Why Are Mets Promoting Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran for All-Star Game?

Just got an email from mets.com: REYES, BELTRAN NEED YOUR VOTES! Yeah, that's the way to cheer up a fan base - tell them to support players that may not even be in Met uniforms by the All-Star Game.

Maybe Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran would have more votes if their owner hadn't publicly criticized them last week.

Perhaps Fred Wilpon can make it up to Reyes by voting for him - just so long as he doesn't get Carl Crawford vote totals.

And Wilpon can vote for Beltran, but fill out multiple ballots with other outfielders so Beltran only gets 65-70% of his support.

The one thing we won't see from the Mets is truth in marketing:

Vote for Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran - increase their trade value!

Vote for Reyes and Beltran - it may be years before another Met has any hope of being voted onto the team!

Enjoy these Met All-Star performances while you can - starting in 2012, the Mets will only get someone on the team because every team has to have an All-Star. (But at least Justin Turner will be able to tell his grandkids he was an All-Star.)

I'd love to vote for Reyes - to sign a new contract with the Mets. As for Beltran, I vote for him to find a team that appreciates him.

In the end, many fans, including this one, will be voting with their wallets. And the exit polls on that score are looking pretty grim.

Perhaps the person most in favor of the Mets' latest dubious marketing ploy is incoming investor David Einhorn. ESPN's Adam Rubin suggests that Einhorn may be counting on the team to tank financially so that he can eventually take it over.

And a good way to make Met fans even angrier is to ask them to cast their All-Star votes for Reyes and Beltran - to think of them as the stars they are, just as ownership is no longer able or willing to pay for stars.

On the Yankees' Walkoff Win, "Glee," "Dancing With the Stars," and the Mets

I was watching last night's Yankee game until 9 p.m., when I switched over to the season finale of "Glee." Hey, don't judge. I don't like to watch season finales on DVR or tape delay, because I know that even if I wait an hour to watch it, I'll come across somebody talking about the show in question on Twitter or Facebook or online, I'll get ticked off that the show was spoiled, and it will ruin my enjoyment. So I'd rather prevent the aggravation and watch it live.

Anyhow, because of that, I missed watching the end of the Yankees' exciting walkoff win live, although I did catch it later, after watching the season finale of "Dancing With the Stars." I was happy to see Hines Ward, who I have rooted for all season, take the mirror ball trophy home! I still want to see a baseball star on DWTS one day, though.

It was good to see the Yankees have an old-fashioned rally, and they looked about as happy as I've seen the team all year!

In other news, there's word that Rafael Soriano is going to visit Dr. Andrews, which is never a good thing. Brian Cashman looks vindicated on that signing, that's for sure!

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As for the Mets' mess, there have been some really good articles written criticizing Fred Wilpon. In his piece "Choose the Mets," my friend Mark Healey suggests not putting any money into the Mets' coffers until Wilpon is gone. Ian O'Connor has an angry column which asks that Bud Selig take over the team. "Enough is enough is enough," O'Connor sez. "If wresting the Mets from Wilpon isn't in the best interests of baseball, what the hell is?"

And Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post wonders when the fans will get an apology from Wilpon:

When Wilpon described the Mets as, um, “sh***y,” what he did was admit what we’ve long suspected: that he plays his own fans for suckers, chumps, rubes, that he believes they drive to work on the same turnip truck he so vehemently wants us to believe he rides in on (or else how could poor Fred — a good man — have been so relentlessly duped by so many.

Wilpon may believe he is, in the words of that New Yorker piece, "snakebitten," but I think it's interesting how many times a supposedly smart and good man has been "fooled" so many times. Aside from the Madoff issue, and having Kirk Radomski as a clubhouse staffer back in the day, there's the whole Charlie Samuels scandal.

Samuels, who worked for the Mets for 30 years, and was their longtime clubhouse manager, not only was a clubhouse snitch for ownership, but he was involved with illegal gambling (the second Mets employee to be busted for such a thing). And he also was recently charged with swiping $2.3 million in stolen Mets autographed memorabilia from the clubhouse and storing them elsewhere to sell. According to a news story about the theft, the items recovered included "507 signed and unsigned jerseys, 304 hats, 828 bats, 22 batting helmets and 10 equipment bags." And nobody noticed a thing? Are you kidding me?

