MLB needs to take the Mets away from the Wilpons

The Mets have become the walking argument AGAINST the notion that you need to be in a big market to succeed.

How about New York?
Is that a big enough market for you?

Want more revenue streams than New York City?
How about a new stadium?
How about a new TV network?

Nope?
I'm not just talking about putting an uninspired team on the field (three straight losing seasons) and I'm not just talking about them losing stars. (I actually think after three straight losing seasons with no end in sight it is smart to shed payroll and go young.)

I'm talking about how the team is run.

Only the Yankees have the advantage that the Mets have. New York! The New York media. The New York spotlight. THE Metropolis that is baseball first. And a passionate fanbase that as recently as 2008 made the Mets the best draw in the National League.

The Wilpons took all those advantages and needed a $25 million loan from baseball to stay afloat.

And guess what? They need ANOTHER $40 million loan now!

I can understand if this were Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Oakland or San Diego.
They are small cities with low revenue streams.

Not the Mets.

Mix this in with the whole Madoff mess and MLB needs to intervene.
Seriously, they did with McCourt and the Dodgers. The McCourts took a crown jewel franchise, drove them into bankruptcy court and Selig and company intervened.

They clearly couldn't run the team.

Well if the Mets have to keep loans to stay afloat and can't make a BASEBALL TEAM IN NEW YORK PROFITABLE... then why should they be allowed to run the team?

Baseball is healthiest when each team can put a good product on the field (and the number of different division winners over the last decade shows that we are getting closer to that.)

But it also helps to have a team in New York and Los Angeles be at least competitive. They make for good villains and bring a lot of casual fans to the gates.

(At least the Dodgers with all the bankruptcy mess put a winning product on the field in 2011!)

The Phillies, Braves and Marlins should be competitive next year. If the Mets were halfway decent, it would be the most exciting Division in baseball.

For now they need to rebuild. And who knows? Maybe in a few years they will be a pennant contender.

But it won't happen with the Wilpons in control.
They have proven that they can't run the team.

Now Met fans have a tendency to write nasty things to me. They think I am trashing their team constantly and have some sort of vendetta.

Nothing could be further from the truth.
I'd like to see the Mets become successful.
I like David Wright and Johan Santana.
Many friends of mine are Met fans and I'd like to see them be happy.

This isn't me picking on your team.
This is me being outraged and you Met fans should be the angriest of all!

Somewhere out there is a business man or woman who is smart enough to run a baseball team in New York and make a profit while putting a winning team on the field.

Go find the next Mets owner.
And if you want to write something mean to me, use your time and energy towards the Mets and MLB.

They are keeping the team afloat.
They should go bankrupt and have someone turn the Mets around.

Remove the Wilpons.
We can ALL agree on THAT.

You KNOW Manny Ramirez is going to the Mets

It's the perfect fit!

He's old.

He's broken down.

He is carrying more baggage than Kate Winslet entering the Titanic.

He is a shell of his former self.

And he will disrupt the clubhouse.

Sounds like a Met to me!

I say they offer him 4 years guaranteed.

Taryn Cooper and Rob Paravonian join The Sully Baseball Show

With Jose Reyes leaving the Mets and Ron Santo joining the Hall of Fame, there is a lot to talk about today.

I talk Mets with the fabulous Taryn Cooper, creator of A Gal For All Seasons.
Then I got the Cub fan point of view from the brilliant comic mind of Rob Paravonian.

It is the second hour of the Seamheads block on Monday night after What's On Second, the flagship show of the Seamheads National Podcasting Network.

Listen to internet radio with Seamheads on Blog Talk Radio

The Mets and the Marlins pull a Freaky Friday

The Marlins signing Jose Reyes makes one thing clear:
The Mets have become the Marlins and the Marlins have become the Mets.

Like Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris (or Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis) they have switched places a la Freaky Friday.

For so many years the Mets were the big market team that seemed a bit insecure. They weren't as sexy as the Yankees nor did they have the stable organization as the Braves in 1990s or the Phillies in the late 2000s. But they kept spending, kept bringing in big splashy names (even if they didn't fit.)

And it resulted in big huge mongo unmovable contracts stuffing up the payroll.

