Ump Bump Grades the Mets Offseason

This is a pretty harsh assessment, but a good read from a non Mets-centric point of view.

Comments

pfft

The Mets brought in some new names on the starting pitching front but whether they’re better than their replacements is unclear.

That and he suggests Murphy’s defense is no better than Manny’s. He also claims the Mets won’t score as many runs because Murphy won’t repeat, even though Murphy accounted for just 151 PA of our miserable leftfield situation last year.

It’s easy to rip Omar, but he didn’t really screw up this year.

King of the bling come to lay down the evidence//Not George Bush, L-Millz be da president

by Sam Page on Feb 20, 2009 11:37 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

I agree that that statement is ridiculous

But overall the point he makes isn’t. It basically was a perfect storm of events of our bullpen being impossibly bad and the phillies being impossibly good and it’s unlikely the same thing would have occurred, especially the insane performance of the phillies bullpen.

That being said I don’t understand why so many fans/writer in general can’t seem to understand that we can’t afford Manny because of the luxury tax situations. Why do they seem to think it’s some sort of huge mystery?

by Gina on Feb 20, 2009 11:49 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Manny and the luxury tax

I don’t think fans and writers don’t understand that TPTB have decided not to pursue Manny in order to not go over the luxury tax threshold; I think people don’t understand WHY they’re so unwilling to go over the luxury tax threshold if the opportunity is there to make the team a lot better for a not-unreasonable salary/number of years.

Now, to an extent, it’s not our money, and if the Wilpons don’t want to spend it I guess that’s their call. But on the other hand, it IS our money, because we spend money on tickets (15-packs this year, mind you, not 7-packs) and jerseys and hot dogs and overpriced beer and parking and all those other things, all that entirely separate from the public subsidies involved in the construction of the new stadium, and all THAT entirely separate from taxpayer money being funneled to Citi and in turn to the Mets for the naming rights.

by JoshNY on Feb 20, 2009 3:47 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I agree with that

I think it’s ridiculous that the Wilpons are so unwilling to go over with the revenue increases you would expect them to be seeing, even in the economy, and with all the money they’re getting from tax payers, but there does seem to be a large number of people, although to be honest most of them on metsblog which probably isn’t the best sample size, who don’t even mention the luxury tax when it comes to Manny and the mets, and just seem to think Omar is happy with Murphy/Tatis in left field.

by Gina on Feb 20, 2009 5:35 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Eh, whatever.

The statements of ignoramuses (ingoramusi?) don’t bother me.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Feb 20, 2009 3:45 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

ignorami?

by BobbyV_Incognito on Feb 20, 2009 6:31 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

no sir

ignoramus is the first person plural form of a verb in latin, not a noun. it’s ignoramuses, if anything. that’s your latin lesson of the day!

by gogomets on Feb 21, 2009 6:04 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

meh

this grade immediately after the fact pieces are fun to write and read but its to make any kind of useful assessment before knowing how the moves that were made pan out. it’s like the billions of articles ranking drafts the week after the NFL draft actually happens. interesting but totally useless.

in any event i though it was a mostly fair judgment. my only quibble is the off hand comment made that mets ownership reportedly lost hundreds of millions of dollars. this is false. no one reported that, anywhere. wilpon’s investment company had hundreds of millions invested with madoff, but that is a completely different thing than wilpon and katz et all personally losing millions. in fact, they could have made money if they got all their money out before everyone else, assuming they also enjoyed the 9-15% return madoff was doling out. that so many people get those details wrong irks me, but whatever.

HELLO HELLO MR WILPON. WE WANT THE MANSION NOT THE CONDO.

by kendynamo on Feb 22, 2009 4:08 PM EST reply actions 0 recs