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Sorry, Squawker Jon, Fred Wilpon Is No George Steinbrenner

Squawker Jon writes that "Fred Wilpon is George Steinbrenner without the success." I take issue with that comparison. Steinbrenner was a winner; Wilpon, with all his "snakebitten" talk; is just a whiner.

Mike Lupica, who slammed the Yankee front office last week for not covering up for Jorge Posada's sitdown strike, has a much more positive take today on Wilpon throwing his stars under the bus. (Shocker, I know.) He writes, "Steinbrenner used to say everything about everybody, even Don Mattingly, then trash the Bronx for good measure. Now we build monuments to him." Um, no. Steinbrenner didn't get a monument for calling Dave Winfield Mr. May. He got it for winning seven World Series rings.

Fred Wilpon has one ring, back from when he co-owned the team with Nelson Doubleday. And it was Doubleday who, back when he co-owned the team, pushed for them to sign Mike Piazza, the way George Steinbrenner would have. If it had been up to Wilpon, the Mets would still be looking for another playoff appearance since the late 80s. And the only monument Wilpon will ever get is a monument to stupidity.

Whatever you can say about Steinbrenner, he was a Yankee fan through and through. And he really had a feel for Yankee tradition. It was The Boss who brought Mel Allen back into the Yankee fold, over a decade after he had been unceremoniously fired by the Yankees front office as a broadcaster. Steinbrenner also got Roger Maris to put on pinstripes again, and later retired his number. (Yes, Mets, people actually get their numbers retired. It's 25 years since 1986, and there hasn't been a single Met with his number retired from that era. What's up with that?)

Even when The Boss fought with people, he eventually brought them back in the fold. Like Billy Martin, Yogi Berra, and even Dave Winfield, who suffered the worst of Steinbrenner's wrath.

Steinbrenner's "Yankee way" pep talks and signs may have made some players roll their eyes, but there is no doubt which team he loved: The New York Yankees. On the other hand, it's pretty clear that Fred Wilpon's first baseball love is the Brooklyn Dodgers, with the Mets just an afterthought to his childhood dreams.

Citi Field when it first opened was more of a tribute to Ebbets Field and a time long gone than it was to the actual team playing there. Here are Fred's comments to New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin on the issue:

“The first day the architects came to the site, they started saying blah, blah, blah, and I said to them, ‘Let me tell you how this is going to work,’ ” Wilpon told me recently. “ ‘The front of the building is going to look like Ebbets Field. And it’s going to have a rotunda—just like at Ebbets.’ And then I said, ‘Guess what. Here are the plans for Ebbets Field.’ And I handed them over.”

He also told Toobin:

Today, as Wilpon negotiates with possible investors, he says it’s clear that the team is worth more than a billion dollars. “There’s one National League franchise in New York,” he said. “Fifty years from now, there’s going to be one National League franchise in New York. That’s a very valuable thing.”

I'm sorry, I'm not really feeling the Mets love here -- he can't even muster up the name of his own team when saying how valuable it is!

While Wilpon did eventually acknowledge that he overdid it in Citi Field with the Brooklyn love: "All the Dodger stuff—that was an error of judgment on my part," he tells Toobin, he still seems more interested in walking down memory lane than embracing the team he currently owns. George Steinbrenner grew up a Cleveland Indians fan, but the closest he came to embracing his childhood team was hiring Gabe Paul and Bob Lemon, both of which were good moves.The rest of his life was all about Yankeedom.

Finally, Steinbrenner would never have agreed with Wilpon calling his team snake-bitten. Instead, The Boss would surely have agreed with Oprah Winfrey's quote that you make your own luck. Here's hoping that Wilpon makes his own luck for the Mets, and sells the entire team. Enough already.