And yeah... a lot of players played for the Marlins and ended up on the Mets.
Al Leiter, Cliff Floyd, Carlos Delgado, Gary Sheffield, Dennis Cook, Livan Hernandez, Moises Alou, Kurt Abbott, Braden Looper and Luis Castillo all played in the post season with the Marlins before finding their way to Queens.

And don't forget, Mike Piazza came to the Mets not from the Dodgers but after his brief cameo in South Florida.

Well now it is the Marlins who are making the big spending signings, even if they don't 100% fit.

Heath Bell arrived in Florida as a closer in his 30s making big bucks when all logic says "Closers tend to flame out when they reach that age" and "a decent inexpensive pitcher throwing in the 9th will pile up saves".

And now they spend $106 million on shortstop Jose Reyes. Keep in mind, they are ALREADY spending $16 million a year at the shortstop position with Hanley Ramirez. You'd think they'd spend $106 million on a position that wasn't already expensively filled.

So the Marlins are winning off season headlines trying to get fannies in the seats of their new ballpark and getting season tickets sold. Whether or not they will be winning in the fall is another question. And these contracts will no doubt be clogging up their payroll for a while. (Kind of like Jason Bay, Johan Santana and David Wright are doing with the Mets.)

And oh yeah, the Marlins management is under scrutiny for underhanded financial dealings. Maybe not as big as Bernie Madoff, but its not a good way to emulate a big market club.

Meanwhile for years the Marlins were a team that big name players left. They constantly cut costs and dumped players and gave feeble nominal attempts to resign them.

Guess who that is now?
The Mets have an advantage that only the Yankees have. They play in New York. They have the biggest media market to feed from. They should have national exposure for their players. Instead they are a nickel and dime organization going nowhere in a hurry.

Carlos Beltran, Francisco Rodriguez and now Reyes are all gone. And no doubt David Wright, Jason Bay and Johan Santana could be acquired for the right price.

Their payroll is going to be significantly lower next year and a lot of players are going to be on the Mets next year who would normally be in AAA. (Sound familiar Marlin fans.)

Of course the Marlins would have DEALT Reyes at the trading deadline and piled up some prospects. But who knows? Maybe the draft picks will yield the next big Mets star. (Although it would have seemed smarter to get a big league ready prospect.)

Maybe a youth movement is exactly what the Mets needs.
Have low expectations and play all the young kids and they might build on the franchise's two total World Series titles.

Hey!
That's the same amount of titles as the Marlins!

There's only two ways the Bobby Valentine era can turn out

Well, Bobby V is coming to Boston. I wrote earlier that I was fine with either Valentine or Sandy Alomar Jr. at the helm of the Red Sox.

So I can't complain.
It's a short term solution, but maybe the whole "He was gone but now he's back to prove he can still do it" mentality could work its magic the way that Jack McKeon had in 2003 with the Marlins or Jim Leyland gave the Tigers in 2006.

Or it can be a disaster like Davey Johnson with the Dodgers or Dallas Green with the Mets or Jim Leyland with the Rockies.

The Fried Chicken Crew didn't respond to super classy, totally lovable, two time champion Terry Francona? Well try Bobby V... a man who has been wrong exactly zero times in his life.

Just ask him.

A veteran team with a know it all outsider coming in as manager could be either a brilliant move or it could be a biggest bomb than the last decade of Nicolas Cage films combined.

So the Red Sox are either going back to the World Series or about to crash and burn in a way that will make us nostalgic for September 2o11.

Either way, it won't be boring.

This is why I keep dumping on the Mets

I don't dislike the Mets.

I really don't.

I'm always kind of shocked by how they do business.

They have been handed an advantage that only the Yankees have (the New York market) and still they somehow manage to average 86 losses each of their first three seasons at CitiField.

Will 2012 be any different?

They had stretches of solid baseball last year but still just narrowly missed the 90 loss mark.

And at the trade deadline they pulled off a great deal, sending Carlos Beltran to the Giants for Zack Wheeler. Everyone knew Beltran was good as gone and they got one the Giants top pitching prospects.

But they held onto Jose Reyes.

Reyes was more valuable a chip than Beltran.

I questioned their sanity THEN.

If they wanted to sign him to a long term deal, then they could have traded him for a pair of prospects and then when he became a free agent, sign him. You get Reyes AND the prospects.

