Eric Simon was born and raised in northern New Jersey and has run
Amazin' Avenue since its inception in 2005. His parents had Mets season tickets
in 1987 and 1988 and now here we are. When he's not working full time or
watching/writing/thinking about the Mets, he managed the baseball blogs for SB
Nation. The rest of his time is spent with his wife, Kim, and their two dogs,
Oscar and Riley.
Thank you Eric for
joining our list of Mets pundits who we're asking five key New York Mets
questions.
So, let's get
started...
1. Judging that there is a new
television deal in place and the fact that the New York real estate market has
rebounded, can we assume that the Mets can’t deal up the ‘we are broke’ card
again in future drafts and off-seasons?
I honestly have no idea what the Mets' finances
are like. It's worthwhile to distinguish between "the Mets" and
"the Wilpons," however. Weak attendance and mediocre teams have
rendered the Mets a losing proposition, financially, of late. Should the
Wilpons spend more money in an effort to make the team more competitive and,
they'd hope, more profitable? Perhaps, but that assumes they have the money to
do so, and, to bring this point back around, I simply don't know if they do.
2. No one has been more perplexed at the
under-slotting and lack of drafting power names early on in the drafts. Do you
see any chance in this come June by Sandy Alderson and
Paul DePodesta?
The Mets were notorious for hewing to the
recommended slot bonuses under Omar Minaya, but they've drafted a bit more
aggressively under DePodesta. They're not likely to overpay for anyone, but I
think they'll spend more liberally, particularly for later-round draftees with
signability concerns
.
3. I was lucky to spend a couple of
years in the clubhouse during spring training. The team has lost a handful of
real nice guys this past off-season. In your opinion, how important is team
chemistry off the field and what happens when some wild card (like Kelly Shoppach or Jordany
Valdespin) shows up?
All other things being equal, most
organizations, baseball or otherwise, will naturally prefer good people to
lousy ones. The problem is that all other things are rarely equal, so teams are
left to choose between superior players with inferior attitudes and inferior players
with superior attitudes. Now, you might reasonably give up a small bit of
on-field talent in exchange for superlative character traits, but smart teams
will rarely go much beyond that. In general, successful teams have good
chemistry and struggling teams have bad chemistry, and it's not too difficult
to distinguish cause from effect.
4. The 2015 rotation looks like Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, Jon Niese, Noah Syndergaard, and
??? Care to make a guess who the SP5 will be?
Smart money is on Livan Hernandez.
5. Queens wise, in your opinion, when do
we see our next Mets playoff game?
Probably no sooner than 2015, though I think
the Mets should nevertheless be an enjoyable team to watch between now and
then.
2 comments:
Financially, despite the poor attendance, I think this huge market team has done better then everyone thinks.
A few years back when the Marlins were as usual piss poor, they cried poverty and got a new stadium financed by the good folks in Miami. Then, their finances were leaked and showed surprisingly high profits for a team drawing zero fans.
These teams, especially big market teams, have numerous revenue streams. Fred Wilpon himself stated just days ago that the Mets have been making plenty of revenue, but it was funneled out to pay off bank debt. Attendance is a big money maker, but it's not the only source of income.
Between their own tv deal and mlb's current tv deal, the Mets take in nearly 100 million annually. That's going to crease by 25 million next year because of the new MLB TV deal. That also doesn't include sny's profit, just what Sny pays the mets. Then, factor in the attendance, naming rights(25 million a yr), merchandising, food and beverage and whatever else their able to squeeze a nickle out of.
If Fred was right and they're debt free, add the expiring contracts to the equation, and what your left with is a team in great shape moving forward. One that has a surplus in the most valuable commodity; young affordable pitching. With an excellent infield that is under control and led by a franchise third baseman, a slugging first baseman, a slick fielding-good hitting SS, 40 doubles at second, and the premier catching prospect in the game.
How can any fan not be excited moving forward?
I agree Charles. First time in a long long time I am excited about this organization. It has taken a band aid approach and is not something sustainable. Just take a look at the Yankees now. But the arms at every level are exciting to watch. They become valuable trade commodities in the future and we can use them as chips to shore up the weaker positions in the organization. I'll also advise everyone to jump on the Montero bandwagon. This guy is the real deal and I'll be chanting this for a while
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