There's Only One #French...err #CanOctober Applesauce: The Devils In Philly and The Bronx Win, Mets Attendance Down 8%, Misch & O'Connor Elect Free Agency

by Steve Schreiber on Oct 2, 2011 9:01 AM EDT in Applesauce

Mets Stuff

According to Adam Rubin, the attendance at Citi Field has declined for the third straight season, down to 2,352,596. That figure represents an 8.1% decrease from 2010 and is the lowest total since the 2004 season, the last of the Art Howe era. What's worse is that the dropping attendance along with the organization's mounting debt has contributed to estimated losses of close to $70 million for the season.

Johan Santana threw in the instructional league against Mets minor leaguers on Friday and according to Assistant GM Paul DePodesta, he will throw again next Friday. It looks like he will not pitch in winter ball, though.

Sad news for the fans of Mets pitchers Pat Misch and Mike O`Connor: the two left-handers, who both spent the majority of 2011 with Buffalo, declared free agency and will test the market. Don't cry, Mets fans...it'll be alright. We'll get through this.

Here are five short term options for the Mets' closer role.

Remember Hisanori Takahashi? How does the decision to let Tak2 walk after 2010 look now?

Around the Playoffs

The Brewers beat the Diamondbacks 4-1 behind an excellent start from Yovani Gallardo and a Prince Fielder home run.

The Phillies exploded for five runs in the sixth inning and they beat the Cardinals 11-6. Roy Halladay allowed a three run home run to Lance Berkman before morphing into Roy Halladay, as he retired all 21 batters over his last seven innings.

The Rangers evened up the series with the Rays at one apiece, beating Tampa 8-6 behind a five run fourth inning against James Shields who was ripped for seven runs in five innings.

Robinson Cano hit a grand slam as the Yankees tore apart Doug Fister and the Tigers bullpen, winning their suspended game one by a 9-3 score. Welcome to #CanOctober, folks. That guy's going to win a batting title someday.

Things seem to be breaking down in Boston, as rumor has it that the Sox will give GM Theo Epstein permission to forgo the final year of his contract to become the Cubs General Manager. Meanwhile, a number of names have been tossed out in the past two days as potential replacements for Terry Francona, but the two most interesting have to be Joe Torre and Bobby Valentine. My initial guess is that it will ultimately be Bobby V who gets the job. His big market experience and charismatic personality seem to be a perfect fit for handling the Red Sox and the notoriously tough Boston media and fans.

The Angels are also looking over GM candidates to replace the resigned Tony Reagins.

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Comments

Was there no thread for the Phillies game ?

I thought I saw one.

Today’s (Sunday) Sports Section on the Bergen Record =

Jeter is awesome
The Yankees are awesome
The Phillies are awesome
Reyes is a bum for coming out of the game
Rex Ryan is fat

One day, this team is going to kill me.

by fxcarden on Oct 2, 2011 9:32 AM EDT reply actions

i guess all my hopes are now pinned on Prince Fielder

luckily there’s a lot of space to attach things (fat joke)

I.M. Forme
"When you get yourself into trouble is when you feel you have to do something, and then you get yourself in trouble." --Omar Minaya

by itsmetsforme on Oct 2, 2011 9:36 AM EDT up reply actions

And don't forget the New York Times

In the game story… “But already the Yankees have seized control of the series, winning a game that the Tigers ace Justin Verlander started.”

In the Times’ world only the Yankees “seize control” with a one-game-to-none lead.

Hey, would they send a reporter if the Mets were in the playoffs?

by sturock on Oct 2, 2011 10:13 AM EDT up reply actions

Bobby V in Boston

Bobby and Theo can trade costume stories and tips on media evasion

I.M. Forme
"When you get yourself into trouble is when you feel you have to do something, and then you get yourself in trouble." --Omar Minaya

by itsmetsforme on Oct 2, 2011 9:37 AM EDT reply actions

crazy to think Francona and Epstein could be out of BOS

I mean they have won a lot of games and 2 WS.

Any task BIG or small, Do it well or not at all

by Rickfansince76 on Oct 2, 2011 11:13 AM EDT reply actions

Those poor Sox fans

It would be like if we had a terrible collapse (a feeling with which we’re all familiar), and had a good manager and lost him (stay with me), and then discovered we were also going to lose our savior GM.

At least they got a couple championships to get them through the next century.

by SuperT on Oct 2, 2011 12:31 PM EDT reply actions

poor? lol

by brodude on Oct 2, 2011 1:06 PM EDT up reply actions

At this point in Mets history

I don’t think we have the luxury of empathy right now.

