We are what we are, fans of a mediocre baseball team. So with that realization it’s time for Omar Minaya to wake up and smell the stink of the team he put together and try to salvage something for 2009 and beyond. With the ability to watch games via MLB Extra Innings package I’ve had the pleasure of watching the Phillie-Braves series as our average to below average team plays on the West Coast and I think it’s safe to say the NL East is the Phillies to lose. The Mets have no Chase Utley (sorry David, although you are close very close) no Shane Victorino (a dirt bag and that is said in admiration) and no Charlie Manuel (imagine that telling a MVP award winner to sit as lazy ass down and for that player Jimmy Rollins to praise his manager for taking that stand) why am I so pessimistic (beside the fact I’ve been a Mets fans for more years than I want to think about) look at the line up last night and the 6-7-8 batters that Willie Randolph put out there:
Fernando Tatis
Endy Chavez
Brian Schneider
Are you kidding me? Hey this is no knock on Willie Randolph as I think he’s about had it with the slop that has been dished on his plate by the guy who escaped fans wrath for too long, Omar Minaya.
I’m not ready to run on the FIRE OMAR platform as I feel he has done some good things here but his reliance on old, unproductive, injury prone players could be what costs him is job in the end. As much as the Willie Randolph Haters Club would love to pin this slide on the manager, you can’t in fact since his sit down with the Skill Sets Willie has been more defiant and has publicly taken his under performing players to task which he never did before. We may never see an Ozzie Gullien moment from Willie (that’s what I’m here for, I like to think I’m the Ozzie Guillen of Mets bloggers) but you can see Randolph is fed up with the has beens he has been handed by the front office.
Minaya has a big decision to make, does he go to the Skill Sets and say “We can still win this division but it will cost money†in the way of dealing/releasing Delgado, Alou, El Duque and taking back a Richie Sexson or Adam Dunn or any other slugger (GULP! BARRY BONDS?) with a big contract. Or Omar can go to the Skill Sets and let them know that he fucked up with some of his signings and he wants the opportunity to fix it by become sellers to the contending teams of baseball.
As great as Billy Wagner has been this season , now would be the time to deal him he has one more year left on his contract and at $10.5 mil should bring back some good young talent from a team (Rays, Cubs, Indians, White Sox, Cardinals, Brewers and D’Backs to name 7) deal off Delgado to an AL team in need of a lefty bat (RED SOX) to DH Ship out Ollver Perez and Aaron Heilman for minor leaguers and as I’ve said before throw the Carlos Beltran bait out in the trade rumor ocean and see who bites. I’m not advocating trade Beltran but see what’s out there is all I’m saying. SELL SELL SELL ALMOST EVERYTHING MUST GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The whole Mets organization should be embarrassed by the way they have handled Ryan Church’s recovery from a second concussion. You didn’t need a medical degree to see the effects of the blow to the head that Church received from Yunel Escobar was going to a be a major problem for Church since he suffered a concussion just abut eight weeks prior to that no all you needed was some common sense which is in short supply at Shea Stadium. It really is a disgrace how this situation has been handled and a tip of the Mets cap to Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez for not covering up this situation and talking about it on the SNY broadcast.
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This post was written by kranepool on June 8, 2008
I have said(somewhere if not here) taht the Mets are an 85 win team-offensive voids at 2B, 1B(THAT is the EASIEST POSITION TO FIND OFFENSE, and we endured a black hole there in 05, Omar’s fault entirely),LF-add the P to that mix and you have 4 voids out of 9 spots- you cant win that way with the pitching we have. And WHY afer losing in the 9th wi Wagner in the pen did we manage to LOSE AGAIN and Wagner still doesnt pitch? I dont want to hear about the save BS, when you are on the road and TIED in the 9th or extra innings, if you give a run and YOU LOSE!! NO EXCUSE for losing wiout giving your best pitcher a shot at it.
Thanks, Steve, for this post. I have been writing all year that it is ridiculous that Omar gets no blame. Think about it…we just had to call up Nunez, who was hitting .133 at AAA. Cerrone wrote “are they actually trying to put a competitive 25 people out there?” The team is founded on the fatally flawed concept that players over 35 have good years ahead of them. You referenced them…Alou, El Duque, Delgado. It does not work, and do you know what it is, it is 1992 all over again. Substitute Harazin for Minaya, and it is the same thing.
It comes down to this. If you think this is an underschieving team, then the blame goes to Willie. But if you think the team simply is not that good and not well constructed, then the blame goes to Omar. I believe the second one is the case, in a big way.
I’m with Rich. The team’s simply not that good.
Omar was the last GM to realize how much things had changed when the new rules on chemical enhancements were brought in.
I should add that I’ve been convinced for some time that the effects of these changes would take 2-3 years to play out completely. We’ll see more player with “inexplicably declining” power numbers probably through next year. Also there’ll be far fewer players playing through their late 30s.
Not sure why the name came up as “Irish_eagle”. Something odd happened with this pc that seems to have remembered things that I thought were long forgotten.
Steve
I want to say you were all over the Church issue from the word ‘Go’. Howie was too. He put his NHL experience to work and questioned the handling from the beginning.
Eagle,
You make a good point. In the “chemical enhancement” era, guys were successful into their late 30’s and early 40’s. Not any more…this will be a huge change in baseball. I just don’t get why Omar does not seem to recognize the value of youth. Is it as simple as his need for immediate gratification? But is that not the case for GMs on a short rope? He never was.
I want Pagan back. Even off the bench, he brings enthusiasm and hustle, every day, no questions. We need more guys like that. I understand Angel is getting close, working on that right shoulder injury from LA.
Contender or not, I’d get rid of Delgado and Alou today if I ran the show. Inject some youth, look at the enthusiasm Joba brings across town. It works. Old guys who don’t hustle (Delgado), they don’t work.
That was devastating…wow
FIRE OMAR !!!!!!!!FIRE OMAR !!!!!!!!
OMAR MUST GO!!!!!!!!!!OMAR MUST GO!!!!!!!!!!
FIRE OMAR !!!!!!!!FIRE OMAR !!!!!!!!
OMAR MUST GO!!!!!!!!!!OMAR MUST GO!!!!!!!!!!
FIRE OMAR !!!!!!!!FIRE OMAR !!!!!!!!
OMAR MUST GO!!!!!!!!!!OMAR MUST GO!!!!!!!!!!
It’s not just steriods and HGH but how about the “Greenies” as well that gave old guys that pick me up they needed and now can’t get anymore?
The Ryan Church injury and the way it’s been handled has been sorely under reported by the main streamers as much digging as they do on who Roger Clemens was banging and what Barry Bonds was hiding no one has looked into and reported how and why the Mets could string Church along like they have.
Yes, the Greenies too. It was you who first put that idea in my head a couple of years ago. I remember after reading your site I went off reading about the situation in European sports. They banned those A LONG TIME ago, but still athletes try using them.
In Europe they ban all sorts of things, even caffeine and ventolin (for asthma). I’m not sure I’d go that far in baseball. I think if it’s acceptable for the guy at his desk to use coffee to get through the day, then it’s acceptable to use it on a baseball team. As much as possible ballplayers should be great athletes born out of natural ability and hard work.
Anyway, decreased energy levels (& possibly concentration issues?) on the playing field should be one of the effects of the ban on the “greenies”. I’ve wondered about that with a couple of Mets – one in particular.
There’s no reason to assume that any of the Mets was pure before the ban on chemical enhancements. What shocks me is that Omar seems to believe they were.