Fred Wilpon: Steinbrenner Without the Success

I am not a fan of George Steinbrenner, but he did resurrect the Yankee brand and bring multiple titles to the Bronx. However, Fred Wilpon's Steinbrenner-type comments on several of his stars in the New Yorker betray a mindset that won't result in any titles and could further damage the Mets' image.

The most successful big-market teams use their payroll advantage to overpay some players. The Yankees, with their $200 million payroll, can land a CC Sabathia by giving him tens of millions of dollars more than any other team. A.J. Burnett got a contract that seemed crazy at the time and seems crazier now. But the signings of Sabathia and Burnett, along with Mark Teixeira (who appears to have gotten market value), produced a World Series title for the Yankees in their first season.

The Red Sox and the Phillies have had plenty of questionable signings- John Lackey and Raul Ibanez, just to name two recent ones. Cliff Lee is 32 with a five-year contract. What are the odds that he will be great all five years?

But the willingness of the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies to spend big on several players, knowing that not all of them will justify their investment, that most if not all will offer diminishing returns over the life of their long contracts, results in these teams being perennial contenders.

The Mets have shown all too often that simply spending lots of money is no guarantee of success. But they have also shown that overpaying for stars can quickly bring a team to the brink of the World Series.

The Mets won 71 games in 2004. Over the next two offseasons, they signed Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran and Billy Wagner and traded for Carlos Delgado. In 2006, the Mets won 97 games.

Beltran finished fourth in MVP voting that season and Delgado finished twelfth. Wagner was sixth in Cy Young voting. Pedro made the All-Star team in 2006 before he got hurt.

Combining these expensive pieces with another acquisition, Paul Lo Duca, and homegrown stars Wright and Reyes (who both were top 10 in MVP voting in 2006) got the Mets to Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS.

Many Met fans probably agree with Wilpon that the Beltran signing didn't pay off in the long run. As much as I like Pedro, his signing was not a success - he was only healthy for a year and a half out of four. Both Wagner and Delgado saw their Met tenures cut short by injuries.

One could argue that all four of these players failed to return full value on their contracts. But thanks to this combination of players, the Mets were a top contender for three seasons - 2006-8.

Say what you will about Beltran, but the Mets would not have been a contender in those years without him.

And Fred Wilpon regrets signing him.

Beltran is a Scott Boras client who probably wanted to leave the Mets even before the latest mess. The Mets are unlikely to retain him at anything approaching a reasonable value.

But Reyes is a much different case. The Mets may well have to overpay for him, but what the Mets consistently fail to realize is that it's better to overpay for a great player than try to save money by signing a lesser light to a still-big contract.

Two years ago, there were a couple of power-hitting left fielders on the free agent market. The Mets got Jason Bay for $66 million while the Cardinals got Matt Holliday for $120 million. Holliday didn't seem to be twice as good as Bay, so it looked like the Mets got a good deal. But as of now, Bay is almost worthless, while Holliday is a perennial MVP candidate on a pennant contender.

After the 2008 season, the Mets might have signed Derek Lowe for $60 million. Instead, they signed Oliver Perez for $36 million. Lowe has not been that great with the Braves and this year he has been charged with a DUI. But Lowe won 31 games with the Braves in 2009-10. During those years, Perez won three.

If the Mets had spent more money on Lowe instead of less on Perez, things could have been a lot different the last two seasons.

Yes, the 2011 Mets show the perils of overpaying too many players. But if you're going to overpay anyone, Reyes and Wright, two regular All-Stars when healthy who are still under 30, are a good place to start. And think of the potential alternatives:

The Phillies may be in a market for a shortstop next year, with the declining Jimmy Rollins also in his contract year this season.

What if Derek Jeter hits .240 and the Yankees miss the playoffs? Does the Yankees signing Reyes still seem so unlikely?

What if David Wright decides to become a free agent right around the time the Yankees are ready to shift A-Rod to DH? Oh, and Wright also would be a big upgrade at third for the Phillies.

