Fred Wilpon? Brilliant.

More Forbes fun.

The New York Mets were second at $824 million and the Boston Red Sox third at $816 million, the magazine said Wednesday. After that, there was a big gap to the Los Angeles Dodgers ($694 million) and the Chicago Cubs ($642 million).

Suck on it Boston! We're #2! We're #2!

The Yankees were listed by Forbes as having $327 million in revenue last year and a $47.3 million operating loss, up from a $25.2 million loss on revenue of $302 million the previous year. Forbes' revenue figure is after deducting revenue sharing payments, which the Yankees estimate at about $92 million. The team also paid approximately $24 million in luxury tax, which is reflected in the operating loss.

The Mets had an operating profit of $32.9 million, according to Forbes. Boston, according to Forbes, had a $19.1 million operating loss.

Wilpon is looking rather brilliant right now. At this rate, he is going to be up a billion dollars off of his initial investment very soon. A billion!!!!! Wilpon paid Doubleday $130 million for his 50% stake in the Mets back in 2002 roundabouts in October. According to MLB4U.com, Wilpon bought the Mets with Doubleday for $80.75 million in 1986. Let's round up there and say his portion was worth oooooohhhhh say $41 million. His cost basis for the Mets is roughly $171 million at this point excluding any other investment that he might have thrown into the pot.

$824,000,000 - $171,000,000 = a shitload of money. Since 2000, the Mets as a franchise have averaged a 15% growth rate in terms of team value. If that average continues, the Mets will be worth over a billion after the 2010 season and Wilpon will have made over a billion dollars in his investment after the 2011 season. You just expunged your coffee from your body through your nose? Don't worry, I did too.

Actually, all my crude math is very conservative because shiny new stadiums add a lot of value to franchise valuations. Sure, Wilpon put a lot of money into the stadium, but this is all still very, very impressive. Since he has been the sole owner, he has put another $23 million into the Mets bank account from profits while most likely taking a tidy paycheck for himself and his son as well. Wilpon has done pretty good from a business standpoint. Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.

* * *

Good teams take other team's mistakes and rub their faces in it. Last night was one of those games when it was hard to tell whether the pitching was that good or the hitting was that bad. Either way, Ronnie Belliard was playing a bit too deep even with a lefty up and booted a Ryan Church grounder that should have been an out.

A walk and a single later, Church crossed home plate and the game was tied. Some spectacular relief pitching and some timely hitting later and the Mets stood victorious. The Nationals are not horrible, but they are not all that good. Certainly sweeping them is nothing to brag about, but a sweep is never easy no matter who is on the other end. Even historically bad teams win 1 out of 3 games. Marginally bad teams do a better than that and the Nationals are surely not historically bad and are more towards marginally bad end of things.

The Mets are looking better these days and all the doomsdayers can settle down for the time being because this team is actually good. They are still the favorites to win the NL East and are still the most complete team in the NL East. With the Diamondbacks laying waste to everyone these days, I might rescind the statement that the Mets are the best team in the NL for the time being, but they could easily reclaim that top spot in a week or two. It is early folks, let's act like it and while we are at, let's stop booing whenever anything negative happens.

Whatever happened to the eternally optimistic Met fans? I thought we 'gotta believe' or some shit like that? I have thought the Mets were at least a fringe playoff team in every season since 2001 with the exception of maybe one season. How is that for optimism? I'm not all that old, but seeing the plethora of pessimism this year is certainly perplexing (say plethora of pessimism is perplexing three times really fast). The only negativity should be thrown towards Willie and the rest is all good so far and should only get better.

Klaw drops some perspective.

Wilson (NYC): 1 to 10. How bad was the Bannister-Burgos deal for the Mets?

Keith Law: At the time, I thought it made sense. Bannister couldn't and still can't miss a bat. If the argument is that he's going to be the one guy who defies the prevailing sabermetric wisdom about balls in play, well, I don't know how you can fault the Mets for not seeing that.

The deal looks bad now. Very bad. However, at the time, it did not look terrible. At least not to this Met fan.

Immy (DC): Great chat, Keith. Do you think Mike Pelfrey's start is indicative of his future development, or just a nice break from his disappointing 2007 and 2008 spring training?

Keith Law: I'm cautiously optimistic. He's been getting groundballs in his last two starts. That and throwing strikes are the two keys for him.

