Minaya has been getting a lot of hate around here and a lot of it is deserved. That said, it looks like the Met payroll is going to be about 20-25 million dollars less than it was in 2010. It's a lot harder to find 4-5 complementary players when you have 10 million to spend than it is when you have 25 million to spend.

I wonder if they are even going to spend the money they offered Molina.

SELL THE TEAM, YOU WILPON SCUM! THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING!

Minaya definitely shouldn't have spent the budget on Bay if that's all they had to spent.

A pre-emptive Met thread hijack

It's not pre-emptive when the excerpt mentions that the player first tried to draw an offer from the Mets before settling on the Padres.

Minaya definitely shouldn't have spent the budget on Bay if that's all they had to spent.

I wonder if he thought he had more money to spend earlier in the offseason because you have to think he'd have spent it otherwise. I don't know how he could think the 2010 Mets can be successful without acquiring at least one starting pitcher.

I don't know how he could think the 2010 Mets could be successful without acquiring at least one starting pitcher.

He consulted Salfino?

I kid, I kid!

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It's a lot harder to find 4-5 complementary players when you have 10 million to spend than it is when you have 25 million to spend.

By your figures, he had 16 million to spend, and spent 6 of it on:

Cora, Alex $2,000,000
Escobar, Kelvim $1,250,000
Igarashi, Ryota $1,250,000
Blanco, Henry $750,000
Coste, Chris $650,000

Mets fans are funny.

You mean, let me understand this cause, ya know maybe it's us, We're a little messed up maybe, but We're funny how, I mean funny like We're clowns, We amuse you? We make you laugh, We're here to amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How are we funny?

I just threw the 10 million dollar figure out there. Basically, I think Omar has been criticized for our belief that he thinks the Mets can compete as is and that's why he isn't adding guys. It looks like it's more that the Mets don't have the payroll to add the guys they need.

Cora, Alex $2,000,000
Escobar, Kelvim $1,250,000
Igarashi, Ryota $1,250,000
Blanco, Henry $750,000
Coste, Chris $650,000


The only contract there that bothers me there is Cora. You need backup catchers and relief pitchers and those guys seem like pretty good options. BTW, I don't include Bay as a complementary player (you probably didn't either.)

The Mets will spend 20 million on their corner outfielders. With a restricted budget, they probably should have went cheap there and spent more on pitching.

This is the first season since 2005 that I don't think the Mets can make the playoffs.

Looks like Banta is coming around too. There are many dysfunctional organizations out in the world (even some dysfunctional nations). I just happen to root for one.

Sell the team, Wilpon.

Torrealba recently tried to engage the New York Mets in negotiations on a one-year deal for less than $2 million, but the Mets indicated that they had no interest, given financial restrictions.

And they were going to pay Bengie with Monopoly money?

This is going to be some season. What's the over/under on starts by Pat Misch? I'll go seven, same as last year.

I don't know the Wilpons' finances, of course (and neither do they, apparently), but it strikes me as odd that they wouldn't be able to borrow $20m to add salary for 2010. It's one thing if they genuinely felt the team would be competitive with a $120m payroll, but if we assume rudimentary competence and basic familiarity with elementary baseball business concepts such as marginal wins, our savvy albeit hypothetical owner of the Mets would know that in this season more than any other (recent catastrophes, weekly FO madness, the organization becoming a laughing stock, new publicly financed ballpark...) the team needs to be a genuine contender, that getting into the playoffs would get rid of a lot of the alienation pervasive throughout the fan base, and that another well-spent $20m would improve the teams chances of succeeding enormously. I guess what I'm wondering is, how difficult would it be for our hypothetical savvy owner, if he simply didn't have those funds available, to borrow $20m to add payroll? What would the circumstances be such that he literally would not be able to do it, even though he recognized that it would be money well-spent, and that not spending it could easily wind up costing the franchise more than that in the long and short run?

You know......funny.

The Mets should have committed more to starting pitching, more along the lines of Marquis, etc. than Lackey. Maybe they pass on Bay to spend more on SP if they have some faith in Pagan.

The Wilpons' strategic advantage had been their willingness to spend, and not any intelligence or baseball smarts in their organization. They're clearly facing hard financial times, due either to Madoff or losses/declining values in their real estate portfolio, but not hard enough to compel a sale of the team.

By your figures, he had 16 million to spend, and spent 6 of it on:

Cora, Alex $2,000,000
Escobar, Kelvim $1,250,000
Igarashi, Ryota $1,250,000
Blanco, Henry $750,000
Coste, Chris $650,000

$16m is around half of what the Mets were willing to spend this offseason. The $5m to Francoeur was entirely discretionary. Agreeing to another year of the Maine adventure at $3.3m was hardly an obvious move given that much more reliable starters were going for $5-8m. Both those contracts were signed while the $5.5m offer to Molina was outstanding. That puts the budget for this offseason at $29.8 million, minimum, and you can only keep it that low by not counting Bay's contract by its AAV. You can also add Tatis's salary if you like. It was a good move, imo, though I would rather have moved earlier and spent that kind of money on a guy who's better around the middle of the diamond.

