Tag: Fire Wilpon

Mets Bring Back Omar Minaya. Is This Real Life?

On By themetssiah1 Comment

Let’s briefly recap the current state of the Mets before diving into the latest shenanigans:

  • The Mets went 70-92 in 2017 and were one of the worst teams.
  • They traded 1/5 of their roster at the trade deadline (Lucas Duda, Neil Walker, Jay Bruce, Curtis Granderson, Addison Reed) primarily for salary relief (roughly 60 million in total salaries came off the books).
  • The Mets “fired” Terry Collins and then immediately hired him in a front office role.
  • The Mets hired new manager Mickey Callaway and basically put all the pressure on him to turn around the pitching staff.
  • The media reported that the Wilpons will be slashing payroll and the Mets will have roughly 30 million to spend on the roster.
  • The Mets signed some reliever named Anthony Swarzak for a 6 million dollar salary in 2018.
  • Sandy Alderson spent most of the offseason serving as the GM on a volunteer basis without a contract (definitely not strange at all) and yesterday he received a contract extension (after doing basically nothing to improve the team).
  • The media is now reporting the Mets only have 10 million dollars left to spend. (Had 30m, spent 6m, and now have 10m left? That’s some Wilpon math).

And to top it all off, today the Mets announced that they are bringing back former GM Omar Minaya to serve in a player development role. That’s right folks. Fred Wilpon has decided to put a nice poop cherry on top of this shit sundae of an offseason by bringing back his old buddy Omar despite the objections of the current front office.

With this move the Wilpons have brought the franchise full circle. We had Omar Minaya during the Madoff era, Sandy Alderson during the post-Madoff years, and now Fred Wilpon has decided that it’s a smart idea to create a two-headed GM monster comprised of Sandy AND Omar. Genius move! This is definitely something that a well run organization would choose to do. I can’t envision any scenario where this new dynamic fails.

This move once again confirms that it doesn’t matter who sits in the front office as long as the dysfunctional Wilpons make the final calls. The only thing that seemingly hasn’t come full circle is the Wilpons’ bank account. The economy is currently booming yet they still act like we’re in the middle of the financial crisis and they have no money to invest in their beloved Mets. Whatever money they do have they’ve been pouring it into the stupid New York Islanders hockey arena and that damn e-sports team that they recently bought a stake in.

Remember in 2015 when the media talked non-stop about the Mets championship window? Well in 2016 the window started to close and that last minute wild card playoff appearance helped keep it open just a crack. In 2017 the Mets were among the worst teams and the window basically slammed shut. And today Fred Wilpon grabbed Omar Minaya and smashed him head first through Sandy Alderson’s championship window. The window has completely shattered.

The media recently reported that Fred Wilpon was furious when the Yankees traded for Giancarlo Stanton. He gets “pissed” when the Yankees are successful and the Mets struggle. Ummm welcome to the goddamn club Fred. If only you could do something to make your own team better but alas, you’re just a powerless owner. 

He also supposedly doesn’t think the Yankees economic model is “sustainable”. Fred Wilpon, a man who emptied his bank account and confidently gave his money to Bernie Madoff (the biggest fraudster in the history of the world), doesn’t think the Yankees formula for winning championships (the most successful formula in the history of professional sports) is sustainable?!? Is this real life? Just reading that makes me feel like I’m on an acid trip. My brain is melting just trying to comprehend that Wilpon logic.

The Yankees model for success is to let smart baseball people make the baseball decisions and to spend more money than any other team on talent. It definitely works. They have 27 championships to prove that it works.

What’s the solution to fix the Mets? There is no solution as long as the Wilpons refuse to spend any money on the team. You can’t add 25 wins to a 70 win roster without spending money on new talent and you certainly can’t fix the problems with 10 million dollars. The Mets could turn this roster into a playoff contender tomorrow if they decided to spend money commensurate with the market they play in. The Wilpons are CHOOSING not to do that. So I choose not to show up.

I’m not starting a full blown boycott. I’ll stop buying team merchandise. I already have a Jacob deGrom jersey and a 2015 NLCS t-shirt. I don’t need anything else. I’ll accept free tickets if people want to drag my lazy ass to the games. But I’m not handing the Wilpons my hard earned cash anymore. 

