Amazin' Avenue, a New York Mets community

Hey guys, another of mine. Thanks for the great feedback on the last one. Thought I'd share my thoughts on the recent Reyes-Rauch-Francisco swap: Considering that the Mets decided that they could not match a six year, $102 million offer for Jose Reyes -- which amounts to only $17 million per year -- it is hard to know exactly what Sandy Alderson's plan is. The Mets could have kept Reyes, a franchise player, but instead they chose Jon Rauch, Frank Francisco, and eight million dollars. And as you know, they did not even deign to make him an offer. Why? Why let the beloved franchise player leave and sign replace him with known mediocrity? All of this -- in conjunction with many of the other moves the Mets have made, both on and off the field over the last few seasons -- leads me inescapably to an unattractive conclusion. None of these moves make sense in terms of the product that Mets fans will see on the field in 2012 or even 2013. So what could be their motivation? It all stinks. It stinks and it leads me, against my will, to an inescapable conclusion. Money. Wilpon money.

This *is* mine, so it might be tacky to post, but I thought people here might appreciate it. A lot of said and written about Fred Wilpon, but I've never really heard his whole story told before. The article ended up being much more of a ramble than I intended, but as I kept getting deeper and deeper down that rabbit hole it was hard for me to figure out where to wrap it up. Either way, I hope it makes for an interesting read and that you all enjoy.