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Latest Mets News

Marysol Castro, the Mets PA announcer, talked with Dellin Betances about signing with the Mets.

Latest MLB News 

Buster Olney of ESPN ranked his top 10 first baseman.

ESPN also heard that Bud Selig’s earning six million dollars per year in retirement.

Korean outfielder Jae-Hwan Kim’s signing deadline has passed, making him ineligible to sign with a Major-League team for the 2020 campaign, per Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News.

The Orioles hired former Braves and Marlins skipper Fredi Gonzalez to help Brandon Hyde in the dugout.

Mark Zuckerman of MASN believes that Daniel Hudson has priced himself out of the Nationals’ range.

Latest on MMO 

Rob Silverman reminisced about former Mets reliever Tug McGraw.

Rob Piersall thinks the Mets should go after Robinson Chirinos.

John Sheridan believes the Mets bullpen could be one of the strongest in the game.

On this Date in Mets History 

Birthdays: Casey Fossum (43), Marlon Anderson (47)

Let’s Go Mets!

The post Morning Briefing: Betances Excited To Play In Queens appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Pete Rose has made a formal request to be reinstated to Major League Baseball, and new commissioner Rob Manfred agreed to meet with Rose and hear him out.

“I want to make sure I understand all of the details of the Dowd Report and Commissioner Bart Giamatti’s decision and the agreement that was ultimately reached,” Manfred said Monday morning, via ESPN. “I want to hear what Pete has to say, and I’ll make a decision once I’ve done that.”

I’ll tell you what, that’s big time progress right there. Bud Selig repeatedly rebuffed Rose’s efforts to talk to him and have the ban overturned.

Rose, 73, baseball’s all time hits leader with 4,256 hits, has never actually apologized to MLB although he’s shown remorse from time to time. Is he ready to formally apologize now?  And does an apology grant him a pardon and a lifting of his lifetime ban? What do you say?

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You know that nauseating feeling you get whenever commissioner Bud Selig appears on your TV and his lips start moving?

Watching Selig’s reaction during the World Series MVP presentation to Madison Bumgarner last night, was priceless. In some small measure it felt like fate was exacting some revenge on my behalf.

In what may have been one of the most awkward World Series moments I’ve ever seen, Rikk Wilde, a marketing executive from Chevrolet, completely botched his presentation as he struggled to describe the Chevy Colorado truck that Bumgarner had won.

“It has “technology and stuff,” Wilde said as Selig agonized throughout the presentation, hoping someone would mercifully pull the plug.

Check out the video below, and remember, watch Bud…

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The post Must See TV: Bud Bewildered By Wilde Moment appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Money can buy you a lot of stuff but they say money can’t buy the really important things like love and happiness. Still it’s nice to think about what you might do if you had unlimited cash reserves.

I would get my dog his own live-in dog groomer for instance … tired of him stinking up my furniture … in fact I’m tired of him even looking at my furniture. It’s just as well though, if I had a ton of money I’d probably do really silly things with it like fortify my backyard bunker with a 50 year supply of Rice Krispies treats (they can double as soundproofing) and outfit my attack-pigeon training facility with state of the art equipment.

A lot of Met fans gripe about how the Mets are broke. The Mets are broke on account of a low-down-dirty weasel named Madoff who snookered our owners into his Ponzi scheme … for a really long time … this after they’d already been snookered into another Ponzi scheme by a different guy previously … I know, it’s funny how some guys get to be rich in spite of not being very bright.

It used to be that money could buy you wins in baseball. The Yankees and Red Sox have left a trail of success and championships over the past 20 years that is a testament to this. Earlier this season Brian MacPherson wrote a piece in the Providence Journal about the correlation between money and success in MLB, and he demonstrated, convincingly, that money no longer guarantees much.

MacPherson showed how 10 years ago a team’s payroll accounted for around 25% of its success. Since that time a lot has changed, namely revenue – its volume and dispersal. If there’s one aspect to Bud Selig’s legacy that stands out, it’s revenue. Baseball’s revenues have risen each year since 2003, surging from less than $4 billion in 2003 to more than $7 billion in 2011.

