Kuzul

According to USA Today, Manny Ramirez has made the shocking decision to file retirement papers. A statement was released earlier today by Major League Baseball.

Ramirez struggled last season and had just one hit in 17 at-bats this year, but it still seems as if he has the ability to be a professional baseball player.

The decision seems to be based on the fact that Ramirez has violated the league’s drug policy for the second time in his career. Ramirez had previously been suspended for 50 games in 2009 after he tested positive for HCG, a woman’s fertility drug.

On their website, the Rays released the following statement: “Major League Baseball recently notified Manny Ramirez of an issue under Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment program. Rather than continue with the process under the program, Ramirez has informed MLB that he is retiring as an active player. If Ramirez seeks reinstatement in the future, the process under the drug program will be completed. MLB will not have any further comment on this matter.”

It appears as if Ramirez would rather be retired than face suspension and humiliation that comes with a second positive test. This also brings up the question of if Manny has been juicing his whole career.

One would imagine that one positive test would be enough to make someone stop taking performance enhancers. However, it appears that Ramirez decided to take them again. This would seem to indicate that he has taken them for a long time.

Hopefully, this will not tarnish Ramirez’s reputation. The problem is that if more information about this alleged failed drug test comes out, then his reputation will inevitably be ruined.

It’s sad to see one of the best sluggers of this generation retire like this. Manny will certainly be remembered as a great player, but there will be more questions about his performance now than there ever were in the past.

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Throughout spring training fans have been able to see the future of many organizations. With just over a week left until Opening Day, many of the game’s top young prospects have been sent down to minor league camp.

Many of the high-profile prospects will begin the year at either Double-A or Triple-A. However, there are also some great young players who will begin the year in Single-A.

For the purpose of this list, any player who will start the season in A-ball (including short-season, Single-A and High-A) and will play there for a significant period of time or who will be promoted to A-ball and will spend significant time at that level later in the season is included. Thus, players such as Mike Trout and Wil Myers who are only expect to be in Single-A for about a month or so are not included.

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For some reason, the New York Mets gave Oliver Perez every chance possible to make the team’s Opening Day roster this year. Some people may even say that there are 12 million reasons why the team did it.

Perez started spring training with a chance to make the Mets starting rotation. After just a few outings, it was more than obvious that this would not occur. However, instead of cutting Perez at that point, the team gave him another opportunity.  Perez would have a chance to make the Mets as a reliever.

This also went poorly.

Perez struggled on the mound and continued to allow runners to reach base. His velocity also never returned to what it had previously been. Perez could not throw a 90 mph fastball. Without this ability, he could not be successful. His control problems also continued to manifest themselves as he walked eight batters in just 9.2 innings.

As poorly as Perez pitched this spring, he actually improved upon his ERA from spring training last year. He had a 8.38 ERA this spring. This obviously was not the improvement that the team was looking for, though.

Sandy Alderson announced today that the team has come to a decision about Perez. They have decided to cut him and move on. In addition to the news last week that the Mets were cutting Luis Castillo, fans are definitely happy. They only question that they may have is why it took so long for these players to be cut.

The team’s actions are showing that they are only going to put the best 25 players on the Opening Day roster. This is something that the team has not done in the past.  

While there are certainly still concerns, think Carlos Beltran’s knee and the second base battle, the team should have stability moving forward.

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With spring training starting to get into full swing, we are learning more and more about the players each day. As a result, I believe it is time to give you my projections for the 2011 Mets.

On Monday, Craig gave his projections for the Mets’ Opening Day roster. You will see a lot of similarity between the picks, but you will also see differences when it comes down to some of the last spots on the roster.

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Last week, I wrote a piece on the position battle currently going on at second base.

This week, I will take a look at the back end of the Mets’ rotation. 

The Mets have four players who will be in the running for two spots. As spring training progresses, we will begin to have a much better idea of who will win the spots.

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Athletes are always looking for a way to get an edge. For some it means spending extra hours in the gym or taking extra batting practice. Others, however, gain an edge through deceitful actions. Throughout baseball’s history, there have always been cheaters.

As one would expect with a list like this, there are steroid users listed. For those that there are only allegations against, regardless of how strong, there will be a asterisk appropriately placed next to their names.

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Normally, a team will have two or three players competing for a position in Spring Training. The Mets, who have had a hole at second base for the past few years, will have as many as six different players competing for the second base job. Each player has his strengths and weaknesses and will have a chance to win the job.

