I don’t know either, Fred.

The Mets, and owner Fred Wilpon (above), have once again made the news for something other than their sub-.500 record (zing!) This week, they were publicly lambasted in the press. I know you’re saying, what’s new? Well, this time, the critic was their very owner! Old Fred was asked about a few of his key players and he managed to insult every single one of them.

To review the last couple of years: The Mets lost tens of millions of dollars (if not more) because of the dastardly schemes of Bernie Madoff (Madoff with all the Mets money! get it?). Wilpon and the Mets are being sued for $1BB (that’s billion) because investors feel that Wilpon may or may not have been in on the Madoff scheme, or at least he knew about it. The Mets owe Major League Baseball $25 million dollars for an emergency loan that was handed out last year. According to this espn.com article, and Wilpon himself, the mets are “bleeding money” and may lose $70 million this year alone. They also owe Jason Bay a possible $50MM over the next 3 seasons (if his option is picked up for 2014), which is probably the biggest financial travesty of them all.

Wow. I started actually feeling bad while writing that last paragraph, well until I made fun of the Jason Bay signing. All kidding aside though, that’s a really messed up situation. Anyway, it looks like the Mets are going to be slashing payroll after this season. That means goodbye Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes and god knows who else. Will the Mets have a fire sale at the July trade deadline? They’re probably going to need to if Wilpon wants to even have a chance to keep the Mets. So your best trade chips could have a small impact on your team’s financial situation. You probably want to maximize their value, right?

Wilpon on Reyes: “He thinks he’s going to get Carl Crawford money. He’s had everything wrong with him. He won’t get it.”

Hmm… That’s one way to talk about literally your best trade chip. Reyes, a free agent at the end of the year, is most likely out of the Mets price range (at this point so is a pack of bubbleyum). The Mets need to trade him, because he’s going to end up leaving. He’s their best choice to trade away to a team in contention in exchange for younger, cheaper, potentially better prospects. Why would you tell the world that he’s damaged goods? First of all, the world knows that. Two, if someone doesn’t, that’s who you trade him to! You don’t tell them the bad part! You have to market your players better than that. You think Bud Light says here’s a beer, it will slowly destroy your liver! No! They say here’s a beer, it will quench your thirst and make your wife prettier!

Wilpon on Beltran: “Carlos is 65-70 percent of the player that he was when he signed the seven-year, $119 million contract in 2005.”

First of all, he was signed by you! You approved giving him seven years and $119 million. Fred Wilpon! The owner of the New York Mets! Did you think he was going to stay in his prime for his whole career? So, not only is he not that good, he’s also really old… who wants to trade for him?

Wilpon on David Wright: “He is a really good kid and a very good player, but not a superstar.”

David Wright is, right now, the face of the Mets franchise. He’s the all-American, clean cut, power-hitting, giving-up-the body-defending, star of this team. Without a doubt. The reason he is not a “superstar” is because the Mets moved from hitter-friendly Shea Stadium to Grand Canyon-like Citi (Don’t call it Shitty) field. Wright would probably hit 10 more home runs per season hitting at Shea. Who approved such a cavernous stadium design? Why, Fred Wilpon! The owner!

I hope that MLB does to Wilpon and the Mets what it did to Frank McCourt and the Dodgers. The Dodgers franchise was thrust into the middle of the owner’s epic divorce. MLB decided that the financial strain was too much for the franchise to continue functioning properly, so they took it. Can someone please take the Mets away from Fred Wilpon? I’m not even a Mets fan and it upsets me that this man is still allowed to run things in Queens. He may or may not have helped scheme one billion dollars from investors, his team loses money like Johan Santana loses knee ligaments and they are in hundreds of millions of debt. Please Bud Selig, use your jowls of power to take down Wilpon and save the Mets, because the Yankees need someone to look down upon.

I guess we’re all left shrugging our shoulders on this one, Fred…

image courtesy of: http://www.nytimes.com