The Mets Police

From Newsday:

"I just don't believe in denying a player the opportunity to represent his country," Minaya said. "I could never stand in the way of that. That's something that's very special. We're all committed to it. Oliver Perez is the best pitcher in Mexico right now. How can you tell a player, the best pitcher in the country, that he can't participate?"


Like this.

We pay you $36 million dollars to pitch for the Mets.  Not Mexico, not your friend's softball team, not even on the Wii.  Protect that arm.

I wonder if Omar truly believes what he said, or if the Selig mafia got to him.

"We always have to take into consideration what's in the best interest of the game, what's in the best interest of the players. We just can't think about ourselves only. That's just not the right attitude."

I would prefer to have a General Manager who puts the Mets first.

www.metspolice.com

Watch for yourself. 

We aren't getting Manny. Start bitching. 

"There's not gonna be no more big move after this." A double negative. Maybe Omar gave a Clinton-esque response? Not no big move = big move? A guy can dream, right... 

www.metspolice.com

Skimming through the Star-Ledger today I read the Omar Minaya would like to add Manny Ramirez to the team.   Sure who wouldn't want a slugging left-fielder?

I don't and the Wilpons don't.

If you ever were going to get this guy it was last summer when the Red Sox couldn't wait to get rid of him.  It's not now and I'm glad the Wilpons don't want a guy like this on the team.

For all the whining over A-Rod being a 24+1 player when he flirted with the Mets way back when, Manny is the epitome of 24+1.   He openly dogged it in games because he was in a bad mood.  Is that who you want on your team - or would you rather half a Wally Backman or a Lenny Dykstra?

Just say no to Manny.

www.metspolice.com

(The source material from this piece is from http://armchairgm.wikia.com/Omar_Minaya )

Today's post is a little different.  Rather than the usual pontification, I invite you to comment on how you think Omar's done as a GM:

November 30, 2004: Re-signed Kris Benson to a three year, $22.5 million deal, plus $7.5 million club option.

I know most Mets fans hated Benson.  I didn't.


December 17, 2004: Signed free agent pitcher Pedro Martinez to a four year, $53 million deal

I've blogged a million times about this.  After June 6, 2006 Pedro was useless.




January 13, 2005: Signed free agent centerfielder Carlos Beltran to a seven year, $119 million deal

Wow I didn't realize how long this dude's going to be in CF.  Too bad he's not quite what he seemed.






June 7, 2005: Selected Mike Pelfrey with the 9th overall pick in the amateur free agent draft

If Pelfrey is the Pelfrey we saw flashes of last year this might be one of the best moves.



November 18, 2005: Traded outfielder Mike Cameron to the San Diego Padres for outfielder Xavier Nady

I liked Nady.  Yankee fans should appreciate what they have.


November 24, 2005: Traded first baseman Mike Jacobs and pitchers Yusmeiro Petit and Grant Psomas to the Florida Marlins for Carlos Delgado and cash.

Why keep a home grown player when you can get a guy everyone wanted to run out of town last May.



November 29, 2005: Signed free agent pitcher Billy Wagner to a four year, $43 million deal, plus an $8 clup option

Good.  Injuries happen.


January 22, 2006: Traded pitcher Kris Benson to the Baltimore Orioles for pitchers Jorge Julio and John Maine

Benson for Maine.  If you don't know that worked out great you're on the wrong blog.


July 31, 2006: Traded outfielder for Xavier Nady to the Pittsburgh Pirates for pitchers Roberto Hernandez and Oliver Perez

Gotta admit, Ollie was a big pickup.

Now the wheels come off.

November 15, 2006: Traded pitchers Heath Bell and Royce Ring to the San Diego Padres in exchange for Jon Adkins and Ben Johnson


November 20, 2006: Traded pitchers Henry Owens and Matt Lindstrom to the Florida Marlins for Adam Bostick and Jason Vargas


November 21, 2006: Signed free agent outfielder Moises Alou


December 6, 2006: Traded pitcher Brian Bannister to the Kansas City Royals for pitcher Ambiorix Burgos


December 7, 2006: Re-signed pitcher Guillermo Mota to a two year, $5 million deal.


January 16, 2007: Signed free agent pitcher Scott Schoeneweis three year, $10.8 million contract


July 30, 2007: Traded minor leaguers Drew Butera and Dustin Martin to the Minnesota Twins for Luis Castillo


November 20, 2007: Traded pitcher Guillermo Mota to the Milwaukee Brewers for catcher Johnny Estrada

There's an awful lot of "Who's that?" in there.   I wouldn't mind having held on to Bannister.



