we still had Beltran instead of Wheeler today? Yes, but with our farm system and the youngsters Neise and Gee (plus the ageless Dickey) would not having Wheeler be crucial to our future? No. Could we have continued doing well last season (before the injuries) had we kept KRod and Beltran? That has been already been debated to death so it has to be each his own with that.

Should we have then at least attempted to re-sign Carlos for two years? Well, after seeing Kirk showing so much promise I would have said no – except that Kirk wasn’t slated to be our centerfielder for the next two and Torres was. So under those circumstances (and not anticipating Bay’s injuries in left) are we better off having a fleet footed Torres in center in lieu of a slower Beltran as was the Mets plan? Well, that is a question of which is more important -the extra speed that Torres gives us with his glove with his anemic bat or the limited range but still golden glove and throwing arm that we have with Carlos along with his bat from last season and again now?

So if Torres wasn’t signed for two years I would have said thank you to Carlos

We are currently 25th in the league in HRs
With Beltran we would be 11th!

Yep!