11/15/13

FLASH - Sandy Alderson's Comments on ESPN




Sandy Alderson –

“I know the perception. It’s sad that a level of loyalty to a fan base is measured in dollar signs. We’re gonna spend more money this year than we’ve spent in recent years. Last year we only spent about $5 million on free agents. So, this is going to be a new day. We have it to spend, but we have to spend it wisely. We just got back from GM meetings, we made some progress there with some conversations.”

10 comments:

Bob said...

This is where Alderson is really starting to upset me, and I believe many other Loyal Met Fans.

No, Mr. Alderson. We do not believe that loyalty is or should be measured in dollars.

We have demonstrated our measure of loyalty by reading, listening to, watching, buying and caring about everything Met year after year.
Even through the recent years that we saw flawed teams being put together.
Knowing year after year that there was no hope for that team to really be competitive.
We listened to the lies at the end of the previous few years (2011 & 2012 in particular).
At the end of each of these years you yourself, Mr. Alderson and Mr. Wilpon promised on WFAN's airwaves that Major changes would be made to improve the team's roster.
There were no roster improvements made during those off-seasons.

Yet STILL we demonstrated our loyalty.

NOW we want YOU to prove YOUR LOYALTY to us.

We will not measure it in the dollars you spend either. Whether it is $5 million or $50 million, we want to see roster improvements.
Whether you buy those improvements, trade for those improvements, or develop those improvements.

Do not question OUR loyalty Mr. Alderson.

We are the ones that are questioning YOUR loyalty.

Mack Ade said...

It's interesting how quickly he got back on the radio today and candidly discussed the off-season

David L. Whitman said...

I really hate to say it but I don't believe there's really all that much money to spend this offseason. The dollars coming off the books are in fact earmarked for debt repayment. I could be wrong about all of this but slowly it's starting to play out like that. If so, expect the discontent of Mets fans to explode by August (at the latest)-Citi Field will be a ghost town.

Mack Ade said...

I think Alderson is starting to realize that most of the players he has targeted have no desire to be part of the Flushing Folly.

Herb G said...

Isn't it a bit early to write off the off-season? Like Alderson said in his ESPN interview, "Because nothing has happened to this point, as it hasn't happened in 28 other cities, is no big reason to panic. We're doing our work. We understand people want to see improvement. We want to see improvement as well. We'll continue to work straight through to March 31."

David L. Whitman said...

I'm sure they will work up until March 31st--shopping for bargains in the close-out bin. There seems to be a subtle yet distinct backpedaling going on by the Mets FO as far as how much they will spend this offseason.

Fact is, this is a weak FA group and next year's, aside for SS, are even worse. The TV deal has made teams (aside from the Mets it seems) flush with cash. This created a strong sellers market that the Mets just didn't seem prepared for.

In addition, I don't think teams are all that hot on Ike Davis or any of the other players we're dangling as trade bait. We fans often overvalue the player's on our team. It's natural for us fans to do so.

But the fact of the matter is, the Mets and the majority of their position players are not held in very high esteem in MLB. The team will definitely make some moves, but I seriously doubt overpaying for a FA SS like Drew or Peralta, or a FA OF such as C. Young, Kubel or Cruz will do little to move the needle of the W mark very far in 2014. There are three FA OFers worth pursuing-Choo, Beltran, and Ellsbury-none of them are in the Mets price range.

So the Mets either overpay a B-level OF FA or find a team so enthralled with Davis, Murph, Tejada or Duda they relinquish a talented power OF bat or SS. We'll see. The team has held steady to the idea of 'wait till next year' well it's next year-and yes it's only November-but we're still waiting.

Mack Ade said...

D Whit - It's very early in the FA process and teams are shopping around for the best deal they can get.

This is how the process works... only the Mets fans have run out of patience.

Alderson would be best served staying off the radio until he has something inked.

Until then, it really doesn't matter who is on his target board unless the Mets are on the players target board as well.

David L. Whitman said...

I agree with you. I realize it's early in the FA season and I also understand how the process works.

The red flags I see have nothing to do with an expediency of signing a FA right off the bat or in the first weeks or so. My concern lies in the fact that:

1)The Mets seemed blindsided by the spike in $$ that teams are throwing around just to re-sign pending FA's, which indicates the same for the FA's themselves.

2)It's a weak FA class, especially position player-wise beneath the Cano's, Ellsbury's, Beltran's and Choo's. Meaning that the Mets will have to overpay for mediocrity, without really improving the team.

3)I really question the actual worth of the player's the Mets have the trading block in other team's eyes. Is it really enough to land even one power bat in the corner OF spot?

I'm not impatient about the now, but I am concerned about how all this will play out-and right now due to the factors above, and my questioning of the true amount of $$ the Mets can spend this winter.
I'm not convinced this team will improve much from last season's edition.

Overpaying on Peralta or adding a C. Young and let's say a Jason Kubel to the payroll is not going to make a whole hell of a difference in the win column.

They need to add at least one "impact" player and right now I question if they can do that. I hope Sandy and Co. prove me wrong.

JHernandez620 said...

The problem is that Sandy has had to completely unwind the mess that Omar Minaya left him. Yes, we have some good pieces. But overall the farm system was in horrible shape. Besides Harvey not top prospects were being developed. Sandy is attempting to build a winner not just for the short term, but a winner that is sustainable and can compete year in and year out. Unfortunately this requires patience. The one knock that I do have on Sandy is that while under Minaya prospects were rushed, under Sandy they appear to be developing at a much slower pace and not being challenged.

Mack Ade said...

JHernandez -

I do agree with you that Minaya left him with a messed up farm system that is currently going in the right direction