The 2015 Mets Offseason

Haven't written in a long while. Two kids and a law practice will do that to you. Here are my thoughts on the Mets' offseason to date.  

As you may have heard, the 2015 World Series was won by the team with the higher payroll.

Instead of celebrating their deepest playoff run since 2000's Subway Series, Mets fans are understandably frustrated with ownership's diversion of baseball revenues to service Fred Wilpon's personal indebtedness on his team, stadium and television network. For those who haven't followed the sordid details, Wilpon's annual interest payments amount roughly to the $120 million the St. Louis Cardinals spend on MLB payroll.

If you're looking for the facile answer why the Mets paid less to field a team in 2015 team than they did in 2001 (adjusted for inflation), Wilpon's debt is it. Embedded media constantly regurgitate the company line. Those who value their press passes will tell you that the Mets' $110 million payroll expenditure combines with Wilpon’s $120 million in debt financing to produce a larger number than every team but the league-leading Dodgers put toward players last year.

This line of thinking is deeply flawed. Wilpon's cries of poverty are overwhelmed by the fact that the value of the team itself has grown by 120 percent in the last dozen years, to $1.35 billion. MLB’s annual revenues have exploded from $1.4 billion in 1995 to around $9.5 billion today. In other words, granting that the equity appreciation isn’t liquid, Wilpon's investment in the Mets has more than doubled. His part-ownership of MLB Advanced Media (the unit that streams video for baseball, HBO, and ESPN) is worth another $166 million. That's pure profit, as MLBAM didn't exist when Wilpon bought the team. Ratings for SNY, the Mets' regional sports network, are up 60 percent from 2014 -- and are now on par with Yankees ratings. When you read about the Diamondbacks signing Zack Greinke out of the $90 million a year they get from their new TV contract, it’s a reminder that you should add at least that amount to the Mets' annual revenues.

Wilpon quietly signed a 17-year lease to move SNY's headquarters -- oh, and those of his real estate group, Sterling Equities -- to 83,000 pristine square feet on the 49th and 50th floors of the new 4 World Trade Center. Ownership is doing just fine. But while the Red Sox supplement their young hitting talent by signing David Price and trading for Craig Kimbrel, the Dodgers flex their financial muscles to run MLB's largest payroll, and the Tigers' owner says, "I don't care about the money. I want the best players," Wilpon uses the Mets to massively buttress his personal balance sheet.

For the season just ended, the Mets spent the fourth-lowest percentage of revenues of any team -- only 38% of team revenues were directed to payroll. The Mets could have entered next season with only three players (David Wright, Curtis Granderson and Michael Cuddyer) having accumulated the seven years of service time necessary to hit free agency. Rostering so few market-value veterans would have made the team a historical anomaly. It also highlights how the Mets -- like the Diamondbacks signing Greinke -- could easily afford another $30 million on the payroll because they’re getting so much production from young, cost-controlled talent. However, General Manager Sandy Alderson merely “hopes” the team will open 2016 with a higher payroll than it did last year.

The funny thing is, not even the famous "source with direct knowledge of team financials" can deny that the Mets' division title and World Series appearance will earn the team over $50 million in added revenues. Given Alderson’s previously-expressed intention to "make a splash" in 2016, any reasonable expectation has the Mets spending far more this offseason than last, when they committed to merely $12 million in 2015 salary for Cuddyer and John Mayberry.

On December 9, the Mets traded Jon Niese for Pirates second baseman Neil Walker, then signed Asdrubal Cabrera to a two-year, $18.5M contract. Unquestionably, having Walker better aligns the roster. Niese had been shunted to the bullpen for the Mets’ playoff run after a mediocre regular season (4.13 ERA, 4.41 FIP). Between Rafael Montero returning from shoulder soreness and Zack Wheeler returning from Tommy John surgery, the Mets will have two internal candidates to fill Niese’s fifth-starter role. Niese at $9M was an unnecessary expense.

Whether Walker is a necessary expense is open to debate. Dilson Herrera and his career .304/.369/.470 minor-league line could have been given a shot to play second base, filling the shoes Daniel Murphy wore when he kicked grounders all over the World Series. Instead, trading for Walker both reveals the team’s belief that Herrera needs more development time and provides the Mets with far more certainty as they defend their pennant -- Walker has produced at least 2.4 bWAR in every season since 2011. Granting that the Walker trade is a good play for 2016, it’s both cynical and accurate to say that the Niese/Walker swap was essentially revenue-neutral, with Walker set to earn approximately $1 million more than Niese will in 2016.

