MVP! MVP! MVP!

Were he to have a bad season, the Mets wouldn’t be able to get rid of him; were he to have an average season, they couldn’t afford him.  Now they can’t afford to lose him.

Through 64 games, he has 49 runs, 97 hits, 19 doubles, 11 triples, 3 homers, 27 ribbies, 22 steals in 27 attempts, (an .814 stolen base percentage) just 25 strikeouts, and .346 average, .389 on base, and .525 slugging.  Over 162 games that’s 124 runs, 245 hits, 48 doubles, 28 triples, 8 home runs, 84 extra base hits, 68 RBI, 56-68 on stolen bases, 63 K’s, and a .914 OBP.  Now, I know at some point, he has to slow down.  But those are MVP numbers, and they don’t even include the fact that he not only plays shortstop, but he’s the best defensive shortstop in the game.  And 28 triples?  Can he really do that?  That’s insane.  No one’s hit that many in a year since 1912!

So there we have it.  Reyes must be considered the frontrunner for MVP, and he’s on the trading block.  That got me thinking- has anyone ever been traded in the midst of an MVP season?  So I looked it up.  And since 1911, when the first MVP was awarded, not one Most Valuable Player award winner has played for two teams in one season.  Rick Sutcliffe won the Cy Young Award playing for Cleveland and the Cubs, but his Cy Young was based solely on his National League numbers, and he was having a crappy season for the Indians before the trade. 

The best thing about this is that The Mets can’t get value for him- who would they get in return?  Pujols?  Lincecum?  His season right now places him at that echelon.   The Mets would be foolish to attempt to trade him, and suicidal to not re-sign him.

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He’s modestly and quietly trying to make a difference in the world, with the simple thread of trying to help people get along, whether it’s in Jerusalem or downtown New York,

-Mary Gordon, the president of Roots of Empathy, on David Einhorn the new minority-stake owner of the Mets. 

What comes first? Peace in Jerusalem or between the Wilpons and Mets fans? 

Jumping the Snark

I'm all for snark; it's like a second language for me.  But the thing about snark is that you have to properly place it, or else you look like a moron.  And when you look like a moron, you open yourself up to da-da-dahhh- snark. 

Following my twitter feed last week, I came across this tweet, from of all places, @MLB: 

Mets skipper uses pitcher Chris Capuano as pinch-hitter; changes mind mid at-bat because ya know, he's a pitcher 

Isn't that so clever.  So clever that Jayson Werth's beard felt the need to retweet it and add:

You know times are tough when even @MLB is clowning you. #LOLMETS 

Ha, ha wasn't that so funny?  You know, because Collins made a stupid move, sending up a starting pitcher to pinch hit (we all know it's only genius if Tony LaRussa does it), and then realized it was stupid, and changed his mind mid-at bat.  So he's a flip-flopper too!  He could run for President on the GOP ticket! 

The facts, of course, get in the way on this one. 

Here's what happened:  In a 7-7 game in the bottom of the 8^th, a runner on first, and no outs, Collins sent Willie Harris in to pinch run.  With the pitcher's spot up, he sent Chris Capuano to pinch hit?  Why?  Because he's a moron, didn't you read to the MLB tweet.  End of story, nothing to see here. 

Of course, it could have had something to do with the fact that he was planning on bunting Harris to second, and Capuano's the best bunter among his pitchers.  So why waste a position player?   

Then, with the count 1-1, Jose Veras balked Harris to second.  With a runner in scoring position, Collins decided to bring up Josh Thole, who was going to have to come into the game anyway.   

And then the move worked.  And the Mets won the game.  It was out of the box thinking, and it was a great play.  The funny thing is that the video MLB links to with their snarky tweet makes that all clear.  So either they intentionally gave a false impression of what was in the video, or they didn't even watch it.  I know J Werth's Beard didn't. 

Point is, people who live in glasses houses, shouldn't snark about how ugly their neighbors are when they get out of the shower. 

Nice Nights Finish Last

Twenty minutes after the final pitch of another demoralizing loss, Katie, Duff and I were sitting in beach chairs in the parking lot, drinking Bud Light out of keg cups the same shade of red as most of the fans in Citi Field were wearing when the game ended. 

My sister got me Mets tickets for my birthday, and now seven weeks later the game had ended with predictable disappointment.  The Mets held a lead for seven innings, only to blow it in the end.  By the ninth the Phillies fans had taken over the bleachers completely.   

But all was not lost.  There was still cold beer and good company in the parking lot.  As the rest of the parking lot emptied, slowly, we laughed and talked about everything but the last two innings of the game. 

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Around the Einhorn

So the Fred Wilpon has found his knight in shining equities markets, David Einhorn.

Einhorn claims to be a childhood Mets fans, which should already endear him to Mets fans sick of having a Dodgers nostalgist as the sole owner. "Having an opportunity to become part of the Mets franchise is exciting beyond my wildest childhood dreams,” Einhorn said in a statement.

