Views from the Promenade

According to a report by ESPN, the Wilpon family may not have been such a big victim in the Bernie Madoff scheme afterall. While the Mets Limited Partnership did put $522.8 million into Madoff accounts, they actually managed to withdraw $570.6 million — for an overall profit of nearly $48 million.

I had started to suspect this might be the case weeks ago, when 60 Minutes ran a piece about many investors who did the same thing. In many of these cases, the “winners” were sued to give back their profits to go into a general fund meant to compensate the real victims who had lost their original savings. While this hasn’t happened to the Mets yet, it’s quite possible it will at some point in the future, especially when talking about such a large amount of money.

So it seems like the stories about the Wilpons being ruined by the Madoff scandal may have been completely bogus; rather than losing a ton of money, they managed to turn a profit (inadvertently) at the expense of other investors. Of course, they still have over $500 million less than they thought they did, but it’s hard to feel too bad for a group that ended up ahead of the game in the end. Considering that the money they lost was sitting in an investment fund and almost certainly would never have been used for payroll or other Mets business expenses anyway, it’s quite possible that the Wilpons have been telling us the truth, and that it will have no impact at all on how the Mets are run going forward.

It’s finally over. Take a nice, deep breath, and realize we have six months to relax, recover, and prepare for a better 2010.

Ahh, that felt good, didn’t it?

The Mets actually finished up 2009 on a positive note, sweeping the Astros at home. On the season’s final day, Nelson Figueroa threw his first career complete game shut out to bring the Mets final record to 70-92. That’s the worst record a Mets team has posted since 2003, but I think a better comparison is the 1993 season in which the Mets went 59-103. While this team wasn’t nearly as bad in the end, the level of disappointment felt by the fans and the franchise was similar to the cloud hanging over the franchise again this year.

The Mets have said all the right things about 2010. Ownership is on record saying they’ll spend enough money to keep the team payroll among the league leaders (discounting the Yankees, of course) and that Omar Minaya will have the resources he needs to improve the team where they need help. Season ticket holders will be receiving discounts next year (about 10% on average), and Fred Wilpon and other front office officials insist that revenue is not an issue.

On a related note, many fans are likely to be disappointed in the fact that Minaya and Jerry Manuel will be returning to lead the team again next season. I can’t say I’m thrilled about it either, but I completely understand the decision; much of what went wrong this season clearly had nothing to do with anything either of them has done, so it was hard to properly evaluate them based on this body of work. The Mets are making some cosmetic changes to the coaching staff, but all the major players will be back, including Howard Johnson and Dan Warthen. The biggest dismissal was probably bench coach Sandy Alomar; much to the delight of Mets fans, Razor Shines will be reassigned and will no longer serve as the third base coach (though he’ll still have a role on the coaching staff).

It’s time to put away this miserable season and start looking towards next year. While there’s not much more to say about 2009, I’ll be posting a couple times a week throughout the off-season to discuss what the makeup of the 2010 team appears to be, plus updates on what the Mets do — or plan to do — to build a winning team in 2010. It should be an action-packed offseason, and while it might sound foolish to say this as a Mets fan, I’m feeling very hopeful for next season.

After yet another crushing Mets loss, and the news that Jose Reyes now has a torn right hamstring, I can’t blame you if you just want to get the season over with. I’m not planning to head down to Citi Field this year, and to be honest, I’m not sure if I’ll see another minute of Mets baseball on television this season — at least not live.

But, of course, the Mets still want to sell tickets, and without a team that people want to see, that means there are some interesting promotions on tap for this weekend’s final three games against Houston (October 2-4 at Citi Field). The promotions, outlined in this Star-Ledger piece, are interesting to say the least. While some of you might like German folk dancers or characters from Peanuts, the main draw will likely be the chance to get your hands on an actual game worn Mets jersey. At each game, 25 lucky fans will be selected; each gets a number from 1-25, and then will have the chance to pick a game jersey from a Mets player in that order.

I’d love to know what the pick order ends up like. Oh sure, it’s easy to say that the David Wright, Carlos Beltran and Fransisco Rodriguez jerseys will go early. I’m more interested in who lucky #25 will get. A game worn Nick Evans or Tobi Stoner would make for a great story someday, if not a high-demand collectible. I know that when I was a kid, I would have loved a David Cone jersey, but that’s not to say a Mackey Sasser jersey wouldn’t have made me happy. Good luck to any fans who make the final trek out to Citi Field this weekend!

The Mets 2009 season is (mercifully) drawing to a close, but the team showed they had one last good weekend in them by taking two of three from the Florida Marlins. The games may not have meant much for the Mets, but it did allow them to get a measure of revenge against the Marlins; the series more or less took Florida out of playoff contention, dropping their elimination number in the wild card race to 2.