Plus, you don’t really need to actively boycott a garbage team. That takes care of itself naturally. If the Mets don’t spend another dime on the roster before the start of the 2018 season the once populous Panic City will transform into NobodyGivesAShitVille by the end of May.

I’m sure I’ll wind up torturing myself and watching this stupid team again next year. My head is already filling with delusional scenarios that lead to the Mets making another playoff run. In my head Dominic Smith and Amed Rosario are immediately studs and Michael Conforto fully recovers from his injury and Yoenis Cespedes wins MVP and Noah Syndergaard/Jacob deGrom battle for the Cy Young and Matt Harvey has a big contract year and Jeurys Familia revives the bullpen and Wilmer Flores breaks out with an OPS over .800 and hits 30 homers.

I may be a delusional die hard fan, but don’t let my baseless optimism fool you. This Mets ship is sinking. Sandy Alderson, the Wilpons, and now Omar Minaya may not believe it’s happening. But this ship is made of broken pitchers, injury-prone position players and cheap middling talent. I assure you, she can sink. And she will. ‘Tis a mathematical certainty.

The Mets Are Still Lying To Us

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Last night the Mets traded Jay Bruce to the Cleveland Indians for a relief prospect named Ryder Ryan. Ryan is a converted infielder and was drafted in the 30th round of the 2016 draft. He’s currently getting lit up in Single-A. The guy isn’t even a top 30 rated prospect in Cleveland’s system. It was reported after the deal was announced that the Mets may have passed on receiving two better prospects from the Yankees for Bruce solely because they refused to eat some of Bruce’s salary in a potential deal.

This trade has hammered home the reality that the Mets continue to deceive all the fans. The front office can’t even be trusted to complete a trade deadline sell-off that is in the best interests of the franchise. It’s pretty clear that the primary motivation for the Bruce/Duda/Reed deals wasn’t to acquire the best quality prospects in return. The primary goal was to maximize salary relief and take whichever young players we could get in the process.

The Mets media can try to spin this trade deadline with all the positive headlines in the world:

These headlines won’t hide the reality that the Mets front office can’t be trusted as long as they continue to be handcuffed by the Wilpons.

When Brian Cashman acquires a pitcher like Sonny Gray, you know he’s making a decision that he believes to be in the best interests of the franchise. Same thing goes for Theo Epstein. You know when Theo makes a deal he feels it fits into his grand plan.When Sandy makes a decision it is impossible to determine whether he’s making the choice because it’s part of his plan or if he’s compelled to make said choice because of the Wilpon influence.

The recent lies have exacerbated my skepticism of Sandy and the Mets front office. The Mets have lied to us about:

The Trade Deadline In General

The trade deadline came and went and in the end, the Mets failed to execute a successful full sell-off of their impending free agents. Curtis Granderson and Asdrubal Cabrera are still here. Alderson attributed the failure to deal Cabrera/Grandy to the lack of a market for position players. He’s right to say that the market for position players was limited. Teams were clearly focused on acquiring relief and starting pitching.

That being said, are we supposed to believe that the Mets had zero opportunities to trade these guys for anything? The White Sox ended up trading outfielder Melky Cabrera to the Royals for two prospects (one of the prospects was 13th ranked in their system). The White Sox agreed to pay half of Melky’s remaining salary to facilitate their deal with the Royals. In mid-July the Mets leaked that they were willing to eat salary at the deadline to secure better prospects, but then they didn’t absorb one penny when they shipped off Bruce and Duda.

I’d like to believe Sandy when he says that he explored every possible trade scenario, but we all know it’s bullplop. The Mets refused to eat salary and instead watched plenty of comparable position players change uniforms for a superior return (e.g. Howie Kendrick, Eduardo Nunez, Todd Frazier, J.D. Martinez, and Melky Cabrera)

‬The Returns for Duda and Bruce

The Mets traded Lucas Duda, Addison Reed, and Jay Bruce for five minor league relief prospects and so far Alderson has gave the fans/media the impression that he was very happy with the return. But was it the best possible return?