Cabrera’s signing is more about accumulating depth than an indictment of Wilmer Flores’s ability to play an MLB-caliber shortstop, as both infielders have widespread reputations as defensive butchers. ESPN’s Dan Szymborski projects Cabrera and Flores to produce 2.2 and 1.7 WAR, respectively, in 2016. Because Wright seems more likely than not to spend time on the disabled list, Walker and Cabrera are both on the wrong side of 30, and Flores is far better than the replacement-level backups like Eric Campbell and Daniel Muno that filled in last year, having Flores on the bench is another reasonable hedge against uncertainty for a team that expects to contend for a playoff spot.

Flores should play more than a typical extra infielder, though. Walker is a switch-hitter who has a career 123 wRC+ against righties and a mere 83 wRC+ against lefties. Flores has mashed southpaws to the tune of a 162 wRC+. Flores can be a real asset as the short half of a platoon -- if Terry Collins is inclined to use him that way.

The Mets claimed they’re not done building next year’s team even before Cuddyer retired, freeing up a roster spot and $12.5M in salary (minus the undisclosed buyout Cuddyer will get for walking away with a year left on his contract). With Daniel Murphy and stretch-run additions Yoenis Cespedes, Tyler Clippard, Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson off the books as free agents, and accounting for the fortuitous Cuddyer announcement, the Mets’ current payroll is estimated at ~$103 million for 25 players, one of whom (Zack Wheeler) will still be recoving from Tommy John surgery on Opening Day:

Player            Salary

RF Granderson     $16.0M

2B Walker   $10.0M

1B Duda           $6.8M

2B Wright         $20.0M

LF Conforto       $0.6M

C  d'Arnaud       $0.6M

SS A.Cabrera      $9.25M

CF Lagares        $2.5M

Bench Nieuwenhuis $0.6M

Bench Plawecki    $0.6M

Bench Tejada      $2.5M

Bench Flores      $0.6M

SP Harvey         $4.7M

SP deGrom         $0.6M

SP Syndergaard    $0.6M

SP Matz           $0.6M

SP Colon          $7.25M

SP Wheeler        $0.6M

RP Familia (RH)   $3.3M

RP Reed (RH)      $5.7M

RP Blevins (LH)   $4.0M

RP C.Torres (RH)  $0.8M

RP Edgin (LH)     $0.6M

RP Mejia (RH)     $2.6M

RP Montero        $0.6M

2016 payroll is now exactly what it was in 2015, when the Mets -- the New York Mets -- ranked 21st out of 30th teams in MLB. Between Alderson’s “hope” that the team will spend more than last year’s $103 million on its Opening Day roster, Cuddyer’s retirement, and a $50 million playoff bonanza, the team can easily commit to another $25 million for 2016 payroll. In other words, the Mets could have afforded Jason Heyward.

Please don’t scoff. Adding the best free-agent center fielder -- pushing Juan Lagares to the defensive-support bench spot he's best suited for -- to the team with the best starting rotation in baseball would have made the Mets a near-lock for the 2016 playoffs. Heyward received $23 million a year from the Cubs. If the Mets had dealt Jon Niese for a prospect or cheap bullpen arm instead of Walker, allowing Dilson Herrera or Wilmer Flores to start at second base, they would have saved $9 million. Cuddyer’s retirement saved another $12.5 million. Sure, that $21.5 million covers only one year of Heyward’s deal, but the Mets have merely $48 million committed for 2017 payroll and only $28.5 million committed for 2018. Again: The Mets could have afforded Jason Heyward.

Public perception, fed by Wilpon and his friendly press corps, instead ruled a Heyward signing impossible. Now, the Mets will likely sign 30-year-old Dexter Fowler or 29-year-old Gerrado Parra at a fraction of Heyward's salary. Those guys could perform adequately as the dominant side of a center field platoon with Lagares, but it's not the impact signing the Mets need -- the potential second coming of Carlos Beltran in his prime. Remember when the Mets signed the best free agent available?

In 2005, Omar Minaya inked the then-28-year-old Beltran to a 7-year, $119 million contract. The outfielder finished 9th in MLB with 32.3 bWAR for the life of his contract. Beltran sits above his former teammates David Wright (10th, 31.9) and Curtis Granderson (11th, 31.3) on that list. Indeed, for those seven years, Beltran was better than future Hall of Famers Chipper Jones (12th, 29.8), Ichiro Suzuki (14th, 29.3) and Derek Jeter (31st, 25.6). Heyward would have fit perfectly in orange and blue.

