Happy Bobby Bonilla Day!

[Sharky]

Yes, yes, you do.

Sincerely,

Shea Jones

Tempted to reply with a comment about Coppolella... but I own Acuna and Albies, so despite my loathing of the Braves, I’m rooting for my guys. There is an ebb and flow to these things, as you know.

[cavebird]

Tempted to reply with a comment about Coppolella... but I own Acuna and Albies, so despite my loathing of the Braves, I’m rooting for my guys. There is an ebb and flow to these things, as you know.

There is always and ebb and flow, and rivalries are fun. As for Coppella, he was just young and foolish. He saw everything else skirting those rules, so he figured it was just fine, and he did it so ridiculously and blatantly that MLB was forced to roast him for it. And hey, we can both trash the Phillies. They annoy me. For some reason much more than the Nats do. (And the Marlins, I just feel bad for---they had their team and got nothing with it because of Fernandez's unfortunate death.)

[Erik]

There is always and ebb and flow, and rivalries are fun. As for Coppella, he was just young and foolish. He saw everything else skirting those rules, so he figured it was just fine, and he did it so ridiculously and blatantly that MLB was forced to roast him for it. And hey, we can both trash the Phillies. They annoy me. For some reason much more than the Nats do. (And the Marlins, I just feel bad for---they had their team and got nothing with it because of Fernandez's unfortunate death.)

Is it the incessant pitching changes? Because most Phillies fans are annoyed by that too.

[Pauly]

I know the dominant thread around here is shocking and sad...here’s a little pick me up. Well at least it is for me, for Bobby Bonilla day..

[madducks]

I bet Bobby Bonilla has the best July 4th cookouts.

[Sharky]

I bet Bobby Bonilla has the best July 4th cookouts.

Pretty sure he doesn’t burn charcoal briquettes...

[madducks]

Happy Bobby Bonilla day!

He's going to be one of the highest paid guys in the league this year.

[revo]

Happy Bobby Bonilla day!

He's going to be one of the highest paid guys in the league this year.

LOL.

I was just speaking about this with my friends, and it's still hard to believe an "accredited investor" such as the Wilpons could be lured in by "guarantees" of >10% per year.

[madducks]

The Mets could have made Bonilla go away for $6 million in 1999. Instead, they are paying him $29.8 million over 25 years (2011-2035). Only 15 more years to go.

[revo]

The Mets could have made Bonilla go away for $6 million in 1999. Instead, they are paying him $29.8 million over 25 years (2011-2035). Only 15 more years to go.

They counted on that "guaranteed Madoff return." In their stupidity of believing that the 11% was guaranteed for life, which is insanely ludicrous, they figured why pay $6m today when we could take that money and turn it into $17m when the payments were to start, and then that $17m would become $60m by 2035, of which only $30m would have to go to Bonilla. So they thought they were making out like bandits.

[madducks]

They counted on that "guaranteed Madoff return." In their stupidity of believing that the 11% was guaranteed for life, which is insanely ludicrous, they figured why pay $6m today when we could take that money and turn it into $17m when the payments were to start, and then that $17m would become $60m by 2035, of which only $30m would have to go to Bonilla. So they thought they were making out like bandits.

Bobby Bonilla at his July 4th party: "I would like to propose a toast to Bernie Madoff!"

Everyone else there: (mad laughter)

[Judge Jude]

this is more interesting than the meme, I think:

"I love a good “LOL Mets!” joke more than your average person, but I’ve never gotten on board with mocking the Mets for paying Bonilla each July 1. Mostly because the deal was and is not really silly at all. Indeed, there are far, far worse deferred compensation deals around.

One of the things that makes Bonilla’s deal stick out is the interest he’s getting: 8%. That’s high, but as The Bad Economist pointed out a few years back, the prime rate when Bonilla signed the deal was 8.5%. The Mets probably should’ve made his interest a floating figure rather than fixing it at 8% — Bonilla is getting a windfall on the interest — but that’s down to the Mets’ owners’ well-documented bad financial instincts and their misguided belief that they’d make 10-15% on their investments in perpetuity based on the Ponzi scheme from which they were benefitting, not the silliness of the structure itself.

