In seeking a buyer for a quarter of the Mets, the investment banker Steve Greenberg should not overlook a candidate already involved in the Mets’ predicament that Bernie Madoff has created for them. His name is Irving Picard.

It would only be fitting that the man whose lawsuit has sent Fred Wilpon scrambling for a minority partner should get the right of first refusal.

Picard, a New York attorney, is the trustee for the victims of Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme, authorized to recover as much of the billions of which Madoff defrauded his victims.

Fred Wilpon, owner of the Mets, and a variety of his companies are among the recipients of Madoff money that Picard has sued to recover the ill-gotten loot. Picard maintains that anyone who received so-called returns on their investments with Madoff received money that he stole from other investors.

Picard isn’t doing this work for the good of humanity. His deal with the government, according to a lawyer familiar with it, is that he receives 1.5 percent of the money he recovers beyond $1 billion. He reportedly has already recovered $10 billion, which means he has earned $135 million for himself on his way to an estimated several hundred million dollars.

In probably the most painful announcement he has ever made, Wilpon said last Friday he was seeking an investor or investors who would be interested in buying 20 to 25 percent of the Mets.

Wilpon didn’t put a dollar figure on the amount he was seeking, but based on the $858 million Forbes magazine has estimated is the Mets’ value and the $845 million the Chicago Cubs sold for 15 months ago, a 25 percent share should produce something in the neighborhood of $200 million.

There are plenty of wealthy people, in New York alone and especially Mets fans, who could make that kind of investment, but Picard is closest to the situation and should get the first shot at becoming Wilpon’s partner, particularly because part of the money he would be investing would be coming from Wilpon himself.

The New York Times, which did the best reporting on this particular story in Saturday’s newspaper, reported that the lawsuit Picard filed against Wilpon and his companies seeks $300 million in “fictitious profits” based on what they withdrew and additional millions, which I’ll explore later.

Speculation has Picard trying to get $1 billion from the Wilpon group, but others have scoffed at that figure. Nevertheless, whatever Picard gets – and he will get hundreds of millions – Wilpon would feel better about paying it if some of it would be coming back as an investment in the Mets.

Picard, however, would most likely have the same reservations about a Mets investment as anyone else. Two problems exist for potential partners.

First, they would be investing a lot of money without gaining any say in the operation of the team. Under Major League Baseball rules, each team has to have a control person who makes decisions, and with the Mets that person is and will continue to be Wilpon.

“Why would anyone buy, at a high price, a minority interest and be partners with Fred and his son?” asked a lawyer who has been involved in baseball. Then, referring to Wilpon’s effort to sell the share before going public, he added, “He hasn’t found any buyers previously because it’s a lousy deal. Anyone who buys in wants to be known as a major owner of the Mets, not put your money up and don’t ask questions…”

Steve Greenberg, the lawyer said, “got a very difficult assignment.” Greenberg is the Allen & Company managing director who is handling the sale for the Mets.

The lawyer suggested the only way Wilpon will get a partner is to reprise what he had when he was a 50-50 partner with Nelson Doubleday, Wilpon bought out Doubleday in August 2002. “But Fred wants total control,” he said. “He won’t do it. He wants his family to run it.”

Jeff Wilpon, the Mets’ chief operating officer, would be the first member of the family to run the Mets after Fred is no longer active. But Jeff is also a potential problem for the family. “Most buyers won’t want anything to do with Jeff Wilpon,” the lawyer said. “He’s a light weight and has a bad reputation. I can’t imagine a buyer not wanting an option to buy him out when Fred dies.”

Jeff Wilpon is typical of many sons of wealthy owners. They are in their positions only because their fathers own the teams, having done nothing to earn their jobs and exhibiting a lack of baseball knowledge. There are exceptions, but Jeff Wilpon is not one of them.

Fred Wilpon, however, has a greater concern than his son’s future as the Mets’ chief executive officer. The senior Wilpon has his own future to worry about. He has no guarantee what it holds for him.

The Picard lawsuit is critical. Not only is Picard seeking hundreds of millions of dollars, but according to the Times report, he has also alleged that Wilpon knew or should have known that Madoff was running a crooked scam. That’s why the trustee seeks many millions more than the $571 million he said the Wilpon companies withdrew.

“The really troublesome thing for Wilpon is Picard alleges that Wilpon knew or should have known,” the lawyer said. “That goes to Wilpon’s integrity and reputation. Wilpon is very vulnerable. He can’t let that suit go forward because the risk that he was culpable is too great.

“Picard has Wilpon by the tail and Wilpon knows it. Picard knows Wilpon can’t run the risk of a jury or a court decision against him.”

