My thoughts on two great columns about the lawsuit against the Wilpons

Bob Klapisch makes a very important point about the lawsuit against the Wilpons:

"Let’s stop and remind ourselves there are two sides to every story and Wilpon, no matter what you think of him, deserves the chance to defend himself in court. But it’s just as important to note that Castergine doesn’t fit the profile of your average gold digger.

She’s an Ivy Leaguer out of Penn, a former Division I athlete who came to the Mets in 2010 after working for the Philadelphia Flyers, Orlando Magic and Boston Bruins. Castergine quickly climbed the Mets’ ladder and became the first female senior VP in their 52-year history."

He sums it up with:

"Me? I believe what Castergine alleges in the lawsuit. Every single word."

Keep in mind, Bob Klapisch is a sports writer that has had access to the team's ownership over the years. While he's not privy to internal conversations, he has spoken to people involved with the team in his many years as a sports writer.  Based on his impressions dealing with them, he believes the lawsuit to be true. That's the part that's most troubling for the Wilpons. It's also the part that makes fans tired of the spoiled son of a mediocre owner very hopeful that it could spell his doom once and for all.

Additionally, Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports makes equally scathing points:

"For years, Selig's soft spot for the Wilpon family has allowed him to overlook their need for a loan to stay afloat amid the Madoff chaos, their mismanagement of a jewel franchise into the sort that operates like a low-revenue pauper, their public flubs that made #LOLMets a thing. Selig enabled the Mets knowing majority owner Fred Wilpon planned on gifting the franchise to Jeff, an underqualified bully who never would have sniffed sports-franchise ownership were he not bequeathed his last name."

"...Wilpon carried himself for years, as the cock of the walk, the all-knowing executive who, in reality, knew only how to take a proud franchise and run it into the ground. He directs the Mets with the vision of a mole, and people around the sport – from players to agents to executives – wish he would learn to burrow into the ground like one, too."

Notice how Passan also cited "players to agents to executives" when writing about Jeff Wilpon. I think this is just starting. I don't see it going away soon, unless Jeff Wilpon goes away very soon to rectify it.

Good thing 50 Cent Isn't a Baseball Player

50 Cent throwing out one of the worst ceremonial first pitches in the history of baseball:

As far as first pitches go, it's hard to beat the acrobat from Cirque du Soleil:

David Wright’s Metsiah Complex | New York Observer

A nice profile of New York Mets 3B David Wright.

This is why Juan Lagares should start in CF.

Look at all that ground he covered!!

Time-lapse footage of The Sydney Cricket Ground converting to baseball.

The music is pretty catchy but the video converting the Sydney Cricket Ground in preparation of the first regular season Major League baseball games played in Australia is pretty cool.

I hate to admit it but Joel Sherman may be right.

Joel Sherman makes a good point that I hadn't realized before:

"There is a myth that [Tampa Bay and Oakland win] by drafting well. The reality is neither has, and Tampa Bay, in fact, over the past five or six years has been rather dreadful. What both teams are particularly adept at is finding players who have a few above-average skills then unearthing a counterpart who covers the flaws."

Out of order in A-Rod's court | Caple - ESPN.com

Jim Caple with his typical unique viewpoint on A-Rod vs. Bud Selig.

Mets will improve, only question is how | Richard Justice - MLB.com

MLB.com's Richard Justice talks Met fans off the ledge:

"So be patient, Mets fans. This is a new kind of offseason, one filled with possibilities. It may be agonizingly slow. Just know that by the time the Mets gather in Port St. Lucie, Fla., in February, they're going to be far different -- and better -- than they are today. That's worth waiting for, isn't it?"

Yes it is Richard. Yes it is.

Major League Baseball's Next Possible Commissioner

Yahoo! Sports handicaps the next potential commissioner of Major League Baseball, including this tidbit:

"George W. Bush. He once owned the Texas Rangers. He has expressed interest in the job in the past. He did run the entire country for eight years. And best of all, the worst war he could wage is in the labor department, so that's a step up."