The 'ole compliment on how great the chat/book/hair is to get your answer taken. The oldest trick in the book! It did however work in this instance and it seems the Pelfrey meter has gone from cold to lukewarm.

Delgado looks done. Not can't play done, but done as a middle of the order beast. Though Willie hates to stack lefties, I would love to see Reyes, Church, Wright, Beltran, Alou, Delgado, Schneider, and Castillo trotted out there the majority of the time. Of course I am getting ahead of myself because Alou is not back in the lineup yet, but I'm just sayin'.

Martinez is all rainbows and unicorns.

"I am surprised with the way I am recovering," Martinez was quoted as saying. "It's going much faster than I thought. Everything is moving smoothly. The Mets know that I'm working and that I will not abandon them. I don't want it to be a long wait like everybody thinks."

No rush Petey. No rush.

Santana vs. Hamels? Fucking A!

"I don't even care," Hamels said. "The guy could have eight arms and it's not going to bother me."

Willie is gaining confidence in Smitty of late. However, is that at a good thing (he actually gets used) or is that a bad thing (he gets overused).

"Joe did a great job -- [he] got a big double play for us and made a great pitch on Zimmerman," Randolph said. "He's really whipping the ball in and going after people. I'm really happy with the way he threw. It was very similar [to last season].

"He looks similar to last year, but different. He's whipping the ball better, and that's key for him. He's able to pop the ball in there, use his slider. He's throwing well. ... When you're a submariner or sidearmer, the feel and rhythm of your delivery is so different. It's unorthodox. His mechanics were out of whack [in Spring Training]."

Right. He's popping and whipping. Everyone get that? That quote wreaks of someone talking about something they have no idea about.

It turns out Tejada is a bit older than his listed age.

The Astros' media guide lists Tejada's birthday as May 25, 1976. However, in addition to the birth certificate produced by ESPN, the Chronicle reported that Tejada's green card, driver's license and other legal papers in the United States list his actual birthday as May 25, 1974.

"Fact of the matter is that he plays like he's 25, so I don't think it really matters a whole lot," Astros GM Ed Wade told the Chronicle. "We're still trying to figure out Jose Cruz Sr.'s age."

Green card, driver's license, and other legal papers corroborate that he is indeed two years older? Don't you have to look at this stuff before you know...you start writing paychecks totaling $12 million a year? Not that I care or think it really matters all that much at this point. Maybe it would matter if someone just gave him a long term deal, but now? No es importante. Although, it does make Wade look a little dumber than he already did for trading for him right before he gets outed for roids.

Whether or not you think he should have traded for him is irrelevant and Tejada is still a valuable player, but Wade probably could have gotten him for a bit cheaper a few days after he did.

I like Ryan Church and he looks good in the two spot, but enough with the bunting. I get it. You can bunt when necessary, however, please do not get into the frame of mind that you are there to move players along. If you are going to do that, you might as well bat 6th or 7th so you can not feel the need to do that and swing away.

1st and 2nd no outs in the bottom of the 12th? Swing away baby. Swing away.

Can we talk about how weird it is to have your starter pitch from the stretch at all times and closer using the windup when no one is on base? When they brought that up in the telecast, I almost dropped my latest issue of Barely Legal.....almost.

Oh, and Figgy rules. One more thing, Willie did push the right buttons and he did a good job with the bullpen calling the right numbers at the right time and using Schneider at the end was a gamble, but it paid off. Good stuff!

Beltran is going to get boooooooooed this weekend.

There are two things going on there...

Manager Willie Randolph, an old-school veteran of the gang warfare between the Yankees and Red Sox, was not among the intermingling groups of front-office members and players. Not this week, and rarely.

To see one of his former lieutenants fawned over by members of the Mets organization probably makes every game against Washington an annoyance for Randolph. But that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon, and neither does the inexplicable chumminess between some Mets and the team that humiliated them only seven months ago.

"How does that happen? How does that become normal?" Randolph said. "I don't know. It's just foreign to me, that's all. I'm fine with, 'Hey, how you doing?' That stuff. I wish that we could enforce it more, really. They talk about it, but I don't really see anyone policing it. You can't force people not to talk to someone."

#1) I agree with Willie. Too much chumminess is not ok.
#2) Willie know quite well that the Mets front office would rather have Acta and is a bit miffed. Too bad.