The Yankees took care of him, the way you’re supposed to.

"Loyalty" is now a code word for how you stayed when they paid you a lot, or when you didn't have any other options.

So it's finally come to this. The situation is so bad, the mismanagement of the franchise is so undeniable, that a player (even anonymously) feels strongly enough to write this. It's passionate, it's frustrated, it's filled with sadness and anger and truth. The Wilpons can dismiss Howard Megdal. They can have their media pawns rip Irving Picard all they want. They can claim that they have investors just lined up all over the place to hand them $20M each for the right to sit in a luxury box with Mr. Met.

But they can't dismiss this. This is a player who obviously feels mixed emotions over this, who is sympathetic on a personal level to Fred Wilpon and wants to think the best of him. This is not a hit piece.

It is as devastating a portrayal of what the Wilpons have done to the franchise as anything I've seen.

Players have a biased perspective. Few know what works in building a team. They all want to get paid as much as possible. It's easy from his perspective to be skeptical that Sandy will succeed in building a good team under these constrains, just as it is for us.

But it is what it is. I think at least the team has a competent GM for the first time in ages.

Players have a biased perspective. Few know what works in building a team.

To wit, from TFA:

Either way you look at it, what you have now is a team that feels like it’s bankrupt. Jose Reyes was allowed to walk without even getting an offer? If that’s your plan, you better have someone to replace him with. But the Wilpons don’t.

Reyes and David Wright were the heart of that team. Those were the guys the Mets had to build around.

You don't build around Reyes and Wright at this point in their careers. Sad but true.

You know what I think when I read about the Mets nowadays? We’ve become the Oakland A’s. We’re the Pittsburgh Pirates. Our fans deserve better than that.

I can't wait for the three posters to arrive who like to tell us how good we have it.

But it is what it is. I think at least the team has a competent GM for the first time in ages.

If Alderson lasts until the Wilpons depart, I wonder if he has any interest in sticking around past the end of his deal. I doubt a new owner will feel beholden to go with one of DePodesta or Ricciardi, though s/he could do worse than DePo.

You know what I think when I read about the Mets nowadays? We’ve become the Oakland A’s.

_______ ________ never should have written this article.

But it is what it is. I think at least the team has a competent GM for the first time in ages.

Jon Rauch and Frank Francisco's agents agree.

We’ve become the Oakland A’s. We’re the Pittsburgh Pirates. Our fans deserve better than that.

But Pirates and A's fans don't?

So who’s the Met?

1. It’s not a pitcher. He basically thrashed the whole pitching staff. .They wouldn’t care that Mookie or Obie were fired since they kept the Incompetent Warthog as their pitching coach through the endorsement of Pelfrey and Dickey.
2. It’s not David Wright. Or else the “if I’m David Wright” quote wouldn’t be there.
3. It’s not a young un. Not Thole, Davis, Tejada, or Duda.
4. It’s not a new guy. So not Torres or Cedeno.

Candidates are Murphy, Bay, Turner, Nickeas and Hairston. Really, them?

I call shenanigans.

Candidates are Murphy, Bay, Turner, Nickeas and Hairston. Really, them?

I'd guess Nickeas or Murphy. It sounds like someone who has been with the team for awhile.

Sounds like a guy who's spent real time on the major league club, and watched it fall apart around him, starting at a time when the team had at least a little hope. I'll go with Murphy.

My vote is for Isringhausen. Though I wouldn't be surprised if it's Pelfrey, notwithstanding the bit about the pitching staff.

Players have a biased perspective. Few know what works in building a team. They all want to get paid as much as possible. It's easy from his perspective to be skeptical that Sandy will succeed in building a good team under these constrains, just as it is for us.

Sure, they want to get paid -- but they also want to believe that the organization is committed to winning. At least a lot of them want that, and that's what I got from this player in particular; a strong sense that what is objectionable about the current situation is that the owners are not committed to trying to win. Or at the very least, that they are simply unable to play the game with the sort of commitment of resources to winning that the market itself should permit the team to bring to bear. Notice Player X didn't express regret that the Mets failed to re-sign Reyes -- but that they hadn't even made an offer. It's the not-even-trying part I saw him as lamenting, as being inconsistent with what he expects from a team in New York. Sure, what he's talking about, the commitment of resources translates ultimately into higher player salaries. But (if done right -- which Lord knows the Mets haven't done in a long time now) it also translates into a better chance to win, a happier experience on so many levels (the questions you get from the press, the grind of losing itself, the difference between a near-empty stadium and booing fans and a rocking stadium with cheering fans).

