The Mets play their first game of the 2011 season this Friday on April Fool's Day, and it seems particularly appropriate considering the foolishness which has followed them around all winter, stemming from the Wilpons' billion-dollar Madoff "false profits" lawsuit. "It's deplorable. I would not want to be a player on the Mets right now. Not because they are not talented enough, but because of all the questions surrounding the team this year will be (about) the off-field problems. It's very difficult to play under those circumstances," said baseball analyst Tim McCarver, who added that he thought the Wilpons must sell the team entirely.
Nevertheless, things are moving along as they will for now: the Mets are asking for initial bids for a minority share of the team to come in by early next week. But since they've been having a hard time convincing people to buy-in without a majority stake considering the incredibly shaky position they are in, the Post reports that they are considering throwing in part of the owners' 65 percent stake in the separately owned and profitable SportsNet New York (SNY) cable channel as a sweetener.
The new Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson has done his part to spend less money this offseason, and help the team out fiscally by cutting overpaid albatrosses Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo. The team has turned over 11 or 12 players, whose combined salaries aren't close to Perez's alone. The fiscal restrain is especially important considering how many Mets players with huge salaries are or might end up on the disabled list: Johan Santana, the highest paid Met, is starting the season on the DL, Jason Bay will likely be put on the DL, and one never knows whether Carlos Beltran's legs will last. As with all things financial with the Mets, nothing ever quite seems kosher.