It’s the possibility that Wilpon knew or should have known that Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme that has prompted the trustee to seek more money from the Wilpon entities than they gained from their investments.

If Wilpon knew something wasn’t right about the Madoff operation and failed to alert authorities, he could be held liable for losses suffered by other investors Madoff swindled.

“That’s a devastating allegation,” the lawyer said. Noting that the trustee’s lawsuit was filed under seal at the request of Wilpon’s lawyers, he added, “The seal is another reason why Wilpon has to settle. The reason we want to see what is sealed is the same reason Wilpon wanted it sealed. There must be serious allegations that Wilpon did some bad things.”

As for the Wilpon investments themselves, Picard is operating on a “net winners” and “net losers” basis. He argues that this case is about what people invested and what they took out.

Wilpon is in the quandary he’s in because he was a net winner. Had he not withdrawn any money and therefore been a net loser, he might have escaped investigation.

However, because he withdrew money, he might have raised the question of why he took the money. Did he know something that prompted him to withdraw the money? That might be one of the reasons Picard is going after him.

Picard says anyone who withdrew money can’t keep that money because it was stolen money. There were no profits. Every dollar anyone received came from someone who was defrauded. That’s how a Ponzi scheme works. The operator of the scheme takes money he gets from investors and pays off previous investors with it – if he is paying off at all.

As the trustee, Picard has the right to get the money back. It’s called clawback money.

Madoff obviously paid back some investors, though how he determined who they would be is not known. Wilpon was one of those investors who withdrew more than they invested, and they are the ones Picard is pursuing in his lawsuit to get them to return the money.

Some people have settled, including a Florida woman, who agreed to give Picard and the U.S. government $7.2 billion.

Wilpon’s lawyers have held settlement talks with Picard, but they have not reached an agreement. That’s why Wilpon went public with his attempt to find a partner or two. “Wilpon is trying to settle but hold onto as much as he can,” the lawyer said.

I had hoped to speak to Wilpon about the various facets of his case, but his spokesman said he had done a conference call with reporters Friday and was not available for a one-on-one interview.

I had an idea for Wilpon to try, but it won’t fly. I was thinking that Wilpon could offer shares to Mets fans at, say, $100 a share. It would take 2 million shares to get Wilpon to $200 million, if that is his desired goal, but would very likely be doable.

However, Wilpon would never go for the idea because it would be like an IPO – an initial public offering – and the Mets would have to disclose much more financial information than they would want to and that Major League Baseball would want them to.

Furthermore, the fan investors would constantly be looking over the Wilpons’ shoulders, and they are too secretive to tolerate that.

 

THE RHYMELESS METS IN VERSE

A reader who is a Mets fan chose to put his frustration with them into verse and was kind enough to send the result to me. I figured a change of pace would not hurt. Here is the work of Edward Nadel:

It should be a Yiddish curse

Now that Madoff has

Replaced Ponzi as the biggest

Scammer of them all

Of course this is not adjusted

For the price index

But with many stories

Of wrecked nest eggs

I’m focused on the NY Mets

Their ownership trusted the

Philanthropic Madoff with

A chunk of their assets

Only to appear as victims

And now to be sued by

The trustee for recovery

Of Madoff loot

Appearing parsimonious

After the scandal broke

Allowing the Mets to

Sink deeper and deeper

In the standings

And changing the gm and mgr.

From Hispanic and Black reps

To a waspy contingent

While still appearing

As bankrupt to their fans

They now must cower

In the concourse as

Trustee Picard applies the pressure

In 1996 Mariano Rivera relieved in 26 of the 43 games John Wetteland saved for the Yankees. Rivera, however, was not simply an eighth-inning setup reliever for Wetteland. Only in 6 of those 26 games did Rivera pitch only one inning.

Twice Rivera pitched three innings. He pitched two innings 13 times. He pitched between two and three innings three times.

That season was clearly the beginning of the idea of shortening a game to six innings. The Yankees had thoughts of revisiting or recreating 1996 with Rivera playing Wetteland and Joba Chamberlain in the Rivera role. It will not happen.

Rivera is ready for his role. He has played it for 14 years in the most remarkable relief run in history.

Chamberlain, though, is missing. A pitcher whom the Yankees have shuffled between starting and relieving in his three major league seasons, Chamberlain has stumbled backward in his career and in the Yankees’ plans for him.

He has fallen from regular starter in 2009 to promising reliever last year to reliever in an undefined role this year. Ideally he would have been the setup man for Rivera this year and next, then replace Rivera as the closer in 2013.