1. It’s not a pitcher. He basically thrashed the whole pitching staff. .They wouldn’t care that Mookie or Obie were fired since they kept the Incompetent Warthog as their pitching coach through the endorsement of Pelfrey and Dickey.

I don't think that's a safe assumption. A pitcher might very well look beyond the narrow perspective of the pitching staff and see a more general issue with a lack of organizational loyalty. Oberkfell and Wilson were very popular guys in the clubhouse, and had spent years with the club (Mookie, of course, to the point of it being legendary). Pitcher or not, that could be something that might be meaningful to Player X. And as for trashing the pitching staff -- he was pretty candid in saying that there isn't a staff ace to match up with the division's monsters, but that is pretty true (pending the hoped-for Miracle of Johan's Shoulder, of course), and he didn't say anyone on the staff sucked rocks. I'm sure that the not-so-glowing stuff about the pitchers (along with trashing the owners ....) was part of the reason Player X wrote this anonymously, but it doesn't convince me that it's a fraud, and I think it could have been a pitcher.

But Pirates and A's fans don't?

There's one Pirates' fan who doesn't

We won’t even be able to beat Mark Buehrle.

That's a little unfair to Mr. Buehrle.

Sounds like a guy who's spent real time on the major league club, and watched it fall apart around him, starting at a time when the team had at least a little hope.

Dear lord, Isringhausen is still bitter about the Mark Clark/Lance Johnson/Manny Alexander trade.

Jon Rauch and Frank Francisco's agents agree.

If those are Sandy's biggest mistakes, then he's not just competent, he's on his way to being the best Met's GM in history.

There's one Pirates' fan who doesn't

What do you have against Michael Keaton?

Speaking off the top of my head, Dickey seems way too nice to trash anyone, Wright's not smart enough to pull that trick and include himself... I think I'd vote Pelfrey or an extremely pissed Pagan.

If those are Sandy's biggest mistakes, then he's not just competent, he's on his way to being the best Met's GM in history.

Not even Jim Bowden could make a big mistake with the Mets tiny budget.

If those are Sandy's biggest mistakes, then he's not just competent, he's on his way to being the best Met's GM in history.

It's early. Give the man time to build up his resume of blunders.

(I should add, I guess, that I don't have a problem with the Francisco signing. The Rauch deal . . . not a fan of that one.)

I wouldn't write off Jason Bay in the "Whodunit?" sweepstakes.

A pitcher might very well look beyond the narrow perspective of the pitching staff and see a more general issue with a lack of organizational loyalty.

OK, so let's expand to pitchers:

Not Johan.
Not Niese or Gee
None of the bullpen guys in the roster has been a Met for more than 2 years

So Dickey or Pelfrey?

Dickey is far too intelligent to come out like this, even anonymously. Pelfrey, OTOH, is dumber than a box of rocks.

If it's a pitcher, it's Pelfrey. But I'll go with #10 and say it's Murphy.

It's been nice knowing you, Daniel.

My vote goes to Dickey's sherpa.

2. It’s not David Wright. Or else the “if I’m David Wright” quote wouldn’t be there.

Or it is David Wright and he wants to misdirect people...

Sort of OT, but not really:
According to Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com, the Mets have placed former top prospect Fernando Martinez on waivers.

The Mets need to clear two spots on the 40-man roster to make room for infielder Ronny Cedeno and outfielder Scott Hairston and Rubin hears that both Martinez and left-hander Daniel Ray Herrera have been placed on waivers. Martinez, 23, was once considered one of the most promising hitting prospects in the game, but a long list of injuries have stalled his career. Herrera was acquired from the Brewers last year as a player to be named later in the Francisco Rodriguez deal. There's a decent chance that both get claimed.

I was in favor of grabbing Cedeno on the cheap, but not at the cost of Martinez. I know he'll probably never do anything, but the team really doesn't have much depth in the OF. If they cut Bay and played Martinez every day, it'd probably be a wash...

Scott Hairston is ####### terrible, too. I wouldn't have placed stale carrots on waivers to clear a spot for his worthless ass.

