If we had that we wouldn’t need Stanton or to give up the farm would we?

You don’t “sell the farm” when you HAVE prospects that are good enough to make your team…
You sell it when you don’t have anyone on the farm that can help YOU by might help someone else and get something that does help you back in the trade.

So the premise on when to trade the farm is wrong…
You should not trade anyone who is eliite unless you have no room for them or your so close to winning something he can’t help you win but can get you something that could.

And lets face facts while we got good prospects and thebest C in their Farm no one is projecting Elite on d’Arnaud and someone got a Cy Young Pitcher for him.
Hell he isn’t even the best Catcher Montero was…

Travis was the third best C on BA’s list last year.
And after that Toronto didn’t have much elite left and they made a trade….

Sandy should start working the phones start off with Flores and see who has an OFer for him….
And ask what they would need in addition to Flores to get him.

We’ll ALL STAY HERE…

in other words….if we are in a pennant chase….we wont get traded away !!!

K-Rod
Reyes
Beltran

the 3 guys who were on the trading block !!!

so if Sandy never punted on 2011, maybe we have a RF for 2012-2013…who moonlights as a team leader ?

That is just asinine to think that.

He is 22 years old, a 10 year contract would have him til age 32…where u get ALL his prime years…

EVERY team gets thier share of the pool money so no problem or drain there…
SNY is a set fee yearly that can only change when a new contract is drawn up so that number hasn’t changed since SNY started…So thats not why they don’t have money…

Ticket Sales and Merchandise (we will add concessions under Merchandise)
How do you make those better?

By trading away a guy on a path towards 46 Saves in July 2011 for nothing?
By trading away your biggest star, best Hitter and best OFer in July of 2011?
By letting your first Batting Champion in Team History leave in Free Agency in January 2012 and not even making a formal offer?
By trading your 2nd Best Ofer a day after the Batting champ leaves for two scrubs??
By trading your first Cy Young Pitcher since Dwight Gooden in 2012?

If there is no money it’s because of what they have done not because SOMETHING ELSE cost them money and forced them to….

They didn’t lose a penny off Madoff…
SNY fee is the same as it ever was…
MLB Share is the same for every team…
The National TV Money actually INCREASED…

So who and what cost this team the money it could have made?
The guys complaining they have no money and are aking decision solely based on MONEY SPENT while ignoring the fact the prolem lay in no MONEY EARNED due to thier dismantling and foolish purging of anyone who might come to see the game, buy a dog and beer and maybe a Jersey to cover up the mustard stain they got!

Is it negative to point out that the team is weaker right now going into this season than last year’s 74 – 88 team?

Is it negative to wonder why?

Is it negative to think the team has been heading in the wrong direction since Fred was hit by the Madoff scandal?

Is it negative to believe that some good players on our Mets have been replaced by cheaper players – or that Sandy hasn’t signed one ML free agent to attempt to fix the holes left by ML players leaving?

Is it negative to point out that the NL batting champion of 2011 and the Cy Young winner of 2012 have been shown the door over the last two off seasons?

Is it negative to believe that most of the decisions connected with the club are financial and not in the best interest of the team on the field or the fans?

Is it negative not to buy into the “rebuilding” talk any more than buying into Sandy saying his eye is firmly on the 2013 season?

People can disagree with all the above statements but I don’t think that opinions that are based on what someone believes to be facts should be considered as being negative about a team they love.

Financial mess or not, SA is probably not the type of GM that’s going to spend every last dollar in the till before the season starts. Just doesn’t smack of his MO. He likes that flexibility. The cynic in me though can’t help wondering if some of that is b/c there really isn’t all that much money to spend.

Mets teams of the late 60′s and 70′s won with pitching AND defense, what this team is lacking, especially at 2B, plus clutch hitting and they had the power hitters to complement the other facets of the team.

This site is the only one that I bother to read most of the comments and post my comments because this is a genuine site and what JoeD and the other contributors post about is from different perspectives, ages and life experiences as a Met fan and I enjoy that.

There have been certain posters who have made it their mission to be negative more than most but you just scroll by them and move on to the ones that you can see comment with a thought to what they write and present the facts, just the facts!

We’ve learned just about all of the Mets operating expenses were tied up in Madoff’s account.
He’s arrested, the money is frozen, this leaves the Mets scrambling. That nice little speech Fred, Jeff, then Dave Howard made on this and how it won’t affect the Mets was either very naive or a flat out lie.