But Wilpon’s P.R. poverty campaign has been a success. With Heyward off the market, the Mets re-signed the serviceable LOOGY Jerry Blevins for one year at $4 million and innings-eater-slash-team-mascot Bartolo Colon for $7.5 million. Next, the front office will likely sign a mid-market lefty-hitting centerfielder. Wilpon will dole out barely $10-$15 million over 2015’s payroll -- anchoring the Mets in the bottom-third of MLB spending -- and tout that expenditure like he did last year when the team signed Cuddyer. Then the front office will close up shop for the winter while the likes of Justin Upton, Yoenis Cespedes and Chris Davis sign elsewhere. (And while Alderson hopefully undergoes successful cancer treatment.)

The league should censure Wilpon for redirecting team revenues to make payments on debt rather than payroll when the team has a championship-caliber core. Yet it's well established that MLB has no interest in forcing Wilpon to sell unless he goes full-McCourt and embarrasses his fellow owners. All the Mets have done in acquiring Walker and Cabrera this offseason is fill the holes left when Murphy and Uribe/Johnson left as free agents. Mets fans have to hope that the team's bumper crop of cost-controlled young players improves enough to overcome what will inevitably be a disappointing offseason of high propaganda and low spending.

**

Scott D. Simon is an attorney who specializes in commercial litigation, financial restructuring, and bankruptcy. He is also Commissioner of the Westchester Hebrew Softball League, and one of the Effectively Wild Podcast’s favorite emailers. Follow Scott on Twitter at @scottdsimon.

The All-Roy Team

We're nearly two weeks into the Two Roy era in Philly. I'm frankly shocked that nobody who a Google search turned up has put together the MLB All-Roy Team. (Apologies to Cistulli's All-Joy Team.)

One look at the All-Roy team explains why Phillies GM Ruben Amaro traded away Cliff Lee so he could later employ Roy Oswalt. As befits the high-level analysis permeating today's MLB, here is the statistically significant takeaway from today's post: The last team to employ two Roys on the same roster won the World Series.

To be fair, this team does not consider any of the prestigious Royces such as Clayton, Ring, and, of course, Lint. Without further ado, let's start with the pitching staff since it inspired this post.

SP1: Roy Halladay
A sure-fire Hall-of-Famer if he retired today, Halladay finished first or second in AL pitcher Wins Above Replacement in six of the last eight years. His NL 2010 is on pace to make it seven of the last nine. Halladay's first name fits him well. The name "Roy" originated as a nickname for someone with red hair or a reddish complexion.

SP2: Roy Oswalt
Oswalt's numbers suffer in comparison to Halladay's, but the long-time Astro finished in the top-five of Cy Young voting five of his first six years in the majors. His reputation would benefit from a strong second-half performance that propels the Phillies into the playoffs.

SP3: Roy Smith
Smith earned a World Series ring by pitching 16 innings for the 1987 Twins, although he saw no postseason action. He picked up a win in his only start that year. The native of Mt. Vernon, NY (birthplace of Denzel Washington and former home of the author) started 49 games for the Twins in 1989 and 1990. But an ERA+ of 96 in those two seasons foreshadowed that he'd be out of the league after he put up a 5.60 ERA for Baltimore in 1991.

SP4: Roy Patterson
"Boy Wonder" pitched for the White Sox during the dead-ball era. How dead was the dead-ball era? Patterson's 2.63 ERA in 1907 signaled his demise, as it was seven percent worse than league average. According to the Baby Name Wizard, "Roy" peaked as a boy's name in the 1890s, when it was the 19th most-popular name.

CL: Roy Face
Face was a diminutive (5'8") righty and one of the first to use the forkball. He didn't reach the majors to stay until age 27, but he dominated for more than a decade out of the Pirates' bullpen in the '50s and '60s. Fun With Useless Stats: Face was 18-1 as a reliever in 1959.

RP: Roy Jackson
Jackson's best year came for the 1982 Blue Jays, when he threw 97 innings, striking out 71 and walking 31 over 46 relief appearances and two starts. He appeared in 280 games, only 18 of them as a starting pitcher, in his 10-year big league career.