Bud Selig has carefully navigated MLB into waters that are bubbling with cash. It reminds me of that H&R Block commercial where there’s an aircraft carrier with pallets of money on it. That’s pretty much MLB.

Through Selig’s deft undermining of free agency via subtle and not so subtle rule changes in the new CBA — allowing for instance the retention of coveted free agents through qualifying offers by handicapping the receiving team with a lost draft pick, and by instituting significant penalties in the draft for paying over slot which for years and years allowed teams with deeper pockets to continue to fortify their farm systems, from revenue sharing to the additional wild card, baseball has done everything in its power to establish greater parity and invigorate smaller markets.

Even the international talent pool has been regulated with predetermined pools of money that teams can use to acquire talent. Smaller market teams are allowed to spend more in addition (as of 2014) to being allowed to trade up to half of that money, which could leave the international talent pool as a kind of last refuge of big spenders.

What we have today is a situation where teams like the Royals and the Orioles and (gasp) the Pirates have as decent a shot as the Red Sox and the Dodgers. Each sporting a cadre of home grown talent and young, cheap, under control stars. Consider for a moment that Baltimore, Kansas City, and Oakland, all playoff teams, were 15th, 19th, and 25th respectively in payroll, and two of those teams are still in the hunt. As MacPherson pointed out, the correlation coefficient between payroll and wins this season is 0.202, which is about like saying there is a correlation between monarch butterfly migration patterns and the consumption of pilsner type lagers in Saskatchewan … I mean, there could be.

Selig has taken a lot of heat over the years for his exploits and oversights, from collusion to contraction to steroids, he’s had his share of ethical quandaries. He has however hoisted upon our Mets a General Manager who is uniquely tailored to the task of adapting a team to the dynamics of baseball in this day and age. From his stockpiling to his sustainability doctrine to his disdain for free agency, Sandy Alderson has positioned the Mets to flourish in an aggregate economy driven by controllable farm-raised assets. He has accumulated a projectable surplus in value irrespective of the negligible contributions (to the parent club) of this surplus, because it can be traded — the value is intrinsic and was developed for nickles on the dollar when you consider what free agents go for.

From a business standpoint the approach is undeniable, if you grow your own you don’t have to pay a premium, and if you have enough of a surplus you can sell at a premium (don’t ask me how I know that!) … So basically, if you grow and train your own attack pigeons for instance you don’t have to worry about having a “critical mass” of birds on hand when religious zealots on bikes or Amway salespeople come knocking. Those of you who laugh I’m guessing never had a pigeon crash into your face … it is not pleasant. You still have to secure the right pigeons and train them — preferably with life-size cardboard cut-outs of Jeff Wilpon and Sean Hannity (I have my reasons!), but this only points to why it is so important to have great scouts and a good development program. In the end, if you can avoid having to rely on free agency in conditions that make it prohibitive, you place yourself at a competitive advantage, it’s that simple.

Money can only go so far. Looking back at the past few off-seasons free agency has not provided the broad selection of elite talent as in years past. Teams are finding creative ways to retain valuable players well into their prime years. We may bemoan a past that afforded us the flexibility to spend, but that past is gone in more ways than one. Baseball, is, was, and will always be, a young man’s game, and those organizations who covet the development of up-and-coming generations of players will continue to thrive.

The post Money Alone Won’t Buy Us Wins… appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Perhaps not as intense as the Mets and Nationals rivalry looks to be in coming years, but the Miami Marlins have played hard fought games against New York all season and like the Mets, they’re a squad that is centered around young talent and a low payroll.  The fish kept finding ways to get hits en route to taking 2 out of 3 games in this series, below are the usual takeaways in this edition of 3 and 3.