2012 National League Wild Card Champion New York Mets

by piazza62 on Oct 2, 2011 1:26 PM EDT up reply actions

Even harder to feel empathy for a team that has more world championships then we have playoff appearances in the last decade.

Sir, Our math shows that the bird is equal to or GREATER THEN the word. CHECK IT AGAIN!!!!

by statusquo on Oct 3, 2011 1:33 PM EDT up reply actions

I agree, I honestly think it would be worse. To lose your wonderboy to the fucking cubs

amest I bovvered forsooth?
ARE YOU DISRESPECTING THE HOUSE OF CITI
ARE YOU CALLING REYES A POX RIDDEN WENCH
ARE YOU CALLING DAVID WRIGHT A GOODLY ROTTEN APPLE
CAUSE HE AIN'T EVEN A GOODLY ROTTEN APPLE THOUGH

by Gina on Oct 2, 2011 1:45 PM EDT up reply actions

I agree it's going to be a traumatic winter in Boston

But ultimately Theo is more replaceable than most GMs. He built their brain trust and overhauled their approach to evaluating talent, which is ultimately more important to the org’s future than his individual decision-making ability. Moving them away from the one-man-running-everything model, just as Sandy’s been doing in Flushing, is his biggest contribution, but haing done it also makes him less crucial to the org’s future.

by anonymous on Oct 2, 2011 3:06 PM EDT up reply actions

Yep.

Jed Hoyer came out of that organisation, for example. They can replace him.
Also, some Sox fans aren’t that happy with Theo, with reason, I think. The Lackey contract was pretty bad, and their depth was awful.

AAARRRRRRRSSSSSHHHHHHHHAAAAAAVVVVVIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNN!
Dream goal!

by Aidan Gibson on Oct 2, 2011 3:15 PM EDT up reply actions

I don't follow the AL much

But apparently a big part of Boston’s problem was pitcher depth. Shouldn’t the approach you outline have mitigated that issue, at least barring a really serious run of bad luck? (Did they have a really serious run of bad luck, or was it more an existing lack of depth? I don’t know.)

by SuperT on Oct 2, 2011 3:31 PM EDT up reply actions

Lester wasn't his usual dominant self and Buchholz was hurt for most of the year.

But Lacky was predictably bad.

Save Jenrry Mejia!
Keep Reyes, Trade Wilpon.

by Ogre39666 on Oct 2, 2011 3:45 PM EDT up reply actions

IMO if Epstein to the cubs is true we're the biggest losers

outside of their division I suppose. But at this point there are no markets near being able to compete with us financially with “progressive” front offices installed in the NL. If the cubs finances are better than ours, which it’d be hard for them not to be but if anyone could worse it’d be the cubs, then they’ll have a major head start on establishing themselves before we can.

by Gina on Oct 2, 2011 1:47 PM EDT reply actions

Who cares if the Cubs are good before we are?

It’s been over a century, their time has come. Besides, I wouldn’t necessarily say Epstein > Alderson.

2012 National League Wild Card Champion New York Mets

by piazza62 on Oct 2, 2011 2:09 PM EDT up reply actions

We care

because there’d be one more obstacle in the Mets path to being an elite National League club. And while I agree that Epstein isn’t necessarily better than Alderson, Epstein with more money & more free reign to do what he feels has the advantage over Alderson, who’ll probably be restricted financially this offseason.

What's that about?

by Brian. on Oct 2, 2011 2:27 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

He'll have a lot of cleaning up to do before he gets real freedom

Soriano and Zambrano come to mind. Besides, I think the Mets have more of a foundation for a competitive team than the Cubs do, and in a couple of years we’ll be clear of the Bay, Castillo, Perez contracts (but not Bobby Bo LOL).

2012 National League Wild Card Champion New York Mets

by piazza62 on Oct 2, 2011 3:13 PM EDT up reply actions

Expensive free agents are not the concern

It is all of the other resources that the Mets and Cubs will be competing for, and that hurts the Mets.

__________________________________________________
"He who gets the best players usually wins" - Bobby Bowden

by Russ on Oct 2, 2011 3:18 PM EDT up reply actions

this, when the yankees started using progressive stats it WAY drove up the prices for Boston

they drove up prices for us too but it wasn’t as big a deal because we don’t directly compete with them, so really we didn’t have to spend to build a team to compete with the Yankees or Red Sox, just one better than the best NL team, and since all the big market NL teams who could afford to drive up salaries were as dumb as us, in theory there was no reason for us to get into major payroll problems (obviously in practice everything went to hell cause of Omar).

by Gina on Oct 3, 2011 9:23 AM EDT up reply actions