I hate to leave out of the calculation the $1 million spent on Gary Matthews Jr.

The Mets should have committed more to starting pitching, more along the lines of Marquis, etc. than Lackey. Maybe they pass on Bay to spend more on SP if they have some faith in Pagan.

Agreed. When you can't fill every hole a guy like Pagan is exactly who you take a chance on. Piniero at 2/16, Marquis at 2/15, Polanco at 3/18, Zaun at 1/2.35, Blanco 1/1.5, skip Tatis since you have Polanco starting at 2b and backing up ss, then spend the remaining $$$ on an OFer. We hear the argument all the time that none of these guys would have signed with the Mets for these prices, but that argument is essentially, 'we're incompetent, so no one wants to sign with us for anything close to what they signed for.' It's incompetence as a defense. Look at what the Angels did last offseason when they couldn't get their first choice. Substitute other reasonable signings if the above aren't appealing. This offseason was a great opportunity to add 10+ wins for around $30 million.

I hate to leave out of the calculation the $1 million spent on Gary Matthews Jr.

Hater.

but that argument is essentially, 'we're incompetent, so no one wants to sign with us for anything close to what they signed for.' It's incompetence as a defense. Look at what the Angels did last offseason when they couldn't get their first choice.

That's not why I think those guys wouldn't sign with the Mets at those prices. It takes two teams to get into a bidding war. Garland would have gotten more with the Mets and Padres bidding for his services than he did with the Padres the only team seriously interested in him.

I hate to leave out of the calculation the $1 million spent on Gary Matthews Jr.

Crazy that the 2nd backup CF is worth a million, but the guy who could be the full-time catcher isn't. This really does boggle the mind. Unless Omar really thinks Santos has arrived. But if that's the case, why the winter-long courtship of Benji Molina? I'm just a bit confused...

I told you guys that the Mets would not have 40m to spend. I said it back in October when Mets fans here lambasted me for saying so without citing my source.

Minaya knew he wouldn't have the full 40m to spend, but he chose to allocate a majority of his available funds on Bay. And now he's stuck with a below average rotation, and if Santana goes down for any considerable period of time, then its got to be in the bottom 3 of all rotations in baseball.

I said it back in October when Mets fans here lambasted me for saying so without citing my source.

And you never did cite that source, so most people here are still going to assume that you were talking out of you ass, and just happened to get lucky on the result.

And you never did cite that source, so most people here are still going to assume that you were talking out of you ass, and just happened to get lucky on the result.

Correct. Nobody has any reason to believe some anonymous poster has an inside source, even if history plays out as predicted.

Minaya knew he wouldn't have the full 40m to spend, but he chose to allocate a majority of his available funds on Bay.

Here's the thing though- reports were that the Molina offer was around $5 mil. Since they lost out on Molina, that money hasn't been spent. They've been scouting Wang. I assume there's money, but that they don't feel the talent is worth it. Torrealba had a good year last year, but his career numbers don't look all that different from the cast on hand. That said, I think for $1.5 million, you roll the dice...

I said it back in October when Mets fans here lambasted me for saying so without citing my source.

And you never did cite that source, so most people here are still going to assume that you were talking out of you ass, and just happened to get lucky on the result.

Correct. Nobody has any reason to believe some anonymous poster has an inside source, even if history plays out as predicted.

Let's add to this, ps, that you were obviously and hilariously wrong. I do thank you for the humor you've provided, and that you've added to my collection of chutzpah definitions by showing up to take credit for a prediction that was so blatantly, demonstrably wrong:

Cora, Alex $2,000,000
Escobar, Kelvim $1,250,000
Igarashi, Ryota $1,250,000
Blanco, Henry $750,000 + $550,000 in performance bonuses
Coste, Chris $650,000
Matthews $1,000,000
Bay $6,500,000 + $8,500,000 signing bonus
Tatis $800,000 + $700,000 in performance bonuses
Dessens, Elmer, $700,000 if on major league roster, otherwise $90,000
Everts, Clint $400,000
Feliciano $2,900,000
Maine $3,300,000 + 225,000 in performance bonuses
Green, Sean $975,000
Francoeur $5,000,000
Molina $5,000,000 offer

You claimed the Mets' budget was definitely going to be $20,000,000, whereas the budget is over $42,225,000. I included Blanco's and Tatis's performance bonuses and omitted Maine's because of the likelihood or not of their being met. The Molina contract offer was on the table until January 22nd and the Mets were correspondingly willing to commit to it, so I'm including it. I'm not including the vast majority of players who will be getting around the minimum, or sums like the $500,000 option the Mets had on Pelfrey for 2010.

I told you guys that the Mets would not have 40m to spend.

Keep pumping. You may be able to sell that "prediction" somewhere.