It is unique that they each seem to have different view points. In this day of media outlets having a unified party lines, and contrived arguments; who would have thought SNY would fuel open discussion.

I agree with the school of thought that through Sandy we are in defacto League receivership. Sandy has gone out of his way not to offend the Players Union as he slashes the payroll.
The League needs the Mets to be competitive. Sandy’s disdain for long term contracts and his use of incentive based contracts has me thinking that he will create a situation where the stars want to leave-not the Met’s wanting them out. Your projection of a 75 million payroll will be reached in 2013.

I am sure you are right about that smear campaign – we saw it with Reyes when it was contended he jumped ship to take that Miami offer while the Mets were not making any offer for him to stay. Gary, Keith and Ron also went to great lengths this year to emphasize how Jose left without mentioning the Mets didn’t ask him to stay.

As an aside, this past year I sensed GKR becoming more shills for the Mets front office – which is different than being homers when it comes to the team performance. Even the questions they ask Sandy Alderson are mild and usually without follow-up. I will give Gary Cohen big points, however, for doing his homework after Sandy Alderson gave saber stats regarding the lack of production with the PPPA going down in the second half (the figure Sandy quoted meaning one less pitch taken every 20 plate appearances being so minuscule).

That’s why I think Burkhardt has to be admired for, if nothing more, guts for reporting about the team feeling it was kicked in the teeth along with Bob Ojeda when he openly questioned why no moves were being done in July along with his coming down on the pitch count approach all season long.

Not as cut and dry as you make it seem. First off, the exclusive window is open until after the World Series. What would be the point if they aren’t allowed to cut a deal in that time frame?

Second, deals have been announced during the travel days. You are right that you need permission and it won’t happen on a game day, but resignings and trades do happen.

Third, just because they can’t officially announce it doesn’t mean they can’t negotiate and/or finalize it.

Can appreciate Puma doing straight reporting and not editorializing the article but I did find it strange that he mentions how Wright and Dickey wanted offers made over the winter or they would test free agency but nothing about the fact that both said it was more than the money at this point – it was whether or not they felt the team was indeed committed to winning. As R.A. said, the team can compete and rebuild at the same time.

Wonder why there was such an omission of that in Puma’s article.

This is most likely leaked by the FO to gauge reactions to those numbers and see if fans think that is fair or not.

Their worry is if they lowball Wright and Dickey they will lose whatever little revenue they have if they go elsewhere.

They will keep Wright and Dickey because they have to but then they are done until they hit the Draft lottery or find someone to trade for with the kids we have no room for.

When I said what I did I said it from THIER perspective not really mine.
Since Sandy thinks cutting is solving something in his mindset that money is savings he can use for other things.
But that assumption they are making is dependent on Attendance and Revenues staying the same…and we all know it’s not going to.

What may be different this time aorund is that they have to know with all the questions they have been asked in the last two years that losing Wright is pretty much tghe same as losing their job as it will be untennable for them to stay if Wright is not here. And Dickey if he wins the Cy Young will also be an imperative for them.

Which is why they are probably looking at refinancing that SNY loan because they know what will happen if they don’t pony up for them.

But I completly agree with you that this cutting crap really is not having any positive affect and won’t until they solve the real problem which is attendance and that can’t be solved unless the rest of the NL East turns into the Marlins or they go out and sign someone ewho gives them MORE hope than just having Wright and Dickey does.

Which is why I say an investment in a RH Power bat would solve thier problems better because of the increased offense, better lineup balance (L & R) plus the added boost to ticket sales once the fans are convinced the penny pinching days are over!

2011 – Considering K-rod and Beltran are off the books.

2012 – Considering Reyes is off the books.

2013 – Considering Bay and Santana are off the books.

None of it ever gets reinvested. As I said in November 2010, Alderson will bring it down to a $75 million payroll and that’s where it will remain. Period.

Look, there’s going to be tons of rumors surrounding all teams this off season. No different than any other. Case in point, who was the idiot sports caster that tweeted from his personal account that MLB was getting ready to announce Cabrera had used PEDs? That turned out to be so off base his network and he, himself had to apologize for false information.

Deals hammered out ‘in principle’ by the time the WS starts does not mean deals signed, sealed and delivered by then.

I take all rumors with a grain of salt until they’re fact. Especially this time of year. There’s no doubt the FO will be trying to work extensions with both Wright and Dickey. As to how long they take, whether they’ll be successful, time will tell.

I’m betting this came from the FO and it’s a result of them asking Wright and Dickey’s agent what they were looking for and got an answer back that didn’t make Sandy gag too hard.

If you look at the numbers it comes out to just a measly 3.75 Mil Raise in Payroll from last year for Wright and the much larger 12.4 Mil raise for a potential Cy Young pitcher for a very short 3 years.

Considering Bay and Santana come off the books next year they really aren’t going out on a financial limb if they make deals for those amounts. Dickey has become a Must See Pitcher and Wright is really getting peanuts for a raise considering what he might get once we lose exclusivity and he hits the open market.

You can tell it’s a load of BS, and HoJo beat me to the punch but I would have really ripped into this and I still might do that in a morning grind tomorrow.

Aside from front office, manager or coaching staff firings, MLB teams are heavily discouraged and not allowed to announce major signings until after the World Series. The Wilpons will still have to approve any huge deals because they always have even under Minaya. They also won’t buck Bud Selig and upstage anything during the post season by announcing news-making headlines like a Wright or Dickey mega-deal. Selig saved their asses.

There are so many reasons why this wreaks, those are just a few.

That said, HoJo does an excellent job of reporting Mets news without bias which is exactly what we want from him here at MMO.

Massive grains of salt.