3 Up

1. Wilmer Flores was incredible this series.  Apparently no one told the 23 year old Venezuelan that hitting for power in Citi Field is impossible because he made it a top priority the last three days.  Wilmer’s slugging percentage against Miami this week was 1.273, hitting 2 doubles and 2 home runs to go with 8 RBI’s.  Overall, he registered a .545/.583/1.856 slash line for the series.  It appears Flores has developed a repeatable approach at the plate.  He’s getting the barrel on the ball consistently and has an idea of what pitchers are trying to do to him.  6 of Wilmer’s 8 RBI’s came Tuesday night and the SNY crew flashed a very interesting statistic.  In Mets franchise history, only four players have had two separate 6 RBI nights in a single season.  Along with Flores, that list includes Carlos Delgado, Mike Piazza and Robin Ventura.
2. Lucas Duda regressed towards the end of August, but he has bounced back gradually, adjusting different parts of his offensive approach to remain productive.  It’s easy to dismiss Lucas when he isn’t hitting home runs, but he is much more of an all around hitter than he’s been given credit for.  In this series, Lucas went 4 for 9 (.444), but also drew 4 walks to give him a .615 on base percentage.  This as a major plus because the league caught up to Duda and he’s seeing mostly breaking balls, a common treatment in the majors for emerging sluggers.  Any elite power hitter goes through periods where the home runs slow down, so it’s imperative that Lucas finds a way to contribute when the quality of pitches diminishes.  A perfect example was last night’s game where he managed to punch in two runs with a slap single off a pitch that landed on the upper outside portion of the plate.  Would it have been more fun to see him crank a 3 run shot over the Shea Bridge?  Of course, but I’m firmly content having a 25-30 HR first baseman who also drives in runs with singles and doubles.  Additionally, as his power and average have dipped, his OBP has skyrocketed.  In the month of September, he’s getting on base at a .439 clip.  Eventually, this will come down, but with it, his home runs will go up as opposing pitchers will have to throw their fastball for strikes.  When they do, there will be misses over the plate, the Hulk will be unleashed and moonshots will resume.  One other thing, Duda is hitting .308 against left-handed pitching this month and getting on base at a .400 clip against them.
3. Have to give the final “Up” nod to Jacob deGrom, his performance on Monday night was spectacular.  He made the first 8 Marlins batters look completely lost at the plate, striking them out one after the next in dominate fashion.  Ironically, the first hit came off of the opposing pitcher, Jarred Cosart, but deGrom got back to work and cruised up to the 7^th inning nicely after that.  The outfield was playing oddly deep in that inning and the Marlins took advantage with a series of hits that landed in front Matt den Dekker and Juan Lagares, allowing them to briefly take a 3-2 lead.  The Mets offense would come back with go ahead runs in the bottom of the frame, but the bullpen could not hold on to keep Jacob’s W in line.  Another hard luck loss for the Rookie of the Year frontrunner, but not before tying the major league record for number of consecutive batters struck out to start a game.  Congrats sir.

3 Down

1. This isn’t an indictment of Juan Lagares, but the centerfielder may be out for the rest of the season after spraining his right elbow in the 4th inning of Tuesday night’s game throwing to second base.  This is a major downer, obviously there’s only 9 games left in the season, but Juan has hands down been my favorite player to watch this year.  He was also hitting .317 in the month of September, working hard to end his first full campaign on a high note.  First priority is to get healthy for next season though, so if Tuesday marked the end to Lagares’ season, tip of the hat to this young lad.  If he doesn’t win a gold glove award, I’m going to explode.
2. Travis d’Arnaud has got to improve his footwork behind the plate.  Bobby Ojeda did an excellent job breaking down TDA’s mechanical flaws during last night’s pre-game segment with a side by side comparison to backup catcher Anthony Recker.  Travis comes up flat and doesn’t sets his throwing arm back far enough before firing to second, forcing him to add an extra hitch in his release.  This adds another second for the runner and more pressure to d’Arnaud’s timing resulting in rushed misfires over the second basemen’s head.  One second seems harmless, but it’s the difference between locking up runners and sailing the ball into center field.  However, like Ojeda, I believe d’Arnaud will improve in the offseason.  Also, his catching abilities are much more valuable than he gets credit for.  There were several pitches in this series that were clearly out of the strike zone before Travis snapped them back in with the flick of his wrist.  This ability, along with his game calling, are two very underappreciated aspects of his game.
3. Last down goes to the farewell tour that stopped by Queens on Tuesday night.  Bud Selig’s vote of confidence for Fred and Jeff Wilpon is infuriating at this point.  Look, I understand that blindly spending money in free agency this offseason will not cure this Met’s post-season woes.  However, Selig is avoiding the bigger picture.  Financial prowess doesn’t just pertain to offseason acquisitions.  It deals with retaining talent that is set for a raise in the offseason.  It deals with acquiring talent midseason in the midst of a playoff hunt, when other players undoubtedly go down or underperform.  It deals with justifying the price the Mets charge their fans to go see a game.  This isn’t Oakland, it isn’t Kansas City, it’s New York.  No one is fooled by the numbers, the product, or the slick sales pitch.  The Mets are going to miss the offseason for an 8^th straight year and despite having the pieces to build a dominant contender going into next season, it looks like the organization is instead banking on a miracle.  I’ll write later on about other options this team can exercise in the offseason, but regardless, the approach for next year should have been described as “we’ll spend when the right opportunity presents itself”, not “we’re still broke, but it’s all good”.