Scott Hairston is ####### terrible, too. I wouldn't have placed stale carrots on waivers to clear a spot for his worthless ass.

I was about to defend him (selective memory), then I actually looked up what he did in 2011-- he actually hit worse against LHP than he did against righties-- .247/.307/.395 vs. .216/.298/.588, which would all be well and good if he hadn't gotten the bulk of his at-bats against lefties.

My final straw is Willie Harris-- if he's on the team in '12, I refuse to watch.

Who do we have that’s going to beat Stephen Strasburg or Cliff Lee? Who’s going to match up against Tim Hudson or Tommy Hanson? We won’t even be able to beat Mark Buehrle

Buehrlepwn3d

Wow, that's a shockingly quick end for F-Mart as a Met. Ranked as high as Baseball America's #20 prospect. Yikes.

I was in favor of grabbing Cedeno on the cheap, but not at the cost of Martinez. I know he'll probably never do anything, but the team really doesn't have much depth in the OF. If they cut Bay and played Martinez every day, it'd probably be a wash...

Well, for the first week of April, then F! breaks a leg shaving and where are you?

Wow, that's a shockingly quick end for F-Mart as a Met. Ranked as high as Baseball America's #20 prospect. Yikes.

Maybe it's quick but it feels like we've been watching him fall off the cliff forever. There's a lesson there somewhere, maybe in never really buying into a prospect who can't stay healthy, who doesn't really walk, and whose K/BB ratio never gets better than 1:3...

Basebal America's #20 prospect in preseason 2008. And he's still only 23.

Others whose careers have not been great:
#3 Joba Chamberlain
#8 Franklin Morales
#9 Homer Bailey
#11 Travis Snider
#15 Jake McGee
#16 Brandon Wood
#23 Matt LaPorta
#25 Jordan Schafer
#27 Chris Marrero
#29 Adam Miller
#31 Andy Laroche
#33 Angel Villalona
#35 Deolis Guerra
#37 Jose Tabata
#40 Lars Anderson

Why does this have to be a player? It never specifies that in the article and this reads a lot more like it's an employee than a player. Why would people always be asking someone like Daniel Murphy how much the Wilpons knew about Madoff? I also doubt that any of the players know Fred Wilpon on a real personal level like the writer seems to and in generally the commentary sounds much more like an executive than one of the players.

Why does this have to be a player? It never specifies that in the article and this reads a lot more like it's an employee than a player.

That is an excellent point, and certainly possible. The only thing that makes me tend to think it is probably a player is the title -- I wonder if the magazine would call the piece "The Met Who Blames Everything on The Wilpons if it wasn't a player. "The Met" is at least suggestive of a player rather than a Mets' FO employee/executive. I mean, would anyone refer to Jay Horwitz or Dave Howard as a "Met"? "Mets insider" maybe -- but Met? Doesn't seem right.

But it's certainly possible.

I'm mostly in agreement with Jim's question in #31. In addition, the line that jumped out to me was the "even Mark Buerhle" reference. Even? Unless that's a Marlins slight (which it may well be) I have a hard time seeing a player using that terminology for a pitcher, like Buerhle, with all those wins. Particularly after noting Hanson (and Strasburg), with just a few career wins, as premier pitchers.

There may be some MLB guys who talk like that, but not many. Few enough, I would think, that someone who looks at pitchers in such a way would realize that if he didn't keep quiet, he would be easily caught.

Also- Wright and Reyes were the heart of "that" team. Wouldn't "that" team be the one the speaker was on? That seems like a curious phrasing.

I assumed it was a player because of the title, but I could see "The Met" referring to any of the Mets' uniformed personnel (players plus coaching staff). Adding in the staff adds several suspects with long Mets histories.

The author's identity revealed

[35] He's certainly a Met.

Reyes and David Wright were the heart of that team.

Just my opinion, of course, but it strikes me as unlikely (though not impossible) that a current Mets player would refer to the Metropolitans as "that team", rather than, say, "our team" or even "the team".

It hurts me to say this, because I’ve always liked Fred Wilpon. I know in his heart how much he wants the Mets to succeed.

"Always liked" suggests a long-term relationship; though not necessarily a close one.

What makes it worse is being in the same market as the Yankees. Obviously they have more money, but there used to be a time when the Mets and Yankees were equals.

