I guess the tag would have been more fitting if they hadn't changed their team name to the Miami Marlins, but whatevs.

Interesting. So, any bets on how long it's going to take for these high value contracts to utterly bankrupt the team since they don't make any money?

GAT_00: Interesting. So, any bets on how long it's going to take for these high value contracts to utterly bankrupt the team since they don't make any money?

Apparently there's some investigation going on about the shady dealings of how the stadium was funded, so perhaps not making money isn't much of an issue for them.

Jamdug!: GAT_00: Interesting. So, any bets on how long it's going to take for these high value contracts to utterly bankrupt the team since they don't make any money?

Apparently there's some investigation going on about the shady dealings of how the stadium was funded, so perhaps not making money isn't much of an issue for them.

The official punishment should be to make them have that monstrosity in the outfield lit 24/7.

Obviously this sucks, but I expected it so it's really not hitting me that hard. The Mets are at least - I stress at least since it's probably more - 2 years from even thinking of contending. There's no sense in spending that kind of money to waste a guy's prime.

But I'll miss Reyes. There's nobody more fun in baseball.

GAT_00: Jamdug!: GAT_00: Interesting. So, any bets on how long it's going to take for these high value contracts to utterly bankrupt the team since they don't make any money?

Apparently there's some investigation going on about the shady dealings of how the stadium was funded, so perhaps not making money isn't much of an issue for them.

The official punishment should be to make them have that monstrosity in the outfield lit 24/7.

Oh my god, this is what it is going to look like when functioning. (pops)

Jamdug!: GAT_00: Jamdug!: GAT_00: Interesting. So, any bets on how long it's going to take for these high value contracts to utterly bankrupt the team since they don't make any money?

Apparently there's some investigation going on about the shady dealings of how the stadium was funded, so perhaps not making money isn't much of an issue for them.

The official punishment should be to make them have that monstrosity in the outfield lit 24/7.

Oh my god, this is what it is going to look like when functioning. (pops)

Yeah, that.

FreakinB: Obviously this sucks, but I expected it so it's really not hitting me that hard. The Mets are at least - I stress at least since it's probably more - 2 years from even thinking of contending. There's no sense in spending that kind of money to waste a guy's prime.

But I'll miss Reyes. There's nobody more fun in baseball.

The more unsettling thing coming out in the wake of this is that the Mets lost $70 million last year. So throw out Madoff for a second. Forget that whole situation exists. The Mets are in such bad shape that - in pure terms of baseball operations - they took in $70 million less than they spent.

This is New York City. If you're losing that much money on a baseball team in New York City with a gorgeous, brand-new stadium, that is a weapons-grade failure. The Wilpons, by virtue of owning this team, should be able to print money like they're the Federal farking Reserve. Instead the team is hemorrhaging cash. I don't see how they can keep this going much longer.

At least we have a good front office. If I had to choose anyone to build a decent team for 3-5 years down the road on a budget, Alderson and DePodesta would be high on the list. But it would be nice if we had decent ownership to go along with that.

FreakinB: Obviously this sucks, but I expected it so it's really not hitting me that hard. The Mets are at least - I stress at least since it's probably more - 2 years from even thinking of contending. There's no sense in spending that kind of money to waste a guy's prime.

But I'll miss Reyes. There's nobody more fun in baseball.

I hate being a Mets fan. But at least that means I have a soul, unlike Yankee fans.

coolio mack: Yep. He's a talented guy, but he's always injured and not a guy you'd want to build a team around.

The guys at Fangraphs make a reasonable case for the Reyes contract here. Basically, a player of his caliber (good defense at SS, above-league-average bat, excellent baserunner, age 29, skill set that "ages well", etc.) should command closer to $20M annually, but the Marlins have basically priced in some injury time. I'd disagree with some of their math ($5M/win sounds excessive in the present market), but I'd agree that the Marlins paid about the right price, given the potential risks and payoffs.

There's still risk associated with the contract-- given his history, Reyes is more likely than the average player to suffer a season-ending injury. But the Marlins are basically assuming 2-3 DL trips per season, and they've priced his skill set at career-average production, not his breakout 2011 season, where he was one of the 10 most valuable players in the NL despite only playing in 126 games.

Plus, if Reyes gets hurt, Hanley can slide back to SS and they only need to find a 3B to fill in, where decent bats are more available.

erupt2001: Jose Reyes is an injury waiting to happen every time he steps onto the field. The marlins could have saved their money (don't they already have an all star shortstop in Hanley Ramirez?) and went after Albert Pujols instead.