Lets.Go.Mets.

The post 3 Up, 3 Down: Another NL East Rivalry Lives On appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Bud Selig sat with SNY’s Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling and Gary Cohen during the early innings of Tuesday night’s 9-1 bashing of the Miami Marlins.  They discussed issues facing not only the Mets, but baseball as a whole and the back and forth was interesting to say the least.  The crew had their take on a few topics, including length of games with the now added challenge option,  but did their best to put Selig on the edge of his seat on more challenging obstacles facing the game.

Gary brought up the most important question because it indirectly touched upon the lawsuit brought forth by former Executive VP of Ticket Sales Leigh Castergine.  As an employee of the Mets organization through SNY, Cohen is not in a position to raise the allegation of discrimination coming from COO Jeff Wilpon directly on air, but this is no ordinary group of announcers.  These men are pioneers at their positions and have a unique grasp on the pulse of the fan base.  This is of course, a fan base located in one of the most socially advanced metropolitan cities in the world.  A fan base that works and lives along side individuals of all genders, races and religious creeds, among many other identities.

Gary elaborated on the recent transgressions that have spun the NFL in a dreadful slew of disturbing allegations, cover-ups and mishandlings and posed the following question.  “What is the responsibility of the commissioner, of what you would call the public trust…to legislate that kind of thing”.  Selig’s response?  “Baseball is a social institution” to which he believes the “players” have done a great job representing.  There was, of course, no mention of the other individuals responsible for the daily operations of major league baseball like owners, front office executives, coaches, etc.

Now, I don’t expect Selig to come on SNY and indict the Chief Operating Officer of one of the very MLB teams he oversees, especially when the legal proceedings are still in progress.  However, declaring baseball an institution that prioritizes high moral standards above anything else was poorly timed, particularly given the stadium he was in.

In an interview with ESPN’s Adam Rubin that took place only hours before the commissioner brought his farewell tour to Queens, Selig took a selectively indifferent stance towards allegations that a high ranking Mets executive, Jeff Wilpon, publicly humiliated and ultimately fired a former female employee because she was having a child out of wedlock.  In his position, this is a weak stance on moral high ground.

Honestly, both Selig and the Wilpons are vastly out of touch with many of the social obligations a major sports league has to the society it brings entertainment to.  Major League Baseball can be bigger than the court of law, they can be bigger than the government and certainly bigger than the Wilpons because they are a private organization.

As his tenure comes to an end, Mr. Selig could be on the forefront of defining the moral standard within the very social institution that has been under his control for decades. Instead, he appears to be relegating such an astonishing disregard for women’s rights as “employment ligitation” adding that “there’s nothing more to talk about”.

If Ms. Castergine’s allegations are true, I sincerely hope the individuals present during Jeff’s disparaging remarks come forth and have the courage to uplift Major League Baseball to the social institution Bud Selig claims it has always been.

P.S. – Did Bud completely forget the substance abuse allegations of his current and former “players” that has demolished the reputation of baseball for years now?  It took an act of Congress just to get the wheels moving on performance enhancing drugs.  This isn’t even old news, the Biogenesis scandal was last year for goodness sake.

