Mr. Market Meets the Mets! - 05/17/10

It's hard to say whether Mr. Market or Mr. Met is having a worse time of it these days.

 

Meet the Mets, meet the Mets.
Head for the park and greet the Mets.
Hot dogs, green grass all out at Shea.
Guaranteed to have a heck of a day.
Because those Mets are really rockin' that ball,
Hittin' those home runs over the wall. Long Island, New Jersey, Brooklyn, Queens, Uptown and Down, Let's Go Mets: that's the cheer all over New York town.

-- New York Mets Fight Song, "Meet the Mets"

Last night when I awoke, the futures were down a sickening 14 points. I immediately switched from Bloomberg Television to ESPN's "SportsCenter," where I learned that the Florida Marlins completed a rare four-game sweep of the New York Mets this weekend.

While I grew up on Long Island, unlike most of my pals, I was a fan of both the New York Yankees (I idolized Mickey Mantle) and of the Los Angeles Dodgers (because my cousin was Sandy Koufax and my Grandma was Grandma Koufax).

I hated the New York Mets. Hated them!

It's hard to say whether Mr. Market or Mr. Met is having a worse time of it these days, but Mr. Market, meet the Mets!

The owners of the New York Mets' rumored former financial advisor is incarcerated, the team has lost five in a row, they have won only three games out of the last 10, they have the Major League's worst road record at four and 12, and they are cellar of the National League's Eastern Division.

Of course, the quality players and great contracts that they have signed don't worry season ticket holders about purchasing playoff tickets. Look at these stats (salaries courtesy of a Yahoo! search on their site):

  • Oliver Perez, $12,000,000 salary, 0 for 3, 5.94 ERA, 28 walks in 33.1 innings pitched
  • Johan Santana, $20,144,707 salary, 3 for 2, 3.88 ERA
  • John Maine, $3,300,000 salary, 1 for 3, 6.13 ERA
  • Luis Castillo, $6,250,000 salary, .267 average, no home runs, 10 runs scored
  • Jose Reyes, $9,375,000 salary, .221 average, no home runs, not much to dance about either except his paychecks
  • Alex Cora, $1,850,000 salary, .216 average, no home runs
  • Fernando Tatis, $850,000 salary, .222 average, 1 home run
  • Jason Bay, $8,526,000 salary, .272 average, 1 home run
  • Jeff Francoeur, $5,000,000 salary, .215 average, 4 home runs

So who has it worse, Mr. Market or the Mr. Met?

By the way, Danny (our editor and Boston Red Sox fan), did I mention that the New York Yankees are 24 and 13?