No Bailout for Thee

By Matt Himelfarb
Posted Friday, January 30, 2009

Fred Wilpon got owned.

Despite lacking any baseball acuteness whatsoever, Freddy is a cunning businessman. Unless he’s an Israeli spy or that Paul Giamatti look alike heading the Department of Homeland security, however, he has about as much influence on Washington these days as Nancy Shevell has on Paul McCartney’s decision to marry her.

Sure, you can’t fault him for a poor man’s effort to stop the bleeding; he tried paying tribute to President Obama with his "I’m the Democrats bitch", ahem, “Baracklyn Cyclones” scheme. His Excellency responded promptly by boarding Citi Banks private jets and crashing into Mets fans audacious hopes. Left with $20 million less to spend, Ohio Mets fans can now begin to plot Dennis Kucinich’s political destruction, while I personally spearhead the crusade to acquire outfielder Val Pascucci from the Dodgers.

Like the rest of the U.S.S.A., the other estimated eight million Mets fans in the New York area are undoubtedly getting fleeced in the name of the common good. To what extent the Mets off-season expenditures will be curtailed, though, is unknown. Is ownership just playing a ploy and are willing to spend $35 million if it rings in the champagne? Or can we expect them to plug $5-$8 million for another starter and call it quits?

Currently, the Mets payroll is about $125 million. Last year, they started the season with a payroll of abut $137 million. Reasonably, their spending capacity should accrue over time by raking in revenues from SNY, but the Mets will meet last year’s payroll tops predominantly because they are cautious. Naturally, they are pessimistic about the economy, with people unlikely to spend as they did a short time ago no matter how much the Feds. can increase the money supply. Further, with the government bailing out one corporation after the other and its’ future actions largely unpredictable, this discourages investment in all sectors, including those that are of major advertising revenue for the Mets. I’m no economist to say the least, and I don’t know how many Luis Castillo bobble heads they sold the past the holiday season, but why the Mets appear uninterested in Manny Ramirez is not rocket science. Alright, so we cool with Mets management?

Actually, aside from being unemployed, Mets fans were told not to scram outside SNY last Thursday because they would be better suited taking up ground outside Omar’s apartment like more pictures of Katy Perry were to come. Because if this team were not royally pissing away about $15 million between between Brian Schneider, Luis Castillo, Tim Redding, and Alex Cora, Manny would still be a reality. I am all for the Mets taking advantage of being a big-market team, but spending for the sake of veteran security is a poor use of resources. (God knows what “incentives” Freddy Garcia has to reach to earn $8 million this year.

If Omar and co. want to redeem themselves, here are some sound economics. The recession combined with the surplus of outfielders and pitchers this year has, like any other commodity, forced players to drop their demands dramatically. Omar seems a shrewd negotiator, and knows Oliver Perez is just stubborn when it comes to his ridiculous demands. Adam Dunn for $5-$8 million is highway robbery, and the same can be said for Bobby Abreu at the same price for a year or two.

Of course, that’s assuming Minaya actually thinks those guys are more valuable than Brian Schneider.

You can contact Matt at matthimelfarb@gmail.com