Wheel and Deal's Biggest Slip

Back when the gang was attending JFK Middle school in Indiana, executive producer Peter Engel knew he had something special. He had a bright young star that would carry his franchise for years. He had Zach Morris.

Morris was a can't miss. He had the looks, charm, and charisma that spelled superstar in the world of TNBC.

So what did Engel do? He took care of a then young but fiery Mark Paul Gosselar. While most teen age stars were getting 10 grand per episode, Engel gave MPG 20.

Why you ask? Because he wanted to take care of his star and man did the move work. MPG went onto give Bayside high school 5 great years and then added another phenomenal year of college over at CU.

It's safe to say that the minor pay bump that MPG saw at the beginning of his career was a smart investment for every one.

Why do I bring up the amazing Mark Paul Gosselar? It's not cause I wanted to talk about his amazing performance in the very stellar Dead Man on Campus. Afraid not.

It's because MPG has a major league equal. He happens to be a Met and he happens to be our future.

Yet for some stupid fucking reason, team brass decided to piss the kid off.

Mets.com reported on Thursday that the Mets and David Wright had encountered their first problem, a dispute on what Wright's third year salary would be.

In baseball, in the first three years of a player's career, the team has complete control over what it pays a player.

Last year Wright made $322,500, a tad over the league minimum. He went onto have an amazing season, playing at a near All Star level and emerging as the heart and soul of the Mets.

This year, the Muts decided to pay Wright $374,000. For the first time in his 3 year career, D -Wright was pissed.

While the Mets were acting completely by the book, they really made a mistake. Wright wanted to feel like he was different and derserved different treatment from the typical third year player.

FOR GOOD REASON.

Yet, after 2 offseasons where hundreds of millions of dollars have been thrown at top of the line free agents, the Mets are stupid enough to not throw D Wright a bone.

Imagine if they made a nice gesture and threw D Wright $800,000. Wright would be happy, extremely happy. He would feel like he is the special player that he is and that the Mets want him to feel that way. In the bigger scheme of things, that $500,000 is nothing compared to Wagner's 43 million or Beltran's $119 million.

So why wouldn't the Mets take care of this one? To me it's just bad business any way you slice it.

Protect your investment, guys.

Of course D Wright didn't make a stink. He is a pro and he is all class, just too good a guy to get bent out of shape about this kind of thing publicly. "It's a respectful disagreement," Wright said. "It happens all the time. Am I disappointed? Not at all." Quotes like that are one of the reasons we love the guy, but if he wasn't at least a little disappointed, if he didn't feel just a little bit slighted, he probably would have accepted the Mets' offer.

We know that D Wright will cruise through arbitration and then go on to become the Mets' next $100 million guy. You have to assume that the Mets know this as well.

So if the Wilpons and wheel and deal Minaya know that they are going to sink close to $150 million dollars in this guy over the course of his career, why not take care of him now? I don't think it's going to be a dealbreaker when conversation time comes for a long-term contract, but why even bother playing with fire?

This may piss me off more that most people, but it just seems stupid. In my eyes, how the Mets handle this kid's career could very well determine the next time the Mets win a Series.

And after watching 1986 Mets: A Year to Remember with AFOMG the other day, I fucking need that.

So Wheel and Deal, you shanked on this one.

Have a bad weekend.

To the rest of you out there, have a great weekend.

VCD

SM