There was a lot of flurry over here about an article from Friday called The Small Market Baseball Team From Queens.
I must admit and give thanks for a hook-up from Mets Blog who sent a ton of traffic over here, and boy did the Small Market mentality comment strike a nerve.
I’ve shared my thoughts (new stadium, time for a new culture of winning, stop being cheap and signing 10 game winners from the Nationals, you need starting pitchers, a left fielder, a second baseman and a catcher) so I thought I’d excerpt from some of the comments that were posted on Mets Police.
There are two camps – first the minority, those who agree with the frustration:
As long as there are only two baseball teams in NYC, the Coupons can spend enough to stay in contention while claiming they are spending money more wisely than the Yankees. They’ll always be a second-rate team, but the fans will not care. They can continue to make obscene amounts of money from fans who thank them for meaningful games in September.
According to this strategy, the Mets look smart even when the Yankees win the WS, because they didn’t spend as much money. And when the Yankees don’t win anything, the Coupons look like a couple of geniuses.
The second-place mentality has been mastered by the Coupons. And judging by the comments on this blog, it is working marvelously.
Fans like you are the reason the mets don’t go the extra mile to win. You accept the chokejobs of the last 2 years and are begging for a 3rd!
If they spend 100 million or 500 million who cares. What they spend doesn’t affect you personally. You think because they stay under budget tickets won’t go up? cmon… As a fan all i care is if they do something that will not allow us to improve in future period end of statement. Going over luxury tax or not I can care less. As a Mets fan I care about winning a W.S. NOT REMAINING UNDER SOME TYPE OF LUXURY TAX
Then there were the people who went bananas. The consensus was they don’t want the Mets to “be the Yankees.” I’m not sure what that means. I think it has something to do with giving pitchers too many years or too much money or something. I guess it’s OK if you do that for Pedro Martinez but if you do it in 2009 you’re a moron, or not playing fair or something. Here’s the Mets Police haters:
I agree with the majority of posters here. The mets spend plenty of money, and I don’t want them to become like the yankees. The mets are smart with their money, they signed k-rod for an awesome price. I’m sure the yanks woulda overpayed if they needed a closer. Besides, people forget that wilpons lost BILLIONS in the Madoff scam. So, I dunno bout you guys, but if they are spending anywhere near what they were before, I’m just happy its not really affecting them. So shhh, go root for the yankees if you like overspending.
They did get K-Rod for a good price. I think it’s obvious that it was a function of the market. Starting pitchers cost a little more this season, and the Mets need one and probably two.
What you want is the Mets to be like the Yankees. Spend spend spend. When will you and other Mets fans realize that the Wilpons, who spent over $137 million on team salary last year, do NOT want to go over the luxury tax.
Well yeah…and isn’t that a little frugal for life in the big city when you have a new stadium, your own TV network and should easily draw 3.5 million again this year.
We have the 3rd highest payroll in baseball! You don’t have to throw money around frivilously just to prove yourself to be a big market team. I am, for one, glad we are NOT like the Yankees! Look at this offseason and all the signings they made. They could have had them all for much much less. They basically competed against themselves. No one was even bidding remotely close to them!
I heard Brian Cashman explain his strategy to Chris Russo on Friday. I’m not sure it entirely makes sense but the Yankees wanted to make sure these guys had no doubt the Yankees wanted them and they wanted to come in super high so that no other teams would even bother bidding, lessening the chances that the player would be tempted to go somewhere else.
I would have liked to have Sabathia. I’m still not sure why the Mets wouldn’t. Now it’s January and I’m still not understanding why they don’t close the deal on Lowe.
I don’t want the Mets to be the Yankees either. I want them to be the Mets, a franchise with a proud tradition of winning (while not dressed as a softball team). There are adults in their mid-twenties who have no recollection of this team winning a World Series.
In 2009 winning the division is not enough.
Winning the National League is not enough.
It’s time to win a ring, and this team is no better than the last two. Not good enough.
www.metspolice.com