My friends who are Mets fans said that not signing him was a sign of loyalty and they were confident that Reyes would see it that way and he'd be in New York for a long time.

Well now reports are coming out that he will probably go to the Marlins.

Now mind you, I don't think signing Jose Reyes to a long term deal is a smart move. There is something about peaking on a walk season that strikes me as very J. D. Drew-esque.

And someone whose game is built on speed will be deep into his 30s during a long term contract. Never a good sign.

So in a way, having him walk could help the Mets spend the money wisely.

But they could have dealt him!

Unless they use their draft picks and snag a few stars, they will look back at the trade deadline when a player like Reyes could have been a difference maker and got a few other pieces to join Wheeler and build a new team up... and grind their teeth.

The Padres will win the pennant before the Red Sox, Cubs or Mets

Call this a hunch.
Call this a long shot.

But I think I am right about this.
I think the San Diego Padres will be in a position to be in the World Series BEFORE big market teams like the Red Sox, Cubs or Mets.

Yeah yeah yeah, I know. The Padres were a whole lot of suck last year. And I know their penny pinching ways aren't going to end in 2012.

And their chances of winning in 2012 are slim to none.
You know... like the Diamondbacks' chances were in 2011.

I know the Padres will be in full "Let's see what we've got in the minor leagues" mode in 2012 and the mantra will be "Patience while we give some talented players some experience."

But guess what? That's a better place than the Red Sox, Cubs or Mets will be in for 2012.

The 2012 Red Sox will still be reeling from a September that took them from a potential World Series to the scorched Earth purging of the front office and management. Nobody even knows who is running the show.

The 2012 Cubs have a nice story with the arrival of Theo Epstein. But when he took over the Red Sox after the 2002 season, they had just won 93 games and were a contender until the last week of the season. This Cubs team is a 91 loss mess with the Soriano and Zambrano contracts making it damn near impossible to make any major moves this season.

And those two teams are locks for the playoffs compared to the Amazing Messed Up Mets. They have unmovable contracts, injured stars, their marquee player (Jose Reyes) is a free agent and who knows what their financial situation is. Will they be sold? Will MLB focus on the Mets after the Dodger debacle is cleared?

The Padres are in a much better place. They KNOW what they are doing. They are playing young prospects and have a low payroll.

Heath Bell could leave via free agency and give them even more payroll flexibility and draft picks. Or he could stick around and anchor the bullpen and give the young pitchers some built up confidence.

Mat Latos had a step back season but still wasn't bad. And he will only be 24 next season. Clayton Richards, Cory Luebke, Josh Spence and Ernesto Frieri are all young and pitching in one of the best pitchers parks in the league.

Um... that is potentially a staff 6 pitchers deep.
Can the Red Sox, Cubs or Mets say that? Honestly?

Plus they have young Robert Erlin, Anthony Bass, Joe Weiland and Casey Kelly not far away.

They have the likes of Cameron Maybin and Kyle Blanks who seem to have been around forever but they are both still only 25 years old.

They have the young Anthony Rizzo who has already made his big league debut. So did another minor league stud, James Darnell. Third baseman Jedd Gyorko is working his way up the system.

Mix that all in with the fact that they play in a totally unpredictable division.

Between 2005 and about 2 weeks to go in the 2007 season, it looked like the Padres had control of the NL West.

Oh wait! The Diamondbacks won the 2007 Division title and about midway through the 2008 season it looked like it was theirs for a while.

Oh wait! The Dodgers won it in 2008 and 2009. And for many years to come it was going to be the Dodgers' division.

Except that the Giants won it all in 2010. And their repeat in the NL West was preordained...

But nobody told the Diamondbacks who suddenly became the Division standard bearers again.

Throw in a pennant and a Wild Card in Colorado and this Division is anyones.
Teams turn around, flame out and turn around again quickly in the NL West.

And the Padres would have almost all of the names I mentioned controlled for a few years and be allowed to gel and have a few reasonable additions to the payroll. By 2013 or 2014 they will have a legit shot at the playoffs.

As we saw by the last few Octobers, a team can make it to the World Series if they get on a roll.

The Padres have a DIRECTION.
Can you honestly say that about the Red Sox? The Cubs? The Mets?

