About Last Night …
-
- June
- 19
Greetings from seat 10B. No upgrade today. Have to write an off-day story when I get to Denver.
It will be on Omar Minaya’s worst decisions as Mets GM. Your nominations are welcome.
Last night was an interesting game. They showed spunk after Coin Flip blew the lead.
Jose Reyes had a good game. There were comments about how he responded to Jerry Manuel when he sulked when Willie Randolph lectured him.
Fact is, he’s a pro and should respond to whoever is the manager.
Of course, I know it doesn’t always work that way.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 10:39 am by John Delcos.
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Worst Decisions: Letting Willie take that trip to LA, trading away Bell, Lindstrom, Bannister. Trading too much for Delgado, 4 years for Castillo, and not getting rid of Bernazard.
JD: The only way that you can compare the Reyes sulking thing is if Manuel would have benched him last night.
Bet you weren’t saying that after 2006 about Delgado. By the way, where are Grant Psomas and Yusmeiro Petit now anyway?
Well the game showed me one thing, that no matter who the manager and coach is, a coin flip is a coin flip is a coin flip.
Getting a wild pitch to move Reyes to the second in the ninth helped enormously. We had a wee bit of luck in that.
John, why dont you do something different from the 600 other reporters covering the mets, and get over this omar-bashing fetish that you guys have all developed. why dont you write about the positive things omar has done… oh right, you guys have an axe to grind with the mets that was made all too obvious this past week.
or you can stick with subtly mentioning the latin connection while not mentioning that the 1000 or so white gms the sport has had in its history has time and time again blatantly chosen white players over non-whites, or maybe you can harp on heath bell, who while given plenty of chances with the org, never showed he could handle the majors until he mysteriously added 5 mph on his fastball after he got traded to the pads.
or you can criticise omar for trading away humber and guerra instead of sticking with them and automatically adding them to the starting rotation and having absolutely no veteran backups in the minors that could fill in if one or both went down with some mysterious rib injury after both pitchers pitch to eras over 8.
oh wait, that was the gm across town who based his 230 million dollar team on two rookie pitchers with no backup plan… but its the fashionable thing to do, to knock omar.
Hi John –
Don’t write the article as a fait accompli – I fear that more bad decisions may arrive at any moment – perhaps even at 3AM in the morning.
Safe Trip.
Worst decision? tough one. His bad deals I don’t think hurt as much as our good ones helped. But I would say Castillo’s 4 year deal is the worst. The money is not the problem, it was the years.
Hmmm…my vote would be for not having a better backup plan for the inevitable Alou injury bug. And the years of Castillo’s contract will be a problem later on. Right now, I have no complaints about how Castillo has performed. All other Omar moves I pretty much have agreed with even though they haven’t all worked out.
oh yeah, rushing Pelfrey through the system I thought was a very big mistake too.
Pelfrey was not rushed. If anything he arrived late for a 1st round pick with extensive college experience.
Here’s my vote for Omar’s most questionable move as GM – losing C Jesus Flores for the Rule V Draft – to the Nationals, when it was well known that people in the Nats org OPENLY coveted him. I don’t care who he was protecting (rumor has it, it was the likes of julio franco) but you can’t do that – catchers don’t age well and it’s obvious that even Schneider isn’t in the long-term plans of the team (and earlier PLD). Just a dumb-a$$ move and could have easily been avoided. If someone’s head didn’t roll b/c of it, I don’t know what constitutes a good head rolling.
JD, perhaps you could give us some insight on bernazard?
i his name popping up all over the place and would like to see your take on him.
thanks.
I agree with Jason, Omar may have handled it wrong, but Willie had to go, he is gone, Manuel is the manager, can we please move on and get over it. Nice people all over the country get fired everyday and don’t have 3.5 million to fall back on. Willie has a ton of friends all over baseball, he’ll get another job if he really wants one.
Maybe it’s just me and I know it’s only been two days, but this team looks completely different, much more energy, laughter and unity on the bench. Did anyone else notice the bench after Easley’s HR, I can’t remember the last time I saw the team show that much emotion.
Hey John – Hindsight is 20/20, and in the rear-view mirror, some deals that looked fine at the time did not work out in the long run. For me, Omar’s worst deals include resigning Mota for 2 years after he failed a drug test, and giving Castillo 4 years.
Ring and Bell could not perform whatsoever in Queens, so I can’t argue them going. In getting rid of Owens and Lindstrom, the Mets got back two younger lefties. At the time of the Bannister trade, the team had a surplus of SP, and needed help in the pen with Sanchez out for ‘07. In addition, at the moment, off all the players traded away, only Bell is finding some success.
Omar Minaya’s worst move is keeping Tony Bernazard as the ass.
gm. I was wrong, Delgado isn’t the cancer, it’s Bernazard.
