12/13/12

Mack Stuff - Supporting The Mets, Michael Bourn Money, Matt den Dekker, $70mil Payroll



Two months from today is Pitchers & Catchers Day.

James Shields, Mike Montgomery and Trevor Bauer all attended Hart High School in Santa Clarita...and all three were traded within 48 hours


JD ‏@JDSussman  - I'm glad I convinced my family to stop financially supporting the @Mets.

                This really is the only way a fan can properly protest the way their team is being owned, run, or handled. You keep your hands in your pockets. You don’t go to any games so you can’t buy from any of the vendors there. You stay off the net and out of the sports stores and buy t-shirts that have a little tag inside that says Hanes. I’ll give ou your cable subscription. You can keep it at the level you’re at now, but if you want to get really technical, you should also be cancelling your subscription to SNY. These are the only way you can really make any statement. Trust me…  you play game after game and put up the kind of home attendance that Miami does, and the league will get the message. New York is the largest media market in the sport. It must be successful.


‘Soto’ brought up a great point yesterday on his post. It seems that a fair amount of money that is being paid to David Wright is being deferred. Add to this what went on with the Jason Bay money and it seems to me that there could be around $15mil left to send in 2013 and still keep the overall payroll under $100mil. This is Michael Bourn money. Is there something wrong here? I mean, it seems to me that the Mets can actually compete for one of the big guys still out there. Sure, Bourne isn’t the home run hitter you want in your lineup, but what’s wrong with Bourne, Tejada, Wright, Davis? It’s not perfect, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the team has right now.


Chris McShane AA on CF Matt den Dekker:

“Fortunately, the team has a true center fielder – at least with the glove – in Binghamton’s Matt Den Dekker. The 2010 fifth-round pick is a plus defender who should have no problems patrolling a center field for the Mets. The question is whether his bat will dictate a starting role or relegate him to the playing time typically given to a defensive specialist. As much as he tore up Double-A in the first half of 2012 (.960 OPS), that’s how poorly he performed upon promotion to Buffalo (.629 OPS). Regardless, he’ll likely never hit for high average or limit his strikeouts, but he has good raw power from the left side. At 25, he has to keep performing to stay relevant. If he does, expect to see him early in 2013.”
There’s no way in hell Dekker will open up in Queens come spring, but he could easily be on the same plane with Zack Wheeler some summer day.  There’s a part of me that just says give the outfield to Dekker, Lucas Duda, and Kirk Nieuwenhuis and sit back and watch what happens. My guess they would have 80+ home runs between them, but also account for 600+ strikeouts. Would it work? Probably not, but it would set the plate for the 2013-2014 FA-trade market.


 Adam Rubin - It also is hard to fathom the Mets regularly going next season with an all-lefty-hitting outfield of Lucas Duda in left field, Kirk Nieuwenhuis in center and Mike Baxter in right. The Mets will add some righty-hitting bat at some point this offseason, whether it is Scott Hairston, Cody Ross or some lesser-producing and less-costly option. Still, for an organization that swears it has modestly more money to spend this offseason, you have to wonder what exactly is going on.David Wright originally was due to make $16 million in 2013. Under his new deal, he officially is down to $11 million next season -- with $3 million deferred without interest, technically meaning Wright will get half of his original number. Jason Bay, as part of his buyout, similarly reduced his 2013 obligation from the Mets. Yet the Mets have been inactive in free agency. Maybe Alderson has sticker shock. He's shopping for 1980s and 1990s prices and the going rate for free agents, while perhaps not sane, is the reality of the marketplace. Whatever the ultimate reason, this much is clear: Bringing back a comparable roster to the end of last season does not bode well for 2013.

Rubin is surprisingly negative at this point in the off-season, but he does bring up the same thing I’ve been saying for a while. The Mets are keeping all this deferred money a little vague but it seems to me that the 2013 payroll is around $57mil before trying to figure out how much of the Bay money will count against 2013. I don’t care how much you pay Ike Davis… the Mets are going to be way under $100mil and just seem to be sitting out the whole process right now.

I’m used the being insulted like this from the Wilpon family, but I had hoped Allderson was going to bring some transparency to this team.

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