I don’t think you need to be a genius to figure out where it came from.

Kazmir, as a young lefty was going to take someone’s job – that was for sure. Instead of seeing if Kazmir was in fact an injury waiting to happen they traded him for an pitcher who was already injured and by the way, couldn’t throw strikes.

You just blew me away letting us know that you live in the land down under! Wow.

I actually like the way the stadium was basically designed – sitting in that upper promenade it does feel as if one has been taken back 80 years and sitting in one of those old fabled ball parks we only see pictures of. That part of it is great. It’s the other things that ruin it completely.

Don’t even know if the high rollers will come back to the casino.

Is that really true those players had it in for Kazmir? If they were so influential with Jeff, one would think they’d have him get back more than Zambrano who after his rookie season was really quite awful – unless Rick Peterson promised them he really could fix poor Victor’s problems.

Victor became the target of many Met fans who took it out on him for being traded for Kazmir. That has been why I have been expressing the same concern for Wheeler and d’Arnaud if they get off to slow starts – especially now because there are so many fans busting at the seams already. I was against the moves that brought them here but that doesn’t mean taking it out on them for something that was out of their hands. Wishing them well.

That’s not the point though. The way I look at it – they built a beautiful casino for high rollers. Unfortunately, all the games are fixed to give the casino owners the maximum take on the tables.

Hey, I got an idea that might work…why not put a competitive team on the field next year?

you know “If you build it they will come…”

That would help so much more than alienating their fan base and gutting the team. They might even make ssome money out of it.

Sorry all that I have been such a wet blanket about the team lately.

I am still ticked that they didn’t re-sign Reyes after the 2010 season but are trying to shove things like “core” and “future” down our throats.

Many of us who appreciate what you have done to bring us MMO feel the same exact way.

That’s why I mentioned before the bigger issue at hand – individuals using MMO as a venue for deliberate, repeated hostile behavior intended not to disagree but to actually humiliate.

You have been addressing that growing trend for a while and I do hope that this time people respect your wishes

don’t get me started on Franco’s relationship with Jeff Wilpon. Franco was a warrior when he frist came to the Mets. He was a treat to watch. But when major leaguers figured out that Franco was getting people out with pitches out of the strike zone they stopped swinging. Franco had to throw strikes and some of his pitches struck the top of the empire state building.

Franco was washed up and was injured. During his rehab, he became very, very close to Jeff – took the kid under his wing. Franco talked Jeff into creating a advisory board including Leiter, Glavine and himself who would have easy access to ownership to air complaints. All three were lefties in the twilight of their careers and all of them had it in for a young upstart lefty named Scott Kazmir.

We all know what happened next. The team was embarrassed – as was Fred who does care about his image (don’t know if that is true anymore – he’s been traumatized by Madoff and the suicides.) Fred “hid” his son in the Citi Field project.

As a fan of silent movies, the early Mets indeed has had many Keystone Cops moments and just like those one and two reel shorts from the Keystone studios they gave people a lot of joy and happiness!

The organization these past few years could more be compared to another classic of the silent age – the 1920 “Nosferatu” in more ways than just being a blood sucker. That film ripped off the Stoker estate just as much as this organization is ripping off the fans.

Didn’t know Jeff was behind the Zambano trade but can see it being one of his design – as the ballpark that Joe D. alluded to was designed to be a present to his father.

But even if Jeff was in charge of the new park’s design, Fred had to be aware of it’s many shortcomings (i.e., blocked view of left field, all the exclusive entrances and the high cost of tickets caused by losing 10,000 seats) and did nothing to stop it. But then, have to give Jeff credit for the rotunda and tribute to Jackie Robinson which I still think is a touch of class.

Which just goes to show – nobody’s perfect – even Jeff could do something right.

remember that after the Zambrano trade fiasco Fred banished young Jeff out from any personal involvement – instead he game Jeff the Citi field project, figuring that the project would distract Jeff from causing club trouble under Omar.- Citi Field of course created its own fiasco. The dimensions were wrong and it is way too expensive with too little seating.

Everything Jeff touches…

be interested to read your take on it.

Thanks for the link – for if nothing more it re-emphasizes that the team is indeed in financial trouble not because of the payroll that Omar put together (if one wants to say they could have been a better team, that is an entirely different issue) but as a direct outgrowth of the Madoff situation and the loans taken out counting on that revenue.

But as you know, I think the Wilpons did it to themselves as well and not due to the team they assembled. This is what they get by treating the average fan with such disdain and indifference while catering to those with money to spend – exclusion instead of inclusion. They build a smaller capacity ballpark and charge outrageous prices for tickets and concessions with the business philosophy that less (fans) can mean more (revenue). I also remember when Citi Field first opened the amount of irate fans calling FAN complaining about left field being blocked off. It got so bad that Dave Howard came on Francesa’s show and said this was typical with new ballparks (BS because the only complaints came from those down the third base line – not those down the first base side absent that expensive and exclusive restaurant angled into the playing field). Many complained about being denied entry by so many entrances.

