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Mets Hire Sandy Alderson

Reports indicate that the New York Mets have hired Sandy Alderson to be their GM.  Alderson was previously the GM of the Oakland A's from 1983-1997, and was in large part responsible for building both the late 80's dynasty and the early-00's Moneyball A's.  

 

What effect is this likely to have on the Mets farm system and player development?  Will they stop fast-tracking players so often?  Will they draft differently?

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Good start..

The fast-tracking stopped when Tony Bernazard hulked his way out of a job. No way he would have let Aderlin Rodriguez see Rookie ball last year…

This is a good start, but it’s equally important that the Wilpon’s get out of the way now. A little cash wouldn’t hurt either, and I’m sure Alderson knows how highly this draft class is regarded. Too bad the Mets have no Type A’s, but this is the time to stock up and build some real value…

by MetfanBren on Oct 27, 2010 1:35 PM EDT reply actions  

Alderson is one of the great baseball minds of our times.

I might have leaned Byrnes, though. No bad choices there, though. Should work out very well if ownership just leaves him the eff alone.

by alskor on Oct 27, 2010 2:52 PM EDT reply actions  

Brings instant respect for a franchise that...

is kind of seen as a joke. Great hire…I called the Farrell hire the best one a team would make this season, but then this hire got made.

Now go and steal Lee from the Yankees.

by SenorGato on Oct 27, 2010 3:28 PM EDT reply actions  

well . . .

At least we know one team will be spending slot money in the draft this year. :)

by mrkupe on Oct 27, 2010 4:37 PM EDT reply actions  

sigh..

Spending slot money on the draft is one of the worst things that the Mets have done in recent years.

The idea that some big-market teams aren’t spending (relatively) huge money on the draft blows my mind. I mean, are these guys just stupid or something?

Baseball is my preferred sport. It should be yours, too.
I'm an editor for Beyond the Box Score, an SB Nation blog.

by Satchel Price on Oct 27, 2010 4:50 PM EDT up reply actions  

Stupid yes.

But the rationale is is that the Wilpons wanted to stay on the Commish’s good side. Which, to me, is totally ridiculous rationale, but that what it is.

by JD Sussman on Oct 27, 2010 5:18 PM EDT up reply actions  

I know, I get that.

But what’s the benefit of being on the Commish’s good side? How the hell could that possibly be more important than putting the best possible product on the field? It’s simply ludicrous.

Baseball is my preferred sport. It should be yours, too.
I'm an editor for Beyond the Box Score, an SB Nation blog.

by Satchel Price on Oct 27, 2010 6:00 PM EDT up reply actions  

Total Speculation

Supposedly, Selig helped bail the Mets out during the peak of the Madoff scandal (the Wilpons were wiped out.) I know this is just the internet, and I’m some poster, but I’ve heard it from a couple of birdies…

by GuyinNY on Oct 27, 2010 6:06 PM EDT up reply actions  

The Madoff Scandal

Are you referring to the same ponzi scheme that by most accounts resulted in a net gain for the Wilpons?

by Fanon on Oct 28, 2010 11:15 AM EDT up reply actions  

Here you go

http://www.businessinsider.com/mets-owner-fred-wilpon-was-actually-a-madoff-winner-2009-10

The made $48 million, which will probably be subject to clawbacks.

The Mets GM is Sandy Alderson: A Dynasty is Born
R.A. Dickey for Governor!

by Russ on Oct 28, 2010 3:26 PM EDT up reply actions  

It's been very inconsistent

There are reports that they made money off of Madoff and others that they lost. Either way, even if they made money, I believe they will have to return it eventually.

by Evan_S on Oct 28, 2010 4:42 PM EDT up reply actions  

What's the benefit....

Well for one, you can’t interview Sandy Alderson for a GM job without the commisioner’s approval.

by acerimusdux on Oct 27, 2010 8:48 PM EDT up reply actions  

being paid counts?

Texas lost their draft choice and they were funded by MLB. The Mets had serious financial problems and drafted slot. Baltimore also does this but it’s more to do with being owned by a union lawyer.

It’s pretty easy to tell whom is under financial pressure by the draft choices.

by pedrophile on Oct 27, 2010 11:11 PM EDT up reply actions  

Getting on Selig's good side

Speculation is that the Mets really wanted to get an All Star Game in their pretty new stadium and were kowtowing to the commish for a bit in an effort to do so.

by Fanon on Oct 28, 2010 11:17 AM EDT up reply actions  

Doubt it

I think that speculation is one of those things that fans invent and then treat as ironclad truth.

The Mets haven’t hosted an ASG is a very long time (1964) but that was because they didn’t want one and that the aging Shea was hardly a good showcase.
Now that they have their “pretty new stadium” they’ll be in the rotation like everyone else or do folks really think Selig et al ware aiming to keep an ASG out of NYC?
And have the teams that hosted games over the last decade or so that the slotting “suggestions” have been in effect all been obediently keeping in line?

btw, the Mets do go over slot at times – just not as often as they should

by Frayed Knot on Oct 28, 2010 9:43 PM EDT up reply actions  

ditto Royals

spent way over slot plenty of times and got an AS game anyways.

R.I.P. cwhitman412, Frederick0220, & Mets2k9
http://twitter.com/doublestix

by doublestix on Oct 29, 2010 12:27 AM EDT up reply actions  

Its in the best interest of baseball for Mets management to not be incompetent

which is probably why Selig suggested Alderson.

Now that he is the next GM, it would be rather absurd to suggest that he will be anyone’s errand boy. Alderson was the best candidate for the Mets because he has the gravitas to effectively manage the owners.