It was widely reported that the Yankees had interest in Lucas Duda. In mid-July, Sandy Alderson went as far as to say that he would consider a deal with the Yankees. Then the Mets traded Duda to the Rays for a relief prospect (Drew Smith, 30th ranked in their system). Shortly after the Duda deal it was reported that the Mets refused to trade Duda to the Yankees. As I mentioned above, last night after Bruce was traded we heard similar news that the Yankees wanted Bruce and offered a superior deal but the Mets passed. If those reports have even a shred of credibility then how can we possibly believe that Sandy made the trades with the Rays and Indians for the right reasons?

The AJ Ramos and Reed Deals

 

I had similar concerns with the return in the Reed trade. Addison Reed was one of the top commodities available at the deadline and the Mets traded him to the Red Sox for relief prospects Jamie Callahan (23rd ranked), Gerson Bautista (28th ranked), and Stephen Nogosek (18th ranked). On the surface the deal makes sense. The Mets lack high upside relief arms in their system and their 2017 bullpen has been bad. But it was also reported that the Mets may have passed on acquiring a better quality prospect from the Red Sox in favor of quantity. Why? Did the Mets target relief prospects for the right reasons? I don’t think so.

I think the Mets acquired AJ Ramos to create the narrative that they’re improving the bullpen for 2018 when in reality Ramos is just a replacement for Addison Reed. The Mets have no intention of making a contract offer to Reed who has been one of the top relievers in baseball over the last two seasons. They’re just going to let Reed walk, and they won’t be signing any viable relievers in free agency because they never do that. The 2018 bullpen will be Familia, Ramos, and a revolving door of relief prospects that we picked up at this year’s trade deadline. Maybe the new young arms will pan out. Maybe they’ll get lit up. But one thing is certain. There’s no way the Mets will invest any money in bullpen improvements this offseason.

Conclusion = No Hope

From David Wright’s health status (he’s not healthy), to the reason for the delay of Amed Rosario’s big league promotion (Super Two cutoff? Refusal to bench highly paid veterans?), to the real motivation for wanting to pick up Asdrubal Cabrera’s contract option (he’ll be cheaper than any other free agents at third base), the list of lies just goes on and on.

Is there any hope? Nope. Not really. Don’t expect the Mets to make the right decisions in the offseason either. Not with the Wilpons running the show. All we can do is enjoy watching the kids play for the rest of 2017 and hope that somehow the young pitchers magically heal and dominate once again in 2018.

Just Relax And Watch The Mets Burn

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On Sunday when the Mets bullpen gave up seven runs and the team blew their 7-3 lead against the Brewers it was clearly the lowest point of the season. It was basically your standard “fire everyone” Mets rock bottom game. Mets fans know that the team has at least 10 of these moments per season. Last night’s loss to the Diamondbacks was pathetic as well. It was a 1-1 ballgame in the 8th inning, our horrendous bullpen got involved, I blinked, and three home runs later it was 7-1 Diamondbacks.

But honestly who the hell cares? None of the things that are happening to this franchise right now are all that surprising. The smoke has been building for a while now and finally the fire has started.

The injuries to our best hitter (Yoenis Cespedes) and starting pitcher (Noah Syndergaard) were literally caused by decisions made by our incompetent organization. I have no idea if participation in the World Baseball Classic played a part in the Jeurys Familia injury, but people certainly are speculating that it had an impact.  The other key injuries aren’t surprising because the roster is filled with a number of fragile veterans and injury prone players. And almost every injury issue has been exacerbated by terrible DL management.

The bullpen problems are 100% attributable to a lack of depth that was known for the entire offseason, and also to Terry Collins’ bullpen mismanagement. Terry has been destroying relievers for his entire tenure as manager. He should have already lost his job for that reason alone.

The front office is ultimately responsible for the Mets currently having the worst pitching staff in the sport despite devoting years of player development resources trying to stockpile top young pitching talent. Where is the next generation of arms? If the front office thought the team didn’t need to add any veteran arms in the offseason then they must have felt we had viable depth in the minors. Soooo where the hell is the depth?

The front office/ownership also never gave this team a chance to win the NL East. The Nationals split a doubleheader on Sunday. They are now 24-13. I’m not going to get worked up about a stupid ass organization that had its sights set on the Wild Card before the season even started.

