Mattingly and Collins deserve Manager of the Year consideration

It's obvious that Kirk Gibson is going to win the National League manager of the year. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY was picking the Diamondbacks to win the NL West this year, let alone take an 8 1/2 game lead in early September.

So Gibson will add a Manager of the Year trophy next to his MVP (which will no doubt be the subject of another blog post.)

But take a look at what Don Mattingly and Terry Collins have done. Both are playing for big budgeted fiascos. The Dodgers have had as ugly a season as I can remember with all of the behind the scenes nonsense. The McCourt divorce. The handling of the Brian Stowe beating. The MLB take over. The Bankruptcy. The money being taken out of the team for personal reasons. The fans staying away in droves.

There was every reason in the world for the Dodgers to pack up and not show up. And for a while that is exactly what they were doing.

The Mets were also a mess. I thought they were a 90 loss team waiting to happen. The post Madoff Amazin' Mess was a mismatch of broken down veterans, expensive players who wanted out, young players who weren't ready and a parade of players on the disabled list.

And playing in the same Divison as the Phillies and Braves meant the season was irrelevant in April. And come trading deadline, they were sellers.

90 losses may have been a generous prediction.

Yet here we are on September 10th. The Dodgers are just 1 game under .500.
The Mets are 2 games under .500.

It would not take a Herculean effort for both teams to finish with a winning record.

The Dodgers are aided by the fact that Clayton Kershaw should win the NL Cy Young and there is a case for Matt Kemp to win the MVP.

The Mets don't have that star power, but they are finding unlikely heroes and staying focused in a way that I didn't think they had in them.

So give Don Mattingly and Terry Collins a lot of credit.
Both the Dodgers and Mets are ugly places off of the field and if the on field product reflected that, nobody would have blinked.

But if they could weather the storm of the craziness of 2011 and say "Hey! At least we put a winning product on the field" then THAT is worthy of Manager of the Year consideration.

Color me impressed, Dodger and Met fans.

Sorry Met fans... I am writing another post about your team

I've not made many Met fan friends recently... partially based on the passing around of my "Better use of $18 million" post. But forgive me, I need to write something else.

I said the Mets are going to lose 90 games.
From the responses by Met fans, you would have thought I said "The Lakers are going to miss the playoffs."

After many comments about my weight, intelligence and sexual orientation, the consensus was that I am an idiot for thinking a team that lost 83 games last year will lose 90 in 2011.

Mainly because some of their players MIGHT come back and some others COULD have comeback years.

Now I have already covered the facts that the Mets improvements are cosmetic and that the Phillies, Braves and Marlins all have better starting staffs... but folks, I saw an article today that made me think "Oh boy... this is going to be a worse year than I thought for the Mets."

REPORT: METS LOST $50M IN 2010; 2011 MAY BE SAME

Yup. The Mets who play in New York and have a brand spanking new stadium and their own TV network could lose a combined $100 million bucks in two seasons.

Revenues are down and so is attendance.

And with the Madoff scandal hovering over the team (sorry folks, that elephant will be there until the team is sold) the Wilpons are almost certainly be forced to sell the team at one point.

So what do teams do that are on the verge of financial ruin, tangled in national scandal and will be forced to sell?

Do they make improvements to the team?
Do they acquire players to help them win the pennant?
Or do they start chucking bodies overboard?

Guess what?
If Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Johan Santana, Jason Bay, Francisco Rodriguez, Taylor Buchholz, Chris Capuano or D. J. Carrasco are healthy and productive in 2011, they will be shipped off for minor leaguers and smaller price tags.

Think David Wright won't be traded?

It's not probable, but we are currently treading in uncharted financial waters.

You can't look at this team like a typical rebuilding process. A New York team should never be in "Tampa Bay mode" and looking to shed its stars because of lack of revenue. But that is what we are looking at with this team.

Any player a Met fan is looking at as hope for improvement will probably be used to relieve debt.

It is not going to be a pretty year, Met fans.
Go to the games. Prove your loyalty.

And in 5 years when Donald Trump owns the team and they are contenders again, you can point to all the bandwagon Met fans and say "Hey! Were YOU at CitiField when they were crumbling under the Madoff scandal?"

Madoff and the Mets

How appropriate is it that Bernie Madoff ripped off the Mets? There is something sadly appropriate about his mid 2000s hustling of the other team in New York with the Mets fortunes (or lack thereof.)

Lots of big promises were made by Madoff and the Mets.
Lots of money changed hands.
Lots of people had images of glory dancing in their heads.
And lots of people felt ripped off when it was all done.

Whether it was an elaborate Ponzi scheme or the brutal contracts and the false promise of the 2006 season, both Ponzi and the Mets squandered lots of money and the ripple effects of it will be felt for a long time.

I thought it was funny how the Wilpons kept insisting that the Madoff scandal didn’t affect their bottom line. But now they are starting to sell off parts of the team… a team filled with expensive yet worthless contracts.

I think the time is perfect for someone out there with a nice pile of money to become a new famous big shot in New York. Think about it. A billionaire who wants fame and adoration can come in, take the Mets way from the Wilpons and before long could be the person to turn the team around.

Then again maybe adding ANOTHER billionaire with big promises to New York isn’t the way to go right now.