November 30, 2007: Traded outfielder Lastings Milledge to the Washington Nationals for outfielder Ryan Church and catcher Brian Schneider

Milledge for a stale donut would have been a great trade.




January 29, 2008: Traded outfielder Carlos Gomez, pitchers Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra to the Minnesota Twins for pitcher Johan Santana.
 
Best move of them all.
 
Overall - he's been OK.  Some good guesswork, some bad ideas.

I think Omar's occasional luck of a grabbing a pitcher like Perez makes him cocky - and we wind up with some longshots rather than acuring known good players.  The Mets act like they are a small market team sometimes.  The problem here is that nothing changes.  Same management structure upstairs, what makes them think anything will change.   Omar had his shots.  It didn't work.   Let's try someone else.
 
 http://www.metspolice.com/

Omar Minaya emailed me today.

Happy Holidays from Citi Field. This is always a magical time of the year.

Since the conclusion of our season, Ownership, Jerry Manuel, his coaches and our entire baseball operations staff have had laser focus in determining the best course of action to return to the postseason in 2009. Clearly upgrading our bullpen was at the top of our list and today we took a giant step forward in our off-season plan by acquiring righthanded relief pitcher Francisco Rodriguez. Read the official press release. 


Thanks Omar!  Great to hear from you.  I'm excited about good ol' #75.   Do you plan on getting any starting pitching?  How about someone to pitch the 8th?   Have you considered getting someone to play left field or right field?   You really aren't going to have Castillo play second and bat first are you?   That's a joke right.   You're hilarious.   Oh, you could use a catcher too.


Great to hear from you and I hope you send us more notes here at www.metspolice.com

So ESPN reported that the Mets have given Omar Minaya a four year deal.

My question to you:  What has Omar actually accomplished?

He arguably has rebuilt the farm system.  He arguably is good at finding scrap-heap players like Tatis.   The Santana deal is one the Yankees wish they made.

On the negative side - not as much winning as they spin it.  There was the, um, marketing plan that alienated much of the fanbase - it's third rail stuff so I will leave it at that.  They moved away from that this season.

Four years?   Seems a little long.

"I feel that we have a championship team, we have the talent to do that. This decision was not based just upon this weekend, this decision was based on how I've seen our team play for the past year or so."

OK, therefore either the team now wins the championship, or you don't know how to evaluate talent. You didn't say "championship contender" or "caliber" or any other qualifier. Championship Team. See you October 1st with this quote. I hope you are right and I'm just a jerky blogger.

"These are our coaches today," Minaya said. "I think we're not playing up to our potential. I always leave room to evaluate things."
2 hours ago USA Today

"It's fair to say that Willie's our manager and as I said before, that situation is always under evaluation," Minaya said when asked about Randolph managing tonight in Anaheim. "I'm always evaluating that situation. That's what it is."
7 hours ago New York Post

Yeah they won tonight, but at this point one win isn't going to stop the Willie Watch.

"Well, .500 is not acceptable," Minaya said. "For me, it's not acceptable because we're better than that. It's not so much about the investment. It's about what this team is about and what this team, talent-wise, is."
8 hours ago New York Times

Well Omar, I hate to break it to you, but you've put together a .500 team. It's been a year now, and well, this team just isn't good.


Minaya said he believed that the players were "giving the best that they can" and that Randolph was "doing the best he can."
8 hours ago New York Times

Well except Ramon Castro who can't be bothered to know what time the game is. If they are ""giving the best..." doesn't that prove they are a .500 team with a .500 manager? If this is their best, why would we expect them to play better.


"There's nothing out there right now that makes sense," Minaya said.
8 hours ago New York Times

Won't argue with you there, starting in the manager's office.


"As far as time frame, as far as when we should be better, I'd like to say we should be better right now," Minaya said. "But we're not."
8 hours ago New York Times

I think this quote is just funny. Omar needs a blog.


"We go through these periods where you pitch good, but don't hit," Minaya said. "Or when you hit, you don't pitch good. That's the trademark of a .500 club. We know we're better, we think we're going to do better and I think we will."
6 hours ago New York Daily News

The trademark of a .500 club is that it is managed by Willie Randolph. Similarly, the trademark of a second place club is that it is managed by Bobby Valentine. The trademark of a club that will win the World Series next year is that it is managed by Buck Showalter.


