Loser? Wimp?
I get the impression that a lot of Mets fans are angry at Omar Minaya and the Wilpons for not doing anything very big by this point to improve the team. Of course the Zito thing is unresolved but it seems likely, from newspaper reports, that desperate Texas will outbid us.
Zito will sign for something close to $20m per year. Can the Mets afford that? You bet they can. The Wilpons have the money. The Mets will make massive amounts of money next year. Zito will probably pay for himself with what he will contribute to buzz, wins, rating points, and ticket sales. But if a merely above-average pitcher like Barry Zito signs for a salary like that, I will be glad that the Mets aren’t signing that paycheck. Why?
It’s not because merely above-average players don’t deserve money like that. They do. If they generate the revenue, they deserve the big paychecks. Even if they don’t generate the revenue, the player deserves that money if some owner is willing to gamble it on the possibility that they might generate the revenue. So it’s not because this is too much money for Zito.
I won’t want the Mets paying that amount because I don’t want them to get the competitive edge they need for next season just by signing a check for an amount larger than what all but five or six teams can sign for.
What sense does this make, you ask? None, to be honest. What about Beltran? What about trades like the one that brought us Delgado, which are essentially free-agent signings? What about the current size of the Mets’ payroll? How can I live with the privileges of wealth and not want to go to the logical next step of thinking that our wealth should not just make us competitive, it should make us super-competitive?
Forgive me. I don’t want to take that next step. I am what some of the sages on the mets.com discussion board would call a “loser” or a “wimp” or worse. I am already so bothered by the way in which the competitive balance in baseball can be determined by a team’s wealth and market size that I desperately want to continue to pretend that it can’t be. If the Mets pay $20 million for a merely above-average pitcher, I won’t be able to keep lying to myself for that much longer.
The Mets are my team. I want to root for them forever without feeling guilty about it. I will always keep my fingers crossed behind my back for teams like the Tigers, the A’s, the Twins, and even I hope someday, the Pirates and the Royals. But I want to continue to pretend that the Mets belong in that pack, fighting for their place. I don’t want to have to think about how they have that great big budget behind them. I don’t want them to get into the business of assuring fans who want victory at any price that they are not, themselves, losers.
Omar, you’ve shown us that you know what you are doing. I trust you.
December 13th, 2006 at 7:59 pm
Dana:
I don’t believe in spending $ just for its own sake, and I have some degree of misgivings about Zito, but I think some of the negative feelings you are seeing is more a function of realizing that the Mets had some major holes last year, and not really seeing all that much happening to address them. I don’t think its an issue of competitive balance, because last year, and in years prior, a few teams with payrolls more modest than the NY teams had success. The simple fact is that right now, starting pitching is the most valuable commodity on the market and the Mets need it. They won’t have Pedro until August, Glavine is 41, El Duque may be 80, Maine and Perez often struggle to go more than 4 innings, and Pelfrey is a question mark. Zito is an off-speed pitcher who projects to do well in a pitcher’s park like Shea that kills power hitters, especially factoring in that he would be in the NL.
With that predicate, whatever his salary is is irrelevant to me. Is it that you would just be embarassed that the Mets payroll becomes so much higher? Not sure why you care so long as it doesn’t impact ticket prices etc. I realize you don’t want the Mets to be a dynasty, but you’ve previously written you want to see them perenially competitive, and in order to do that, the Mets, esp. because of Shea, need the pitching. Who cares if the payroll is higher? It costs more to live, eat, commute, go to the gym, and drink in NYC too. Just the market dynamic. And the Yankees spent more money than God last year and got clobbered by the Tigers.
What’s the prize for being in the pack of teams like the Twins, Pirates, or Royals (as well as the Orioles, whom I like)? Those are teams that simply refuse to spend $ but have no qualms on raising ticket prices. You don’t need to have an All Star at every position, but only his accountant loves the Twins.
I certainly don’t think you are a wimp or loser, and I understand the distaste for not wanting to buy a ring. But that seems pretty distinct from recognizeing a serious need for a front line starting pitcher, and spending the $ necc to get one here.
Don’t worry what other team’s fans are going to think. Who cares what other fans think? The playoffs are a crapshoot, esp. in the DS, but given how much it costs for tickets, parking, and beer, I expect, indeed demand, that Omar and the FO do whatever is neceessary to maximize the Mets chances to have a chance to get into the playoffs. If people in KC grumble that the Mets payroll is higher to get there, I care about that as much as I care who wins American Idol (which is to say, not a whit).
JD
December 13th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
JD,
Essentially, I agree with you about this, but I am blowing off some steam because I’m tired of hearing all of these people yelling and screaming because nothing is happening yet. Omar has at least earned some breathing room. And signing Zito for 108M for six years or thereabouts makes me sick. And I admit that this is largely because the Mets can spend this amount of money without any risk and most of their competitors can’t. That still doesn’t sit well with me. But that is baseball’s problem, not the Mets. I still want them to spend money. But I am trying to express my ambivalence about the fact that they can and others can’t. It still hasn’t reached the point where I don’t think this is a fair fight. But I don’t want it to get closer to that. You see what I mean. - Dana
December 13th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
Dana:
I think I do. I have to admit that I’ve been so busy recently that my only insights into the Mets hot stove activity is through straight reporting - haven’t cruised the message boards or listened to much sports talk radio shows the past month or 2 (which interestingly, creates a sense of calm in me).
Also, how many of the Mets competitors somehow face risks that the Mets don’t? The guy who owns the Twins has a fortune that dwarfs Steinbrenners for example. The Cubs are a major market team with national television ratings (WGN) and finally spend like one. Indeed, baseball is flush with cash right now which accounts for the signings. (Sort of Keynsian pump priming …spend $ to make it). I take all the cries of poverty with more than a few grains of salt, because my understanding is that the way baseball teams account for their p/l is so laughable that it makes Enron’s accounting look positively transparent in comparison.
I have generally found that when the yammering of know-it-all malcontents on talk radio or internet message boards (esp. the official MLB ones) gets really irritating, its best to snap off the radio and read a book by Halberstam or Breslin.
December 17th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
ok, I haven’t said much in a while so I am going to chime in here with my 2 cents. I have total faith that Omar knows what he is doing. He does not have to make any hasty moves to prove that to me. That fact that the Mets haven’t made any big moves lately doesn’t mean that it won’t happen. It is far to early to freak out. Those who do are probably the same that would bitch and moan if the move didn’t work out. We still have months before pitchers and catchers report. I’m willing to sit back and let whatever it may be play out. In Omar I will trust until he shows me reason not to.
February 24th, 2008 at 1:36 am