Commissioner Bud Selig, speaking in Milwaukee during the NLCS, reiterated past comments that he believes the New York Mets are headed for a return to stability.
“I don’t have any concerns,” Selig told reporters, according to Newsday.
Selig also indicated he expected last year’s $25 million loan from Major League Baseball to the Mets to be repaid.
“It will be paid back,” he said.
Commissioner Bud Selig, speaking in Milwaukee during the NLCS, reiterated past comments that he believes the New York Mets are headed for a return to stability.
“I don’t have any concerns,” Selig told reporters, according to Newsday.
Selig also indicated he expected last year’s $25 million loan from Major League Baseball to the Mets to be repaid.
“It will be paid back,” he said.
While appearing at an ESPN The Magazine event, Jose Reyes told Newsday negotiations with the Mets had not yet started.
“They’ll probably start up within the next few days,” Reyes said. “But right now, everything’s quiet.”
Other teams may not bid until five days after the World Series. Sandy Alderson acknowledged the day after the regular season ended that free agents rarely re-sign during the exclusive negotiating period.
The Mets may very well get outbid for Reyes’ services, but the shortstop wants to remain a Met (if the offer is competitive).
“I’ve always said that I wanted to stay here,” Reyes told the newspaper. “But at the same time, I understand that this is a business, and we just need to wait and see what happens.”
Jose Reyes is in the “Body Issue” of ESPN The Magazine that is now on sale. Here’s a link to the video of his photo shoot.
The good news for the New York Mets: An average of 163,000 homes watched their games in 2011 on SNY. That ranked fourth in Major League Baseball, behind only the Yankees (319,000), Phillies (276,000) and Red Sox (192,000).
The bad news, according to SportsBusiness Journal: The audience size was a 19.3 percent drop from 2010 levels.
As a percentage of audience lost, the Mets did not rank in the bottom five. Those honors belonged to the Padres (-41.4 percent), Astros (-40.3.), Rays (-37.5), Dodgers (-30.1) and Twins (-28.3).
But in raw numbers, the Mets lost the third-largest TV viewership in 2011 compared to the previous season, according to the study.
In all, 39,000 fewer homes per game watched the Mets this past season. The biggest raw dropoff belonged to the Twins with a loss of 43,000 homes per game, followed by the Rays at 40,000.
The drop in TV viewership was more pronounced than the Mets’ in-stadium attendance drop. Mets attendance was down 8.1 percent from 2010 at Citi Field.
Read the full report here.
Four Mets pitchers saw action on Day 1 of the Arizona Fall League on Tuesday.
Right-hander Collin McHugh, who had a breakout regular season with Double-A Binghamton, started for Peoria and was charged with three runs on five hits and a walk in two innings.
“Not the best start to my AFL season, but definitely not the worst. I’m healthy, getting groundballs, and throwing strikes. Up from here!” McHugh (@Collin_McHugh) tweeted after the outing.
In relief, right-hander Erik Turgeon allowed a run in one inning, while left-hander Robert Carson allowed a run in 1 1/3 innings. Right-hander Taylor Whitenton, who pitched for low-A Savannah, tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings. He allowed a hit and walked two while striking out two.
Mets farmhand Wilfredo Tovar went 0-for-4 while batting ninth and manning second base.
Review the boxscore here.
Peoria, which is managed by St. Lucie skipper Pedro Lopez, also includes prospects from the Brewers, Cardinals, Mariners and Padres. Salt River won the opener, 12-9.
Jose Reyes is the Mets’ nominee for the Hank Aaron Award, which annually goes to the top offensive performer in each league.
Past award winners include: Jose Bautista and Joey Votto (2010); Derek Jeter and Albert Pujols (2009); Aramis Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis (2008); Alex Rodriguez and Prince Fielder (2007); Jeter and Ryan Howard (2006); David Ortiz and Andruw Jones (2005); Manny Ramirez and Barry Bonds (2004); Rodriguez and Pujols (2003); Rodriguez and Bonds (2001-02); Carlos Delgado and Todd Helton (2000), and Ramirez and Sammy Sosa (1999).
The Arizona Fall League opens play Tuesday, with St. Lucie skipper Pedro Lopez managing the Mets contingent. Their Peoria Javelinas squad also includes prospects from the Brewers, Cardinals, Mariners and Padres.
The Mets’ participants:
Robert Carson, lhp
Collin McHugh, rhp
Erik Turgeon, rhp
Taylor Whitenton, rhp
Juan Centeno, c
Wilfredo Tovar, 2b
Jefry Marte, 3b
Juan Lagares, of
Jose Reyes won’t be wearing a Mets uniform in this week’s issue of ESPN The Magazine.
Reyes will be one of the athletes featured in the magazine’s annual “Body Issue.”
“They called my agent. My good friend Hanley Ramirez did that last year. They told me it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Reyes recently told the Daily News. “I was thinking about it for, like, two days. To get naked in front of people is kind of tough.”
Reyes said he didn’t need to work out for the photo shoot.
“I’m skinny,” he said. “I don’t need to.”
Jimmy Rollins, speaking to New York reporters Friday, on the eve Philadelphia’s playoff series against the St. Louis Cardinals, took a few swipes at Jose Reyes.
Rollins said he might have bunted in his first plate appearance to try to up his batting average, but he would not have exited the game afterward in order to try to win a batting title in the finale, as Reyes did.
“I would have played the whole game,” Rollins said, as quoted by the Post. “I’m like, ‘Hey, I fought this hard to be in this position and I’m going to see it through to the end.’ My personality, I’m going to ride it out. I worked this hard to be this good and put up these numbers, I would like to see it all the way to the end. I don’t think it’s lack of confidence with Jose Reyes, but that is the way he wanted to do it. For what reason, I don’t know. It could have been outside influences. His agent may have told him, ‘If you get up there, if you get a hit your first AB, you come out.’ ”
Rollins, like Reyes, is a looming free agent. Both players hope to re-sign with their current teams.
Rollins took a swipe at his Mets counterpart by saying Reyes put his team first this year, but maybe not in the past.
“He did everything he needed to do, and when you see that coming from another player, you see them putting the team first — ‘It’s not about me. I’ve got to push the issue for the team. I put myself in position that puts us in position,’” Rollins said. “In previous years you just didn’t get quite that feeling from (Reyes) being in the other dugout. This year you really did. It was like, ‘This man is doing everything he can.’”
When it was noted they’re both free-agent shortstops, Rollins told the New York reporters: “It makes for great comparisons. (Reyes) had a great year. But with free agency you take a year and a career all into consideration. Then on top of that you take the things you don’t see on the field — the intangibles in the clubhouse, leading the team. Is this guy a winning player? How does he impact the team by himself when he’s in the lineup and out of the lineup? They are all great things to compare. Baseball is not only about numbers. You get paid a lot with numbers, but you get people to fall in love with you and want you around and give you a little bit more money when you can do all the other things along with putting up good numbers.”