If the Mets had spent the offseason building a team that had a chance to win 95 games, then maybe I’d be upset about the adversity this team has dealt with in 2017. But this ownership group had no intention of building an elite NL club. So why bother getting worked up when scouts and experts seemingly agreed before the season that this Mets roster had the talent to win 85-88 win games? The Nationals were better than the Mets last season, and they improved their ball club. There was no reason to expect anything other than frustrating mediocre baseball in 2017.

The Yankees spent Sunday adding Jeter’s plaque to monument park, and I’m sure Brian Cashman spent some time thinking about his goals for the Yankees franchise. I guarantee you his long term goal doesn’t include Wild Cards and 86 win seasons.

When I say I plan to relax and watch the team burn, I’m not trying to say I’m rooting against the Mets. I’m just saying I’m fine letting this play out. I can’t handle the Panic City mentality day in and day out anymore. It’s draining me. Let’s just see what happens over the next 30 days.

If Steven Matz, Seth Lugo, and Yoenis Cespedes return and Matt Harvey/Robert Gsellman start to show signs of life then maybe there’s some hope for this team. If we’re still playing like crap come mid-June then we need to call up Amed Rosario, Gavin Cecchini, and Dominic Smith and trade every single impending free agent for some pitching depth at the upper minor league level. Lord knows we need it.

Fire Wilpon

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In 15 years Noah Syndergaard will be pitching for the Texas Rangers against the New York Yankees in a September game in what will be his last season as a major league pitcher. He won’t throw 100 MPH anymore, but he’ll still be able to take it up to 92-94 MPH in those high pressure spots when the adrenaline is pumping. He’ll be finishing up an impressive and long career that included pitching for four different teams and many experts will see him as a hall of famer.

Matt Harvey will already be retired and working in the broadcast booth for the YES Network. He’ll be handling coverage of the game featuring his former teammate. Harvey will be one of those broadcasters that occasionally wears his championship rings in the booth. The two World Series championships, and the Cy Young he won in Yankee pinstripes are the clear highlights in what turned out to be a distinguished career.

They both occasionally chat with Steven Matz who retired two years earlier after a successful career as both a starting pitcher and a dominant late inning reliever. Matz still receives questions from fans about whether he preferred starting or relieving. In his heart he knows he loved being a starter, but it wasn’t until he left the Mets and re-invented himself as a reliever that his career really took off.

Jacob deGrom is retired living in Florida with his family. In the last season of his career he decided to try and return to Flushing to finish things where it all started. He was already considered one of the greatest pitchers in Mets history, but he felt like closing things out in Queens made sense. Unfortunately the Wilpons wouldn’t take any phone calls from his agent. They had no interest in giving him the 8 million dollar one year deal that he wanted to make the Mets reunion happen.

Once a year the four pitchers get together for dinner in New York to reminisce about their years in Queens. It’s always bittersweet since the conversation revolves around early career injuries, mistakes made in the 2015 World Series, and how frustrating it is that they never made it back as a group despite all the pitching talent. Generally the pitchers avoid bad mouthing an organization that many feel mishandled their injuries time and time again. The guys are just too classy and proud to make excuses and play the blame game.

The Sad Reality: That narrative above is where we are heading folks. As long as the Wilpons continue to be the final decision makers for this franchise we are destined to continue seeing regular incompetence in every area of this franchise. On Sunday the Mets lost one of the most embarrassing games I have ever witnessed. The 23-5 loss erased any good feelings from the weekend series win in Washington. Noah Syndergaard left the game with a lat injury that I’m sure was a result of him changing his mechanics to try and compensate for another injury that we don’t know about yet. We all saw it coming the second our front office allowed him to refuse an MRI. Refusing treatment from medical professionals is not typically an option that sports organizations give a 23 year old unless that organization is the incompetent New York Mets franchise.

I don’t want to hear about how the union could file grievances and how you can’t force players to go to the doctor. I don’t want to hear about how trainer Ray Ramirez is incompetent. Ramirez doesn’t make the big medical decisions. I don’t want to hear about how this is Terry Collins’ fault for recklessly pushing his players. Decisions involving injuries to franchise players shouldn’t be made by the manager.

