Mack – Random Thoughts: COVID, Testing Mess, Conditions of a Sale, If I Owned SNY

Good morning.

Baseball players continue to test positive. The daily list is growing faster than new cases in Florida.

Let’s stop for a second. Are we doing the right thing here? No one loves baseball more than I do and I am truly excited that I will be watching sort of live baseball at the end of this month, but are we seriously doing the right thing here?

This virus is a damned if you do, damned if you don’t moment in our history. Leave things open and more people get sick and some die. Close things down and businesses and the economy go out the window.

No one planned it but I’m afraid if we don’t deal with this again… now… it will not go away and cost us the lives of some ballplayers or members of their families.

Jay Jaffe of Fangraphs further wrote on this subject, and their testing mess:

Unless the league and the union can iron out the process in short order, it’s entirely possible that players who have already expressed ambivalence about proceeding, from Mike Trout and Buster Posey on down, could join David Price, Ian Desmond, and others in opting out. If enough marquee players do so, it could undermine MLB’s attempt to preserve the competitive integrity of the season, not that a 60-game schedule doesn’t do so by definition.

None of this will surprise the chorus of people saying that baseball shouldn’t even attempt to proceed, and it probably shouldn’t do so for those of us who have at least been willing to suspend disbelief and see how the process unfolds. But unlike Tanaka, nobody should be blindsided by the risks involved in this attempt to play, or the speed with which the consequences of a mishap can cause serious damage. MLB needs to tighten things up immediately, or the 2020 season is going to fall apart completely.

We are all seeing the final list of bidders still in the hunt to own the Mets. All their offers will come with ‘conditions’.

I have bought radio stations. I have also sold radio stations. Every sale comes with conditions, and what they would be in a Mets sale will matter greatly.

The conditions could be:

An assumption of all debts remain with the old owner. In simple terms, the old owner would have to pay all existing monies owed and turn the team over to the new owner with no monies owed.

An agreement that the current finances, including monies owed, would be passed to the new owners. I am sure the Wilpons would love this to happen but someone like Steve Cohen would never go for this condition. Still, doesn’t hurt to ask. The amount of the offer could solve this hiccup. Let’s say there is $300K worth of outstanding bills. Just tack that amount on your offer and pay them off when you take over.

The league, minority owners, and specific lease providers like the stadium must agree to the sale under the conditions set by the old and new owner. I don’t anticipate any problems here, but the stadium’s union agreement and any monies still owed to the people that built it could be sticky.

Here's a long shot... the old owner would have to pay off monies currently contracted to pay in the future to specific players like Jed Lowrie and Robinson Cano. There would then be no reason to keep these players on the team.

Lastly, the very profitable SNY Network. In my opinion, the Wilpons are going to have to give in on holding on to this one.

Further on the SNY Network… if I owned it, there would be changes. My local cable subscriber removed SNY from my available channels around five years ago, so I am not sure what the lineup is now, but I would still make some fan friendly changes.

They would be (if the parties mentioned could come to an agreement with me):

A new morning show hosted by Michael Barron. Michael got his start here as a photographer and has grown into a Twitter legend. What better way to start the day than watching him interview players and take questions from fans.

I would offer a full-time job, without travel, to Adam Rubin to be the Editor of the news and column department. Adam left the New York Post because the money was bad and the travel was killing his family lifestyle. I can solve both those.

I would reconstruct the writers on the site. Cerrone and Martino would be replaced key members of the blogging community that have earned their reputation. They would include some of my own writers, plus other bloggers like they guys we are now sharing content with. I would also offer a position to outsiders like John Strubel and writers that specialized in covering the minor league teams.

I would end my changes with returning ex-Met Bobby Ojeda to the post game coverage. I know he has always spoke from his heart and I would have it no other way.