Meet the Mets
Day two of the Fred Wilpon/Jeffrey Toobin sh**ty storm and it promises to get even better today as Wilpon has an upcoming appearance in this week's Sports Illustrated where he tells the magazine that he's "bleeding cash" to the tune of $70 million this year (which makes the imminent sale of 49% of the team even more important).
Anyway, there are some really good takes floating out there on this story. Most important are the players' reactions. David Wright takes the high road and says very little while his teammate, Mike Pelfrey, takes the middle road with a little humor.
I.M. Forme thanks Fred for this blogger stimulus package and points out that the Mets in fact signed Carlos Beltran based on that one playoff series.
Ted Berg is also worried about the thought process illustrated by the Wilpon interview.
Howard Megdal takes the deterministic view that this firestorm will not have an impact on the Mets future with these three players.
Scott Boras also has an interesting take on this and he's simply tired of the Mets being unable to keep all this crap in-house.
I usually can't stand Mike Francesa, but I think that he's right with this one comment. There's a significant portion of the fan base that is probably welcoming these comments because they've got a bad case of Yankee envy.
Anyway, it could have been worse. Here are some of the things that Toobin didn't put in the article.
There is some non-Wilpon stuff too. Eric thinks the Mets might be in the market for the Twins' Kevin Slowey.
David Wright is flying out to Los Angeles to get a second opinion on that balky back.
And, Cesar Puello is starting to heat up and get scouts excited with those five tools.
Around MLB
Mike Rizzo and Ivan Rodriguez each snagged a punishment from MLB for their confrontations with the umpires following the Nats' 1-0 loss to the Mets last week.
Chase Utley returned and the Phillies crushed the Reds.
Albert Pujols hadn't hit a home run in a while before last night.
Good news for the Nationals as Stephen Strasburg is throwing from a mound.
Funny stuff from Jeff Sullivan.
Fortunately, there are no Mets on Beyond the Box Score's worst players of 2011. The year is still young though.
And, finally, Julio Lugo is joining the Braves.