RP: Roy Corcoran
Included more for his having pitched recently than for pitching well, Corcoran put up a 3.22 ERA for the 2008 Mariners, which masked an unhealthy 39/36 strikeout-to-walk ratio. In '09 he got lit up to the tune of a 6.16 ERA with 17 walks in 19 IP. Now 30 years old, he's struggling in Triple-A for the Astros.

C: Roy Campanella
An 8-time All-Star and 3-time MVP, Campanella debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948, one year after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1969.

1B: Roy (Squirrel!) Sievers
Sievers led the American League with 42 homers and 331 total bases for the 1957 Washington Senators, a team that also featured .167-hitting center fielder Dorrel Norman Elvert (Whitey) Herzog. That team must have spent all its energy coining nicknames because they lost 99 of 154 games.

2B: Roy Smalley
The second Roy on the 1987 World Champion Twins, Smalley played all over the infield like a mid-'80s Omar Infante. Sorry: "All-Star Omar Infante." And like Infante, Smalley was a one-time All-Star, when he hit .341/.424/.535 the first half of 1979.

SS: Roy McMillan
Your prototypical all-field, no hit shortstop, mostly for the 1950s Reds. McMillan played 16 seasons in the big leagues despite a career OPS+ of 72. His glove was thought of so highly that he received down-ballot MVP recognition in seasons he posted OBPs of .306, .308 and .305. McMillan knew how to take a walk but just couldn't hit for average: he averaged 51 bases-on-balls per 592 plate appearances.

3B: Roy Howell
The 4th pick of the 1972 draft, Howell got a cup of coffee in September 1974 with the Texas Rangers as a 20-year-old third baseman. Over the next two years he provided league-average offense but not much in the way of glovework (49 errors in 245 games). After starting the 1977 season 0-for-17 (with 2 walks!), Texas traded Howell to Toronto, where he hit .302/.374/.430 the rest of the way. Howell made his only All-Star Team in 1978 with a .298 first-half batting average. He would go on to play 11 MLB seasons, retiring at age 30 with a career .261/.321/.389 line.

LF: Roy White
White peaked just before the late George Steinbrenner brought Catfish and Reggie on board. White's age-24 to -32 seasons produced a solid .278/.370/.418 line. Then White became an ice cube in the drink stirred by Jackson's straw. When the Yankees won the World Series in 1977, White produced a 109 OPS+ as a 33-year-old left fielder. The following year White became more of a utility guy behind Lou Piniella as the Yanks repeated. He was out of baseball by 1980.

CF: Roy Thomas
Another Roy from the deadball era, Thomas led the National League in walks for the Phillies seven times from 1900 to 1907. More deadball fun: Thomas' career OBP (.413) was 80 points higher than his career SLG.

RF: Roy Cullenbine
Cullenbine played for six teams in ten MLB seasons, including the St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators, and Brooklyn Dodgers. Like Roy Thomas, Cullenbine liked to take a walk. His 1941 OBP (.452) was second in the AL to some guy named Ted Williams.

So that's the All-Roy Team. In case you're disappointed at the paucity of modern Roys on the squad, take heart: The Mets have a 24-year-old southpaw at Triple-A named Roy Merritt. He's been a decent reliever this year, with a 3.22 FIP over 80 innings. He may have a future as a LOOGY given his 8.9 K/9 and zero home runs allowed against lefties this season. If the Mets can get Merritt to the bigs and get Ike Davis to change his name to Roy...

Mets Should Grab Sexson

With the news that the Mariners have finally cut Richie Sexson loose, one wonders whether he's going to catch on with another team. The AP article plays up the fact that Sexson is hitting just .218 in 2008, and struck out the second-most times in baseball since 2005 (behind Grady Sizemore, who's not getting released any time soon - and which shows that strikeouts are not necessarily the worst thing in the world for a batter).

The Mariners are on the hook for the remainder of Sexson's $14 million 2008 salary, so any team that picks him up will pay only the MLB minimum (~$500,000). It says here that this team should be the Mets.

What's that? you ask. Don't the Mets already have a weak first baseman "hitting" .246/.324/.448 (AVG/OBA/SLG)? Yes, Carlos Delgado has been awful this season. The Mets would not replace Delgado, only sit him when the opposing pitcher is a southpaw, against whom he's managed a Sexson-like 635 OPS this year (and only 739 over the last three seasons).

Right now, the Mets are carrying Chris Aguila and Nick Evans, two righty batters who are limited to first base or left field. Neither is much of a prospect. Aguila is 29 years old with a career 624 OPS. Evans is 22, and put up a nice 927 OPS in double-A Binghamton this year, but PECOTA predicted him to hit just .236/.302/.373 in the Show, so let's not get too excited. And neither has the elusive veteran goodness that could convince Mets brass to sit Delgado against lefties. That's where Sexson comes in.