The Mets GM is Sandy Alderson: A Dynasty is Born
R.A. Dickey for Governor!

by Russ on Oct 28, 2010 3:24 PM EDT up reply actions  

Nice

It´ll be good to have an experienced and well-respected man from outside the organization taking over.

While I believe more young talent than the team gets credit for was brought in under Minaya´s watch and he has already laid the groundwork for future success, fact remains that he botched several key decisions in the majors and burned a lot of money on mediocre veterans that sometimes collapsed right after the signings. Plus lacked direction, determination and influence on ownership over the last year & half as sort of a “lame duck” GM.
 
It´ll be good having someone with a well-thought-out plan and an idea about how to run an organization from top to bottom. Plus, someone who remains realistic about events, especially the (un)likelihood of players returning from injuries a) on time and b) 100 % and having a backup plan or two in place.

From an organizational philosphy point of view, the rushing and mis-handling of prospects (Mejia, to a lesser degree F-Mart, Carson or Tejada in recent history) figures to stop. The value of getting OB and controlling the strikezone will be emphasized more than it has been in the past very likely.

by Doob on Oct 27, 2010 4:54 PM EDT reply actions  

May I ask for your rationale?

I don’t necessarily disagree, I think they were both good options.

Baseball is my preferred sport. It should be yours, too.
I'm an editor for Beyond the Box Score, an SB Nation blog.

by Satchel Price on Oct 27, 2010 6:00 PM EDT up reply actions  

Byrnes made terrible decisions for us

bad drafts and spent our limited payroll flexibility on shity player (Eric Byrnes). We had something great going for us when he came, he leaves in shambles

by ScottAZ on Oct 28, 2010 5:56 PM EDT up reply actions  

Most reports say

Josh Byrnes had zero to do with the Eric Byrnes signing. Ownership went completely behind his back.

by supermets on Oct 28, 2010 6:25 PM EDT up reply actions  

I realize that it was only 1 year and it was with Arizona

but any player that can put up a 20hr – 50sb season is hardly shitty.

by hrv2010 on Oct 28, 2010 6:45 PM EDT up reply actions  

its called an anomoly

After signing that contract he hit 210/268/367 over three years.
Prior to his big year he had a career line of 259/325/437

He was bascially a mediocre career 4th OFer that was rewarded irresponsibly and irrationally for one very good season. The contract set back our organization

by ScottAZ on Oct 29, 2010 1:13 PM EDT up reply actions  

I blame DiPoto more

I think Byrnes, being a bright young guy himself, would have benefited from hiring a more experienced guy on the talent end. I really wasn’t too eager to see either of them hired to be the guy in NY though, when those names were being discussed, seeing as, smart and talented though they may be, they seem to have left an even bigger mess in Arizona than the Mets have to clean up in NY.

DiPoto is apparently an impressive guy as well, and I do think he has some knowledge on the pitching end, he may even be a future Logan White. But I think he was a bit in over his head, with only 2 years as a scout before becoming a scouting director in Colorodo, and then only one year as a scouting director before being hired by Byrnes to head both Scouting and Player Personnel.

And I think most of Byrnes errors were on the Player Personnel side. Obviously there was some bad luck as well, if Webb stays healthy, maybe things look a bit better. But you have to shake your head at what they gave up for Haren; I just don’t think they had enough talent all around for that to have worked.

by acerimusdux on Oct 28, 2010 7:38 PM EDT up reply actions  

Dipoto

I actually like Dipoto and was hoping they were going to take the interem tag off him and give him the fulltime gig.

Byrnes seems to have carried over the old school money ball approach to our drafts, picking “safe” college players with little upside. Wasting 1-2 round picks on limited college arms like Brooks Brown, Dallas Buck, Wes Roemer, Barry Enright, etc, etc. College guys that throw 85mph and he’s picking them in the first 2 rounds? He even used a 1st round pick on a college setup man Dan Schlerleth, VERY mediocre efforts in the drafts by Byrnes.

When Byrnes inherited our system we were rated #1 by baseball America. He destroyed that in basically 5 years

by ScottAZ on Oct 29, 2010 1:21 PM EDT up reply actions  

That's not an entirely fair statement

Yes, the farm system was #1 in 2006 but just using John’s top 20 for that year you have Drew, Upton, Young and Montero as regulars on the team, Nipper/Mock/Torra/Owings were all highly rated and never lived up to expectations, Jackson was solid until injury/illness and his trade to Oakland…the only things you could really complain about are the losses of Quentin, Brett Anderson, and Carlos Gonzalez. Quentin had one good year and two not so good years. Gonzalez looks like a star and Anderson has pitched at an ace level when healthy but they did bring two great seasons from Haren who turned into a couple of very interesting pitching prospects. It’s not as if the farm system was systematically destroyed or anything, the majority of the talent in the system at that time has graduated already.

As for the draft record, yes there were some low upside picks as you mentioned but during Byrnes’ tenure they also used 1st/2nd round picks on Max Scherzer, Anderson, Jarrod Parker, Bobby Borchering and Matt Davidson. It wasn’t a perfect run by Byrnes but it wasn’t as horrible as you made it out either.

http://bullpenbanter.com

by gatling on Oct 29, 2010 4:13 PM EDT up reply actions  

good points

What you said also leads to another important observation: not only is it really hard to build a farm system that produces a genuine wealth of young productive major league players, but it’s even harder to have that happen AND have those players stay productive.

by mrkupe on Oct 29, 2010 8:34 PM EDT up reply actions  

If by disgusting

you mean does he have a supplier for Ike Davis to get those 19 homers up to 40-50, i say hell yeah, i am disgusted. :) The punctuation at the end there is a smiley face signifying that I am kidding. Sorta.

by wobatus on Oct 28, 2010 1:42 PM EDT up reply actions  

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