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Defense may not be the most entertaining part of a baseball game, but it is certainly important.

We tend to only recognize when players make outstanding defensive plays, and fans will always criticize players for making defensive mistakes.

The following slides will show you who is truly the best defensive team in baseball based on a number of factors.

The methodology is as follows: Teams were ranked from No. 1 to 30 based on statistics from the 2010 season. The lower the better.

The categories considered were UZR, stolen bases allowed, Total Zone (TZ) and Gold Gloves. One point was deducted for each Gold Glove winner and two were deducted for each Fielding Bible winner.

This difference is because the Fielding Bible award is based on more quantitative information.

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Nearly ever kid dreams of growing up and becoming a professional athlete. However, this dream does not come true for over 99.9% of children. However, in the MLB, there are numerous players that look like they have no business being a professional. Regardless of their looks or size, these players have proved with their skills that they are deserving of their jobs.

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As news continues to come out about the Wilpons’ connection to Bernie Madoff, it only seems to get worse. In an outstanding piece written for the New York Times by Serge F. Kovaleski and David Waldstein, the Wilpons’ link to Madoff is examined.

A former Mets employee was quoted saying, “Bernie was part of the business plan for the team.” It turns out that Madoff was a huge part of the Mets business plan. The Mets would place any deferred money that they owed to players in Mr. Madoff’s investment firm (yes, that means that the team will need to find another way to fund paying off Bobby Bonilla’s seemingly endless deferred payments).

Regarding Bonilla, it has been reported that his money was in an account. It is now obvious why ownership was so willing to except the Bonilla buyout. They expected to earn 18 percent on the money they invested with Madoff so they would be able to pay off Bonilla as well as make some money for themselves. This would have required a significantly smaller investment than what it would have cost to buy out Bonilla up front.

A former executive remembered Madoff’s name coming up when the team was negotiating contracts. Could Madoff have had a say in what deals were made or if payments would be deferred? There are a lot more questions that will be brought up as the media learns more and more about the Wilpons’ relationship with Madoff.

The Wilpons’ reach in the Ponzi scheme is also larger than we were initially led to believe. Analysis of Madoff’s 15,000 clients was done by Jamie Peppard, a former financial auditor. She concluded that more than 500 individual accounts could be tied to both the Wilpons and Saul Katz. Fred Wilpon also had at least 17 accounts under his name alone. This makes sense as it was noted that Wilpon recommended Madoff to many of his close friends.

Madoff’s former secretary, Elanor Squillari, noted that the Wilpons, both Fred and his son Jeff, would visit Bernie and his son Mark at the office. She also noticed that Madoff acted differently around Fred Wilpon than he did with the rest of his close friends. As close as Fred and Bernie were, Bernie always treated Fred like a business partner at the office and not like a close friend.

Fred Wilpon also had strong admiration for Madoff. When asked by an employee how Bernie was able to bring back such large returns, Fred commented that Madoff was very creative and smarter than everyone else. It is amazing that such a large organization with so much oversight simply let something like this slip by. One would think that the Mets ownership would have tried to do some research on Madoff and other investors before making multi-million investments. However, it appears that the Wilpons’ friendship with the Madoffs got in the way of their better judgment.

The Mets debt totals have actually increased as a result of the Ponzi scheme. The Wilpons had secured loans using the money in their funds with Madoff as collateral. It appears that the team has nearly $400 million in debt now because the loans had to be refinanced with new collateral. This does a lot to explain why the Wilpons are looking to sell a stake in the team.

It may eventually come up that Wilpon did have some knowledge of Madoff’s scheme or it may be true that Wilpon sincerely believed that Madoff was making legitimate investments. Either way, as an organization, the Mets have been greatly impacted by this. It has become more and more evident this offseason, when the Mets did not spend money on free agents.

One must also think about the impact that Madoff has clearly had on the Mets’ past. Do the Mets trade for and sign Johan Santana without their Madoff money? Does Mike Piazza get his huge deal in 1999 without the Madoff money? Do the Mets bring in Carlos Beltran or Pedro Martinez if they did not have their money invested in accounts with Madoffs?

As despicable as it sounds to make this claim, Madoff may have been part of what fueled the Mets’ success during the 2000s. Without him the Wilpons may not have been able to afford the players that they brought in. If this is truly the case, how will we think of these teams when we look back?  And more importantly, what does it mean for the team moving forward to the future.

To keep up on Mets news check out Mr. Mets Daily and Mets Gazette.

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