This all falls at the feet of ownership. If you really feel more comfortable blaming Wilpon stooge Sandy Alderson then go right ahead. The bottom line is the mishandling of injuries and re-occurring organizational incompetence is the fault of Fred and Jeff. I still feel like this organization will never escape the cycle of embarrassment until the Wilpons are out of the picture.

Depressing Updates:

  • Noah Syndergaard had an a MRI today, and he has a partially torn lat. He’s out forever. I can’t wait for the Wilpon media to start questioning his toughness like they did with Steven Matz (who’s also out forever). I’m already seeing articles attributing Thor’s injury to the fact that he put on extra muscle this offseason. I’m sure we will see the same Wilpon media spin around Cespedes before long.
  • Seth Lugo has a half torn UCL. He’s out forever.
  • Rafael Montero is officially our fifth starter. If you thought it was okay to let Bartolo Colon walk and that the Mets had enough pitching depth you were 100% wrong.
  • We can’t go to Citi Field and watch Yoenis Cespedes until god knows when because of this organization’s incompetence. The Wilpons may have signed Yo, but if we can’t watch him play because their incompetence caused him to be injured does it even matter?
  • If you spent the offseason saying “we need to trade Jay Bruce immediately” you were 100% wrong. He’s going to wind up playing everyday all season. Without his contributions at the plate in April we might have the worst record in baseball.
  • Lucas Duda isn’t coming off the DL on schedule. He’s seemingly had a setback related to his hyperextended elbow. I can’t wait for Lucas to sign with an American League team in the offseason and play 8 straight healthy and productive seasons as a first baseman/designated hitter.

Today: We head to Atlanta to play the Braves. As all Mets fans know, whenever the team heads to Atlanta good things happen. I’m sure this four game set will totally lift our spirits.

Former Mets Should Brawl With The Wilpons At Citi

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Last night at Madison Square Garden the New York Knicks’ universe continued to collapse on itself after years of fielding a garbage product due to the meddling of owner James Dolan.

Initial reports indicated former Knick Charles Oakley sat near Dolan and allegedly heckled him before security became involved. The altercation then became physical with Oakley assaulting multiple security guards and getting arrested/booted from the arena. Witnesses claimed they heard Oakley uttering “Dolan” as he was being escorted out.

Oakley after the game said “I was there for four minutes. I didn’t say anything to him. I swear on my mother.” Obviously I don’t know what actually happened. But I love the idea of a former player taking on the role of hero and fighting a horrendous, incompetent owner.

I immediately imagined a former or current Met fighting the Wilpons at Citi Field with 45,000 fans looking on and chanting “Fire Wilpon!” I’m not much of an activist, but if there’s one thing that would inspire me to take it to the streets it would be a protest against Fred and Jeff.

Anyway, after a lot of fantasizing, I’ve settled upon these former and current Mets to lead the anti-Wilpon charge.

Keith Hernandez And Bobby Ojeda

The ’80s Mets immediately come to mind as the perfect group to take on the Wilpons. Fred bought his minority stake in the Mets in 1980 and took on half ownership in 1986. Keith Hernandez not only played during the ’80s, but he also works for these mooks currently on SNY. I’d love to see Keith, on one of his many days off, splash a beer in Jeff’s face while sitting with him in the Wilpon private box. Then Bob Ojeda could show up, still bitter after “parting ways” with SNY, and give Jeff a nice sweeping leg kick. Bobby could then jump into Keith’s arms, and they could celebrate like it was ’86 again.

Lenny Dykstra and Wally Backman

I was born in 1987, so I never had the chance to watch the Mets play in the ’80s. But Lenny “Nails” Dykstra and crazy old Wally Backman have insane reputations that transcend time. Lenny and Wally were hard-nosed when they actually played baseball, but Lenny’s an actual convicted felon and Wally also has a rap sheet. These two guys are the exact kind of wild cards that would randomly decide to take on the Wilpons at Citi Field. Wally is probably still bitter that he was canned by the organization as manager of our Triple-A Vegas affiliate. He’s probably sitting at a Vegas slot machine right now brooding. And Lenny? Lenny would probably do it just to make a few bucks on a tell-all book recapping his version of the story.

