Mack’s Morning Report – 2-1-14 – David Wright, SP5, Ike Davis, Refinancing

You know I do this morning report every morning. The goal is to give you a minimum of 1,000 words, of which at least 600 are original (the rest being cut and paste paragraphs with links to good stories about the Mets). That’s 1,000 words a day for seven days a week.

It’s not easy on a day that has a lot of news, but when you get to this point in the off season and all you have left to talk about is Stephen Drew, Ruben Tejada, and Ike Davis, well, it’s just impossible to keep this up and be entertaining.

David Wright arrived in camp yesterday, which is a story in itself, but I’m not there standing next to him by his locker. You can always count on Wright being there early to welcome the rest of the team into camp.

(Speaking of Stephen Drew, according to Matt Cerrone, he is still asking for a 3-4 year deal so, if that’s true, you can count him out as being a part of the Mets infield next year)

The battle for the SP5 should  heat up as soon as all the pitchers and catchers arrive. Dice-K, John Lannan, and Jenrry Mejia will all be battling out for a position that could easily still be won by Rafael Montero.

And speaking of the pen. Those of you that were priviledged to hear TC on Friday niht on SNY heart that the Mets are open to speeding up the conversion of young arms like Jake deGrom and Cory Mazzoni into the pen. The model for the pen seems to be the St. Louis Cards… four to five power arms that throw in the high-90s. We can live with that.

Let’s face it… all of what TC said on Friday night was pre-scheduled fluff, but this is the time of the year all this shit happens. Tell everyone they have two different way of making this team and let things play out as they may.

I did walk away with one definitive statement and that was the almost double at-bats Ike Davis is going to get in ST. Remember, there are only so many split schedule games that will give Wilmer Flores, Lucas Duda, and Josh Satin their reps at first. It seems to me that the TC statement alone on Friday night insured that fact that Davis will be the opening day first baseman once again.

The new refinancing deal of the $250mil the Mets owe local banks will have two immediate benefits. One, the interest payments owed on the new deal will be in the same range as the old one… and the banks will allow the Mets to start raising their total payroll commitment. No, they won’t return to the free spending days of the Minaya organization but it will get better.

Some pundits online are saying that the Wilpons are ‘still broke, but just less broke’. That’s designed, I assumed, to be a joke. Anybody that has ever refinanced their home mortgage should understand the process here. Yes, there still is a loan where money is owed to the bank, but… please understand this…  banks don’t loan money to people that are broke. Banks loan money to people that have a net worth, but also need additional money to live their life or operate their business.

Anyway, do not look for any reduction of restrictions to affect this team going into spring training. Yes, it could down the 2014 road and you might see a dynamite trade-and-sign deal come the all-star break.

The sad part of following this team is how close they are and all their problems are money related. The Mets have a wonderful pitching rotation and defensive lineup. Put two more great bats in this lineup and a quality back-end reliever, and you have a pennant favorite team.

No, there won’t be new money thrown at Stephen Drew. That whole negotiation has turned so toxic, I can’t see it progressing at any level.