New York Mets principal owner Fred Wilpon takes pointed shots at some of his marquee players in an extensive article in The New Yorker mostly designed to highlight his rags-to-riches tale.

The embattled owner, who became ensnared in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme and is now being sued for more than $1 billion by the trustee trying to recover funds for Madoff victims, tells the magazine:

• Shortstop Jose Reyes will not be getting a super-huge contract from the Mets. "He thinks he's going to get Carl Crawford money," Wilpon says, referring to Crawford's seven-year, $142 million contract with the Boston Red Sox. "He's had everything wrong with him. He won't get it."

• On right fielder Carlos Beltran, Wilpon mentions Beltran's huge postseason with the Houston Astros in 2004 and says, referring to himself: "We had some schmuck in New York who paid him based on that one series. He's 65 to 70 percent of what he was."

• About David Wright, Wilpon said: "Really good kid. A very good player. Not a superstar."

• On whether the franchise might be snakebit, Wilpon makes another pointed Beltran reference. Author Jeffrey Toobin writes:

"At one point, I mentioned to Wilpon the theory that the Mets might be cursed. He gave a sort of half laugh, and said, 'You mean' -- and then pantomimed a checked swing of the bat. Any Mets fan (I am one) would understand the reference. The Mets took the 2006 National League Championship Series to a seventh game against the Cardinals."

In the game Wilpon refers to, Beltran took a called third strike from Adam Wainwright to end it.