You are absolutely right about the mindset looking toward the following year but, as we all know , that is also based on the premise that the general manager isn’t looking to just cut payroll and other non-roster expenditures.

After 2011, the Mets would then be free up huge financial obligations centered around just a few players and would give Sandy much more flexibility. Almost two months into the job – and enough time to know if he was not told the complete story of the Mets financial mess – which some here said he was unaware of the extent of the severity of the problem – Sandy said to bloggers:

“So, the problem is not that we don’t have resources, the problem is that we have limited additional resources to spend this year. So, what you see today or what you’ve seen over the last two weeks shouldn’t necessarily be representative of what you see over the next two or three years. But we do have to get through a somewhat difficult period from a standpoint of our payroll because we already have most of it committed.”

Well, after 2011 Sandy did not have to contend with paying Beltran, Reyes, KRod, Castillo and Perez – that amounted to about $60 million or so. The fact that Perez and Castillo were not on the “Met” roster does mean their combined $18 million salaries were not expenses that had to be “met” (pardon the poor pun). Releasing Cappuano, Young and Igarashi accounted for another near $4 million or so making that roughly $64 million saved on just six roster spots (an average of slightly more than $10 million per player).

How much of that coming off the books after 2011 was re-invested in 2012?

Sandy was just caught not practicing what he was preaching. He was also caught not being honest with any of us when he said “the problem is not that we don’t have resources”. Was Sandy still an innocent victim, having been placed in the position of being deceptive with the public because he had to, not knowing what he was up against when he took over as GM? Well, he also said this at that blogger conference:

“I wasn’t hired to apply a Moneyball approach to the New York Mets. I would not have accepted the position were I required to run the Mets on a shoestring budget. On the other hand, I did come in with my eyes wide open. I did recognize that there would be some payroll restrictions this year, keeping in mind that when everything’s said and done our payroll will probably be somewhere between 130 and 140 million dollars. We’ll probably be in the top four or five in all of baseball.”

Based on those principles, what stopped Sandy from resigning after quickly finding out he was hired to do the exact things he would have not have accepted to do in the first place? If he did not want to apply a money ball approach would he have not wanted verification that he was not going to run the Mets on a shoe-string budget – especially being very happy with the work he was doing, not being interested in the job and having to be urged to look into it by Selig?

So first Sandy had a vision to put the resources he had the following year to better use. His goal was not to dismantle the team as it was to improve it. Then he does completely the opposite because he was simply being duped about finances? Those who believe so should recognize that based on the above that is a very weak alibi. Sandy would not have been out of work for long if he quit after finding out he was pushed into leaving a job he loved in order to take another one he wasn’t interested in and then lied to in order to accept it.

http://www.amazinavenue.com/2010/12/10/1869167/transcript-of-sandy-aldersons-conference-call-with-bloggers

Who did they spend it on?
You see you seem to think that because baltran wasn’t owed that money that the MONEY was not part of a PAYROLL DUMP!

But it was DUMPED from the PAYROLL!
It was never respent on something else and CUT from the PAYROLL!

Cheers and salutos (hope I spelled that right)

BTW: I guess these players are part of the 2%, but only the Wilponzis are the one-percenters?;)
None of them are worth the shine on my shoes.

Cheers and here’s to the next time we meet in “here.”

Been a while, hope you’re doing well.

I’ve worked for more than 35 years and don’t think I’ve earned my first million either so I balk at even a rookie making a half million dollars. But I wouldn’t balk at paying a scrub $8 million either for that would mean I’d be in a much better financial position to do so and obviously not a working stiff.

Them’s the breaks of not being members of that exclusive two percent.

Seeing as though I’ve worked 16 years and probably haven’t earned my first million, I’d balk at paying a scrub $8 million too.

NOPE they DUMPED IT! Hence the phrase SALARY DUMP!

from a payroll tax purpose i can see why u would do this
even from several different angles i see why they have to do this

but in all reality, from a cash-flow standpoint ( the thing that really counts )

it is very misleading to say the payroll is 60 mil, when there is an addition 40 mil ( for example ) that they have to pay…

IMO, admitting that they have to do that makes their previous penny-pinching ways even more questionable.

not only were they getting madoff money, they were also sacrificing that days payroll for tomorrow…

Jeff Wilpon announced in January 2005 that he would have to trade Mike Cameron or Cliff Floyd in order to sign Carlos Delgado…

all the while he had deferred beltran, pedro and glavine’s contract…tying it up in Madoff accounts set to give them fat returns.

What should one think when asked if the Mets could not get a prospect the caliber of Wheeler would they have looked for salary relief

“We strategically might have gone the other direction”.

A little overlooked statement buried in the bottom of the article and hardly touced upon in articles by others, however, it says a lot. If Beltran was only trade bait for the type of prospects Sandy hoped he would get in return, why then “strategically” pursue monetary considerations?

If Wheeler (or others) were not offered, money Sandy admits that would have been the next step – rather than keeping Carlos’s remaining $6.2 million salary on the payroll. Why even mention it otherwise?

Take that off the cuff remark in accord with all the other moves that Sandy has done to save money and yes, Beltran was gone, even if there were no prospects being offered of any real consequence.

He got Wheeler playing hardball with the Giants and San Francisco gave in but as the GM said, if that did not happen “We strategically might have gone the other direction”. No mention about the Mets then retaining Carlos because being competitive was so important – i.e., Hariston the following season. Scott only had about $370K left of his $1.1 million salary – approximately one-third as with Carlos – remaining unlike Carlos with his $6.2 million.

That means the intention was salary dumping with hopes of getting a good prospect in return, not the otherway around.

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/columns/story?id=6812720

I think what Edwin (and Edwin, correct me on this if I am wrong) is that the Mets aren’t taking any steps to improve the club and that he sees the moves for Wheeler, d’Arnard, etc. for what they are – salary dumping and just hoping something works out.

Sandy has been exhibiting all the traits of a business person. I don’t know of any other team – other than ones in which the owners want to pocket the profits for themselves instead of using them to improve the club – “rebuilding” in this type of manner, considering the talent they dumped – two 2012 all-stars, a batting title winner, a Cy Young award winner and a top closer – plus those they still did retained and doing nothing to replace them. This is not Houston.

He says tails and you say heads…

Both of you will be wrong at some point considering all the players involved….

You seem 100% certain that there is absolutely NO shot that Zack Wheeler and Matt Harvey are everything they are supposed to be or more, and Syndergaard matures to have SP1 or SP2 stuff, and Montero matures to be a pretty dominant SP3-4 along with Niese and Gee or heck maybe even a big time free agent pitcher, forming the best rotation in the league for 5+ years.

You can’t sit there and say it isn’t going to happen just as much as the optimists can’t say that it will. So this whole they will be garbage for the next five years, “I know what I am talking about” thing is just ridiculous and it makes you sound like a fool, dude, seriously.

p.s. If someone has to say “I know what I am talking about”, they probably don’t.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/mlb-rumors/21558395/report-mets-phillies-nationals-marlins-eyeing-brandon-webb

when they are paying that deferred salary next year…are they not going to count it? b/c if they do…they just counted it twice ( once imaginary and once real )