Of course, about half the teams in baseball have a chance to pick Sexson off waivers before the Mets can, but few teams both have a need for the right side of a first base platoon and have such a weak bench that the signing makes sense.

The Mets are in win-now mode, so they should let Evans develop further in the minors and sign Sexson, who has hit.344/.423/.623 against lefties this season and .258/.374/.507 against southpaws over the last three seasons. Delgado is hitting.260/.353/.489 against righties this year, and.288/.386/.567 against righties over the last three seasons. Put those guys together, and you have a solid platoon that costs the Mets nothing.

Pelfrey Out, Sosa In?

With today's 11-5 drubbing at the hand of the weak-hitting Colorado Rockies (50% fewer home runs than Alex Rodriguez!), Omar Minaya must be tiring of the Mike Pelfrey experience. Pelfrey made the team despite getting lit up by the Devil Rays in his last Grapefruit League start (10 hits and 8 runs in 4 IP). Omar should have been on notice that Pelfrey wasn't fooling anyone, as he only struck out 5 in 23 spring innings.

Pelfrey has now failed to finish the sixth inning in any of his three starts, has walked more batters than he's struck out, and is sporting an awful ERA - 790 The Zone is the official radio station of the Atlanta Thrashers, not what you want out of your fifth starter. After a one year hiatus, the Mets find themselves again looking up at the Braves in the NL East standings, so it's time to make a move. The question is: Who takes Pelfrey's place?

A look at the Mets' 40-man roster gives us some candidates. Chan Ho Park, Phil Humber, Adam Bostick and Jason Vargas are all in the rotation at AAA New Orleans. Park is definitely not getting the call; he's performed as poorly as Pelfrey, but against minor leaguers. Humber's talent is undeniable. Baseball Prospectus ranked him the #26 prospect in all the land. He's posted a round 3.00 ERA in four starts, but I don't think Omar wants to go with another prospect to replace Pelfrey. Bostick isn't turning any heads except his own. He's allowed 3 home runs and 10 walks in only 16 innings. Vargas has pitched much better than that, with a 19:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a solid 3.42 ERA. He would be the obvious choice except for the sleeper: Jorge Sosa.

Sosa's line in four AAA starts this year? In 26 innings, 24 strikouts and only 4 walks. He's allowed but one home run, 23 hits and only 6 runs (4 earned, for an ERA of 1.38). The same day Minaya signed free agent Scott Schoeneweis and avoided arbitration with Endy Chavez and Ramon Castro, he inked Sosa to a one-year $1.25 million contract. On March 29th, the Mets outrighted Sosa to New Orleans, which means he cleared waivers and fell off the 40-man roster, but he's still making his major-league salary.

My hunch is that Chan Ho Park will be designated for assignment in the next few days, clearing out a roster spot for Sosa, who will make his Mets debut next week against Florida or Arizona.

LOL

From stupendous Mets blog Faith and Fear in Flushing:

"Congratulations go out to David Wright for extending his two-season hitting streak to 25 games and Met opponents for extending their 46-season hitting streak to 7,163 games

Both are Mets records."

Now that is sportswriting.

¡Vamos Los Mets!

Moore's Law does not apply to the grand game of baseball. That's easy to prove because the national pastime does not deal in circuits etched onto silicon. But even metaphorically, the doubling of MLB innovation moves far slower than once every 18 months.

The most pioneering franchise since 1900 would have to be the Dodgers. They incorporated Branch Rickey's use of affiliated minor league teams (which he begun with the Cardinals), established the first full-time spring training facility in Florida, broke the color barrier with Jackie Robinson, and moved from Brooklyn to become the only major-league team on the West coast.

The past twenty years has seen a stadium construction binge, the birth of interleague play, terrible television deals, and MLBAM, but these changes were directed from 245 Park Avenue rather than by any individual franchise. Still, we must not overlook how the Texas Rangers were often ahead of their time. They had:

• Sosa before he discovered steroids
• W before he discovered politics
• A-Rod before he discovered Jeter

And on May 5, 2006, the Rangers debuted their Los Rangers de Texas jerseys. It was a Cinco de Mayo promotion for the 35% of Texans that speak Spanish and, of course, merchandising - where the real money is made. It was not unlike the green jerseys teams have been pulling out on St. Patrick's Day, except that these were used in a regular-season game.

