As old school confirmed, the numbers do compute. And you failed to include the money saved by having Tejada take over and not re-signing Reyes. That brings the savings to somewhere in the neighborhood of $45 million, including the retention of indeed an overpaid KRod who nevertheless was ions better than anyone else we had or Sandy brought in. Even spending just half would have enabled Sandy to shore up the bullpen further, keep Pagan (whose suffering from an acute case of colitis caused his lack of concentration, mood swings and poor first half performance) and obtain the needed players in July by the use of that cash and not so high level prospects – which Sandy himself had done with McGwire in Oakland – getting low level prospects in return for dumping Marc McGwire (steroids and all).

So Sandy inherited a team with a lot of options to improve upon and not sacrifice for the future. As said, he could have traded Beltran in 2011 and used the money saved for a replacement.

The Wilpons can’t afford to field a competitive team and if one can’t do that in the biggest baseball market in the country, then they should sell the club since it was their outside baggage that affecting the team financially, not the roster payroll. Or, if they want to retain the club through their tough economic times, at least level with the fans that the days of obtaining those “inexpensive” players that Sandy admitted one could not expect to win with are still not over – for no matter how well the prospects turn out, without the added support from outside the organization, the Mets will still be lacking the final ingredients to make them true contenders.

No baseball player deserves the money he makes. No fan deserves to be charged an average $241 (as computed in 2011) to go to Citi Field. No rookie deserves to make five times more than one who has been a registered nurse for many a year, putting in long hours and saving lives. No 18 year old kid deserves to get $2.1 million because he played baseball in high school.

But that is the way it is, unfair and frustrating as it may be. Player contracts, no matter how insane they are, are perceived simply as investments by owners in order to reap in so much more in ticket sales, concession sales, television and merchandising. Yes, there is a limit to how much they should invest but according to Sandy, the problem back in 2010 was not having the resources to field the payroll they had at the time, but having a limited amount of additional resources to build upon that.

The Mets are not in that position and all the posturing in world won’t hide the facts as I had listed previously and that producing a competitive team takes a back seat to keeping the Wilpons from having to sell the club. Otherwise, there would be more moves made to “re-build” than we’ve seen to this time beyond trading for highly touted prospects.

The perez / castillo deals were sunk.

So you are just taking beltran off the books and asking to pay $17.5 million for krod and about the same for reyes (say $17) and a replacement for beltran (say $12) and pitching help (say $10). Thats $57 million in year one, plus more in following years, just because $17 million was saved on beltran.

Numbers dont compute.

Is k-rod worth that or even have a team in 2013?

Yes Nuff said!

And look at how Heyward did after his rookie year!
Straussburg still has yet to complete a season…
Stanton didn’t do much for that team of all stars they went and bought did it? And he won’t be there long will he?
Posey is the only one on that list who helped his team get a ring!

So your actually 1 for 4 in the importance of having a top ranked prospect aren’t you?
Hitting .250…. a little better than Duda did last year!

That many saves would have made him 3rd best closer in the game last year!
He would have been a lowly 4th in 2011 if he continued to save games at the pace he was….

And considering your dismissal of valdespin’s antics where he has upset his teamates I fail to see how you can even dare mention K-Rods lockeroom likebility…

Heyward
Strasburg
Stanton
Posey

Enough said.

Mets soured on Pagan and did not want to commit tens of millions to him as they felt he was not all there between the ears. Seriously i wish the giants luck at 4/40 with him. Mig not be a pretty outcome.

Would you have topped the offer Miami provided for Reyes? A contract with negative value that when coupled with talent like josh johnson, mark buehrle and bonifacio they got back less high end talent than the mets did for dickey.

And with that plan in place and the bloated obligations to bay and santana, you suggest to trade beltran and add more key pieces?

What would the payroll of this team have been and if doing all that how to you trade beltran.

Just so we know how valid thier rankings in all of baseball (which is really just all of Mets because they aren’t ALL in the top 50 of the MLB) really is….

Hope and a prayer nothing more…nothing proven…NO FACTS!

I think he could have not only kept the core but added to it – while trading Beltran for Wheeler – at the same time if the economics allowed it to. Think of what 2012 could have been like with KRod still as closer, Pagan still in a Met uniform and a few key and productive additions – and what we did accomplish the first half with no bullpen to speak of and two holes in the outfield – and the extra baggage that was Jason Bay.

And to add to that is what I mentioned previously – that by late July, 2011 Sandy was shown this team could compete by playing at a .575 clip for over half a season . It had fallen apart for all the reasons you stated above,

However, he said it was a matter of not having additional resources that kept him from acquiring free agents in 2011 (the “transition” year) so what else would have prevented him from looking past 2011 to 2012 when he could add to the team that was playing so well the year before? He had the resources to pay for 2011 (and that had to include KRod’s $17 million vesting option.

He already had $18 million saved from no longer having Perez and Castillo. Let us just say he really believed he could not pass up the opportunity to acquire Wheeler. Without Beltran’s salary would meant $35 million, enough to re-sign Reyes and keep KRod (who was still under contract), acquire a replacement for Beltran and get some pitching help. That would have meant not sacrificing any of our prospects, keeping Wheeler and still being a competitive force in 2012.

Moves reflecting those types of steps would have been the logical way to handle things based on 2011 and having the money he said he did not have in 2011. That’s looking at the future for both the short-term (2012, 2013) and the long-term beyond that point. From a competitive stand point, that did not happen because of economic restraint. And if it did not happen due to financial problems, then it is a reflection of a very short-sighted front office when it comes to baseball matters.

So to not make the playoffs, lose building the farm system back and costing $60 million in 2012 and more to the future that would have been sound judgement?

No it cannot be justified.