Odds and Ends: Just Like the Wilpon's Finances and PR Strategy

Wilpolooza Continues...



*Sports Illustrated and Tom Verducci seem to have gotten scooped in terms of Fred Wilpon bombshells. Freddy's comments on his team's finances in the SI piece are more frightening--downright dire--but his musings on his players are muted:

Speaking about the Mets' prospects of improving with a smaller payroll, Wilpon said, "If we're fortunate enough, [catcher Josh] Thole can be the kind of player we think he can be. [First baseman Ike] Davis keeps progressing. Whoever is at second base progresses as a young player. The shortstop [Reyes] -- I know there's a great question about whether we can keep the shortstop, so we're preparing for that if that should happen. [Third baseman] David [Wright] we hope gets on track. [Outfielder Jason] Bay is good guy and a professional. Pagan comes back and he's not a totally expensive guy. Beltran will be elsewhere. We hope [Fernando] Martinez can take that spot. Now, he's fragile but he can hit."

Thus far, Fred's magazine tour is going swimmingly. Looking forward to what Popular Science, Juggs and the National Review can drag out of Fred in the coming months.

*You can listen in as Jose Reyes tries to answer the media with limited English skills: "He's the boss, he can say whatever he wants." Is the team shitty? "I don't know, because we believe in each other in this clubhouse." He doesn't care for an apology and...he can't "put too much stuff in his head."

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Camera Kid doesn't deserve this shit.

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The Freddy Fiasco is overshadowing a few important developments elsewhere on the interwebs, like:

More evidence that Lenny Dykstra was always bat shit crazy, as rediscovered by America's most well known teen exploitation/sports blog.

Statistics. If you're curious about the currently most popular way to evaluate defensive performance, check out this primer on UZR.

Gary Carter's situation, which we will know more about on Thursday.