Hats

Here's how long Mets owner Fred Wilpon conversation should have been with Bud Selig regarding September 11th first responder hats on the 10th anniversary.

WILPON: Mr. Commissioner. We want to wear hats honoring the NYPD, fire department and Port Authority on September 11th.

SELIG: During the game?

WILPON: Yes.

SELIG: Well all the teams are wearing special September 11th hats that day already. We don't like having teams wearing unofficial uniforms during a game.

WILPON: I understand, but we are a New York team and there will no doubt be fire fighters, police officers, rescue workers who were at the Towers that day at CitiField. And also relatives and friends of those who didn't make it. And we'd like to show a sign of solidarity on this 10th anniversary.

SELIG: What if we had every team change their hats on a whim?

WILPON: What other city had a September 11th? If the Nationals wanted to do something, they should. That's up to them. But September 11th was unique and this is the 10th anniversary and we are the only team playing in New York. I think an exception can be made.

SELIG: You aren't going to sell the hats or try any September 11th merchandise, are you?

WILPON: No. Certainly not.

SELIG: And it is JUST for September 11th, not the whole weekend?

WILPON: Just the Sunday night game.

SELIG: Well, I can't see how that's a problem. It's a nice gesture. Go ahead.

WILPON: Thank you Mr. Commissioner.


Boom!

All the bases covered.
That conversation would last, what? A minute? 90 seconds?

The fact that it WASN'T that simple and it has turned into a "He Said... She Said" spat involving rules that may or may not have been enforced, fines the Mets were worried they had to pay and Bud Selig was mad that it became public shows how incompetent the two parties.

Those parties of course being the Mets organization, who took every baseball advantage in the world and ran the team into the ground... and Bud Selig who every day finds new reasons to want to throw him out of office. How could Selig not see this was the right thing to do?

And of course Joe Torre was thrown into the middle of this, trying to destroy whatever good will is left for him in New York.

A simple thoughtful act of wearing a hat to honor the memories of brave men and women instead became a nice barometer of people who have lost perspective.

And frankly it is kind of fascinating.

Mattingly and Collins deserve Manager of the Year consideration

It's obvious that Kirk Gibson is going to win the National League manager of the year. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY was picking the Diamondbacks to win the NL West this year, let alone take an 8 1/2 game lead in early September.

So Gibson will add a Manager of the Year trophy next to his MVP (which will no doubt be the subject of another blog post.)

But take a look at what Don Mattingly and Terry Collins have done. Both are playing for big budgeted fiascos. The Dodgers have had as ugly a season as I can remember with all of the behind the scenes nonsense. The McCourt divorce. The handling of the Brian Stowe beating. The MLB take over. The Bankruptcy. The money being taken out of the team for personal reasons. The fans staying away in droves.

There was every reason in the world for the Dodgers to pack up and not show up. And for a while that is exactly what they were doing.

The Mets were also a mess. I thought they were a 90 loss team waiting to happen. The post Madoff Amazin' Mess was a mismatch of broken down veterans, expensive players who wanted out, young players who weren't ready and a parade of players on the disabled list.

And playing in the same Divison as the Phillies and Braves meant the season was irrelevant in April. And come trading deadline, they were sellers.

90 losses may have been a generous prediction.

Yet here we are on September 10th. The Dodgers are just 1 game under .500.
The Mets are 2 games under .500.

It would not take a Herculean effort for both teams to finish with a winning record.

The Dodgers are aided by the fact that Clayton Kershaw should win the NL Cy Young and there is a case for Matt Kemp to win the MVP.

The Mets don't have that star power, but they are finding unlikely heroes and staying focused in a way that I didn't think they had in them.

So give Don Mattingly and Terry Collins a lot of credit.
Both the Dodgers and Mets are ugly places off of the field and if the on field product reflected that, nobody would have blinked.

But if they could weather the storm of the craziness of 2011 and say "Hey! At least we put a winning product on the field" then THAT is worthy of Manager of the Year consideration.

Color me impressed, Dodger and Met fans.

Why I am standing by my "Mets will lose 90 games" pick

At the beginning of the season, I picked the Mets to lose 90 games... and man oh man Met fans HATED me for saying that.

I was called stupid, a Boston fan (which I can't deny) and my sexuality was questioned. And I still felt that the team that lost 83 games last year was worse.