Think the Yankees and Phillies wouldn't love to stick it to the Mets and pilfer their biggest names? The Phillies are so eager to show up the Mets that they even signed Luis Castillo after the Mets cut him. The Yankees turned all-time Mets Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden into important Yankees as well.

Reyes is no Tom Seaver, but at least M. Donald Grant didn't send The Franchise to the Yankees.

Last year, the Twins signed Joe Mauer to a huge contract. Now Mauer is hurt and his catching days may be numbered. It's unclear whether Mauer will justify his contract.

But the Twins realized they had no choice but to retain the face of their franchise. Now, even though the Twins have the worst record in baseball, per-game attendance is barely down from last year, when the Twins debuted their new ballpark. Twins fans know that the previously cheap team can now hold on to their stars.

Meanwhile, Rays' attendance and TV ratings are plummeting, even though the team is percentage points out of first place. But the Rays said goodbye to Matt Garza, Carlos Pena and Rafael Soriano. And they refused to give Carl Crawford money to Carl Crawford. Rays fans know that whatever success the team has will be short-lived because they can't hold on to their good players.

Fred Wilpon wanted to bring back the era of the 1950s by modeling Citi Field after Ebbets Field. Instead, he may end up bringing back the era of the late 1970s, when Grant's unwillingness to pay his stars turned Shea Stadium into "Grant's Tomb."

Subway Series: Yankees Win First Go-Round Against Mets; Fred Wilpon Flaps His Gums

Sweet! Not only did the Yankees beat the Mets two games to one this weekend, but I woke up to the news that Mets owner Fred Wilpon has made Hank Steinbrenner look like Silent Cal Coolidge. The New York Times reports that this week's New Yorker has an interview with Frugal Freddy. In the piece, Wilpon criticizes his own players, including Jose Reyes, David Wright, and Carlos Beltran. Wilpon even does the "Beltran standing like a statue" bit I have been mocking Squawker Jon with for years.

Before I get to yakking about Sunday, I just want to point out some of the gems Wilpon unleashed on Jeffrey Toobin when they watched a game together last month. Wilpon's so-over-the-top insulting, he makes Brian Cashman's offseason quotes look subdued. A few examples:

* David Wright: "A really good kid. A very good player. Not a superstar."

* Carlos Beltran: "'We had some dummy in New York, Wilpon says, referring to himself, “who paid him based on that one series. He’s 65 to 70 percent of what he was." He later mocks the Beltran called third strike in the 2006 NLCS with a pantomine of it.

* Jose Reyes:  "He thinks he’s going to get Carl Crawford money. He’s had everything wrong with him. He won’t get it."

The Times' Tyler Kepner, who wrote the story about the New Yorker profile, thinks this piece is a good thing for Wilpon, saying:

"Such insights may bother the players, who will surely be asked about them before their next game on Tuesday in Chicago. But they humanize Wilpon, and for him, that is something. For fans, winning owners are easily the best kind. But owners who empathize with their feelings probably come in second."

Oh, please. At the risk of speaking out of turn as a Yankee fan, I think the only thing Fred Wilpon could do at this point to please Mets fans is to sell the whole team. As our blogging friend Metsradamus sez, "This is the family atmosphere that Tom Glavine once bragged about?  The Gosselins had less dysfunction." True.

I doubt any fan is going to say "Fred's one of us" after reading that story. He or she, in my view, is more likely thinking that Fred is trashing his own stars' abilities in order to have reasons to get rid of them. And it's not like these players are at the end of their careers, but demanding huge paydays from the Mets (like a certain Yankee shortstop) that he's objecting to. No, Wilpon just wants to not have to pay anybody.

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As for the Yankees, that was a nice little home-run free rally Sunday, eh? Eight runs in one inning, and none of them homers! Squawker Jon did totally call it -- he was telling me that the wheels were about to come off with Mike Pelfrey, and thought that Terry Collins should have removed him earlier than he did.

One thing Joe Girardi did that made me second-guess him was batting Jorge Posada sixth. Yes, that's the perfect place for .183 hitters who haven't even hit a home run in a month. Good grief.

What do you think? Tell us about it!