The Mets according to Forbes magazine are second only to the Yankees ($1.306 billion) in total value and have the best value to debt ratio in MLB and the third highest operating income. The Mets value rose 12% in the last 12 months.

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).

Besides the obvious, like attendance, Forbes cites interleague play as a major factor. The article also adds:

Citigroup, beleaguered by the housing market meltdown, is still planning to pay the Amazins $400 million over 20 years for the stadium’s naming rights.

Johan Santana was named the 4th best pitcher for the buck by Forbes, with a salary of $19 million in 2008.

Will Leitch has an article in Fast Company this month regarding MLB Advanced Media and their aggressive foray into videocasting on the web.

Major League Baseball is expected to haul in around $5.8 billion, just short of the NFL’s $6.3 billion. Its biggest growth engine is MLBAM, which last year brought in $450 million (up from $236 million in 2005). Continuing at its current pace, MLB should catch up with the NFL around 2010. “The growth has exceeded our wildest expectations,” says MLB president Bob DuPuy. “No one in the game believed that the Internet would be as pervasive a commercial vehicle for us in such a short amount of time.”

In a typical day during the season, as many as 11 million people visit MLB.com. Three million watch video.

Baseball content on the web, specifically video, is big business and MLBAM is at the forefront of delivering content web viewers are flocking to in droves.

While it still has a way to go, and is buggy at times, the sheer number of viewers and the ability to deliver the content on a massive scale is pretty impressive. I’ve had my problems but generally it is a good service. It’s also nice to see that baseball is driving the innovation of this medium.

Hat tip to Peter at Brooklyn Mutt for the link.

Now this is purely off the information from Hardball Dollars and we could be missing some money here and there, but here is what we figure to be the current money owed (in millions) for 2007 payroll…

So, without factoring in perhaps some incentives, we are probrobly working from $87.39 million at this point. There are several players who the Mets obviously will be looking to resign, but this is what the Mets are set to pay currently.

Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus thinks the Mets got a whale of a deal on Jose Reyes and David Wright, defining it as the best investment in baseball in a long time…

“And the winner for best use of $78 million is…”

OK, I don’t know what the other nominees in the category might be, but
I also don’t think it matters. The Mets’ twin signings of Jose Reyes and David Wright
are as solid an investment as any baseball team has made in recent
years. The two deals lock up a champiosnhip-caliber core through the
players’ peaks while avoiding a hefty investment in post-peak seasons,
and they do so at reasonable, perhaps even bargain prices.

Let’s look at Reyes’ deal first. The shortstop’s new contract
is worth $23.25 million through 2010, his age-27 season. The Mets have
an option for 2011 at $11 million. The contract buys out at least one
and possibly two seasons of free agency if the option is picked up.
Eyeballing the current shortstop market, we see that free-agent
shortstops come in around $10 million (Edgar Renteria) to $13 million (Rafael Furcal) a season for minimum three-year commitments.

Read the entire article here.

Matt on Metsblog.com points out that in a story in Pioneer Press by Charlie Waters,   C Joe Mauer and 1B Justin Morneau can expect to receive long-term contract offers from the Twins worth roughly $40 million per player over five years.

Both players are arbitration eligable this winter. Wright is not eligible for salary arbitration until after the 2007 season, Reyes can accept arbitration this off-season. Matt indicated correctly that Reyes could look to Mauer and Morneau's contracts as a jumping off point.

Omar Minaya has indicated in an earlier conversation with Mike Francesa and Chris Russo on WFAN that he wishes to sit down this offseason with Wright and Reyes about their long term future with the Mets.

Baseball Prospectus compares two of the Mets offseason acquisitions to the players they replaced and finds that the Mets probrobly could have kept what they had and got similar production, for far less money.

2006 VORPPlayer         Age      PECOTA       Actual        SalaryDelgado        34        37.1         12.3        $13,500,000Mike Jacobs    25        24.6         17.6           $327,000

2006 VORPPlayer        Age     PECOTA      Actual        BS        SalaryWagner        34        17.3        12.4         4        $10,500,000Looper        31         5.0        11.4         1         $3,500,000

Personally, I think Delgado's value is more than just what he has provided so far in offense. He has had a huge effect on Carlos Beltran and that is something you can't really put a price tag on. That is a butterfly effect that improves the entire lineup. Delgado cannot be expected to continue slumping for long and his numbers here are skewed from the black hole he currently resides.

As for Looper, you cannot possibly go into this season with Looper as your closer. The team's psyche would simply be unable to take that. I have no problem with the Mets going with Wagner, even if he's only a slight improvement over Looper in actual numbers.