Throughout the year, I would e mails from Met fans and some of my friends who are Met fans asking me if I will eat my words about the Mets and if I would admit that I was wrong.

The Mets were playing better and some fans were upset that Beltran was dealt because the Wild Card was in reach.

Calm down everyone.

90 losses remains a real possibility.

For all the talk about the Mets playing better than expected this year, let's keep a few things in mind.

They are a sub .500 team in late August. A $118 million payroll should be a contender. Being above .500 is a given.

They are on pace to lose 85 games this year, making this year a step backwards.

After tonight's loss to the Phillies they are 8 games under .500 with 34 left to play.

Just to reach break even they would have to go 21-14 the rest of the way... a .600 clip.

And with Beltran gone and Reyes injured, the team has no spark.

The Mets have lost 15 of their last 20 games. This is their third 5 game losing streak since July 30th and their next four games are against the Phillies and Braves.

In order to lose 90 games, the Mets would have to go 12-22 the rest of the way.

So nope. I am standing by my pick. Besides, part of my rationale was that they would unload some players at the deadline and the weakened team would play some legit contenders. And that's kinda sorta exactly what happened.

They were last above .500 on August 1.

They are 5-14 since.

Why is Jose Reyes still a Met?

Seriously. What the hell?

Do the Mets think they have a shot at the Wild Card? If so, why did they deal Francisco Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran?

They are in rebuilding mode... then REBUILD!

They got a quality chip in exchange for Beltran. Imagine what they could have snagged from the Cardinals for Reyes. From the Angels. From ANY team that needs a spark in the shortstop position.

(I thought the Giants should have packaged for Beltran AND Reyes.)

They could have at least 2 players who if they aren't big leagues ready now, they will be by 2012 or 2013.

And THEN when Reyes hit the open market, out bid everyone for him there. You could even say to him before the trade "No matter what happens this year, nobody is going to out bid us." Wink wink.

They get the prospects AND they get Reyes for next year.

And yet here he is. Still with the Mets. I give the Mets tons of credit for keeping their nose above .500 and if they have a winning season, then color me impressed. There is NO WAY they are passing Atlanta or Philadelphia this year.

But they COULD be building a team for when Philadelphia's age catches up to them (which could be in a year or 2.)

Reyes, Wright and Wheeler would be on that team. But for the love of Sid Fernandez, so could have a few other players!

Someone help me. Someone explain it to me.

I'm at a loss.

The Mets have thrown in the towel

Wow. I had a feeling the Mets fire sale would start soon. But I didn't think it would happen while players were still lingering around Chase Field in Phoenix for post All Star Game festivities.

Beltran and Reyes better get back to Queens fast before they are shipped out!

Francisco Rodriguez is now a Milwaukee Brewer. And while I don't trust him in post season play any further than I can throw him, but he does pile up saves in the regular season and now those late inning leads will go to someone else.

And the domino effect is going to happen in that bullpen and it won't be pretty.
Beltran is next. If they can get a package for Reyes, why not?

When I talked about my lousy predictions for the season, one of my readers pointed out that I didn't mention my prediction that the Mets would lose 90 games.

I'm standing by the prediction. I think this team is about to be dismantled. And they will be essentially fielding an expansion team for August and September... and the mood will get from bad to worse.

Yes I know they are a game over .500 now after their first 91 games.
And to reach 90 losses they'll have to double their loss total in just 71 games.

I've seen teams unravel fast.
They could go 26-45 the rest of the way. 6 of their next 7 games are against the Phillies and Cardinals.

The Mets have series involving the Reds, Diamondbacks, Phillies, Braves and Brewers in August. They also have a bunch of games with the Marlins and Nationals who are playing better.

In other words, losses could pile up fast, especially if morale is bad.

Now keep in mind one thing:
I think the Mets are doing the right thing.
They are dumping bodies off the sinking ship and will have some growing pains with the new crew.

They SHOULD deal Beltran. And if anyone can take Bay do that too.

Read this carefully Mets fans:
I think the Mets will be a major contender in a couple of seasons. I trust Sandy Alderson and sometimes it is a good thing to hit rock bottom.

And Met fans, go to a game at CitiField this year. Nobody will ever question your loyalty to your team after this season.