So who wants to go when being treated as a second class citizen?

very interesting development in today’s NYTimes:

Ratings for Citi Field Bonds Lowered: Link – http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/29/ratings-for-citi-field-bonds-lowered/?partner=rss&emc=rss

“Sandy Alderson, the team’s general manager, has said the Mets are simply being prudent after years of signing high-priced flops. But he has also said the Mets do not have unlimited funds, something most fans have long suspected even after the team’s owners settled their legal standoff with the trustee representing the victims of the Bernard L. Madoff Ponzi scheme.

Others have come to the same conclusion. On Dec. 21, Standard & Poor’s lowered its rating on the almost $700 million in bonds issued to finance Citi Field, and it said the outlook for them remains negative. The bonds are now rated BB, from BB+ before. That’s two notches below investment grade, junk bonds in the parlance of the debt market.

Jodi Hecht, an analyst at Standard & Poor’s, cited “cash flow volatility,” noting that “a large portion” of the money pledged to pay off the bonds is “game-day revenue,” which includes sales of club-seat tickets, concessions and parking. How the Mets play will affect the prospects for this revenue, she said. Standard & Poor’s “may lower the rating if cash flows continue to decline due to a combination of poor team performance, slow economic recovery, overcapacity in the New York region,” she added.

Attendance has fallen three straight seasons, and the Mets have finished in fourth place four consecutive years.”

In other words – Sandy can try to blame high priced free agents as the reason the Mets have money troubles – but the people who really study the financial problems point to the dwindling attendance. And they are telling the Wilpons that they better put a better team out there quickly or things will get worse.

The Mets did not have money problems until Madoff and when they stopped investing in their own team. As I pointed out yesterday, the Mets averaged almost 4 million in attendance their last two years at Shea. The Madoff scandal broke in December 2008 just after the Mets played their last Shea game. Sure their payroll expanded to $150 million but due to injuries and Wilpon/Omar’s inability to fix smaller problems, the team began to really suck. Then Wilpon brought in Sandy – did not invest a penny in the club, brought the payroll down by 30% and what we have now is a non-competitive club that is virtually unwatchable.

Attendance will continue to go down. The team will continue to lose money. The value of the bonds will drop and the team will suck.

This is no way to manage a ball club – much less a ball club in the number one market in the world!

Right now Wilpon should take his self-inflicted “cash flow volatility” and leave the club to someone else.

And when you look at the 25 Year drought how does that compare to teams like the Cubs and Boston went through?

Hardly any team has dominated anything for more than a decade. Atlanta is hardly what you can say were dominant. Especially when it came to winning the WS.
The Yankees recently and back in the days were dominant and look how much time in between there was there. Even the Reggie teams…

It takes a good 10 years to rebuild a franchise that had any sustained success. Thats nearly half one of our two ERAs…
And I agree the second ERA has been much better than the first but thats what happenes when you compare a team that starts with nothing loses for most of a decade and then gets high draft picks and first shot at Waivers…

And what you do BETWEEN playoff teams is the key to how long a drought will last.
The Braves have won but never enough to win more than one WS and by being dominant and winning they were denied getting the cream of the Prospect crop in the draft.

The Yankees in the late 60′s were purely horrible and then they collected the kids and when FA came along bought thier way in…They won for awhile and couldn’t get the kids in the draft, what they did get wasn’t good enough to use so they traded them away.

It takes a LONG time to rebuild after having a very good decade because thats 10 years worth of picking at the bottom of the Draft Barrel.

We won two WS in the first ERA because we didn’t win a lot even in the first half of years we won the WS…Lots of picks, lots of kids to build with.

And because we have not been as awful as some would like to say the Omar and Phillips years were, We were short on top 50 talent.

Some here think I have a problem with rebuilding the team with Kids which couldn’t be further from the truth…
I just think they need to understand this is not going to get fixed before this decade is out.
There isn’t enough top picks to make 2015 possible no one we pick from today on WILL be ready by then.

If we want to see a winner and rebuild this franchise then it’s not going to happen till 2019 or beyond.

And Sandy will be long gone before that happens…History will record him as Grant and whoever takes over will be able to do what Cashen did and get all the credit the way Cashen did!

playoff run in september / october makes it hard to justify not adding payroll or making improvements

Most of these arguments and SIDES so to speak didn’t exist until Sandy started having GOOD DAYS and Every move made, Every quote made, Every LACK of movement was seemingly portrayed by a few as being SOMETHING SPECIAL!

Well we have lost more games than when he started….
We have LESS talent on the field than when he started…
A Team that needed a Catcher in 2010
Then needed a Catcher and Bullpen in 2011
Then needed a Catcher, Bullpen, Closer and OF in 2012
And now STILL only THINKS it has a Catcher, Still needs Bullpen, Still Needs Closer, Still needs OF and now needs a Starting pitcher ON TOP OF ALL THAT!

But SOMETHING SPECIAL is going to happen!

Yes we will be the 79 Mets and get the top overall pick! THAT will be Special!
And even if we blow the pick on another SS we don’t need when there is a great prospect OFer everyone thinks is better (read Hawkins) is taken the same SOMETHING SPECIAL crew will break out the word proccessor and tell us all it is SOMETHING SPECIAL!

And to that I guess they mean SOMETHING SPECIAL ED!