Being able to remember when the Mets and Yankees were truly equals requires having at least a few grey hairs in your head. And bemoaning the fact that this is no longer so reveals not just a fondness for the Mets, but also a certain degree of animosity towards the Yankees.

Obviously, the author of this piece is Bud Selig.

DB

But more likely it's Al Leiter.

That is an excellent point, and certainly possible. The only thing that makes me tend to think it is probably a player is the title -- I wonder if the magazine would call the piece "The Met Who Blames Everything on The Wilpons if it wasn't a player. "The Met" is at least suggestive of a player rather than a Mets' FO employee/executive. I mean, would anyone refer to Jay Horwitz or Dave Howard as a "Met"? "Mets insider" maybe -- but Met? Doesn't seem right.

I read through a bunch of the other Workplace Confidential things they had and, while many of them were interesting, the headlines aren't particularly accurate at describing what is actually said inside. The bikini waxer doesn't actually have an aversion to female anatomy (she's numb to looking at vaginas and unsurprisingly finds it disgusting when someone shows up all sweaty or dirty), the Page Six reporter's do-not-hit list is actually a short blurb about them never getting instruction from above about who to talk or not talk about, the fact that the transsexual escort's clients are sometimes married isn't really relevant to what she is revealing, etc. They're just going for sensational sounding headlines, implying that the source is a player by calling him "a Met" even if he's just an executive would be par for the course.

How about Omar Minaya? The whole "that team" line rings a little bit of the way a scout would talk about another team, and Minaya sometimes talks like the scout he once has and (at heart) still can be sometimes. He certainly has the long relationship with the Wilpons the article suggests. Minaya would probably still see Reyes and Wright as the foundation of the team that they could/should have rebuilt around.

It makes some sense.

OK, I've revised my thinking.

If it's not a current player I'm almost sure it's Hojo.

Hence the crack about Mookie and Obie.

Yes, there's "that" team but there's also "we" have become the A's/Pirates and "our fans".

"That" team perhaps suggests it's sombody who wasn't around in the heyday of Wright/Reyes.

And, of course, a "Met" could refer to somebody like Leiter or Hernandez who was a Met. And they would claim to know Wilpon. If it's a player, I'm guessing a retired one who identifies as a Met. Any of the coaches fit that description?

Or Willie Harris.

Also this:

You know what I think when I read about the Mets nowadays?

That sounds like somebody outside the organization.

And, of course, a "Met" could refer to somebody like Leiter or Hernandez who was a Met. And they would claim to know Wilpon. If it's a player, I'm guessing a retired one who identifies as a Met.

As soon as I saw Walt mention Keith Hernandez (maybe someone mentioned him earlier on in the thread and I missed it), I thought, "Hmmmmmm." And then I reread the article, and boy, it just makes sense. The whole tone goes back and forth between referring to "we" -- which as a former Met and still closely associated with the organization, is a mindset Keith would have -- and "that team," because he's not really on the team and as a broadcaster he tries (sometimes doing pretty well) to be objective and even critical in talking about the team from an outside perspective.

Of all the speculation I've seen, the Hernadez guess strikes me as the best one. There's literally nothing in the whole piece that I couldn't see him writing.

As soon as I saw Walt mention Keith Hernandez

Well, I am something of an expert on bad-mouthing the Mets. :-)

Hernandez makes a ton of sense.

People ask me all the time about the Madoff controversy. How much did the Wilpons know?

Does Daniel Murphy really get this question all the time? Angel Pagan? I bet Hernandez does.

I doubt it is Murphy, but it wouldn't surprise me if everyone associated with the Mets gets this question fairly often from associates, friends, family, etc.

I mean, I have almost no connection to my uni's athletics but if something goes down, anyone who knows I work there asks me about it and what I know.

People are weird that way.

And, of course, a "Met" could refer to somebody like Leiter or Hernandez who was a Met. And they would claim to know Wilpon. If it's a player, I'm guessing a retired one who identifies as a Met. Any of the coaches fit that description?

Good thinking, Walt.

It's Hernandez. Who else would mention Mookie Wilson and Ken Oberkfell in the same paragraph?

I'm simultaneously amused and appalled by the idea that Al Leiter is still vexing us with anonymous quotes from beyond the Met-grave.