I've got to give the Mets credit...

I've been brutal on the Mets both on my blog and the podcast.

I wondered how a team in New York could be losing money, putting a non contender on the field and be an absolute mess.

And I predicted that they will have a firesale and lose 90 games.

Now I stand by most of those statements.
But I have to give Terry Collins some credit.
He has been handed a crappy hand (and the aftermath of the Omar Minaya years) and has the team over .500.

He doesn't have David Wright nor Johan Santana at his disposal. And the line up and bullpen has been patch work.

Just last night the Mets had Willie Harris at DH, Lucas Duda at first base, Justin Turner at second base and Josh Thole at catcher. That's a lineup you'd expect at a split squad spring training game.

And they throttled Detroit to the tune of 14 runs. And that's not a chump team. That's a first place team they blew out of the water on the road.

I don't know how much longer this will last. I still think Reyes and Beltran and Rodriguez are going to be dealt in a month (and why not? They could get three valuable and cheap building blocks for them.)

And it is unlikely that they will leapfrog five teams for a playoff spot.
But if they split the next few games, they will be at the official half way spot with a winning record... and that's more than I was expecting.

And if I can give the Pirates, Nationals, Diamondbacks, Indians and Mariners all credit for exceeding expectations, then I suppose I should for the Mets as well.

Things could be worse for the Mets. They could be the Dodgers.

Frankie Rodriguez blew a save!

He evidently gets a lot of saves.
According to his Baseball Reference page, he has 19 saves for a Mets team that only has 35 wins.
But every time I see him play, he blows the lead.

I must have bad luck watching him.
(Or good luck when you consider all of his post season losses against the Red Sox.)

Hey Pirates... here's a tip from your pal Sully

If you REALLY want to change the culture of the team and have a .500 record or (God Forbid) a winning season... step one is when you have a 7-0 lead against a dead from the neck up team like the Mets... HOLD ON TO THAT LEAD!

Don't blow it like you did today.

Instead of being just one game under .500, you guys are 3 under.
Ahhh... the Phillies are up next.
Well, at least THEY are an easy team.

Jose Reyes should replace Buster Posey

The Giants lost their young budding superstar catcher Buster Posey to injuries for the rest of the season? Naturally the Mets shortstop should take his place.

I do not literally mean take Posey’s position of course. The Giants need to fill the catcher’s position but that is a short order. Eli Whiteside is a capable catcher and Bengie Molina, the man who Buster Posey made expendable, can be signed as a free agent. Both can split time behind the plate and call a good game. Maybe even Fresno’s Jackson Williams can catch a few games for the parent club.

Getting someone to squat and tell the pitchers what to throw is not an issue. His bat will be sorely missed. A team this offensively challenged can’t afford to simply remove Posey from the lineup. The combination of Molina, Whiteside and Williams can’t make up for his production.

But Jose Reyes can.

The Mets shortstop is healthy and contributing in the lineup. He leads the league in hits and triples. He has 17 steals and his OPS is in the .800s. And he is doing it in a miserable situation. If he could do that in the poisonous Mets culture, imagine how he could flourish in the positive environment of the defending World Champions!

The Mets are imploding, sinking in the standings, infighting with the management and selling off chunks of the team.

When a team is trying to find new investors (or maybe a new owner) and losing tens of millions of dollars, wouldn’t it behoove them to start cutting payroll? Especially when the team is a losing team in an empty stadium. Hell, Wilpon has already said his team stinks. Why not start dumping the bodies?

If the Mets can get two good prospects for Reyes, whose contract expires at the end of the season, then it makes sense for them. Getting two players who have already passed much of the minor league gauntlet might be a surer bet than the two draft picks the Mets would get after Reyes’ inevitable free agent departure. (Why would he want to come back to the Amazin’ Mess.)

The Giants are in a position to trade from strength. It is always risky to deal pitching, but with a rotation of Linecum, Cain, Bumgarner, Sanchez and even Vogelsong, the Giants have depth in the rotation. Wilson, Ramirez, Lopez, Romo and Mota give them the deep bullpen. If ANY team can trade a pitching prospect or two, it is the Giants.

