The Mets Are Not The Yankees, They Never Will Be, Let’s Get Over That
Posted by GravediggerHebner on 7:00am, Sunday November 22nd 2009
Met fans unveil Envy Green uniforms
Recently TRS86, my esteemed colleague here at TRDMB wrote an article which, in summary, can be referred to as The Yankee-Marlin Plan, essentially recommending that the Mets take a Yankee approach to forming their roster for the forthcoming season (buy all the best players) and, should it not unfold well, take a Marlin approach to dismantling it both during and after the coming season (sell all the best players).
It is not my intention here to single out TRS86. In his article he freely admits it was an idea born of the moment and he retained his right to change his mind. But many Met fans, in this forum and others, have stated point blank that they are frustrated, angry, and/or disappointed, and want the Mets to “go the extra mile” by setting aside their respect for the luxury tax threshold, to tell themselves that the second or third highest payroll in baseball is not enough, and raise that payroll to previously unseen heights in the interest of returning a championship to Queens.
The Yankee Way
Promoting a Yankee philosophy, while it may feel good, is still no guarantee of success (see 1982-1994 for example) and is unfair to the Mets and to ourselves. It leaves us in a bad situation. If the Mets did somehow spend money on the team in a Yankee way and fail, where do we go from there? Do we pat them on the back, content that they gave it “the old Yankee try” and say “we’ll get ‘em next year?” I can almost hear a fellow Met fan say in that instance “yeah, they spent $210 million, but not $220 million.” In promoting such a philosophy, we are asking the Mets to do the impossible, to become something they are not, and never can be.
According to Forbes magazine, “The Yankee brand (the portion of the team’s value attributable to its name) alone is worth $241 million, almost as much as the entire Florida Marlins franchise.” I’m just going to let that sink in for a moment. La la la. OK. Simply being “The Yankees” is worth $241 million. Furthermore, according to Wiki Answers (admittedly a less reliable source than Forbes) Yankee product merchandising accounts for 25% of all MLB merchandising sales. One of thirty franchises accounts for 25% of all sales.
The Franchise
The Mets came into being in 1962. The most recognizable player in the history of the franchise is Tom Seaver, whose nickname is appropriately “The Franchise.” There are other noteworthy players throughout Met history, certainly names recognized throughout the United States and the rest of the world. But nothing the Mets have ever done, no player they’ve ever had on their roster, compares on a world wide scale to the 27 World Championships and the Babe Ruths, Lou Gehrigs, Joe DiMaggios, Mickey Mantles, Whitey Fords, Reggie Jacksons, Mariano Riveras and dare I say Derek Jeters that the Yankees have put forth. The Yankees have been so successful throughout their history that they lay claim to both “Mr. October” (Jackson) and “Mr. November” (Jeter). They can even laugh off having “Mr. March” (Dave Winfield).
Πάμε Yankees!
Armenian grandfathers wear Yankee winter hats. Impoverished children in third world nations wear Yankee caps. People seen tearing down the Berlin Wall wore Yankee caps. OK I made that last one up, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone presented me with a photo or video footage of just that. Even Met fan Jerry Seinfeld made his TV show cohort George Costanza a Yankee employee. The Yankees have a cache that the Mets can only begin to chip away at by winning say 26 of the next 90 World Series while hoping the Yankees win none of them. Even if they do that, they’ll still never have Babe Ruth unless fictional characters Dr. Emmett Brown and Marty McFly show up with a DeLorean that travels through time and pick up some Met fans for the trip.
No visible Met bumpersticker
So let’s not hold the Mets to a standard they can never hope to achieve. Let’s not ask them to trade for Roy Halladay and Brandon Phillips, while signing free agents John Lackey, Matt Holliday, Benjie Molina and Mike Gonzalez. They don’t have the unlimited resources from all points of the world with which to do it. As fans we certainly should ask for a championship team, we absolutely should try and suss out a winning roster for the 2010 team and beyond. In doing so, let’s not ask them to be the Yankees. Let’s be realistic. Let’s Go Mets!
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Fantastic post as usual.
Excellent and right on the money.
But I think Georgie called Winfield Mr May….I vividly remember being really ticked when he chose the Yanks over us…
Nice article. But let me make clear in that recent plan I never once recommended the Mets go over the luxury tax threshold. Remember we were 8-10 under it last year and it goes up another 8 this year. Thus 18+32 (room to last year’s budget) is 50 million and more than enough to get Lackey, Holliday and others. There have been a few other teams, not the Mets, who have went over the luxury tax and were not trying to be the Yankees. Angels, Redsox and Tigers have all went beyond what MLB says is “fair”. All I am asking is that the Mets spend right up to the luxury tax just like they always have. Last year they left 8-10 for “mid-season addition” that never came and I understand why it did not come. This year I am only asking currently that they spend up to the tax in the off-season and forget the mid-season addition. Does not seem like a stretch to me.
That’s so true about the Yankee gear in other countries I went to Italy this past summer and I saw street vendors selling Yankee hats next to the Italy hats I ask how come and they just think its a reg NY hat I still don’t get why would they be selling NY hats at all
Want to be angry and depressed about this offseason? Then read this:
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2009/11/21/2009-11-21_new_york_mets_offseason_focus.html
Let’s hope it is nonsense…..