Mike Piazza

Piazza is my personal favorite Mets candidate from the ’90s/2000s. He’s a muscular freak, and we’ve all seen him rage at the ballpark in the spotlight. How much would you give to see Mike chuck broken bat shards at Jeff Wilpon as they cross paths at Citi? I mean if you’re looking for a true lunatic to do the job, Roger Clemens might be your best bet considering he tossed a 95+ MPH fastball at Mike’s temple. Roger clearly has the killer instinct. But we’re keeping this brawl in house.

Paul Lo Duca

I like former catcher Paul Lo Duca as a possibility because he was always a firecracker behind the plate. Plus he’s an Italian stallion from Brooklyn, and he’s active on Twitter. Not only could Paul get the job done, but he could recruit a posse of frustrated fans from Brooklyn in five minutes on social media.

Noah Syndergaard

Noah Syndergaard is the best player and personality on the team right now. And he’s the kind of player that could get away with brawling with ownership. If Matt Harvey said one word about his contract, the media would crush him for being a selfish jerk. But I’m pretty sure Thor could say publicly “the Wilpons are cheap schmucks, and they better pay me soon or else” and the media would praise him as the King of New York.

He’s the obvious current nominee to take on the Wilpons (physically). He threw at Alcides Escobar in the 2015 World Series, and he threw at Chase Utley last year as payback for Ruben Tejada SlideGate. I’d love to hear him tell Jeff Wilpon “meet me 60 feet 6 inches away” and then proceed to wrestle Jeff in the middle of the field.

There’s literally no wrong answer to the “who should brawl with the Wilpons” question. You can name any former Met or if you prefer it can be every Met that’s ever played at the same time.

I’d even accept some front office fan fiction scenario where Tony Bernazard shows up at Citi, rips off his shirt, and challenges the Wilpons to a fight before the Wilpons ultimately blame Adam Rubin and accuse him of trying to steal an ownership stake in the team. Actually that’s my preferred answer.

Jay Bruce Headlines Are Just A Distraction

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Almost every Mets’ headline after the Cespedes signing has been about Jay Bruce. Jay Bruce doesn’t fit on the roster! Bruce must be traded! Mets need to dump Bruce salary! Bruce suitors dwindling! Mets overplayed the market on Bruce! Two teams still interested in Bruce! Mets want two prospects for Bruce! Mets hope to land reliever for Bruce!

Whoooooooooooo cares?!? Don’t you see what’s happening here? These BS headlines are simply a distraction from the reality that the Mets haven’t done a damn thing to improve the roster this offseason. The Bruce headlines have fans in a frenzy. I see some people defending Jay Bruce as a player. I see the majority of people saying perennial 30 home run hitter Jay Bruce stinks and unproven Michael Conforto deserves all the playing time. The debate rages on every single day.

If you believe that dumping Jay Bruce should be the team’s top priority then you’ve been totally brainwashed by the Wilpon media.

If you read these headlines about Jay’s untradeable salary and let BruceGate dominate the winter conversation then you are allowing ownership to scapegoat Sandy and Bruce for the lack of activity.

This team let Bartolo Colon walk and didn’t replace him. This team is going to let Kelly Johnson walk for the second straight year and not replace him. This team already needed two set up relievers before the prospect of a Jeurys Familia suspension. What have we done to fix the pen? Nothing other than watch every viable reliever fly off the free agent board. And I’m not just talking about the high-priced relievers. Almost all of the middle tier arms have signed for 1 or 2 year deals. As of now it still looks like the Mets intend to let Jerry Blevins walk without replacing him. The Wilpons threw the fans a bone with the Cespedes signing, and then they told us to get back in our cage and shut the hell up.

I’m so damn tired of hearing the brainwashed fans cry about having Jay Bruce on the roster. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with keeping Bruce if we can’t work out a mutually beneficial trade with some team. There’s plenty of playing time to divide up between Jay Bruce the defensively challenged slugger, Juan Lagares the defensive wiz who can’t hit right-handed pitching, young buck and unproven talent Michael Conforto, old man and new everyday center fielder Curtis Granderson, and Yoenis Cespedes who battled injuries for the entire 2016 season. And keeping Jay Bruce should have nothing to do with improving the bullpen. Nothing.

