8/10/17

Reese Kaplan -- Dear Wilpons & Mets Shareholders


Sandy Alderson is rapidly devolving your ballclub into a state worse than the one he inherited 7 long years ago.

During his tenure he's traded away or failed to secure the contracts for Daniel Murphy, Justin Turner, Michael Fulmer, Jay Bruce, Addison Reed, Lucas Duda, Collin McHugh, Frankie Rodriguez, Matt Bowman and Angel Pagan among others.

What does he have to show for these moves?  Yoenis Cespedes...you know him, your disgruntled, thick-legged left fielder with a bad attitude and a $27.5 million per year contract for another three full years.  In case you haven't noticed, the much pilloried Wilmer Flores has more HRs, RBIs and a higher batting average than "La Potencia" for $2.2 million and can't even get a starting role.

Oh yeah, I forgot -- he's picked up five relief pitchers mostly in A-ball, only one of whom is showing better than a 4.00 ERA.

Look again at both lists -- I count 10 credible ballplayers sent packing and one still here.  What kind of Key Performance Indicators do you watch because personnel decisions surely isn't one of them.

It's abundantly clear that the only objective here was to save money on payroll.  Yup, between Duda, Reed and now Bruce he did save the club about $10 million in salary obligation for the rest of the year.  However, what he got back for those savings is laughable.  Had you invested that $10 million you could have secured better quality prospects by paying down the salary that was already budgeted.  As businessmen you should understand that investing provides greater returns than saving.  The Yankees apparently were willing to give TWO higher quality prospects if you'd have kicked in a portion of Bruce's salary, but no...

Is the Madoff situation in the rearview mirror or not?  We were told it was...but then we were also told the club was all-in to win this year.  Who's writing your press statements -- Anthony Scaramucci?  The last I heard he was a part owner so it's not beyond the realm of possibility.

Don't even get me started on how Alderson kept bringing back a man with a career losing record whose own record with the Mets went downhill in years 2 and 3, yet he was given another contract!  People say, "Hey, he brought them to the World Series in 2015!"  Well, truth be told Yoenis Cespedes (when he was fighting for a contract) brought them almost singlehandedly to the World Series.  Again, it's been downhill ever since...one and out in 2016 and now threatening to catch the Phillies for last place and closer to them than they are to first.

It's popular to blame the injuries for what's happened but why are there so many injuries?  An effective executive would investigate the training methodologies compared to what other clubs are doing, unless, of course, you buy into the, "We're just snakebitten" rationalization that we've heard nearly every year of the current reign.

I've asked the question many times what does Sandy Alderson do well?  I'm still waiting for an answer.

Do yourselves a favor (and the fans -- remember the ones who buy the tickets and jerseys and such? -- and wish both he and Collins a nice retirement and bring in a new approach.  What's been tried isn't working and most people want Collins nowhere near the younger players finally starting to see the light of day.

Is that too much to ask?


13 comments:

Zozo said...

If the Wilpons can skimp out on payroll for the rest of the season, season ticket holders should be able to the same. It's a 2 way street in my mind...

Anonymous said...

The fish stinks from the head down. And the head has always been
Fred and Jeff Wilponzee!!

Viper said...

Sandy has once again, shown his mere "genius" in trades. That you cannot see is you fault because you're stupid and he is not.

The sad reality is that baseball has passed both Sandy and Collins time of doing things the old way. These days teams mostly want young GM and managers who still have some brain cells left.

Terry manages with his gut and when it hurt, he thinks he needs to make a change when all that is required is a quick trip to the bathroom for a #2.

Sandy and Terry need to be shown the door with or without a gold watch. Now that I think of it, these are the Wilpons so probably a Timex instead of a Rolex.

bgreg98180 said...

Viper

Kudos.

You have summed it up completely.
Send Alderson and Collins packing now. Not next week or at the end of the season.
Now before either can do the organization any more harm

Tom Brennan said...

Sandy and Terry can try their hands at fantasy baseball instead of nightmare baseball.

Tom Brennan said...

Viper, Reese, and I could be described as Viper, Griper, and Hyper.

Unknown said...

Did anyone hear Craig Carton's rant on the Mets FO over the Bruce trade especially concerning the fact that they had a deal with the Yanks for 2 much better prospects but they had to pay most of the money left for Bruce.

Hobie said...

This griping just sounds so juvenile. If you know who the Yankees were offering and for how many MILLIONS of dollars, tell us. If not, Mr. Carton or anybody else, just shut the F up.

I do tip my ht to all those arm chair GM's who knew back in March how the Met pitching staff would collapse. Who are you again?

Unknown said...

DOM SMITH COMING UP TOMORROW

Reese Kaplan said...

But Collins is still here and has two rookies in his lineup. It might make his head explode.

Tom Brennan said...

Soon it will be called Smitty City

bgreg98180 said...

Raising hand here. Right here.

I believe I warned against all of the injury returns, fighting through bone spur elbows and overuse of bullpen arms (last year) heading into the season.

I warned against it right here at Mack's place and gave that as a reason more needed to be done to Increase the batting avg of the lineup.

I believe I was told that I was being a proverbial "Debbie Downer" and that the season had not even begun so why was I being so negative....

Reese Kaplan said...

As opposed to another more fecal rhyme for CitiField?