2014-2015 MLB Offseason Discussion

[welch]

With Granderson and Cuddyer, Lagares may be dead by June 1st.

My thought, also. They should put Duda in LF and sign a 1B who did NOT have a qualifying offer. Mets don't seem able to plan long-term. Just when "build through the draft" seemed to get them to be contenders (needing two corner OFs) the sign a 36 year old to pair up with Curtis Granderson.

Weird.

[sph274]

honestly this move looks really stupid unless they sign another big FA anyway(losing both 1st and 2nd round picks). it kind of seems like this move precedes another bigger signing

[blue911]

honestly this move looks really stupid unless they sign another big FA anyway(losing both 1st and 2nd round picks). it kind of seems like this move precedes another bigger signing

I've heard this said by quite a few people, so my question is who is the second protected free agent they sign? They are set everywhere except short and to get into a bidding war for Ramirez would be even dumber than the Cuddyer signing.

[UMDNats]

 

It's a dumb move to sign a 36 year old who was hurt most of last year. Check the internet.  Most Mets fans are baffled.

I don't think the signing was smart but counting the Mets as a terrible team in 2015 may be a mistake. It's not like this will be their only offseason move. What if they trade for Tulo?

[Slateman]

Barves sign Chein Ming Wang

[blue911]

I don't think the signing was smart but counting the Mets as a terrible team in 2015 may be a mistake. It's not like this will be their only offseason move. What if they trade for Tulo?

What are they going to give up to get Colorado to pick up a sizable portion of his contract?


I'm not sure where the idea the Mets are going to increase their budget by a great amount.
 Forbes reported they made $1.6M in 2013 based on 2.135M in attendance and a $93M payroll.
2014 saw them have 2.148 in attendance and a $85M payroll.
They Mets aren't getting an increase in local money and maybe a $5M bump in national moneys.
They have already spent $62.5M on 5 players. With Murphy going into his final year of arbitration after making $5.7M in 2014

The Mets are still operating under a staggering amount of debt they owe Mellon is well over $500M and owe BOA for SNY. They've been operating off the $300M pumped into the organization by selling $30M part ownership to Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Maher and the like. Most if not all of that is gone.

[Nathan]

[...]
 Forbes reported they made $1.6M in 2013 based on 2.135M in attendance and a $93M payroll.
2014 saw them have 2.148 in attendance and a $85M payroll.
[...]

They only had a bit over $2 million in ticket sales for the entire season?

[blue911]

They only had a bit over $2 million in ticket sales for the entire season?

 2M in Attendance.

[HalfSmokes]

I've heard this said by quite a few people, so my question is who is the second protected free agent they sign? They are set everywhere except short and to get into a bidding war for Ramirez would be even dumber than the Cuddyer signing.

Veteran to anchor the rotation?

[Nathan]

2M in Attendance.

$1.6M on over 2M in attendance sounds incredibly bad.

[tomterp]

$1.6M on over 2M in attendance sounds incredibly bad.

That's net income, not gross ticket sales.

[Nathan]

Still sounds incredibly bad.

[tomterp]

Still sounds incredibly bad.

You can't really tell without the full picture.  Around the LAC crowd, any net income better than a $40m loss is excessive.

With a net income very near zero, that tells you they are likely trying to operate near break even.

[dracnal]

And from what I understand of the profit sharing rules, you want to be close to zero profit, right?  Or does MLB factor it somehow on the gross?

[HalfSmokes]

You can't really tell without the full picture.  Around the LAC crowd, any net income better than a $40m loss is excessive.

With a net income very near zero, that tells you they are likely trying to operate near break even.

I would hope it's gross, otherwise every team would have front offices full of Jr.s and IIIs as VP of receiving a large paycheck

[whytev]

Michael Cuddyer to the Mets.

He batted .400 at home last year.

Why does everyone forget how easy it is to hit in Colorado?

[whytev]

The Mets are still operating under a staggering amount of debt they owe Mellon is well over $500M and owe BOA for SNY. They've been operating off the $300M pumped into the organization by selling $30M part ownership to Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Maher and the like. Most if not all of that is gone.

That might explain why they are such a joke.

[Vega]

The Mets are just mediocre. Cuddyer's previous team is the joke.

[blue911]

And from what I understand of the profit sharing rules, you want to be close to zero profit, right?  Or does MLB factor it somehow on the gross?

That isn't how it works.

[whytev]

The Mets are just mediocre. Cuddyer's previous team is the joke.

I don't see them saying they can win this year.

A "window of opportunity" discussion from a mediocre team resulting in them signing a 36-year-old is the very definition of a joke.

[dracnal]

That isn't how it works.

I may be misreading FanGraphs then.  This is what they say:

Under its current iteration, MLB’s revenue sharing program looks something like this:

● Every team in the majors pays in 31% of their net local revenue, and then that money is divided up and equally distributed to every team. Since large-market teams will have much greater local revenues than small market teams, this already puts small market teams in the black.

[blue911]

I may be misreading FanGraphs then.  This is what they say:

Under its current iteration, MLB’s revenue sharing program looks something like this:

● Every team in the majors pays in 31% of their net local revenue, and then that money is divided up and equally distributed to every team. Since large-market teams will have much greater local revenues than small market teams, this already puts small market teams in the black.

Fangraphs is also wrong.

[blue911]

Maury Brown probably understands revenue sharing better than anybody that isn't employed by a team or MLB. Wendy Thurm is good for legal issues but weak in the revenue field. To be fair she just started writing about the financial side while Brown's be doing it for years.

[dracnal]

If I read an article by Brown on the Dodgers, it sounds like while teams do give 31% of their net profit, the 34% of TV revenue that isn't counted is the part where the bulk of the money in the pot comes from and the teams (and MLB) simply try to obfuscate the numbers and hide how much money is actually in baseball?

[blue911]

If I read an article by Brown on the Dodgers, it sounds like while teams do give 31% of their net profit, the 34% of TV revenue that isn't counted is the part where the bulk of the money in the pot comes from and the teams (and MLB) simply try to obfuscate the numbers and hide how much money is actually in baseball?

You are confusing team overhead i.e. payroll & rent with overhead of selling beer and hot dogs. TV and Radio don't have overhead since all teams are paid by a RSN.