Great post about the best broadcast team in baseball

Anthony DiComo of Mets.com has a fantastic post about the Mets' SNY broadcast team, including this nugget about one of their pre-game prep sessions:

"Eventually, their conversation drifted back to that night's broadcast, which was to feature a heavy dose of Harvey analysis. Picker asked Darling to address Bob Ojeda's comments, made earlier in the day, regarding the stress that Harvey's low-90s slider may have contributed to his season-ending elbow tear. That led to a discussion of pitching mechanics in general, which somehow funneled to a commentary on foreign exchange rates, which melted into talk of Hillary Clinton's potential presidential candidacy, then a dissection of Juan Lagares' batting stance."

I'm curious to know how they got from pitching mechanics to foreign exchange rates but sadly that wasn't covered in the post.

MLB.com interview with Zack Wheeler

Nice interview with Zack Wheeler.

Keith Law on the Mets-Pirates trade

ESPN's Keith Law wrote a nice recap of the trade today that sent Marlon Byrd and John Buck to the Pittsburgh Pirates. ESPN Insiders can read the whole post here. As long and dedicated a baseball fan as I've been, it's passages like this one that remind me that I still have a lot to learn about a game I've watched religiously for nearly 35 of my 40 years of existence:

"For about five weeks of Byrd and Buck, the Mets get a very solid second-base prospect in Herrera. Playing full-time at age 19 in the low Class A Sally League, Herrera has shown somewhat surprising pop, with a .156 isolated power and 41 extra-base hits in 109 games. He's got a simple, quiet approach, just loading his hands a little higher than he should, with adequate hip rotation for 15-20 homer power at his peak."

Law also mentions the Mets are supposed to get another "solid" piece as the player to be named later. Players to be named later are generally 40-man roster members that have not cleared waivers so they don't get named until after the post-season is over. So we can eliminate any thoughts of the other throw-in piece being Gift Ngoepe and his .177 Double-A batting average and fascinating backstory.

Chris Walendin of tpgmets tweeted the names of the Pirates 40-man roster members that are not on the active roster:

Pirates on 40-man roster, not on active roster or DL: Vic Black, Brandon Cumpton, Kris Johnson, Kyle McPherson, Andy Oliver, ... (1 of 2)
— Chris (@tpgMets) August 27, 2013

... Stolmy Pimentel, Ryan Reid, Duke Welker, Russ Canzler, Chase d'Arnaud, Alex Presley, Jerry Sands. (2 of 2)
— Chris (@tpgMets) August 27, 2013

It'll be interesting to see who the Mets get. I'm not sure if he'd be a "solid" piece but reuniting the d'Arnaud brothers in New York might be interesting to see.

Jeff Wilpon and the myth of a free-spending Mets winter to come | Capital New York

Howard Megdal pours some cold water on the hopes of Met fans thinking the club is capable of spending money this offseason:

"So now consider the real winter ahead for the New York Mets owners. They have less than a year to either find a way to pay J.P. Morgan Chase $320 million, or convince the bank to give them more time. And they'll have to do so with more than just a Fred Wilpon press conference sunnily declaring his money problems a thing of the past. If the bank believes, unlike Standard and Poor's, that the Mets are on the cusp of profitability, or that a forced sale now will produce less revenue than giving ownership more time, then a stay of execution is possible.

But it's more complicated than that. Any additional time built into this loan needs to also pass muster with the group holding the more than $600 million in debt against ownership's S.N.Y. holdings in 2015. The structures of the two loans, both held by ownership's parent company, will need to be reconciled.

At that point, can the Mets spend money to sign new players? In theory, if J.P. Morgan Chase decides that an infusion of new talent is worth seeing a bunch of money go to, say, Shin-Soo Choo ahead of the bank to help turn the Mets profitable. And if the S.N.Y. creditors agree."