***************************************************
Here was some quotes from a Megdal article in Feb 2011:

The denials issued by the Mets were unequivocal: The Madoff scandal did not have the slightest impact on how the Mets did or would do business. As Jeff Wilpon told the Associated Press in December 2008: “The individual partners lost some money at Madoff. It doesn’t affect the Mets. It doesn’t affect the Citi Field project. It doesn’t affect SNY or any of our other operating businesses.”

Fred Wilpon, in August 2009, told the Times’ Richard Sandomir that the Madoff scandal hadn’t impacted the Mets in any way.
******************************************************

Next was the filing of the billion dollar lawsuit by Picard and that was the beginning of the end. All Howard’s blustering when he accused Erin Arvedlund of ‘irresponsible’ reporting came true – all but the outright selling of the team (so far).
Joe D. summed it up nicely here:

http://metsmerizedonline.com/2009/09/mets-vp-calls-madoff-author-a-liar.html

Arvedlund, who has a book coming out on Madoff, repeatedly insisted that it is “her opinion” the Wilpons will have to sell at least part of the Mets to cover their losses. But Howard, his temper apparently rising, vehemently disagrees, calling her claims “outrageous, unfounded and grossly irresponsible.”

“The figures she’s thrown out are inaccurate and substantially overstated,” Howard said during the interview. “We have said from the outset that the losses incurred from the Madoff fraud have not and will not affect the operation of the Mets. The team is not for sale — whole or in part. It is family owned and it will be family owned for the long term.

“It’s a passionate long-term investment. There’s no need to sell. There’s no reason to sell. There will be no sale and I can’t state it any more definitively than that. Her source is bogus and her claims are false and irresponsible.”

Arvedlund’s response? “Time will tell,” she said.
*****************************************************************

This and other quotes, plus the breakdown of the Mets finances both Rubin and AA have done over the past few years, is where my opinions of this being on the Wilpons comes from. I’m still of the mindset that blaming the FO is a little like shooting the messenger. We all know what SA’s main goal in coming here was. And he won’t be here long enough to see this team back on top.

The Wilpons?

Or the Attendance?

ANSWER The ATTENDANCE!

Has their moves helped or hurt that?

Now….if they’re trying to pay down all debt with the plan of selling the team, I’m all for that. Unfortunately, I don’t think that happens in Fred’s lifetime.

They can say they don’t have the money but truth is thier only INCREASE in payroll this year is due to taking Buck in the Dickey trade (added a Million to Dickey’s option pay) and roughly 5 Million split between Parnell, Davis and eventually Murphy in Arbitration.

Wright is playing for less money that last year as far as this year’s noney is concerned.

SO where did the money go?

Between deferrals with Wright and Bay, where did all that money go?

So far of their two highest picks in the draft….
They traded a Cy Young Pitcher to fill his spot and the other hasn’t progressed past A ball in two years of being signed.Barely got out of instructional league….

So I think the ship to make this team better sailed and now all that is left is HIGH SALARY or Prospect purging trade….And I’m not all that sold on Upton if you have read my bits about him here….
Better than what we have but not worth what people seem to suggest it takes to get him…
Not when I can sign a Free Agent and give up a 11th overall first rounder that won’t do squat for me for another 4 years so I guess Bourne is all they have left themselves.
And let be clear they waited until that was the only REASONABLE option…

I would have been happy with a median fix to hold us until Nimmo came around or at least would be a decent player until next year when more money comes off the books and maybe we can find a trade for an OF salary dump that won’t require half our Pitching staff in return.

- Some say sign Bourne: I don’t think they have the money.
- Trade for Justin Upton: That might be an idea if the D’Backs haven’t gone or record saying they want 2 top prospects for him. Who here is willing to give up our top 2 prospects?
- Some wanted Victorino as they see him as an upgrade to what we have. Maybe….but did you look at that contract? Did you see what Cody Ross got? My opinion….no thanks.

I’d love to pry Stanton away from the Marlins. I can just imagine what Loria wants for him. I’m not sure even if we were willing to give up the farm if we’d have the best offer.

We’d be a lot better off if we had even 1 real starting outfielder. But we don’t I’m not sure how you fill those 3 holes in one season on a shoe string budget. You either have to be willing to spend on FAs or willing to part with some of your best prospects.

This team last year was 8-10 wins better than those teams and we just traded a 20 game winner from that squad.

Even if they make up half the games he won that puts us right in line with the Late 70′s win%
We are already where the 91 and 92 team was only we don’t have any stars left to trade and with Generation K the sequel starting at a theater near us this year….

Like I said I HAVE seen this movie before….

I might be more interested if I didn’t think we pretty much gave up on the season before it started and did SOMETHING to improve the team more than just upgrade the Catcher at the expense of a Cy Young Pitcher.