"He just doesn't feel, in his words, '100%,'" GM Omar Minaya said. "Unless he feels 100%, we're just going to let him rest."
6 hours ago New York Daily News

Now that we've screwed with Ryan Church for a month and we think we have outfield depth because Alou is back.

Minaya was asked about another perception - rather insulting - that the Hispanic players come to him instead of Randolph, as if they are all members of some secret Hispanic club.

"That," Minaya said, "is ridiculous."




http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2008/05/27/2008-05-27_to_omar_minaya_racial_divide_on_mets_sou.html?page=1

They call me cranky, but in the end I'm always right.

This is a completely unconfirmed report from another blog, but according to The 'Ropolitans Mets GM Omar Minaya is on his way to Denver, where the Mets have a weekend series against the Rockies.

Could it be that if the team doesn't bail Willie out with some W's this weekend that our wish will finally be granted?

Get ready for that press conference on Monday.

Tick.....tick......tick

Willie is done in New York, at this point it's not if but when. The problems with this team go beyond the manager though.

Willie was hired by the Mets in November 2004. Prior to Omar hiring him, Willie had already turned down an opportunity to manage in the minors with the Yankees, and had interviewed with a dozen other teams for their managerial openings. He had even interviewed with the Mets in 2002 but was turned down in favor of Art Howe because he was "unprepared" to manage (according to the NY Times).

After the hiring was announced, Flip Bondy wrote a piece in the NY Daily News. In it is an interesting quote from Omar:

"People say (Randolph) didn't interview well. An interview is overrated. You have to have the courage to give someone an opportunity. No matter who you pick, you don't know how he will do."

So interviews are overrated? How else do you determine if someone with no experience is capable of doing the job?

I also find it interesting that Art Howe was at one point considered better than Willie - that says a lot.

Finally, if you have to have the courage to give someone an opportunity, where is the courage to say that person has squandered that opportunity?


Flip Bondy Article in The Daily News

There's one topic with the Mets that you can never bring up or you risk people avoiding eye contact with you and hanging up on your first time long time call.

It comes up today in an article in the Times. I shall excerpt and you can read and we'll never discuss. By the way, Willie looks awfully happy in Yankee Stadium with Yankee logos nearby. It's almost as if he's a Yankee at heart. Maybe he just loves Mastercard.

On to the scary subject nobody is allowed to discuss:

That said, neither Randolph nor his boss, General Manager Omar Minaya, should dismiss rumblings that occasionally surface about divisions in their clubhouse between white and Latino players, even if it may be at times news media-enhanced. Around these parts, the dreaded perception can intrude on reality.

“Now these fans have the perception that I’m some racist bigot,” Wagner said, which, no question, happened to be a very good quotation.

The Mets should have confronted this vexing situation a long time ago, when the buzz began that Minaya was intent on assembling an all-Latino team after reeling in Pedro Martínez, Beltrán and Delgado. It was small-minded chatter then, but the notion dating back to last season that the Mets’ Latino players are indifferent to the team’s collective failures smacks of ugly stereotyping.

I will say that I disagree with the whole notion that indifference is related to the geographic origin of your ancestors. Omar did seem to be working on a specific marketing plan in 2005, but he also seems interested in getting good players...which is a vast improvement over Bobby V's obsession with Shinjo and "The Japanese Greg Maddux."

Thanks to Cyclonesfan for this one. The Mets Police also will pass along without any commentary or talent evaluation. We hereby present some general information for others to discuss:


I offer this list to you for the Mets Police without any commentary or talent evaluation

Mets transactions under GM Omar Minaya

Free Agent Signings
Hispanic player signings – 20 of 44 (45.5 %)
(by comparison, 29.4% of MLB players are Hispanic)



December 16, 2004 Pedro Martinez
December 22, 2004 Ramon Castro
December 23, 2004 Juan Padilla
December 28, 2004 Tim Hamulack
Manny Aybar
Chris Woodward
January 7, 2005 Marlon Anderson
January 8, 2005 Dae-Sung Koo
January 10, 2005 Miguel Cairo
January 11, 2005 Carlos Beltran
January 18, 2005 Roberto Hernandez
January 28, 2005 Mike Matthews
March 1, 2005 José Santiago
March 8, 2005 Brian Daubach
March 29, 2005 Kelly Stinnett
March 31, 2005 Mike DiFelice
June 8, 2005 José Offerman
June 11, 2005 Danny Graves
June 29, 2005 Lino Urdaneta
August 12, 2005 Shingo Takatsu
November 29, 2005 Billy Wagner
December 9, 2005 Julio Franco
December 12, 2005 José Valentin
December 21, 2005 Chad Bradford
December 22, 2005 Endy Chavez
January 19, 2006 Darren Oliver
January 24, 2006 Jeremi Gonzalez
February 14, 2006 José Lima
February 28, 2006 Pedro Feliciano
March 1, 2006 Willie Collazo
April 26, 2006 Michael Tucker
May 30, 2006 Mike DiFelice
August 24, 2006 Kelly Stinnett
November 16, 2006 Damion Easley
November 20, 2006 Moises Alou
December 19, 2006 Chip Ambres
January 5, 2007 David Newhan
January 16, 2007 Jorge Sosa
Scott Schoeneweis
January 25, 2007 Aaron Sele
February 9, 2007 Chan Ho Park
February 19, 2007 Sandy Alomar
March 31, 2007 Ricky Ledee
May 9, 2007 Brian Lawrence