The post Featured Post: Selig Declares Baseball A “Social Institution” appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

“Do I have any problem with the Mets’ finances? None.”

More lies, more misinformation, more deviousness. It’s not what any of us want, but it’s what we’ve all become accustomed to whenever the Wilpons or Bud Selig get behind a microphone and their jaws start moving. And Tuesday’s dog and pony show by Bud Selig was only more evidence of that. He brought no relief, only more grief.

The nerve of this traveling vacuum cleaner salesman insulting our intelligence by citing the Baltimore Orioles ($114MM) and the St. Louis Cardinals ($119MM) as evidence that a team can win with a Mets-sized $83 million dollar payroll – a payroll that will not go up in 2015. How dare he come here to a team that’s been ravaged and then try to pull the wool over our eyes with more untruths and bullshit.

But I wouldn’t expect anything less from the person chiefly responsible for allowing this Wilpon debacle to continue for as long as it has. If only his farewell tour had been in 2004 instead of 2014, perhaps a better man with more integrity and a true passion for preserving the best interests of the game would have seen fit to handle the Madoff matter and all its aftermath in a far more befitting way.

Wearing his cheap suit and donning his crooked smile, Selig praised Fred and Jeff Wilpon and told us we should be grateful to have them. Are you freaking kidding me? He chose to dodge questions about the latest Wilpon scandal, choosing instead to say they have always done everything right. It was enough to make me gag.

And yet of course, the Wilpon propaganda machine came out in full force soon afterwards saying ‘who cares about payroll’ and ‘so what if we can’t sign any significant free agents’.

Our patience has been stretched to its sheer limits, and still we watch and we hope for things to get better. But will they? Can they?

Upon arrival, the plan according to Sandy Alderson was to do some belt-tightening, some payroll slashing, and an intense focus on stocking the farm with high-ceiling talent through trades, International signings, and the draft. In a few short seasons when this talent began to make it’s way to the major league team, we’ll spend again to fill in any missing pieces.

With a hoard of young pitching studs already here and the emergence of Travis d’Arnaud, Juan Lagares, Wilmer Flores and others on offense, you would think the time is ripe for a Mets run. But that’s not the case at all.

Sandy Alderson already forewarned that there will be no significant additions this Winter. The top priority for the Mets will be unloading the contracts of lone Mets All Star Daniel Murphy and at least two from a group of Bartolo Colon, Jon Niese and Dillon Gee.

With an $85 million budget and a burgeoning $22 million in raises due in 2015, the Mets are scrambling to clear a minimum of $20 million off the roster before Spring Training arrives. Any improvements will be strictly incidental. Winning be damned.

And knowing all of this, the world’s most famous used car salesman rolls into Citi Field in his limo to tell us everything’s great in Flushing and we should be grateful?

Blow it out your ass, Bud.

The post Blow It Out Your Ass, Bud appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

When it was learned last week that the Mets refinancing removed previous covenants that capped the team’s payroll figure and restricted spending, it validated what I believed and posted many times that it’s the banks who have been calling the shots.

Explaining the consequences of that, the dangerous precedent it sets, and the ill-effects it could have on the game, is Kavitha A. Davidson of Bloomberg. She does a much better job of explaining this mess than I ever could.

Let me get this straight: The Mets — a team playing in the country’s largest television market, notorious for its inflated payrolls, in a sport that, unlike others, prides itself on the absence of a salary cap — have been operating under such a cap imposed by a third party? And Major League Baseball let this happen? Why hasn’t there been a public uproar against this?

She’s right. Imagine if more and more third parties took note and implemented the same restrictions on teams in exchange for loans?

Once it spreads, you may have what the MLB Players Association has been fighting for almost 50 years, a salary cap. And one that didn’t require any collective bargaining whatsoever.

Maybe this is why Bud Selig allowed this to fly. He of course being the mastermind in keeping his friends the Wilpons afloat while letting other owners in the same boat drown. Friends in high places.

And finally, closely reiterating what I wrote last night and have been arguing this morning in the comment threads:

But the Mets aren’t a small-market team, and their financial issues are the fault of its ownership. This is a team that, if run properly, would be able to take full advantage of a system that favors its position in the country’s biggest television market, as their crosstown rivals do, and in theory field an expensive, productive squad that would reap postseason rewards. 