Calling Hanley Ramirez a "shortstop" is a bit of a stretch. Defensively, he's a butcher. Specifically, he turns the double play OK and has a strong throwing arm, but his range is consistently well below average, which is a killer at SS. Moving him to 3B takes advantage of his few defensive pluses, hides his most glaring weakness, and keeps his bat in the lineup. Hanley still won't have good hands, but at least fewer balls will be hit to him at 3B.

AdmirableSnackbar: Yeah, that's why I don't have much respect for stats geeks. It's like they look at the box score but don't watch the game.

Hurr. They probably read books too! Those book-faced think-heads.

They probably thought Bobby Abreu was a great player, too.

AdmirableSnackbar: But he always failed when the team needed him to show up in the clutch. He was the last line of offense, and late in close games he would try to walk instead of step up and put the game away himself. Phillies fans don't think he was bad, we just know that he's not a winner.

Clearly he should have just flailed at pitches out of the strike zone. That's smartball! Screw you, stats-that-are-records-of-what-happened-in-the-past! You're goin' with yer gut!

In the meantime, Bobby Abreu for his career:

Career line: .293/.397/.481
2 outs, RISP: .301/.453/.481
RISP in general: .313/.434/.513
Bases empty: .273/.372/.451
Men on: .318/.426/.516
Bases loaded: A double-secret-super-unclutch .352/.411/.597

In other words, in actual games that were played (not counting the ones in your imagination), Bobby Abreu hit significantly better with men on base, and it wasn't just walks, because his AVG and SLG also went up. Players as an aggregate show a slight rise in production with men on (pitching from the stretch, sub-optimal defenses like infield-in, intentional walks, selection bias because bad pitchers show up more in those situations, etc. all play in), but not that large.

(You see a similar pattern if you break things out by Leverage Index, but there's already been a lot of book-larnin' thrown around.)

In short, you picked a name out of your hat, and managed to pick one of the very few players who has a meaningful increase in production with men on base. How dare he only bat .352 in 202 PA with the bases loaded!

you have pee hands: He shoulda been a DH. I don't know how someone can steal 400 bases but not be able to chase anything down in the field, but there he is. He's not as bad as Philly thinks, though. He got scapegoated as the face of a mediocre team. If your opening day starter is Kevin Millwood or Jon Leiber, it doesn't matter who's batting.

It's a weird player to pick on. He played almost every game for 8+ years for the Phillies, and hit .305/.415/.519 over that span. He was a poor defender, but so is Ryan Braun. It's corner outfield. If a guy'shiatting line starts with 3/4/5, he's in your lineup regardless of his glove.

And his defense wasn't that bad, and in his younger days he was at least average. Post-Phillies, he was a disaster with the glove, but while he was in Philadelphia, he was one of their best overall players. (Admittedly, you're talking about a span where Mike Lieberthal was often one of the top 3 or 4 guys in terms of WAR.)

Prince Fielder has "only" hit .282/.390/.540 in his career so far (slightly inferior to Abreu, but admittedly in a lower run environment), and he's a poor defender. (Not as bad as he's caricatured to be, but bad.) I suspect he'll lock up a nice contract anyway.

MugzyBrown: chimp_ninja lost in the numbers again.

Bobby A's fielding was poor not because of talent, but because of effort. I am pretty sure he never obtained a grass stain in Philadelphia.

He had good hands and good speed, but was a lazy fielder.

If he could consistently be your team's best player without putting in effort, maybe your team had other problems.

AdmirableSnackbar: I didn't pick a name out of a hat. I purposefully picked a guy that stat geeks overrate.

It seems you picked a guy that you dislike, instead of a player who was actually bad at baseball.

Figure skating might be more your speed. There, everyone just looks at the participants and makes up a score, and the person who looks like they did well gets a trophy. Then you could just cheer for the skater with the dreamiest eyes, or however you make your decisions.

homarjr: Question of the day: Which team in the MLB has the best left infield?

With Reyes, it's hard not to pick the Marlins, even if you pencil him in for 130 games.

Maybe the Rangers (Beltre/Andrus). It's way too soon to say how the Blue Jays will turn out (Lawrie/Escobar), but there's promise there.

Most of the other contenders have a solid 3B and mediocre or unidentified SS options (Rays, Nats, Yankees, Red Sox, Giants).

Dafatone: It's hilarious that "stat geekery" has expanded from advanced metrics to your basic avg/obp/slg line.

Those involve long division, which is a gateway to witchcraft. Real Americans judge a ballplayer by important stuff, like the cut of his jib, or the presence of calm eyes.