John From Albany - The Devils You Know Vs. The Devils You Don't

So once again there was great rejoicing in Metsville.  The Mets had found not one but two Billionaires that are interested in buying the team and SNY.

It will be great right?  Anyone is better than the WIlpons, right?

As per Tim Ryder in Metsmerized noted: “Joshua Harris, currently worth $3.5 billion, and David Blitzer were the lead investors in the group that purchased the Sixers for $287 million from Comcast in 2011. Two years later, another group headed up by Harris and Blitzer purchased a majority stake in the Devils, as well as the operating rights to the Prudential Center in Newark, for $320 million. Today, the Sixers are worth $2 Billion and the Devils are valued at $550 million.”

Sounds pretty good.

The NY Post a couple of day ago had this:  “If Steve Cohen was willing to pay $2.6 billion for a team that hemorrhages money and no TV revenue before coronavirus, the Wilpons can expect Josh to pay them 20 cents on the dollar now,” said a source familiar with Harris and Blitzer.

Yesterday the NY Post added this: In the 13 years before they bought the 76ers, the team had made the playoffs nine times; in nine years since, the 76ers have made three postseason appearances. And in the 25 years before they bought the Devils, the team had made the playoffs 21 times, including five trips to the Stanley Cup; in the seven years since, the Devils have been to the postseason just once.

Plus: “— Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment caught plenty of heat in March when it announced it was asking 76ers and Devils employees to take pay cuts of up to 20 percent and move to a four-day workweek in light of the coronavirus pandemic. By the following day, after Embiid pledged money to support those 76ers employees affected, they reversed course and admitted they were wrong.”

They did a pretty good job of tanking for a number of years with both franchises.  I am sure Mets Fans will “Trust the Process”.

They also had one of the best GMs in the NHL, Lou Lamoriello, who built one of the most successful winning teams in the sport.  When they took over, they limited his duties, and he was gone in two years.

So, their teams are good at tanking, they loose good people, and they make a lot of money for themselves.

Say this about the WIlpons.  I think the genuinely love the team and want it to win.  They just do some dumb stuff once in a while. 

Dumb stuff? What do you mean?

Like trade their top pitching prospect for a guy with a bad elbow? 

Sign a guy to hit lead-off who struck out 100 times in Japan?

 

Hire one of the biggest wall flowers in the world and say he lit up the room? 

Hire a first-time manager that can’t even fill out a lineup card?

Replace him with another first -time manager who the second gets tied to a controversy, you throw him under the bus when you didn’t do your due diligence in the first place? 

Hire your best buddy the Agent with no prior GM experience to be the GM over career baseball people who have built winning teams elsewhere?

Build a spacious stadium that is made for players that can run and fill your roster with power hitters that can’t catch the ball? 

Build a stadium that is extra spacious where your best hitter goes deep? 

Build a stadium that is homage to a team that moved out of NY over 50 years ago while ignoring the team you own?

Build a stadium and take 11 years before your franchise player gets a statue?

Trade 4 top 5 draft picks including the 6^th pick overall in the country for a CF you later release, a relief pitcher coming off a career year, a starting pitcher a year and a half away from free agency and a 35 year old 2B with leg problems that has $120M left on his contract?

Finally have a manager in your system that stresses defense, fundamentals, and aggressive base running, wins a championship, and then fire him (sorry – reassign him to a team ambassador job)?

Wait, those are more than once in a while things.

Never-mind.

Bring on the two Billionaires.

Bring on the tanking.  We will trust “The Process”. 

It can’t get worse, right?