Well said, Ms. Davidson, you have my applause. Read the article in its entirety here.

(Photo: Reuters)

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An MMO Fan Shot by Steven Pacchiano

Selig is the ninth and current Commissioner of Major League Baseball, he’s been at the helm since 1992. His reign began at in the steroid era, and that was his bad luck. He had the opportunity to protect the game at the time but chose the wrong path. He turned a blind eye to it when it served his needs and reaped all the rewards after the strike. Guys like Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire were at the forefront of the impending debacle in 1998 with their home run chase which sparked the MLB financial turnaround. Fans, owners and Selig all cheered them on. As fans poured into the seats money poured into MLB.

Bud’s resumé boasts that he oversaw Interleague Play and the World Baseball Classic, both of which I think aren’t good for the game, but lets not get off topic. I did like the addition of the Wild Card that came about during his tenure, but this was no genius idea, well maybe it was, but MLB just adopted it from the NFL, so lets give credit to the NFL for that one.

Bud’s true legacy is that of a commissioner who tolerated steroids to advance the game, then flipped on those players who re-populated the stands. These players, who we all cheered for, who brought baseball back into the spotlight and began the run of record-breaking attendance are now all tarnished forever. These players were thought of as living legends as we watched Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Mike Piazza step to the plate every night. We all know the rest of the names of the best players that played in the 90’s and 00’s, we all had our favorites. Like a book with blank pages, the Hall of Fame – a history of the best players ever – over those 20 seasons will not have the greatest players of that era.

Some did it, some did not, no one stopped it, and everyone knew… That will be Selig’s legacy.

What’s the incentive NOT do steroids?

The player puts up numbers, helps their team win games, and makes a lot of money. The result is the Player, Owner and Commissioner are all happy.

If the player fails a test he’s suspended for 50 games and then gets right back to business. I can say, speaking for myself, that I would have no issue doing steroids if it meant being able to sign a nice contract that would take care of my family. Many players now don’t care about the HOF, they are looking for a big payday looking to take care of their family.

Lets not forget the owners, who don’t care either. When a player fails a test, let’s just take Jhonny Peralta for example; after the player is caught a team quickly signs him to a 4 year, $60 million dollar deal. It doesn’t seem that the teams care if they are on steroids or HGH or Fairy dust. The teams just want results and production. Owners are looking for wins and revenue and players are looking for a salary. It’s pretty simple.

If they really wanted to clean up the game, if a player fails a drug test, then the player would get his suspension, (50, 100 or whatever amount of games) but the team should also suffer a punishment.

What about if the team looses their First Round Pick in the upcoming draft if a guy on that team fails a test? Sounds good to me. And if there were two players on the team that failed a test, the team would loose their first AND second round picks in that upcoming draft. And so on.

That would make the team actually think, and say, “is it worth it to sign this player and risk losing a pick?”

If Selig and the owners want to really clean up the game I think this would be the best way.

Singling out Bonds, Clemens, and A-Rod, chasing them around town and spending tens of millions of dollars investigating them makes no sense. Hundred’s of players did it and no other professional sport hunts down clues outside of the sport beyond the basic random drug testing. Teams would actually police themselves and be responsible for their own players. MLB should randomly test players and the Owners should take care of their own locker rooms. Together they can clean up the sport, together they should be responsible.

The biggest joke is that Bud Selig intends to do a farewell tour of all 30 parks and say goodbye to all his loving fans. Hmmm wait a second, something’s wrong there. He’s not a beloved MLB player, jeesh he’s not even a player. I don’t think fans want to see him, at least no one I know does.

Does he think that chasing down three players who did steroids publicly will get him applause from the fans?

Does he think he transcends the game?

Is he admired by fans in the same way as The Mick, or Mo or even Chipper? Players who were worthy of doing a farewell tour?

I don’t think there will be any fan buying a ticket to go say goodbye to Selig, that is unless they want an opportunity to boo him. And I think he will likely get booed out of every park, maybe even Milwaukee where he was once their owner.