But the 24-year-old right-hander had lost so much of his early luster that the sons of Steinbrenner told general manager Brian Cashman that they preferred spending more money and having a larger payroll than the alternative.

“I was prepared to have him compete with someone else who is a real good relief pitcher, David Robertson,” Cashman said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “That isn’t something I was afraid of. The player we added is pretty spectacular in his own right.”

Hal and Hank Steinbrenner didn’t have a lot of confidence in Chamberlain or Robertson, a 25-year-old right-hander. Last season was Robertson’s first full season in the majors, and the Steinbrenners weren’t about to gamble with him as the setup man.

That left no choice as far as the Steinbrenners were concerned. Despite Cashman’s reluctance to lose the Yankees’ No. 1 draft choice next June as compensation, the Yankees signed a free agent, Rafael Soriano, for three years and $35 million.

American League leader in saves last season with 45, Soriano will be Rivera’s setup man for two years, then replace him in 2013. Where does that leave Chamberlain? In a reduced role out of the bullpen. If a starter doesn’t do his job, someone has to pitch the sixth and seventh innings.

The Yankees feel Chamberlain hasn’t been the same since he hurt his shoulder in August 2008. “He does not throw the way he used to,” Cashman said. “He used to throw between 93 and 99. Now he throws between 89 and 93. He’s not the guy he was. But in the bullpen he can still hump it up. We believe he’s a reliever now. We wanted to see what he could do as a starter.”

But others feel the Yankees created a problem by moving him back and forth between starting and relieving.

A starter in the minors, Chamberlain earned a quick call up in 2007, his first year as a professional pitcher, and relieved in all 19 games he pitched. There was nothing unusual about that. Many pitchers break into the majors as relievers, then move into the starting rotation.

“The history of our game has been starters breaking in to the major leagues as relievers,” Cashman said. “The bottom line is if you’re good enough to do something you will. If not you’ll settle into something else. Joba is a very capable relief candidate. He had a good year last year. He had some bad outings that blew up his e.r.a.”

In 2008 Chamberlain performed split duty, starting 12 games and relieving in 30. The next season Chamberlain found himself in the starting rotation the entire season. He responded with a 9-6 record and a 4.75 earned run average. As a starter, the Yankees had him on a strict schedule, making sure he didn’t pitch too many innings (he pitched 156 1/3 in 31 starts, averaging 5 per start).

By last season, however, the Yankees decided Chamberlain should work out of the bullpen, and he relieved in 73 games, tied for fifth most in the league, though he pitched only 71 2/3 innings and worked two innings only once.

In 1996, Rivera relieved in 61 games and pitched 107 2/3 innings, working two or more innings 35 times. But he had been a starter in the minors, making 51 successive starts in four seasons before his 1995 promotion to the Yankees, for whom he started 10 games and relieved 9 times.

There’s no way of knowing for certain, but Chamberlain has probably suffered from the way the Yankees have moved him back and forth.

“No question back and forth can have an effect; with power type guys going back and forth can be an issue,” said a pitching expert I spoke with. “His velocity dropped when he was a starter and spiked back up when he went back to the bullpen.”

Now that he’s in the bullpen, Chamberlain will most likely stay there, as long as he remains with the Yankees. If they trade him, which is entirely possible, another team could try him as a starter.

One problem with Chamberlain the starter was he was too emotional to be successful.

“You can’t maintain that emotion for an entire game,” said the expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was speaking about another team’s player. “As a starter, you can’t go with that intensity for 100 pitches. You’ll burn yourself out emotionally.”

In addition, he said, “From what you can observe of Joba he’s not the most cerebral guy.”

Phil Hughes, the Yankees’ other young pitcher who has started and relieved, is better equipped emotionally to start, the expert said, and indeed Hughes had an 18-8 record last season after having pitched primarily in relief the previous year.

Compared with Chamberlain’s fist-pumping, vein-popping, screaming histrionics, Hughes pitches in a trance.

The expert did not fault the Yankees for starting Chamberlain or Hughes.

“Buying starting pitching in the free agent market is expensive,” he said. “The way economics are you have to find out if guys can start. You have to explore that. With pitching today you almost have to try everybody as a starter. They went through the exercise of finding out and they found out. They found that Hughes could do it.”

But now they can’t be sure what Chamberlain can do.

Once upon a time the Baltimore Orioles had the best organization in baseball. Honest, they did. This is not a fairy tale. Their system was so productive they had very good players – players who would become very good major leaguers – backed up in the minors waiting for their turn.

Try these names: Don Baylor, Doug DeCinces, Bobby Grich, Al Bumbry, Johnny Oates, Enos Cabell, Rich Dauer. If they existed in today’s Orioles world, they would be rushed to the majors ready or not.

