Fred Wilpon Is a Schmuck

Fred Wilpon is once again making waves today (HT: anonymous emailer). Wilpon and his son Jeff have been under fire for his ongoing and close relationship to Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff, and the Mets organization may not have sufficient funds to pay the bills. The Wilpons have been looking to sell a minority stake in the team, but today Wilpon decided to take pot shots at some of his marquee players.

Specifically, he rips into Jose Reyes, David Wright, and Carlos Beltran.

On right fielder Carlos Beltran, Wilpon mentions Beltran's huge postseason with the Houston Astros in 2004 and says, referring to himself: "We had some schmuck in New York who paid him based on that one series. He's 65 to 70 percent of what he was."

That's right. Wilpon paid crazy money for a guy who has never lived up to that one playoff series. Wilpon is the schmuck who paid out that deal.

Then, Wilpon goes after David Wright, who is currently nursing a stress fracture in his back, claiming he's a nice player but not a superstar. If there's anyone on the team who doesn't deserve to be bashed, it's Wright. He's played hard from day one and is a class act. Kicking Wright while he's down is no way to act.

He then savages Jose Reyes over his upcoming contract talks, claiming that Reyes will seek Carl Crawford type money. Well, on that front Wilpon's probably right. Reyes doesn't deserve Crawford-type money (7 years, $140 million). Crawford probably doesn't deserve that kind of money and I'm no fan of those kinds of long term deals because the players all too frequently can't live up to the expectations of those deals and injuries can curtail production. In Reyes' case, he's had an injury prone career to date, and he always seems to be one or two at bats away from being back on the DL for another assorted injury.

UPDATE:
The quotes are from a much larger piece in The New Yorker.