The Mets got use of the $5.9 million Bonilla deferred for years. And, legal or not, they probably DID get 15% on it because the Ponzi scheme hadn’t collapsed yet. But even if they had put that in a totally legal, interest-bearing account, they would’ve made money on it. They got something for it. Even conservatively invested, a good half of the $30 million or so Bonilla is getting after interest will have been paid for.

And they got more than just the investment. As Dan Lewis pointed out five years ago, the $5.9 that was freed up for 2000 was used to bite off a huge chunk of the salaries owed to Mike Hampton and Derek Bell, for whom they traded and who helped them reach the World Series that year. When Hampton walked to take advantage of the good schools in the Denver area, they used the compensation pick to draft a kid named David Wright.

None of that happens without deferring Bonilla’s salary given their payroll crunch at the time. It ended up working for them in the short term, and working very well."

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2020/07/01/reminder-bobby-bonillas-payments-from-the-mets-arent-mockworthy/

[revo]

this is more interesting than the meme, I think:

"I love a good “LOL Mets!” joke more than your average person, but I’ve never gotten on board with mocking the Mets for paying Bonilla each July 1. Mostly because the deal was and is not really silly at all. Indeed, there are far, far worse deferred compensation deals around.

One of the things that makes Bonilla’s deal stick out is the interest he’s getting: 8%. That’s high, but as The Bad Economist pointed out a few years back, the prime rate when Bonilla signed the deal was 8.5%. The Mets probably should’ve made his interest a floating figure rather than fixing it at 8% — Bonilla is getting a windfall on the interest — but that’s down to the Mets’ owners’ well-documented bad financial instincts and their misguided belief that they’d make 10-15% on their investments in perpetuity based on the Ponzi scheme from which they were benefitting, not the silliness of the structure itself.

The Mets got use of the $5.9 million Bonilla deferred for years. And, legal or not, they probably DID get 15% on it because the Ponzi scheme hadn’t collapsed yet. But even if they had put that in a totally legal, interest-bearing account, they would’ve made money on it. They got something for it. Even conservatively invested, a good half of the $30 million or so Bonilla is getting after interest will have been paid for.

And they got more than just the investment. As Dan Lewis pointed out five years ago, the $5.9 that was freed up for 2000 was used to bite off a huge chunk of the salaries owed to Mike Hampton and Derek Bell, for whom they traded and who helped them reach the World Series that year. When Hampton walked to take advantage of the good schools in the Denver area, they used the compensation pick to draft a kid named David Wright.

None of that happens without deferring Bonilla’s salary given their payroll crunch at the time. It ended up working for them in the short term, and working very well."

https://mlb.nbcsports.com/2020/07/01...nt-mockworthy/

He's likely wrong about the 15% figure, because there was a clawback on any positive returns from Madoff. In other words, they only got whatever they put into it. If the used that money over the years and lost their principal to the scheme, then they didn't get their principal back and had to pay back anything over and above what they initially invested.


And BTW, Steve Phillips poured water all over the Hampton/Bell angle on his show this morning, saying the two weren't related at all and he had no recollection of one influencing the other. Plus, the Hampton/Bell trade was made 9 days before Bonilla was released. Now maybe the idea of deferred comp was in the cards already, but again, he didn't believe one act influenced the other.

[cavebird]

As much as I love making fun of the Mets, and all the other contracts mentioned here are silly, too; I think the king of deferred money for an athlete will always be Mario Lemieux. They ended up owing him so much, he just took the team.

[Don Quixote]

I thought it was a win-win at the time. The Mets freed up cash and didn't have to pay anything for 8 years. The 8% was slightly below market rate at the time and was "invested" at an "almost guaranteed" 10%-plus with the Wilpons' investment genius pal, Bernie. If not for the Madoff scheme collapsing in 2008, on paper everyone would have been a winner, unlike the Mighty Mets.