Better Than A Box Of Chocolates, But Same Result

16 Comments + Add Comment

• Gregg February 12, 2013 at 1:01 pm

  Good article. I think the Mets filed the greivence so late because they never expected Bourns price to drop that low.

  But at the end of the day this is a 4th place team with or without Michael Bourn, you simply couldn’t give up the 11th overall pick for him. That pick is too valuable.
• Joe February 12, 2013 at 1:08 pm

  I was never a proponent of adding Bourne at all:
  A. I dont believe hes worth the money/years he ultimately got
  B. I hate POS Boras

  BUT I seriously believed that the commissioners office was going to concede and protect our #11, thereby forcing SA’s hand.
  Which would have obviously either forced him to sign Bourne or make hiim a ridiculously lowball offer Boras & Bourne reject, depending on what his actual intention was all along.

  I say its fine that at this point we go with what we have, throw Turner out there in ST and let them all fight it out for the 3 OF positions.
  Out of:
  Baxter
  Duda
  Neuwenheis
  Cowhill
  Brown
  Byrd
  Patterson (my longshot favorite)
  Turner
  we should come up with something mediocre enough to run with, then go after a solid FA outfielder next offseason, OR, if we are out of contention in July, make a trade at the deadline for an outfielder with whichever of our players is doing well at the time. IE:Marcum, Santana, Lyon, etc…Maybe ship Santana & Lyon to SF for Pence !!
• since68 February 12, 2013 at 1:14 pm

  Actually, I believe the Indians lost, not the Mets. They are the ones who overpaid for Bourn (8M -20M more than Pagan). They were the ones suckered by Boras.

  The Mets were trying to get a good deal. When it didn’t materialize, they were smart enough to walk away. Obviously you would not have been.
• MDonaldWilpon February 12, 2013 at 1:22 pm

  Not that I wanted Bourn- but this is typical Mets in the Wilpon regime.. remember the “offer” to Vlad Guerrero in 2004? He would get the money if he played 200 games a season and then ran a marathon blindfolded without a shirt in the middle of the winter?

  The story of Wilpon- we tried…

  We tried to make money for nothing but it turned out it was invested in a Ponzi scheme which we may or may not have known about.

  We tried, but we misread the market.

  We tried, we tried, we tried.

  Well, I tried to think of buying tickets, but you gave me no reason to…
• John L February 12, 2013 at 1:34 pm

  If you overpay its a bad deal, he doesnt have the numbers to even warent that kind of money anyway. Money better spent on someone better all around.
• Joe February 12, 2013 at 1:35 pm

  Clayton, I dont believe the following excerpt from your story is accurate at all:

  “They also tried to wait it out on Scott Boras, who is well-versed in a waiting game of his own. He informed the Mets that he had other offers, perhaps even better offers than theirs, and the Mets thought they were calling his bluff. However in actuality, he had a royal flush in his hand, and walked away from the table with all the chips in hand.”

  I think this was a HUGE failure on Boras’ part, what did he get Bourn?
  He couldnt get him a deal until February 11, and he got him exiled to a god awful team for less money than Bourn could have accepted months ago from the Cowards, Braves.
  And Bourn could have locked up the deal in Atlanta w/o an agent & be 15% richer !
  He was looking for 100M from a contender & instead settled for less than 1/2 of that from a team thats not sure what identity they’re after.
  No, this was a major failure on Boras’ resume, and if I were Lohse I’d be plenty worried after seeing what just happened.
  • Met Maniac February 12, 2013 at 9:24 pm

    Why was it a fail? Many here including you have said Bourn got way too much? That you were happy the Mets didn’t give him a $60 million deal. Make up your minds did the Indians do great then? I cant understand all this double talking in the last 48 hours.
• Long Suffering Fan February 12, 2013 at 1:42 pm

  No one can accuse Sandy Alderson of not upgrading the Met’s outfield – afterall, he did release Jason Bay, and that’s addition by subtraction. But the mistake this offseason was not related to Michael Bourn – it was a bonehead move to not resign Scott Hairston for two years at a bargain price. We need some right handed power in the middle of the lineup, and Scott Hairston deserved two more years after his excellent 2011 and 2012 seasons. Sandy – I think that Chris Young is still available – how about bringing him back for some SP insurance?
  • Joe February 12, 2013 at 3:30 pm

    gr8 points, Bourn wasnt the $12M solution.
    IMO we had 2 options:

    -Go balls out & sign or trade for “top shelf” – Josh Hamilton, Stanton…
    OR
    -Sign good, inexpensive ancilliary players – Hairston, Crisp …

    I think anything in the “middle” is just wasted effort/money
• DrDooby February 12, 2013 at 3:26 pm

  This case is somewhat similar to being a year away from your driver’ license and seeing a fast sports car being offered at a bargain price. On one hand, if you buy it now, it costs you a significant chunk of your savings while you don’t even know that you’ll pass the license test and also have to be aware that such a car comes with significant mainanance costs.

  On the other hand, you get it at a bargain rate you didn’t expect to see – and you’ll need a car anyway next year, assuming you pass. It won’t get cheaper.

  In this case, it would have been nice to add Bourn at 4-years, 48 million. However, it’s not a huge blow either as it’d have been more of case of something unexpected fallling into your lap.

  And wouldn’t an Elvin Ramirez for Drew Stubbs sort of trade excite you ?
  • Joe February 12, 2013 at 3:41 pm

    Anyone for Stubbs sounds good.
• TruthaboutMurphy February 12, 2013 at 9:08 pm

  You forget to mention that the initial price for Bourn was WAY out of the mets depths. His price fell at the END of the off season, making him an attractive player to them.

  I’m sure initially, there wasn’t one single player with draft pick comp tied to them that the mets thought they’d be going after.

  Bourn’s price dropped, so lets not start bashing the GM because he tried to take advantage of a market that suddenly was in his price range. If Bourn didn’t have the Indians, Sandy probably would’ve gotten him AND the pick. So lets stop picking apart every single thing this guy does.

  Come 2015 when the Mets have a young and dominant rotation, a great infield, and tons of young pitching to deal from, I sure hope everybody is man enough to finally say this guy did the right thing.
  • Met Maniac February 12, 2013 at 9:26 pm

    Like Boras ALWAYS does he starts at the top of the Empire State Building and works down. Alderson starts in the pile of steaming dog poop and works up. Come on, some of you are acting like something profound is happening here. It’s business as usual. Unbelievable. LOL LOL LOL
  • Hank February 12, 2013 at 9:53 pm

    For all those waiting until 2015…you know that’s like your boss cutting your salary in half, asking you to like it because it’s for the best and because in 2015…you might get your full-time pay…all while you’re still doing full-time hours right??
• Fonzie13 February 13, 2013 at 3:09 am

  Speaking of a “Box of Chocolates”. I went into the ice cream section today at the supermarket and noticed that Turkey Hill has a new flavor. It’s called, you guessed it, a Box of Chocolates. I LOL’d pretty loud and quite a few people in the store thought I was whacked.
• L.J.Phipps February 13, 2013 at 6:16 am

  Does Bourn make the Mets an instant contender? I don’t think so …………. to me this was one of the best non-moves of the off season by the Mets.