Amazingly, early reports say that Einhorn will take no part of ownership in the SNY cable-network, the most lucrative part of the Mets operation. He told reporters in a conference call that "It was never of interest to me." Unfortunately, the $200 million in cash that Einhorn brings will be used almost entirely to service debts that the Wilpons have acquired.

The initial reaction from Forbes writer, Nathan Vardi is full of speculation:

Einhorn runs Greenlight Capital, a very successful hedge fund that is known for making daring and contrarian investments. By purchasing the Mets, Einhorn may believe the team has reached bottom not only in the baseball standings, but financially as well. The team drew only 2.6 million fans last year and is on track to attract even fewer fans this year, but not long ago the annual attendance was well above 3 million–Einhorn may believe it will be again once the team overcomes its current on-the-field problems.

This is merely a confirmation of Wilpon's biggest selling point: there is only one National League team in New York, there probably never will be another one in our lifetimes.

Interesting that this is the second time this week that Einhorn has been in the news. Earlier this week, this equities prince demanded the head of Microsoft Chairman Steve Ballmer. It would be nice to have a voice like this in the ultra-staid company of other baseball owners.

Einhorn said something else in his conference call with reporters today: "I think the Wilpons are the control holders of the team. I'm just looking forward to the overall experience this investment will lead to." This absolutely confirms the view of Wilpon, shared with reporter Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker that owning a baseball team changes the way you are perceived in your other businesses.

I think guys will be upset. But we’re all a family: ownership, coaches and players. Sometimes people say things they regret. It’s a mistake and you learn from it. Maybe next spring when we have our media workshop for the players, Fred can come and sit in on it.

- Mets pitcher, Mike Pelfrey, on owner Fred Wilpon's comments about his own players in the New Yorker. 

Joel Sherman sums it up. 

Wilpon essentially found the worst time in his personal and franchise history to give you this message: My players are not very good. In other words, he is telling a fan base with diminishing interest in going out to Citi Field that it is actually a good idea to stay away. Which considering the Mets' plight would be like burning $100 bills in the parking lot for the rest of the season.

Of course the Mets are an extremely valuable franchise. But if you were one of the bidders on a minority stake, wouldn't you want Fred Wilpon to stop sabotaging the revenue and value of the team? 

Fred is a good man and is obviously going through some difficult times. There is nothing more productive that I can say at this time.

- Mets 3B David Wright, after being asked by reporters what he thought of Fred Wilpon's comments that he's a "nice kid" but "not a superstar." 

As we predicted, Fred's 70's-George-Steinbrenner impression isn't going well. The Mets market Wright like a superstar, because he is a superstar.

There used to be a good chance that Jose Reyes and David Wright would be around the Mets long after Fred Wilpon had retired.  

Not Snakebitten, Wilpon-bitten

Oh my. Jeffrey Toobin has a long profile of Fred Wilpon in this week's New Yorker. And frankly the interview he gave Toobin will hurt his sale of the team, it will hurt his players, and like a lot of things the Wilpons do lately, it will hurt the Wilpons. 

His frank admissions of mistakes don't make him look brave or human, they look desperate. 

On Citifield's non-Metsness: “All the Dodger stuff—that was an error of judgment on my part.”

On Jose Reyes:

“He thinks he’s going to get Carl Crawford money,” Wilpon said, referring to the Red Sox’ signing of the former Tampa Bay player to a seven-year, $142-million contract. “He’s had everything wrong with him,” Wilpon said of Reyes. “He won’t get it.”

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Text and Zero

"You watching the Mets game right now?"

The phone buzzes in my pocket. You pick it out. A text, "You watching the Mets game right now?" You look up at the time, almost 3:00 pm. You figure it is the sixth inning. Your mind races: maybe the seventh. The text wouldn't come to you unless it was at least the sixth. You got this exact text when John Maine was pitching against the Marlins on the second to last day of the season in 2007.YOu got it last August when R.A. Dickey was tossing that knuckler against the Phillies. You know precisely what this text means because your fellow Mets fan is unwilling to jinx it, but he doesn't want you to miss it either. It has never happened before.

"You watching the Mets game right now?" disguises itself as a question. But it contains an interrogative and declarative in it. "Get to a television now. A Mets pitcher as a no-hitter going."

Obviously, if the Mets were about to close out a playoff series, clinch a playoff spot, or win the World Series, you could adjust your schedule. But the Mets' first-ever franchise no-hitter will sneak up on Mets fans unaware. It could be some day game in a season of .500 middlingness. It could be in a pennant race. It could be a John Maine whose fastball is working one year, and never quite works again. Or a Johan Santana who reminds you why he had a nine-figure contract. And every Mets fan who was just wasting time on a lazy Saturday, or who happened to sit down in some pub for a day-game owes it to Mets-fan friends if even the hint of one appears, "You watching the Mets right now?"