The last time the Mets showed that much emotion? June 4th when Beltran hit the walk-off HR after the D-Backs had come back to tie it against Wagner in the 9th.
Worst Omar decision:
Taking a man who has never had any experience in ANY capacity, whether its in the majors, minors, college, high school, or even little league, of leading a group of men/boys and hiring him to be the manager of the New York Mets.
There’s a quote from Matt Cerrone yesterday from Metsblog that reads:
“”they have long questioned his ability to be a leader…”
Really? Could that stem from the fact he’s never been a leader before?
I mean think about that for a second and see it that could work for ANY other job?
Imagine the LoHud news trying to fill a position of the chief editor of the entire newspaper and they just take some guy of the street and give it to him.
It’s just ridiculous, would never happen in any other profession, and doesn’t make any sense.
Porven winner as a player means nothing when he doesn’t have a proven or any semblence of a managerial track record.
The Yankees offered him PLENTY of times to manage in the minors and not only did Willie refuse but it offended him.
I just have to repeat this, thanks benny.
The Yankees offered him PLENTY of times to manage in the minors and not only did Willie refuse but it offended him.
Hmm, he had to learn the job while on the job. And he did show some improvement, but not a lot of it. He kept making ome of the very bad mistakes over and over again.
What is this humanity thing going on here. Sillie is gone and it is a good thing.
Tomg: Remember also that Bernazard was the reason why Delgado didn’t want to come here in the first place.
Jason: What color is the sky in your world? The Mets are where they are – a mess – in large part because of decisions Minaya made.
And, why would you bring race into it? I didn’t.-JD
Omar’s worst mistakes…here are mine (in no order): (1) allowing a dysfunctional atmosphere to fester on his watch (whether it was created by Bernazard or the owners); (2) not working harder to resign Shawn Green (yeah I know, I’m probably alone on this one), who brought a great deal of professionalism and comraderie to the club house (and could play 1st base); (3) giving up to early on several promising young back-end/relief pitchers (bannister, owens, etc.); (4) hiring “Ricky” as a 1st base coach (and allowing Reyes to “learn” from him); and (5) demoting Nelson Figeroa to AAA.
The worst mistake Minaya ever made was his poor explanation of how the firing came down. He simply shielded the wilpons from criticism and has now taken the brunt of the criticism for the poor handling of Willy’s inevitable firing.
wilpon jr and sr = Cowards with a whole lot of money.
RE: Owens
This is the last time I will say this.
He had major arm surgery last September and is still on the
DL. How is this a major blunder by Omar.
I am going to try and look at this from the glass half full
view.
Omar and the Wilpon’s and the whole country now know the Mets have an organizational mess. In other words who really is in charge.
This is a long time problem going back years.
They need to “SEIZE THE DAY” CARPE DIEM
and finally fix this for good.
This of course will be Omar’s biggest blunder.
Because nothing will be done about it.
hey John,
You were given honorable mention last night by SNY.
you were right behind Manuel during his speack, so Gary Cohen let everyone knwo who you were…
I stopped watching the game after the 5th. Its going to take awhile for the “new” mets to find their groove. I still think it is a little odd how they let willie go.
John, re: bringing up race, I was just throwing out examples of what every other article on omar has been like the past couple days, which is why i included that with other examples of what everyone is writing about in the same paragraph. i appreciate the attempt at playing dumb though. you were playing dumb, right?
all im saying is why be like every other writer out there and rehash the same thing OVER and OVER and OVER again. if thats the job of the beat writer, well then anyone can do your job. try looking at things from a different perspective so your readers can get a different look. all you are doing is… being a human xerox machine. the reason i bring up possibly listing all the things omars done right is to remind readers that hey, things are sh!tty now, and despite how everyone suddenly is on this ‘omar is a bad gm’ bandwagon, omar HAS brought johan to the team when everyone in baseball (even you probably) was like “there is absolutely no way they are getting johan”, he stole maine, he stole el duque, he stole marlon anderson, easily has been more than serviceable, etc.
in times like this, its easy to point out the flaws. but much more difficult (which is why you are probably taking the easy way out and bashing omar) to appreciate something or someone when the going gets tough. that takes more guts and talent than being like everyone else.
just making a suggestion to step up your game, thats all.
How about Spending 46 million on Kei Igawa? Oops. Wrong guy.
Ray: great point
Interestingly enough if you add up the money given to
Castillo , Alou and El Duque it really is not much more than
the Yankees spent on Kei Igawa.
I guess perspective is everything in life.
Also do not forget the Yankees spent about the same money on Pavano as the Mets on Pedro.
Also do not forget the Yankees go to the playoofs every year and the Mets do not. Thats the bottom line.
Minaya’s biggest mistake: He was gonna make the team younger and more athletic. Either he lied or failed.