Trades
Trades involving the acquisition of a Hispanic ballplayer – 14 of 26 (53.8 %)

December 3, 2004 Mike Stanton to the New York Yankees for Felix Heredia
January 6, 2005 Vance Wilson to the Detroit Tigers for Anderson Hernandez
January 26, 2005 Ian Bladergroen to the Boston Red Sox for Doug Mientkiewicz
March 20, 2005 Jason Phillips to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Kaz Ishii
April 2, 2005 Matt Ginter to the Detroit Tigers for Steve Colyer
November 18, 2005 Mike Cameron to the San Diego Padres for Xavier Nady
November 24, 2005 Mike Jacobs, Yusmiero Petit and Grant Psomas to the Florida Marlins for Carlos Delgado
December 5, 2005 Dante Brinkley and Gaby Hernandez to the Florida Marlins for Paul Lo Duca
January 4, 2006 Jae Seo and Tim Hamulack to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Duaner Sanchez and Steve Schmoll
January 21, 2006 Kris Benson to the Baltimore Orioles for John Maine and Jorge Julio
May 24, 2006 Jorge Julio to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Orlando Hernandez
May 25, 2006 Robert Manuel to the Cincinnati Reds for Dave Williams
May 26, 2006 Jeremi Gonzalez to the Milwaukee Brewers for Mike Adams
June 9, 2006 Kaz Matsui to the Colorado Rockies for Eli Marrero
July 19, 2006 Jeff Keppinger to the Kansas City Royals for Ruben Gotay
July 31, 2006 Xavier Nady to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Roberto Hernandez and Oliver Perez
August 22, 2006 Evan MacLane to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Shawn Green
August 30, 2006 Victor Diaz to the Texas Rangers for Mike Nickeas
November 15, 2006 Heath Bell and Royce Ring to the San Diego Padres for Ben Johnson and Jon Adkins
November 20, 2006 Henry Owens and Matt Lindstrom to the Florida Marlins for Jason Vargas and Adam Bostick
December 6, 2006 Brian Bannister to the Kansas City Royals for Ambiorix Burgos
July 30, 2007 Drew Butera and Dustin Martin to the Minnesota Twins for Luis Castillo
August 20, 2007 Jose Castro and Sean Henry to the Cincinnati Reds for Jeff Conine
November 20, 2007 Guillermo Mota to the Milwaukee Brewers for Johnny Estrada
November 30, 2007 Lastings Milledge to the Washington Nationals for Brian Schneider and Ryan Church
February 2, 2008 Philip Humber, Carlos Gomez, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra to the Minnesota Twins for Johan Santana

“All of us are disappointed with what happened last season,” Minaya said. “But at some point, you have to move on. And if we’re going to move on, we really need the fans on our side.”

This so offends me. Don't tell me how to feel!

Omar, we're on your side. We want to win. We too wanted meaningful games in September, we just thought maybe The Mets could win 8 of 17.

You've yet again assembled a team of over the hill outsiders. You have one guy that's 7-5 since June 2006. An over the hill LFer. You signed Julio Franco to a two year deal last year!

You've got a manager who is letting the SS become a knucklehead. Wouldn't mind if someone like Jeter (yeah I said it) could come across town for a day to teach this kid how to play. Omar, you're looking at the problem.

Win games, the booing stops. Very simple.

Let me get this right:

Friday Night the vibe was ejubilation that he was benched.

Today he gets a curtain call?

Are we running him out of town or sending him to the All Star Game? (Speaking of which why have some teams have had it twice since the Mets have).

You're all fickle. Leave Delgado alone and focus your wrath on Omar giving Castillo four years and Pedro being useless (see "Pedro Exposed" below).