We Can Work It Out

Many observers have been questioning why it is that Major League Baseball has felt compelled to intervene in the inner workings of the Dodgers organization, but have left the Mets to their own devices.  Are the McCourt's really in that much worse shape than The Wilpon's? 

The cynics among us chalk it up to Selig not wanting to screw over Fred Wilpon, because they go way back; he doesn't know the McCourt's as well, so it's easier to meddle there.  It's as easy to believe that of the loathsome commissioner, as it is to believe the McCourts were able to buy the Dodgers over Mark Cuban because he wouldn't have been deferential enough to His Comishness (and no, that is not a reference to Michael Chiklis).   

The more I find out about this situation though, the more its becoming clear that the key difference is the organizational discord- while The Mets owners are all on the same page, allowing them to try to find a way out of the hole they've dug for themselves together, the Dodgers owners are hell bent on destroying each other, collateral damage be damned.  And that is why MLB has had to take over. 

ESPN reports that Jamie McCourt is asking a judge to order the sale of the Dodgers as soon as possible.  The Mets owners meanwhile are trying to find a minority partner to finance their further mismanaging of the franchise.  At least they agree on an approach.  Jamie and Frank's ongoing Battle Royale is what forced MLB's hand, and not their lack of a personal relationship with King Bud.

Fear of a Black Cap

We're overloaded with stories that make the Mets, the Wilpons, or Charlie Samuels look crazy today folks. Here is an interview of the man who designed the Mets' hideously untraditional, but weirdly compelling black uniforms, by black-uniform hater Paul Lukas. It's actually amazing that Charlie Samuels had such an influence over the design and that MLB has only imposed its will on uniform designs in the last ten years. 

Uni Watch: So did you just do the black jerseys, or did you also do the black drop shadow on all the other jerseys?

Bob Halfacre: All of that was mine, yes. See, they spent two years trying to get black in their uniforms …

UW: When you say, "they," who are you referring to?

BH: The Mets, Charlie Samuels -- Charlie Samuels was a very, very powerful man with that team. He had a lot of control over things there. Anyone wanted anything done, it had to go through him. At AIS, we had a sales rep who was very tight with him. They were not happy with Russell [the team's previous outfitter] at the time. They were looking for more control, and we were a fledgling little company that offered them that, so we made a deal to make their uniforms. And they were determined to get black in their uniform.

This is a strangely compelling read. 

Wilpons Hire People To Steal From Wilpons

The Wilpons sure know how to pick 'em. The Mets owners who have hired two separate Ponzi schemeres to manage their assets, and once had Omar Minaya manage baseball operations, also hired Charlie Samuels to be the clubhouse manager. So this isn't exactly a shocker. Samuels has been indicted for stealing over $2 million worth of memorabilia from the clubhouse. 

Among the items Samuels is accused of stealing are a 1986 World Series commemorative workout jersey signed by the championship team and another autographed Mets jersey commemorating the terrorist attacks from Sept. 11, 2001, both valued at $7,500 [snip]

Mascara said the storage unit had nearly 5,000 Mets uniform team jerseys and two boxes containing baseball bats from Mets player Mike Piazza. Mascara said the storage unit had about $500,000 worth of stolen merchandise inside.

I'm not doing anything good for the team, but hopefully there's a time where I'll start doing good.

–Ubaldo Jimenez, after a miserable performance against a Mets team that lacked David Wright and Ike Davis. Jimenez is now 0-3 with an ERA at 6.68. Last year at this time he was 6-0 with an ERA south of 1. The surprising collapse of Jimenez is probably the most depressing story in baseball this year. He was almost single-handedly a "Year of the Pitcher" all by himself for the first half of last year.  

Loved and Feared

Jason Fry of the incomparable Faith and Fear in Fluhing, captures exactly the feeling about Tim Lincecum that everyone who is not a Giants fan has. 

I love Tim Lincecum, I really do. I love that perfect motion of his — my description of it last year was “the equation that solves a knotty physics problem, and leaves you smiling at the elegance and beauty of the answer,” which I’m not going to improve on. I love his God-given talents, his individuality, his doggedness, and most of all the fact that he somehow sailed through the anonymizing factory that is minor-league baseball without some idiot pitching coach ruining him or enough people deciding he was too small to meet their definition of success and so denying him any chance at it. Lincecum was so good so quickly that nobody had a chance to fuck him up, and now he sits atop the pitching mountain, walking on his hands before games and not bothering to ice his arm after starts, happily out of reach of the ligament-shredding groupthink that Organized Baseball calls wisdom. (The fact that Lincecum is nicknamed the Freak tells you everything you need to know about baseball and new ideas.) My goodness I love him.

Important caveat, though: I love him a lot more when he’s tormenting somebody else.

Yes, a thousand times. Lincecum dismantled the Mets last night, compiling 12 Ks over 7 innings, incuding the last five batters he saw.