Maybe dealing top prospect Zack Wheeler would be a stretch. And maybe lefty reliever Alex Hinshaw, who has some big league experience, might not be enticing. But first baseman prospect Brandon Belt could be intriguing for the Mets. 23 year old control artist Eric Surkamp could be spared. And slick fielding young shortstop Brandon Crawford won’t be needed. I am sure a package could be slapped together.

And it could even be easier if the Giants ever agreed to take on any more of the Mets payroll. Jason Bay is owed $35 million over the next two years. Johan Santana is owed $50 million. Send one of those contracts to China Basin and the accountants in Queens would be much obliged. Granted, the only stadium worse for Jason Bay’s talents than CitiField is AT&T Park. But imagine if Santana comes back to form? But I digress. This discussion is about Jose Reyes.

And the Giants have a spot waiting for him. Sorry, Miguel Tejada. The experiment to capture lightning in a bottle again after the post season success of Edgar Renteria and Juan Uribe simply isn’t happening for the 2011 Giants infield. The bat speed is not there. The power is not there. The range is not there. He is aging the way 37 year olds USED to age.

Replace the lumbering Tejada with the spark plug of Reyes, rejuvenated after his parole from Queens and suddenly the Giants line up is a little more electric. He has gap to gap power and can stretch doubles into triples, making San Francisco the ideal park for his offense.

And playing for a potential post season run could not hurt his free agent prospects.

Deal a little of tomorrow for a chance to repeat today, Giants. You don’t need a catcher who can hit. You need a player who can hit.

Make the call. The Mets are DYING to shed some payroll.

News about the Mets read like Onion Headlines

Seriously, if I were to write a parody about the Mets misfortunes how could I POSSIBLY come up with two more insane headlines than:

"METS STILL OWE BOBBY BONILLA $30 MILLION!"

or

"DAVID WRIGHT DIDN'T REALIZE HE HAD A BROKEN BACK!"

Man oh man.

Better start trading the veterans away now... if for no other reason than for mercy.

It's the flea market series

The Mets and Dodgers are playing in the ballpark that is a shrine to the history and legacy of the Dodgers: CitiField.

The two teams from the two biggest markets are squaring off. And at this point they are both sub .500 teams with outrageous financial issues.

Let me put it this way:
The Mets could lose up to $100 million over the last two seasons and are involved in one of the great financial scandals of our age... and they are the STABLE one of the two teams.

As Frank McCourt is gearing up for a spectacular flame out, the Dodgers might not even reach payroll for June.

So when you have two expensive bad teams, what can you expect to happen later in the year?

SELL SELL SELL!

So take a look at the talent on display. If you want someone, make an offer.
One team could use a lower payroll every 2 weeks and the other team has already thrown good money after bad in the Oliver Perez/Luis Castillo fiasco.

Make your bids. These teams will look a LOT different on August 1 after the trade deadline!

After you... no after you

Was it just me or did neither the Mets nor the Giants seemed interested in winning this game tonight?

The Giants get the go ahead run in scoring position in the 8th... Gotch.
The Mets get the go ahead run in scoring position in the 8th... nada.
The Giants load the bases in the 9th... zilch.
The Mets get a lead off double in the bottom of the 9th... zippo.

FINALLY it took a Huff homer in the 10th and even then Wilson lets the tying run aboard and had the winning run at the plate in the bottom of the 10th.

The World Champs throw Lincecum tomorrow and they'll be back at .500.
Maybe they'll play with some URGENCY tomorrow.

Albert Pujols will be a Dodger or a Met… and I predict a conspiracy theory

A bizarre and round about series of events and coincidences have made it clear to me that Albert Pujols will almost certainly not be a member of the St. Louis Cardinals next year.

Before Pujols files for free agency, two large market franchises will change ownership and be in position to bid for him, and I believe Bud Selig will be manipulating the whole thing to help preserve his legacy.

That’s right, I am predicting a conspiracy before there are any facts or events to back up my theory. I admit that is no easy trick. But I think I am on to something.

Follow me…

Bud Selig is retiring in 2012. With the steroid era evidently behind him and if baseball avoids a work stoppage (and the NFL and NBA have one) then he will be able to claim that he left the game clean and thriving with labor peace.

But there are four gigantic messes he needs to clean up before riding off into the sunset.