The biggest negative of the weekend came in the form of mental errors on the basepaths by David Wright, who promptly apologized. Of course, these sorts of mistakes are inexcusable, particularly the lack of hustle shown coming home from third; however, if a lesson was learned, it’s better that it was learned now rather than in a game that would ultimately effect a pennant run. On the bright side, Pat Misch had an incredible performance on Sunday to deliver the Mets first complete game shutout of the year.

As the season winds down, there’s not much excitement for the Mets fandom, which has led to smaller crowds at Citi Field. In fact, a friend suggested I change the name of the blog to Views from Field Level — after all, with plenty of tickets available, shouldn’t I be able to get better seats? If you don’t mind a laugh at the Mets’ expense, the satirical newspaper The Onion recently had a different take on the situation.

I’ve said several times that there’s no excitement left in the 2009 Mets season, but it’s possible that one last twist remains before this year draws to a close. This weekend, the Mets will have a chance to reverse roles from the last two seasons and take a measure of revenge on the Marlins by playing spoiler and dashing Florida’s playoff hopes.

The situation isn’t completely analogous: the Marlins are a longshot right now, trailing by four games in the Wild Card hunt behind the Colorado Rockies. That said, any hopes they still have rest on a good showing against the Mets this weekend; if they lose 2 of 3, their season is essentially over. Even just one win by the Mets would put a huge damper on any remaining hope for the Marlins.

So while it’s not exactly the same, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care about winning this weekend. After torturing us on the final day of the season the last two years, it would be nice to give the Marlins a little taste of their own medicine. Their best chance for a win might come Saturday, when John Maine takes the hill against Sean West. Tonight’s game (Tim Redding vs. Ricky Nolasco) is also promising, while Sunday’s matchup between Pat Misch and Josh Johnson looks like a huge mismatch.

After a disastrous start by Pat Misch, I think Kevin Burkhardt put it best on his twitter feed:

When its 8-0 Braves, and I didn’t even get out of the sushi line, its a problem.

With just a couple weeks left in the 2009 season, it seems that Carlos Delgado is still holding out hope that he might play again this season. That said, as the setbacks pile up and time grows short, it seems unlikely we’ll be seeing Delgado in a Mets uniform this year. I doubt most Mets fans are losing sleep over whether or not he plays this season; if I was forced to have an opinion on it, for his sake, I’d say he should sit out and make sure he’s 100% before attempting to play again.

The more interesting question going forward is whether Delgado should be playing for the Mets in 2010. From 2006-2008, Delgado was a critical part of the Mets lineup, and his numbers were good again this year before his hip injury. While Daniel Murphy has potential, he will not provide the kind of offense the Mets would like to see out of the first base position next year. With rumors flying that the Mets may not want to spend a lot of money this off-season, outside options may be limited.

So, what about Delgado? He will be 38 next season, and it’s unreasonable to assume he won’t decline. While last year was something of a resurgence for Delgado, he is still well past his prime years of production, and there aren’t many players who keep their numbers up into their late 30s. Even worse, Delgado will be coming off a serious injury, and we’ll likely have nothing to judge his post-injury production on. Even if Delgado does play a little before the end of the season, it’ll be such a small sample as to be meaningless for projecting what he might do next year.

Unless the Mets can get a very significant discount on Delgado, there’s no reason they should pursue him in the off-season. Then again, the same goes for every other team who might have some interest in the veteran first baseman, so it’s likely that Delgado’s asking price will be low enough to be within the Mets’ budget.

In the final analysis, I’d have to side against pursuing Delgado for 2010. Even if he’ll still be productive (a big if), he’ll also need to stay healthy to make a significant impact. The Mets would be better off spending money on other areas and just living with what they have in Murphy — not a great option, but it is an option — or signing a less exciting but solid free agent who can play the position. After this season, the Mets must understand the importance of being able to depend on your starters staying in the lineup, and that’s a level of confidence Delgado can’t provide.

If you’re ready to look forward to next season, the Mets are one step ahead of you! Earlier today, the Mets released their tentative 2010 schedule. The entire schedule can be viewed at Mets.com, but here are some of the highlights:

• The Mets open their season on April 5th, hosting the Florida Marlins for a three game series. This is the first time the Mets have started the season at home since 2006.
• It’ll be hard to get a ticket at Citi Field in late May, as the Mets face the Yankees from May 21-23, and then host the Phillies for the first time in 2010 on May 25-27.
• The Mets interleague schedule includes home series’ against the Tigers and Twins, and road trips to Baltimore and Cleveland.