WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Bull Allen. July 14, 2011:
CitiField From the Right Field Upper Deck. Batting Practice.
Please tell the fans you did not forget, Mr. Met?
Please tell the fans, you look at the standings, Fred?
Throwing in the towel at the the midway point only 7-1/2 games out just to help out a pal?
The Metropolitans’ trading Francisco Rodriguez their “ace reliever” to the Milwaukee Brewers is a deal reminiscent of the Nolan Ryan deal.
The Mets have traded K-Rod to the Brewers. What a surprise!
I nearly swallowed my White Owl panatella when I heard this. And the sportswriters don’t even notice this reeks? Hear no evil. See no evil. Speak no evil at the press box buffet!
The Brewers just happen to be strongly connected with the Commissioner of Baseball, Bud Selig– former owner of the Brewers who are in escrow, run by his daughter while he is Commissioner. Selig has been a long time supporter of Fred Wilpon, beleaguered, financially hurting owner of the Metropolitans even loaning the Mets $25 Million to meet payroll last year very quietly which we just learned about recently.
What a wonderful thing!
How nice for the Brewers they were able to give the Mets two players to be named later for a premier closer when they have a chance for the NL Central Crown.
The Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals must be steamed.
Just a coincidence? A smart trade for both sides. Perhaps a smart trade for one, and a dumb one for the other team.
Probably — but for two players to be named later???? We fans don’t even know who we’re going to get? This is one of the all-time sucker trades.
The financially hurting Mets give away K-Rod for a song with no lines or lyrics, just to unload payroll. Did they even consider any other offers.
I hope K-Rod performs just as well for the Brewers as he did for us when he punched his fist into a wall last year and could not pitch as a result, and this year was woefully inconsistent. He should be better motivated.
This is conduct becoming to baseball?
This is not a trade, it is highway robbery reminiscent of the Kansas City-Yankee trades of the 1950s.
It is good to be a benevolent commissioner. I lend you money, you give me a key player when my former team needs one. Not that this happened, surely not. But that’s indeed what happened.
Selig continues to allow the Wilpons to keep the Mets despite their obvious financial mismanagement of the team with a new stadium that they can’t fill, while giving Frank McCourt of the Dodgers a hard time on his Fox TV deal out in LA is a puzzlement at best. The Wilpon management continues to consign the Metropolitans to oblivion.
The Commissioner should take management of the Mets away from the Wilpons while they are wriggling in financial and federal prosecution agony. But does he? Nooooooooooooo!
He is supportive.
Well this deal looks like a “thank you” from the Wilpons.
This move is being explained away as a way the Mets can keep Jose Reyes, the most overrated player in the major leagues. This kid is having a good year in his walk year. What a surprise. He has dogged it on the basepaths, played lazy ball when the Mets were in contention, gotten hurt far too often, and this year he puts together a great year?
If the Mets resign him, he will be back to his old disabled list habits. I’d let him test the free market, then resign him. If I were the Mets I would have sent K-Rod straight up to the Yankees for Nunez — a shortstop with heart, range, and a good attitude. Riviera of the Yanks is showing signs of being vulnerable Nunez is Jeter’s heir apparent, but as long as the Captain continues to think he’s a shortstop, the Bombers are not going to use Nunez.
What’s really amazing abut this shocking deal is when the Mets were 9-1/2 out in 1969, the Miracle Mets year in mid-August, they did not give up.
Well the Wilpons have.
The Mets now have no closer. But who knows they don’t know what they have. Their success this year .500 ball at the all-star break has been because they had a lot of injuries and brought guys up from Tidewater and who knows where and they are stunned that they are at.500. They have a shot at the wild card. They did not know what they had down there.
But NOoooooooooooooooooooooo! They unload their closer. If K-Rod had not been around they would have lost more games despite the key games K-Rod has not closed.
This is the equivalent of the Yankees sending the poor baby Alex Rodriguez with a muscle tear to the Red Sox for John Papbalbon (spelling? Back off–Everyone knows real sportswriters can’t spell),
Meanwhile, the Met GM Alderson says this will enable them to resign Reyes or other free agents.
What I like about the Young and Lean Mets is they play with heart. This trade is a slap in the faces of the players who made the Mets respectable the last month. It is a slap in the face of the fans who are supporting them. It is a sign that until the Mets get rid of the penny-pinching Wilpons, they will not continue to improve. They will make excuses for not improving themselves.
The Mets always make excuses.
Far too many under the Wilpons.