Two won’t be covered here, but I will mention them: The Rays and the A’s stadium disasters. Neither team can last in their current dumps and nor have a viable solution for survival, especially if the Giants can block the A’s move to San Jose. But that is another post.

The big BIG mess is the state of the Mets and Dodgers, two of the flagship franchises of the National League. According to USA Today, only the Yankees and Red Sox are worth more than the Dodgers and those teams plus the Cubs are the only ones worth more than the Mets.

I don’t think it is stretch to call New York and Los Angeles big markets. And guess what? They are both in financial chaos.

The Dodgers have been mismanaged to the point where MLB had to take the unprecedented steps of essentially removing the owner from power. (We’ll see if Frank McCourt surrenders the power of the team.)

And the Mets should be on notice. If the twisted finances of the McCourt divorce can make Selig and company take over the Dodgers, then being swindled by Bernie Madoff (and not being sure what they knew in advance) should be even a greater cause for MLB to step in and take the car keys away from the Wilpons.

In the very least, the Mets should be forced to sell.

So that would mean the Mets and Dodgers would have new ownership going into the 2012 season. And also have a disillusioned fan base, declining attendance and a natural division rival playing well (the Phillies for the Mets and the Giants for the Dodgers.)

Whomever is going to run the Mets and the Dodgers will need to assure their paying customers (and TV viewers and sponsors) that not only are the bad days behind them but glamorous superstar days are ahead.

The Giants were in a similar boat when Peter Magowan took over the team in the wake of the proposed move to Tampa Bay. He found the quickest way to get the fan base energized: He signed the best player in baseball, Barry Bonds.

Which brings us to Albert Pujols. He’s a free agent to be. He has nothing left to prove in St. Louis when he finishes this, his 11th season. He has given the Cardinals a championship, post season heroics, MVPs and done so with class and a flair for the dramatic. And, as I said in a previous video, Cardinal fans can NEVER boo him.

Pujols could need a new challenge in his life, the biggest contract in baseball history and a chance to be a hero in a brand new market.

(See Rose, Pete. See Jackson, Reggie. And Albert is better than both of them!)

And if just so happens that the Dodgers have an opening at first base. I may not be 100% sure how VORP works, but I can guess that Albert Pujols replacing James Loney is an improvement.

And the Mets have Ike Davis, who is a nice player. When you have the chance to get one of the great offensive players of all time, you might think about sacrificing a nice player or two!

Both the Dodgers and the Mets will have new owners, money to spend and a city to impress. And they will BOTH bid on Albert Pujols.

Why do I say that with such certainty? Because Selig will make sure of it. Captain Bud will not let an owner take over the Dodgers nor the Mets unless they were intending on trying to sign Pujols.

It makes sense for the Dodgers to win back their fans and show there is a new era in Chavez Ravine.

It makes sense for the Mets to turn the page on the Wilpon fiasco (and no doubt Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins would welcome Albert’s arrival.)

It makes sense for labor peace as players making big contracts is always looked on fondly by the Players Association.

And it makes sense for Selig as he leave the game with franchises other than the Yankees and Red Sox bidding over the biggest free agents.

And which ever team can’t land Pujols will have a nice consolation prize in Prince Fielder.

Think Selig is above this sort of backroom dealings? Or perhaps not clever enough?

PUH-lease. I am not going to even go into the whole “Used Car Salesman” past of Mr. Selig.

This was the guy who maneuvered the ownership of the Expos, Marlins and Red Sox around so his hand picked successor would take over in Boston instead of the McCourts.

This was the guy who claimed to have no clue about the steroid culture, even though allegations were made public as far back as 1988, when Peter Ueberroth was commissioner.

This was the guy who was part of the owners group that ousted Fay Vincent for not doing their bidding and installing himself as owner/commissioner. It was supposed to be temporary. That was 1992.

This was one of the many owners found guilty of collusion in the 1980s.

Shady wheeling and dealing are right in Bud Selig’s wheelhouse.

So a nudge here and there and making sure the new owners come with an aggressive eye on Albert is not as outlandish as colluding, kicking the commissioner out and not noticing that the players all were bigger than the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

You heard it here first on Sully Baseball.

I am declaring it a conspiracy before it actually happens.

Colluding is and always will be part of Bud Selig’s legacy.