This should be a tight race with Atlanta for third place in the division…if this is true of course.
I think we would have 4th place sewn up possibly. The Braves’ rotation will be Hudson, Hansen, Jurrjens, Vazquez and Lowe.
That’s potentially amazing.
Let’s pray this story is bogus, or we are in big, big trouble.
I also saw that Castillo to the Royals for Guillen is bubbling up again….disaster…
agree about that castillo deal.
but, while the braves are potentailly amazing, like most other pitchers, potentially mediocre.
hey, if yo utake their best 1/2 seasons and project them to produce that next year, the Mets rotation could be just as amazing.
and for the braves, say Lowe gets even worse (from a lousy base), hudson gets hurt again (a pretty likely bet), hansen hits the sophmore slump wall (verduccii in play?), jurrjens who knows, and Vasquez acts his age (not young) and tails off a bit.
Like most teasm, most years, there is a best case and worst case, and reality usually falls in the middle.
every so often, a team hits the jackpot, and you get the 2008 Rays. Or they bust, and you get the 2009 mets.
Ouch! That’s tough to swallow. What can Omar do with $20M?
1. Lackey (16) and Delgado (4) (would Bedard drop to 4M?)
2. Cameron (8), LaRoche (8) and Randy Johnson (4)
3. Cameron or LaRoche (8), Wolf (8) and Johnson (4)
4. Cameron (8), Wolf (8) and Delgado (4)
5. Winn (4), Delgado (4), Wolf (8) and Johnson(4)
Nothing wrong with Bottom Feeding (Boston did it last year w/ Baldelli, Penny, Smoltz, etc) but you do that to add depth not fill starting positions.
The Wilpons are already on record as saying the payroll is coming down from $147 million in ‘09.
Show me ONE place that the Wilpons have said the payroll is coming down. ONE!
yeah, I thought I missed something.
before I comment on the Mets, the interesting piece of the maddon article was his ramblings about the money small market teams make, particularly the Pirates. For teams like the priates and especially the marlins, it almost doesn;t matter it seems if any fans do show up, since they are turning a profit.
and, every team should make a profit. even the bad ones! Owners are running businesses they made a huge investment in, not a charity for the fans.
Now the Mets. Man, if his projection that they only spend 20mill is true, I don’t think I will be able to come to this site or places like matt’s, given the expected level of venom, hate and idiocy likely to be spewed.
But, even though I may be a lone voice in the woods, if the existing talent reutrns mostly healthy and normally productive (iow, what they usually do), even adding just a couple of “2nd tier” guys (the right ones, of course), along with moderately shrewd trade or 2 and a couple fo spare part pick ups, will actually make the Mets competitive for the post season.
It is also not like the teams that made the playoffs (or were fighting to the end) in the NL were all overpowering dynastys. Rockies, dodgers, giants, cards, brewers? I think the Mets should have enough talent to compete with them (and frankly, the Phils if they get a couple of key players hurt or underperforming).
The financial situation cited also points out the absolute crucial need to develop and use your own young players (or at least trade for another teams!) If you want to be able to compete for the expensive baubbles, or lock up your own studs LT, then you better have a regular pipeline of cheap talent to plug in.
Best case, of course, is young stars to be regulars, but it also helps immensely to spend 500K on bench, BP and back-end starter types, instead of 2 mill on cora/livan/redding mediocrity.
a few mill here, a few there, and pretty soon you are toaking real money!
Of course, who knows how much they really will spend.
anyway, final thoughts next post.
Well, lets assume the financial projectin is a little bleak for the mets, and the FA class is going to take a hit (and if the mets and yanks aren’t spending, bank on it!).
Well, from a business perspective, there is only one logical solution.
Spend more!
Yes, spend more, and get the talent lingering at .$50 on the dollar.
If revenue is down due to ticket sales, etc., then the best thing to do is load up the team and try to make a big run, which is what will get more fannys in the seats.
In some ways, it is like trickle down reagonomics. Spend more to make even more coming back in!
and sometiems in a business, you have to invest captial up front (even if it means “losing” money in a given year) to make a long more in the long term.
The big danger for the mets is they react to a decline in ticket sales for 2010 by bunkering down and slashing payroll stupidly, then having a poor product on the field (and not because of injuries), leading to an even bigger decrease in tixs for 2011, and causing a snowball effect.
combine that with my concept of taking what the market is giving you at a discount 9when it does), and that makes this the year to shop, just do it smartly.
I, for one, don’t have any problem with not aspiring to be a Yankee wanna-be….
I wish the winter meetings were here and the acquisitions and trading would just begin already. It’s torture reading all these beat writers and sports analysts who lay claim to knowing what direction the Wilpons and Omar are going.
Here’s a thought for outside the box: Josh Johnson wouldn’t discuss a year extension with ownership. If his talent is as good as we’ve seen, he probably knows all he has to do is wait for his opportunity at FA. The Marlins are never going to keep him then and they know it. Maybe Omar ought to pick up the phone and see what it would take for them to trade him now….
It’s good to be a Yankee fan!
BTW, watching game 3 of 69 WS, top of the 8, Ryan on the mound. Man, goes to show you never to quit on a guy with a strong arm.