As long as the Wilpons are unable or unwilling to invest in the team, then I don’t expect any extra money/higher payroll until they at least break even. Seems to be a change in mindset from the days where the Wilpons were willing to increase payroll if necessary believing the investment would foster additional revenue.

But if it was a case of the front office not wanting to get into a bidding war, then what about the follow-up to that, i.e., the brass not using what it was willing to spend on Jose on others instead?

That I think is the point of the argument. If Sandy didn’t want to commit to Reyes because he had Tejada then why wasn’t the money saved by not re-signing Jose used for anything other than reducing the payroll?

So, the point now is that the brass can’t possibly wait too long to make some serious offers to David Wright and R.A.Dickey. They can’t under estimate the fallout should they lose Wright and or Dickey in the same manner. If they make really good offers to both players and nothing happens then trading them will become a necessity. Who knows what they could get but three of their biggest rivals would be drooling to have Wright at third base. Chipper is gone in Atlanta, A-Rod could instead be the DH for the Yankees or he could be attractive to the Marlins to rejoin Jose as the Hanley Ramirez era has ended because of his trade to the Dodgers.

I guess we will have to wait a bit longer to find out if the “Moneyball’ factor is going to be the permanent plan here…..

Sandy absolutely botched the handling of Reyes’ impending free agency, or he was constrained by the Wilpons and took the hit publicly. He could have walked acquired Zach Wheeler-type talent, but instead allowed Reyes to pursue a batting title in a Met uniform to bolster 2nd half ticket sales. Collective corporate dysfunction of a baseball operation.

Sandy appears to have more flexibility this year, which allows him to pursue long-term deals with Wright & Dickey.

I am curious to know whether the D-Backs would consider trading Justin Upton and what their asking price would be. Or what the Pirates asking price would be for Starling Marte? Shane Victorino, anyone?

Just asking questions about bringing in RH-hitting OF talent. Would Jason Bay be so kind as to accept deferred payments so that we could explore replacing what he is being paid to provide but cannot? Apart from being super polite, would he do the right thing?

Lots of questions going into this off-season, and not all of them bad. We’re light years ahead of where we were last year and to me, there’s just a few imperatives:

a – DW must be retained long-term
b – Core players include Harvey, Wheeler, Niese, Ike & Parnell – Please do not trade them.
c – Dickey’s trade value will never be higher.
d – Positions of need: OF & Catcher.

Be smart, Sandy, and may the odds be ever in your favor!

This is mostly a great bunch of ladies and gentlemen but I’m not the only one upset by the personal attacks and from first hand experience I can tell you it does hurt.

Cretin is sometimes defined as:
A Person that is: brainless, stupid, child-like, and full of pointless information that makes no sense and appeals only to other cretins.

Gee, Did the Urban Dictionary have an object example in mind?