The Mets have been one of the most poorly run franchises from a financial perspective in baseball. Their owner claims the team is set to lose as much as $70 million this year, they've taken out massive loans from MLB and private sources leveraging the club under a mountain of debt and the Wilpon family (who owns the team) is being sued by victims of Bernie Madoff who claim that the Wilpons benefited from his scam.
Their attendance numbers have plummeted despite just opening a new ballpark and rating agencies have given the team a "negative" outlook. To top it all off, Fred Wilpon gave a disastrous interview to the New Yorker in which he blasted his teams' best players and said the team would look to shave 30% off their payroll for next year. Suffice to say, the team was in desperate need of a lifeline.
They seem to have found some help in the form of a Wall Street hedge fund manager named David Einhorn, who has forked over $200 million for a minority stake in the team. For a team that has needed to take out emergency loans just to cover payroll, the extra cash will help. Also... Einhorn is Finkle!
So with that renewed optimism (is it even that?) the Mets begin a lengthy homestand this weekend starting with a visit from the NL East leading Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets currently sit 7.5 games behind the Phils at three games under .500 and have gone 5-5 in their last 10.
Lefty Chris Capuano will take the mound for New York facing a Phillies team with a major league best 12-3 record against lefty starters. Capuano is winless is four career starts against the Phillies. He will face Roy Oswalt making his third start since coming off the DL. Lil Roy allowed just one run over seven innings in his last outing, but took the loss as the Phillies were shut out 2-0 by Texas.
The Mets will be without all star 3B David Wright as he's currently on the DL along with 1B Ike Davis and Johan Santana.