The Orioles can only wish they had such players in their minor league system now. Instead they sign free agents and trade less talented minor leaguers for front-line players other teams find expendable.

Saddled with a 13-year losing streak, second among such streaks only to Pittsburgh’s 18 straight losing seasons, they are desperately trying to compete in baseball’s most unforgiving division.

They experienced a minor miracle last season and hope to build on it this year. After winning 32 of their first 105 games, the Orioles won 34 of their last 57, making one of the greatest turnarounds in recent years.

The difference in the Orioles in those two segments of the season? The manager, Buck Showalter, who replaced Dave Trembley Aug. 2 after the Orioles had compiled a .392 winning percentage under Trembley in two full seasons and parts of two others.

“It was a result of really good timing,” Showalter said, declining to take credit for the remarkable resurgence. “The team that Andy (general manager MacPhail) envisioned on the field got healthy when I got there.

The guys were tired of getting beat up on. The young pitchers started taking advantage of what they had learned.”

That’s an awful lot of coincidences to have occurred concurrently, but if Showalter wants to shun credit, that’s his prerogative.

Showalter has had a unique managerial career. He is, in fact, the only manager who twice had teams win the World Series the year after he left them. The Yankees did it in 1996, the Diamondbacks in 2001.

The Orioles may not be anywhere near that juncture, but their performance under Showalter has definitely raised expectations.

“I hope so,” Showalter said in a telephone interview for this Web site’s 300^th column. “More important I hope our players’ expectations of themselves will be higher. That’s not good enough. This isn’t good enough. You have to hold yourself to a higher standard and have a relentless approach to it.

“Don’t worry about what the Red Sox or the Yankees are doing. You’ve got to worry about yourself. The great organizations evaluate themselves honestly. Everyone has weaknesses. Make sure you hold yourself to a higher standard.”

The Orioles would love to get in position where they could fire Showalter, then get to the World Series. It would help to get to .500 first. With that goal in mind, the Orioles made a flurry of moves that altered the look of the team.

In the space of a month, they reconstructed their infield, trading for third baseman Mark Reynolds and shortstop J.J. Hardy and signing first baseman Derrek Lee. They replace, respectively, Miguel Tejada, Cesar Izturis and Ty Wigginton, all of whom were free agents.

The Orioles didn’t enter the off-season with the idea of overhauling the infield, but they evaluated the production they got from different positions and found they were below average at third and first. Finding replacements for those positions became the priority.

On Dec. 6 they obtained Reynolds from Arizona for pitchers David Hernandez (8-8, 4.31 e.r.a. in 8 starts, 33 relief appearances) and Kam Mickolio (relieved three times).

The Diamondbacks had grown weary of Reynolds’ record-setting strikeout pace, but the Orioles were prepared to ignore that he struck out more than 200 times each of the past three seasons and led the majors each time, making him the first player to do that.

“The last thing we’re going to do is beat up on Mark Reynolds for his strikeouts,” Showalter said. “His contact to damage ratio is pretty good.”

In his three full major league seasons, Reynolds has averaged a shade under 35 home runs and 95 runs batted in. His contact average is even more impressive.

Among players who had a minimum of 1,500 at-bats the past three seasons, according to Elias Sports Bureau research, Reynolds is tied for third with Ryan Howard for third with a .387 contact average, that is the batting average computed after strikeouts are deducted from a player’s total number of at-bats.

However the figures are computed, Reynolds gives the Orioles a bigger threat and a more productive hitter than they have had in their lineup.

Exactly a month after the Orioles acquired Reynolds, they signed free-agent Lee to play first base. They initially pursued Adam Dunn and Victor Martinez. Martinez signed with Detroit for $50 million and Dunn with the Chicago White Sox for $56 million.

The 35-year-old Lee hit 19 homers and knocked in 80 runs for the Cubs and the Braves last season, but he slugged more than 30 homers in four of the previous seven seasons and drove in 90 or more runs in five of those seasons.

In between those two deals, the Orioles added Hardy from Minnesota, giving the Twins Jim Hoey, an injury-plagued right-handed pitcher. They hope Hardy bounces back from two sub-par seasons.

The Orioles haven’t officially designated Hardy as their everyday shortstop, but the six-year veteran is expected to start ahead of Izturis, who resigned with Baltimore and is expected to be the primary backup infielder.

The infielders, including second baseman Brian Roberts, the Orioles feel, all have good plate discipline and all are average to above average defensively.

The Orioles’ other significant off-season addition has been Kevin Gregg, who will be the closer unless Koji Uehara registers his claim to the role.