Also, all these little comments evolving about the differences between Manuel and Randolph sound eerily similar to the comments made in early 2005 comparing Randolph to his evil predecessor Art Howe. Sounds like Minaya has his PR department writing half these posts.
Guv, you forgot to add FIRE OMAR!
Everything you want to know about Omar Minaya.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080619&content_id=2961737&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb&partnerId=rss_mlb
Everything you want to know about Tony Bernazard.
http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-spken195732574jun19,0,609514.column
Tom,
We have discussed everything in the Omar article on this blog many times now. Is Carlos Beltran worth what hes making? maybe not. How many Gold glove centerfielders are around who are a lock for 30 HRs and 100 RBIs? I have no regrets about that one. Bannister is not looking like such a disaster now. Bell was the only one of the young pitchers that I regret. Omars made some good moves some bad. If the Mets dont make a strong run, He will be gone. Bernazard? I have never read one good thing about that guy in all these years, but as long as Omars here he will be here too. Package deal.
There was a nice tidbit about Oberkfell at the end of the Omar story. Next Manager? could be.
The most BAFFLING of his decisions was signing Castillo for FOUR years.
If Willie flat-out refused to give Gotay playing time because his vision of the second base position was straight out of 1915, that’s one thing…
But FOUR YEARS to a guy with deteriorating knees? Really? You couldn’t have gotten him on a year and an option year? It was not like there was a run on secondbasemen whose knees are shot last winter.
Though letting Flores go to keep Julio goddamned Franco on the roster was kind of amazingly boneheaded too.
Discarding Milledge for Church and The Schnide will probably take another year or two to truly bear its bitter fruit so, I suppose, that’ll have to be lower on the list.
For now.
Omar has done a lot of good things like building a team that was this close to winning it all a few years ago.
However he has made some bad moves also. Like signing many players starters/bench who are old. Professional they may be, but also injury prone, duplicative in function or just limited.
The most recent of which was Castillo who I gave the benefit of the doubt because I was hoping they put last year behind them and that he was ok injury wise. Part of this was letting Gotay go because of numbers. Now I know he is not the next all star, but he was a good young hitter who wanted to play.
As others have said the makeup of this team is his. There is exactly one player on the team who is a leader. That is Pedro. Pedro is also injury prone. So where is the emotional leader on this team? We have none. That is a problem.
One last thing is just organization and communication. He may have destroyed one of the good talented players we have in Church and the general handling of the manager. This was not the first time they dangled him out there. Perhaps that is not the GM. Perhaps that is ownership. But this should not happen.
Dave
Castillo and Kaz Matsui were the second-base prizes of the free-agent pool, with each garnering three-year offers from the Astros. If Omar didn’t pony up for a fourth year, you’re either looking at Kaz: The Rematch for three years or someone like Damion Easley.
As for getting younger, this year’s team is younger than last year’s; moreover, his pitching staff has gone from an average of 32.5 when he took over in 2004 to 29.3 today. It was 31.3 last year—so he’s made it dramatically younger in a short period of time.
I think Omar’s worst move was not responding appropriately to the September collapse. He should have either changed managers or changed players—but it was lunacy to think that you could simply reassemble the same cast of characters and pretend that nothing happened.
Minaya’s worst decision was the whole mishandling of the Ryan Church concussion. Hopefully he will recover. But suppose he doesn’t? A bad judge of judging talent I can forgive. Cavalierly playing with some one’s health is unforgivable.
I wonder if Randolph’s refusal to take a minor league job hurt his development. He may have felt he would have a better chance to get a job when he was a Yankee coach instead of being a manager in Columbus. Looking thru a 2006 TSN Baseball Register managers that didn’t have any minor league managerial jobs are Dusty Baker, Buddy Bell, Phil Garner, Joe Girardi, Ozzie Guillen, Bob Melvin and Joe Torre. Frank Robinson managed one year in the minors after his first major league job in Cleveland. If you can call 1970s Indians baseball major league.
“Guv, you forgot to add FIRE OMAR!”
You got me Sadecki!!! I think the press has taken over. when they beg their blog sites for stuff to beat him with, attack mode is gearing up.
I actually kinda like Omar. I enjoy listening to him when he comes on the broadcasts, but I have learned he is a better liar than the best politicians. I remember last year him raving about Gomez for 15 minuites and how he can’t wait to have a Reyes/Gomez 1-2 in the lineup. I was convinced if he’d protect any kid it would be Gomez. Then he re-upped Alou and i knew was just one big fraud.
Tiffany Your age stats have no meaning because nobody but you knows how they were derived. Are they openning day. Do they include DL. Do they include everybody on the team for a second during the year. do the include Spetember call ups. Is it the same basis for both seasons?
I think Mel knows where I got the age-related stats. Why don’t you ask him?