What really shocked me is that the New York Mets, who already have a great Spanish-language website - LosMets.com - didn't think of this first. Omar Minaya, the team's GM, has introduced plenty of Hispanic flourishes to Shea Stadium, including special Fiesta Latina and Merengue nights, P.A. announcements in Spanish and the between-inning entertainment of "Profesor Reyes."

I've had the same Bill Pulsipher Mets jersey since 1995, and though I've considered replacing the name across the back with TNSTAAPP, I've never bought a new one. Until, I hope, this year. Can fans request a specific promotion? I'm not looking for Dwight Gooden/Howard Johnson Audit Day, just an opportunity to proudly purchase a #7 Reyes Los Mets replica. Omar, are you paying attention?

Lotteries Suck

That's the email I got from the Mets today. More than a dozen people I know tried and failed to win the right to buy tickets to any of the *four* games offered in this poor choice of method to allocate tickets. It's like the Mets made a conscious decision to prevent average fans from getting Opening Day tickets except through a scalper.

Think about it this way: With a lottery, you guarantee that eBay sellers and scalpers will sign up for the sole purpose of putting the tickets on the secondary market. Since the lottery signup is online, the barrier to entry is tiny (an internet connection and a credit card to buy tickets if you win the lottery) and there are no geographic hurdles (a reseller in Flushing can register as easily as one in Fargo). Because of the low cost of entering the lottery, resellers will enter many, many, many times, lowering the chance that any single Mets fan will win a chance to purchase tickets.

If, instead, every ticket the Mets wanted to sell for these games was put on the auction block, scalpers could still participate, but there would be little profit opporunity for them. That's because fans who want to go to the games would buy tickets at the "market clearing" price. Scalpers could try to bid $51,111,111 for dugout seats, but would be unable to resell them for more.

Using a lottery begs the question: Are the Mets trying to help out scalpers, or are they just too stupid to realize their mistake?

Tickets and You

Wednesday, the New York Times reported on the Mets' plans to make their four platinum priced 2007 games - Opening Day and the 3-game series against the Yankees - available in a lottery. According to the press release:

"The Mets have launched the online ticket registration to provide fans a fair and convenient way to purchase tickets from the limited availability for Opening Day and the Subway Series."

Sure it's convenient to win the right to buy tickets in a lottery - you don't have to stand in line at a ticket window. But whether the lottery is fair depends on your perspective - whether you get lucky and win the lottery, or not. As a public service, here's a quick economics lesson courtesy of Get Untracked.

Fans of all sports now accept variable pricing for tickets, the idea that a Mets game versus the crosstown rival Yankees on a sunny May weekend should cost more than a game on some random Tuesday in September against the 91-loss Nationals. The Mets in fact charge five times as much for an upper deck reserved seat at the former game as compared to the latter ($25 to $5). However, the Mets admit by the act of holding this lottery that they're still not charging enough for those Platinum games. For many fans, the admission price they would be willing to pay for Opening Day or the Subway Series is much greater than that charged by the box office, resulting in a shortage of tickets, more commonly referred to as an event being sold out.

Why do teams underprice their most in-demand tickets? Teams' public relations staff will tell you it's to keep ticket costs low enough that the "average fan" won't get pissed off at a team charging $100 for nosebleed seats at the Subway Series. But that P.R. is B.S. Fans don't feel taken advantage of by scalpers who can get them into a sold-out game. Diehard fans appreciate the ability to pay for tickets to a game they really want to attend, which is why eBay and Stubhub and all the teams' own scalping sites are so successful.

But wait!, you say. Scalping deprives fans of the ability to attend games if they can't afford scalpers' high prices for tickets. Remember, though, there are only about 55,000 seats at Shea Stadium but many more thousands of people who want to go to Opening Day. Even in a world with no scalpers, there will be people who want to attend but cannot. Scalpers make it possible for at least a portion of those people - those who value attendance most highly - to see Opening Day.

The fairest - by which is meant most transparent - way to sell these Platinum tickets would be to hold an auction for each and every one of the seats not already sold to a season ticket holder or otherwise hoarded by the Mets for VIP's. An auction at the start held by the Mets would simply replace an auction at the end held by scalpers, and would ensure that nobody gets "lucky" by winning the lottery and paying face-value for seats that would go for many times as much on the open market. Everybody - not just lottery winners - has the right to buy tickets to the game. That's fair.