I called this from day one of the offseason. I wrote a post that said trading Jay Bruce is fine but a salary dump is unacceptable. I knew that if the Mets tried to work out a deal involving Bruce it would be primarily motivated by their desire to rid themselves of his 13 million dollar salary. I knew there was no way they’d take that 13 million and re-invest it in the roster. There was never a chance they’d eat some salary to make a better deal. 0% chance from day one.

My current frustration has nothing to do with Jay Bruce. I understand that we gave up a nice prospect for him, and he’s not a great fit on our roster. I get that he’s a one-dimensional slugger. Yes he can’t play the field. Sure he’s blocking Conforto and Terry Collins will always play him over Conforto even if Jay is batting .150 for three straight months. Does that frustrate me? Nope. All of my frustration is directed at the Wilpons for cutting off contact with the media after the Yo signing and closing up their wallet.

At this point I want the Wilpons to be stuck paying Bruce out of spite. Screw them. And who are we kidding? Spring injuries are an unequivocal lock for the Mets. Bruce will be playing everyday and batting fourth once God is finished smiting our regulars and destroying our depth. At least if we keep Bruce we have a viable option for when the inevitable injuries strike. I certainly can’t say the same for the bullpen.

P.S. With each passing day it’s looking more and more like Jay Bruce The Fish will be joining my family. Just like the real Jay, he’ll never walk and he’ll probably stink.

If Yo Leaves, Banish The Wilpons From NYC

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I used to enjoy the Hot Stove season. I really did. But it’s pretty clear that as long as the Wilpons own this franchise, the only meaningful offseason news will be about whether or not Yoenis Cespedes is willing to accept another lowball, short-term contract from the Mets. The news we all expected came out yesterday. Yo plans to opt-out of his contract and the Mets are “pessimistic about their chances of re-signing him”.

If Cespedes told the Mets he wants to test free agency no matter what and see what offers are out there, then I respect that decision. But if the Mets have a legitimate opportunity to lock him up with an extension and are voluntarily passing on that exclusive window then they are a complete joke of a franchise. Let’s be real. We all know that it’s scenario number two. The Wilpons love their wait and see bargain hunting BS. It’s disgusting.

I can’t believe there are Mets fans that 1) Defend the Wilpons and point to last offseason and say “well the wait and see approach worked last year” and/or 2) Don’t want Cespedes. I’ve actually had conversations with people that think retaining Yo is a mistake. If you think the Mets should let Yo walk then there’s no way you watched the team play without him in 2015 and 2016. Or maybe you like when teams can’t score runs and lose all the time. I suppose there are some masochists out there that enjoy when the team loses. And if you think the Mets would let Yo walk over money and then replace him with some other combination of high-priced free agents on long-term deals like Justin Turner, Ian Desmond, and Kenley Jansen then you are delusional.

Honestly if they let Yo walk to any other team, the Mayor or Governor should step in and ban the Wilpons from the city. Strip them of all their New York lands and titles. Letting an international superstar who relishes the New York spotlight leave the city and take his talents elsewhere is a goddamn disgrace. We’re going to let a 31-year-old star leave the financial capital of the world over money? And where the hell are the Wilpons anyway? Where’s Sandy Alderson? We lose to the Giants in the NL Wild Card Game and every member of the organization disappears like Keyser Söze? Have they all taken a vow of silence until the Cubs break their championship drought?

I’m guessing the Wilpons are secure in their Citi Field panic room. I’m sure Sandy is there trying to convince them to pony up the dough. I’ve always been willing to accept the reality that Sandy is generally opposed to long-term contracts and prefers roster flexibility. But I will never accept the bogus notion perpetuated by the media that Sandy doesn’t want to retain the most valuable player in his organization.

Banning the Wilpons from the city is pointless anyway. We’ll never be able to get to them once Yo leaves. They never make public appearances to speak to the media. Plus we all know that when they built Citi Field they created underground tunnels to escape to Connecticut in this exact type of situation. Hopefully the architects of Citi Field botched the design of the tunnels like they screwed up the insane original outfield dimensions and the Great Wall of Flushing height. With any luck the escape tunnels lead to an exit at the bottom of Flushing Bay.