Excellent, non-ironic use of the word “scion.” I see three possibilities here:
1. The Wilpons have had some crummy luck recently. Sometimes the best of us get trapped in a Ponzi scheme; sometimes the best of us get trapped twice.
2. Alternatively, they’re just really, really bad at recognizing Ponzi schemes.
3. These sort of schemes are way more common than I would have thought, and if you dug through any prominent investor’s history, you would find a couple of mistakes like these.
Opening Day 2011 will be the 50th Opening Day in Mets history. To honor that, around here we’ll be counting down the top 50 Mets in team history, one every weekday from now until we’ve done ‘em all. Today, #35, Wally Backman:
How’s this for Mets news. Per the press release:
As Sterling Equities announced in December, we are engaged in discussions to settle a lawsuit brought against us and other Sterling partners and members of our families by the Trustee in the Madoff bankruptcy. We are not permitted to comment on these confidential negotiations while they are ongoing.
However, to address the air of uncertainty created by this lawsuit, and to provide additional assurance that the New York Mets will continue to have the necessary resources to fully compete and win, we are looking at a number of potential options including the addition of one or more strategic partners. To explore this, we have retained Steve Greenberg, a Managing Director at Allen & Company, as our advisor.
Well, that’s kind of vague. Let’s try to answer the questions someone might have about this — or really, I’m just going to try to answer my own questions by talking to myself. Keep in mind that all of this is tentative, and no one really knows what the hell is going on. That said, fire away: Continue reading
Opening Day 2011 will be the 50th Opening Day in Mets history. To honor that, around here we’ll be counting down the top 50 Mets in team history, one every weekday from now until we’ve done ‘em all. Today, #36, Bob Ojeda: Continue reading
My hometown is weird. Hat tip to Craig Calcaterra.
PS: The video is embedded above, but it seems to take a minute to load. You can just click through here.
Opening Day 2011 will be the 50th Opening Day in Mets history. To honor that, around here we’ll be counting down the top 50 Mets in team history, one every weekday from now until we’ve done ‘em all. Today, #37, Bret Saberhagen: Continue reading
Filed under Mets, Statistics, Words
Keith Law ranked the farm systems around baseball today, ranking Mets’ farm system the 26th best in baseball, as well as the Phillies’ pharm 5th best and Atlanta-area high schools 3rd.
Okay, before you panic, keep this in mind: Ike Davis, Josh Thole, and Jon Niese graduated from the minors this past season, while Jenrry Mejia, Ruben Tejada, and Fernando Martinez have all lost their rookie status, making them ineligible for these types of rankings. All those players, only two of whom have played full big league seasons, aren’t included in this ranking.
So perhaps the Mets’ young talent is a bit better than this shows, as I assume counting the Mets’ best pitching prospect would bump them up a notch. Though, as Law pointed out, then you’d need to look at the young-but-no-longer-rookie talent on every team and every ranking would need to change.
Anyway, for another perspective, someone quantified John Sickels’ prospect rankings a few weeks ago — which does include Mejia and Martinez — and found the Mets’ system to be 25 best, while the Braves’ system sat at 4 and Satan’s plague on humanity the Phillies’ were ranked 11th. Either way, Sandy Alderson has some work to do.
By the way, you can follow my tweetings here. Lastly, tip of the hat to Dan Lewis.
Filed under Mets
Opening Day 2011 will be the 50th Opening Day in Mets history. To honor that, around here we’ll be counting down the top 50 Mets in team history, one every weekday from now until we’ve done ‘em all. Today, #38, Robin Ventura: Continue reading
“Baseball theory was fairly well-honed from more than 100 years of observation and analysis, and a college dropout paralegal wanted to drop a nuclear bomb on it. Never mind that a pitcher can dictate every plate appearance. He chooses what to throw, where it goes, the speed, the break. McCracken was saying that when bat met ball and sent it toward dirt or grass, the advantage almost entirely disappeared. It defied logic. . .
A decade after Baseball Prospectus let McCracken spread the gospel in a story that popularized DIPS across the sport, it remains among the most seminal theories developed by sabermetrics, the nickname given to quantitative baseball study. It’s almost certainly the most revolutionary. Nothing before or since has so upended an entire line of thought and forced teams to assess a wide breadth of players in a different fashion.”
Yahoo Sports Jeff Passan checks in with Voros McCracken and what’s happened to him since his sabermetric discovery a decade ago. It’s not exactly a happy tale, but an good read.
Opening Day 2011 will be the 50th Opening Day in Mets history. To honor that, around here we’ll be counting down the top 50 Mets in team history, one every weekday from now until we’ve done ‘em all. Today, #39, Jesse Orosco: Continue reading