The Japanese right-hander was the closer during Showalter’s two-month term, gaining 13 saves in 15 chances with a 2.93 e.r.a. Subtract his Sept. 17 outing against the Yankees (one of his two failed saves), and his e.r.a. would have been 2.00.

With Toronto, Gregg converted 37 saves in 43 chances and had a 3.41 e.r.a. He would seem to have an edge on the job because the Orioles signed him for $10 million over two years, and that would be a lot of money for a team in Baltimore’s payroll position to pay a setup reliever. However, Showalter saw first-hand what Uehara could do.

When Showalter took over last August, one fact was obvious. “You could tell,” he said, “they were kind of intimidated by the American League East. You have to let that go. I wanted them to be aggressive.”

“The Yankees and the Red Sox,” he added, “get to camouflage their mistakes with money. It hasn’t been a level playing field for a long time.”

The Orioles, however, have themselves primarily to blame for their drastic downfall, both on the field and in the stands.

Excluding the strike-shortened seasons of 1994 and ‘95, the Orioles filled Camden Yards with more than 3.5 million fans for five seasons from 1992 through 1998. They won the A.L. East title in 1997 and lost the American League Championship Series to the Cleveland Indians.

Manager Davey Johnson resigned after the ’97 season – on the day he was named A.L. manager of the year – and Pat Gillick, the general manager, resigned after the 1998 season. Both left because of the owner, Peter Angelos, and the Orioles have gone downhill ever since.

The 13-year losing streak began in 1998, and attendance began dropping steadily. Last season’s attendance of 1.7 million was the lowest since 1988.

“There aren’t many people Baltimore takes a back seat to in baseball history,” Showalter said. “The fans are there. They’re just not coming to the park much. It’s going to take time to regain their trust.”

A few winning seasons would help.

 

PLAYERS WITH GOOD CONTACTS

When it comes to making contact (as opposed to striking out), these players have compiled the 20 best batting averages in the past three seasons (minimum 1,500 at-bats) when they have made contact, according to research by Sal D’Agostino of Elias Sports Bureau:

 

MANNY AND HIS MONEY

The last time Manny Ramirez made as little as $2 million a year was in 1997, his third full season in the majors. That will be his salary with the Tampa Bay Rays this year. His new one-year contract doesn’t even include bonuses for awards or performance. It’s almost as if the Rays were doing Manny’s agent, Scott Boras, a favor by signing Ramirez.

ESPN.com quoted an anonymous source as saying, “Manny isn’t concerned about the money right now. He just wants the opportunity for plenty of at-bats to show that what happened last year was because of injuries.”

Last year Ramirez, 38, was limited to 90 games and 265 at-bats with the Dodgers and the White Sox. He hit .298 with 9 home runs and 42 r.b.i. The year before he was suspended for 50 games after testing positive for an illegal substance.

But no tears or benefits for Manny, please. In his last contract, which he signed with the Dodgers two years ago, Ramirez had salaries totaling $45 million. Before that, he had an 8-year $160 million contract that he signed with the Red Sox in December 2000.

His 2011 salary is a third less than the average major league salary in 2010.

 

ABOUT THAT BACK ACNE…

Attention, Mike Piazza fans and other cynics: A report in The New York Times on Saturday about the Barry Bonds perjury case said that prosecutors said that Bonds’ former girlfriend, Kimberly Bell, “would testify to seeing physical changes in Bonds that are indicative of steroid use, including acne on his back and shoulders…”

If acne is good enough for Federal prosecutors, it’s good enough for me no matter how much Piazza and his supporters scream and whine at my mention of Piazza and the acne that covered his back until it miraculously disappeared when baseball began testing for steroids in 2003 and 2004.

No one has accused Piazza of perjury, but he better be careful with what he says if he ever has to testify under oath.

 

ROBINSON A REGULAR AT HIS NY DESK 

In my previous column, I wrote that Commissioner Bud Selig was not considering Frank Robinson for the job of executive vice president for baseball operations because Selig wanted the person in that role to be at his desk in New York on a daily basis and that Robinson lived in Los Angeles and wasn’t a desk person anyway.

However, another baseball official sent me an e-mail offering a different view of Robinson.

“Since Frank Robinson came to his present position (in June),” the official wrote of the senior vice president for major league operations, “he has been in the NY office just about every day with very rare exception – usually from 8AM until around 6PM. I would estimate his time away (due to business travel) has amounted to about 5% or 10% of the time.”

In that case, I revert to my original question about Robinson: why hasn’t Selig named him to the vacant position? I’ll ask the commissioner the next time I talk to him.