Klapisch: Wally Backman's Mets managerial audition begins with Ike Davis | NorthJersey.com

Bob Klapisch is starting a fire where one isn't needed:

"Now Davis is Wally Backman’s problem, although it’s worth asking the question that could lead to a more intriguing dialogue: What happens if Backman and his old-school, man’s-man approach actually fixes Davis? Then what?

Such a reclamation project would be more of a reflection of Backman’s interpersonal skills than Davis’ ability to hit for a respectable average. At least we know Davis has talent – we’ve seen it in the past, albeit not consistently since the second half of last season. But Backman is the wild card here, especially because he’s been languishing in the Mets’ farm system for four summers hoping to prove to someone, anyone, that he’s long since outrun his darker demons.

That’s why Backman relishes the chance to work on Davis’ swing, confidence and career, although not necessarily in that order."

Steroids Bad, Leaks Worse | Mets Minor League Blog

Great writeup at Mets Minor League Blog. This story is slowly creeping away from Major League Baseball:

Steroids Bad, Leaks Worse | Mets Minor League Blog

PUT A BROOM IN THAT BOOK | Metstradamus

Metstradamus has to be the best writer among the Mets bloggers, especially this blurb from today's post. (Extra points for the "8 Mile" reference too.)

"Now I know how the Yankee fans will react and how they already are reacting. After they spew out about 27 titles, they will try to shame us, Met fans, into feeling like garbage because "oh, you're celebrating meaningless regular season games in a season where you're going nowhere. This is like saying "Yeah, well we're on this beautiful cruise ship while you're in that piddly little row boat", meanwhile the cruise ship they're on is owned by Carnival and its sinking to the bottom. This is what Yankee fans like to do: make other people feel like imbeciles for merely being happy. They want us to golf clap and slink away while still slurping the 27 titles. And that's why we're happy. Because we know that trick is coming ... and it's silly and we will ignore it. And the only thing left for Yankee fans to do is bring up shit that we already know about. Bernie Madoff, Bobby Bonilla ... all of it. Sweeping the Yankees gives Met fans that feeling of Eminem in the final battle against Papa Doc. We know what's coming. But what they don't know is that we know what Papa Doc's real name is ..."

How SWEEP It Is!!

In case you haven't heard yet:

MLB - Mets complete Subway Series sweep of Yankees with 3-1 victory Thursday; Mets won 2 at Citi Field, 2 at Yankee Stadium

Punk Hits: Why I'm Rooting for the Dutch in the WBC | Baseball Prospectus

I'm tempted to subscribe to Baseball Prospectus just to read the rest of this article, oddly written by the groom from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".

How Much Time the Pitchers Took | FanGraphs Baseball

A very interesting piece on which pitchers work fast and which ones work slow. Among the quick workers include new Toronto Blue Jays Mark Buehrle and R.A. Dickey, including these two games that I recall vividly from last season:

"It’s worth noting that Mark Buehrle and R.A. Dickey went head-to-head twice last season, on April 25 and September 22. The first game lasted two hours and 29 minutes, while the second game lasted two hours and 26 minutes. Last year’s average Marlins game lasted two hours and 57 minutes, while last year’s average Mets game lasted two hours and 56 minutes. That, of course, is with Buehrle and Dickey starts included. That would’ve been some nicely-tempoed baseball, between sometimes unwatchable teams."

Pitcher Noah Syndergaard has the stuff big league dreams are made of | The Star-Telegram

A nice little piece on New York Mets pitching prospect Noah Syndergaard:

"I didn't think I'd be traded, but being traded for the reigning Cy Young winner is pretty cool," said Syndergaard, who reported to Mets spring training in Port St. Lucie, Fla., on Monday.

"Now I'm going to do whatever I can to contribute to the Mets' organization and try and help them win the World Series."

Good luck Noah! As the #3 prospect in the Mets organization, I hope you're right.