Maybe he’s delusional. Maybe he’s on something. Maybe Bud Selig should be suspended for 211 Games.

* * * * * * * *

This Fan Shot was contributed by Steven Pacchiano. Have something you want to say about the Mets? Share your opinions with over 25,000 Mets fans who read this site daily. Send your Fan Shot to GetMetsmerized@aol.com. Or ask us about becoming a regular contributor.

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Commissioner Sandy Alderson?

I get this question asked a lot, and three years ago I would have said yes. But a lot’s happened since then and today I don’t even see him being among the top five contenders.

There was a great article on this topic about three months ago by Jayson Stark of ESPN.com, who begins by saying that after so many previous occasions over the years in which Bud Selig has hinted at retirement only to stay on, he won’t believe Selig will actually hang ’em up after 2014 until he sees it.

“The sport needs this sort of clear, forceful, no-wiggle-room pronouncement for one obvious reason: The commish’s history is filled with previous occasions when he has said he plans to retire at the end of his contract — only to keep right on commissioner-izing. So even though this time feels different and more people than ever believe he really does mean it — this time for sure, no kidding — the skeptics remain. And they’ll always remain until Selig, now 78, removes every shred of doubt. If that’s even possible.”

Stark then hypothetically asks, “What are the odds the next commissioner will be someone who doesn’t currently work in baseball?”

He gives a blow by blow accounting that ultimately goes on to disqualify the following contenders:

• Bob Costas, sportscaster
• George Will, columnist
• George Bodenheimer, executive chairman, ESPN, Inc.
• Dick Ebersol, former chairman, NBC Sports
• Rick Levin, president of Yale
• Kent Conrad, former senator
• George W. Bush, former president

Bob Costas and George Will have always been popular with the fans and their names often come up as potential baseball commissioners. However, they have no chance in my opinion. Yes, the baseball commissioner is supposed to protect the integrity of the game and those two would be great at it. But the reality is that the commissioner’s main job is to protect the profitability and revenue growth of the game, as well as ensuring healthy bottom lines for every individual major league team and their constituencies.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but decisions in baseball are driven by profit margins and not integrity. Or better yet, here is how Stark sums it up:

“But here is the most important thing you need to remember: Nowadays, the commissioner of baseball isn’t the commissioner of The People. He’s the commissioner of 30 people — the owners. Period.”

As far as Baseball Insiders who could be options, Stark composes the following list:

• Rob Manfred, MLB executive VP
• Tim Brosnan, MLB executive VP
• Bob Bowman, CEO, MLB Advanced Media
• Joe Torre, MLB executive VP
• Tony La Russa, special assistant to Bud Selig
• Sandy Alderson, Mets GM
• Paul Beeston, Blue Jays president/CEO
• John Schuerholz, Braves president
• David Montgomery, Phillies president/CEO
• Dave Dombrowski, Tigers president/GM
• Mark Shapiro, Indians president
• Derrick Hall, Diamondbacks president/CEO
• Stan Kasten, Dodgers president
• Terry McGuirk, Braves chairman/CEO
• Larry Baer, Giants president/CEO
• Mark Attanasio, Brewers chairman
• Andy MacPhail, former Orioles/Cubs/Twins exec

I don’t ever see the role of commissioner falling into the hands of a former player who was once active in the Players Union, so scratch that idea. The thought of Torre or LaRussa may sound nostalgic and have a nice ring to it in theory, but they don’t fit the mold of the commissioner’s other underlying responsibility which is to have a hard line against the lofty demands of the players union.

Of the GM crop, I’d say John Schuerholz and Mark Shapiro have a leg up on their competition including Sandy Alderson. In fact, Schuerholz is my favorite for the job followed by Rob Manfred who has tremendous political clout, and then Shapiro in that order.

Whomever owners do decide on to replace Selig, will require a super majority which means a minimum of 24 votes out of 30 owners and not just a simple majority. That may end up being more difficult than selecting a new Pope. So dont expect a billowing cloud of white smoke to appear anytime soon. There will be much debating and gnashing of the teeth amongst the 30 teams before someone everyone can live with emerges.

I don’t think Sandy is that guy.

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