Dan Gurney – Just when I thought the worlds population couldn’t get any worse. You go and say something like that! You incompetent belligerent fool! Why do you have to be so mean and obscene to MINAYA! you ahole!!!!!!! im not one for violence but id love to sock ya the wrong way
the only thing I can really ding Omar for was rolling the dice twice with Alou, last year was an okay gamble, because honestly who saw Delgado falling off a cliff after this terrific playoff performance, but going into this year his plan was Angel Pagan, who even if healthy was a ludicrous option.
Bannister the great has fizzled, and Bell was driven away by evaluations from Slick Rick.
and uh as far as Gomez, he dealt him for Santana, every GM would have could they have signed Santana
If you believe the papers, putting Bernazard in a position of authority where he can whisper in Jeffy Wilpon’s ear will be Omar’s worst decision b/c he could end taking Omar’s job.
Which for Omar of course would be bad but it could also be bad for the org.
This guy is in charge of the minor leagues, which stink, and yet Jeffy boy likes him. Not a good sign…
JD, how come none of you press guys asked Omar what he will do to the person who leaked Willie’s firing? Since he claimed that was a big reason for tossing him. If I was him, I’d want that person or persons gone ASAP (unless of course it was Jeffy Boy-then he can’t do anything about it).
Scoop: Omar looking for the actual guy who leaked the information is about the same as OJ Simpson looking for the real killer of Nicole. :-)
Apparently Patrick not so, since Omar was bidding against Omar and not 29 other GMs.
TO: John
Read your story today in the paper.
I guess you took the easy way out with the conventional
glass half empty approach to Omar’s tenure.
Just a couple of points.
1) The Mets took a player Jacobs who had played 30 ML games and traded him for Delgado a key piece for the 2006 team.
Yes Jacobs is young but the guy is hitting 242 with a 276 obp and can’t field. The only good part of his game is that he has 17 HR’s
2) Why did you not give him credit for not over paying for Barry Zito.
3) At the end of last year you thought the Mets should have resigned Glavine because they needed an innings eater.
Glavine has been on the DL twice this year. In fact these are the only two times he has been on the DL in his career.
For whatever reason the Mets did not resign him, he should get credit for this decision.
I’m also surprised that more writers do not harp on the Flores loss through Rule V. This is a pet annoyance of mine with the team (LOL) but seriously, catchers do not age well and the kid is doing pretty well on a last place team. Omar really screwed the pooch with that brain move.
Coop: since Bernezard is charge of the minors maybe Omar could use the Flores mistake to fire him.
Scott: I’d make the Delgado trade 100 times over. Without him the Mets probably wouldn’t have made it as far as they did in 06. One could argue that you would have rather had Delgado at bat in game 7 than Beltran. Also, I know i’m in the minority, but I still think the Bannister trade was worthwhile. I’m sure Omar thought that between Humber and Pelfrey he would have had someone to replace Bannister and the chance to trade for a 23 year old who threw 100 MPH was worth it.
Steve on Bannister I also thought it was a good deal.
Burgos could still come back from surgery and help the Mets.
Unfortunately he will not be ready to pitch till next spring.
I also agree with Steve that at the time the Bannister trade seemed reasonable, especially with the other pitchers that were in Triple A and looked ready to move up. The Delgado trade was also a good one for the reasons mentioned above in addition to taking the pressure off of Beltran by having a legitamite established power hitting behind him which showed in Beltran’s performance the next year. Anyone who says that they knew Delgado’s hitting would tail off as much as it has now at the time that deal was made has a crystal ball. Delgado’s fielding has always been what it is now. His hitting just used to make it that much more acceptable.
John D. – Can you maybe find out what is the philosophy behind the Mets carrying 3 catchers? I saw that Casanova was playing 1B down at NO last night which is a scary foreshadowing. Also, are there any injury updates for:
Ryan Church
El Duque (Does he even bother rehabbing any more?)
Matt Wise (Out for Year?)
Moises Alou (We need him to come off the DL to try and unload him to the AL where he does not have to play the field).
Angel Pagan (Is he even still around? Next time, let the ball go in the stands)
Seeing Marlon Anderson in the outfield limping on his partially healed leg is not a good sight. And fair and fair… Congratulations to him on reaching the Mendoza line with his hitting.
Moises Alou (We need him to come off the DL to try and unload him to the AL where he does not have to play the field).
What’s the difference. He helps the Mets zero either way. You don’t think you’re gonna get anything for him do you?
Guv,
A spot off the 40 man roster and them to pick up someone else with it would suit me just fine if he is going to continue to play 1 game and be injured for 30.
They could 60 day DL and he’s off the 40 man and they could 60 DL Vargas and El Duque and Burgos…. They have flexibility no matter what happens with any one player.