Thanks to Phil Hoops, we kicked off the Mets off season with a great live chat last night on Mets Merized Online. We covered a number of topics ranging from Daniel Murphy and Angel Pagan as viable everyday players next season to a number of players the Mets could or should target this winter.
At one point during the chat we extolled the virtues of adding former San Diego Padres GM, Kevin Towers to the Mets.
And while most seemed to embrace the idea, at least one MMO blogger (Jessep) disagreed.
I personally am not a Towers fan. I think he’s a guy who found players that nobody wanted. We need to find players that everybody wants. Plus Towers is a little out of touch. He butchered that Peavy situation. Take a look at results of their #1 and #2 round draft picks over the past 8-10 years and tell me Towers finds good talent in the draft. The Mets need a guy like Theo to come into town if/when they get rid of Omar. Theo thrived because he’s a sabermetrics type guy with a low budget team mindset but has all the $ in the world to spend… so he finds talent that is undervalued and doesn’t need to overpay for guys like Oliver Perez. The Mets need a guy like that.
I checked out the last few years of MLB Drafts and it did seem as though from that aspect Towers has fared no better than Omar in the same period. I found it somewhat surprising because Towers has enjoyed a reputation of being a good talent evaluator. One of our regular readers (Brooklyn’s Own) defended Towers by saying,
Towers has pulled off some real steals. He traded spare parts for Adrian Gonzalez and Chris Young.
And lets not forget the Heath Bell trade in which the Mets received notables Jon Adkins and Ben Johnson both of whom were subsequently released by the Mets. Also, only time will tell, but I thought Towers got tremendous value for an injured Jake Peavy.
And he did take the Padres to the post season four times including one World Series in which the Padres lost to the New York Yankees.
Yesterday, Bart Hubbuch of the NY Post tweeted,
I’m thinking Towers chooses the Mets simply because Omar is in a very tenuous state. Could be Towers’ quickest route back to a GM job.
I agree with Hubbuch. Towers may soon get an offer to become a GM before the Winter Meetings, but he may pass on an offer to join a small market team, for the chance to take a lesser job with the Mets with the hope he could ultimately replace the embattled Omar Minaya.
Either way, what are your thoughts on Kevin Towers, and would he be an upgrade over Omar Minaya?
Isiah Thomas would be an improvement over Omar Minaya/
[...] so, in a post to Mets Merized Online, Joe D looks at the pros and cons to Towers, asking, ‘Would he be an upgrade over [...]
The thing you have to take into account is Towers worked with a very small budget and constant interference by ownership during his tenure in San Diego. He’d do well with a bigger budget and more freedom.
I disagreed on the chat and here are my reasons.
When Towers was given $ to spend, he spent $10m on Maddux, 7.5 on Hoffman, 9.6 on Giles, 3.5 on Barrett, 8m on Edmonds, 4.5 on Greene.
How’d that work out in 08?
Kevin Towers was let go because he actually was not good at the job they wanted to accomplish in San Diego.
The Padres are a “lower market” type team, yet they have one of the worst farm systems in MLB. What is Omar’s biggest flaw? Haven’t we all said it’s evaluating draft talent and picking the right player? So to help him out we’re going to try to hire somebody who is arguably worse than him at it?
Towers did pull off a steal for Adrian Gonzalez. No question.
I’m not going to get all giddy about Chris Young though. The guy has been above average at best. He had 1 very good year, that’s it.
Jake Peavy should have been traded in the off-season but Towers dragged his feet and didn’t get it done.
Peavy was then dealt and blocked the trade in an embarrasing moment for the Padres franchise which would lead one to believe Towers didn’t communicate with his franchise pitcher prior to signing off on a deal.
If we’re going to praise one trade he made look at the list of moves he’s made in full. He makes no impact deals. He doesn’t take risks.
If you’re going to sit here and tell me Heath Bell proves he’s some kind of trade genius fine. Any GM would have traded Bell away in the Mets office after the years he had.
Who drafted Oliver Perez oh riiiiight that was Kevin Towers. So you all hate Oliver Perez but now you want to hire the guy who picked him in the amateur draft?
Towers re-signed Brian Giles and let the face of the franchise in Trevor Hoffman walk. I get that he had Heath Bell in his back pocket but again. Face of your franchise.
I’m trying to think what else. Contract extensions for guys like Kevin Jarvis and letting Steve Finley walk.
If the Mets are going to hire a guy to work with Omar (which they won’t) they need it to be somebody who has strengths where Omar has weaknesses. Towers and Minaya are so similar it makes me wanna bang my head against the wall at the thought he’d be in our front office.
If the Mets are looking for a new direction they need to get a young GM who has a background similar to Theo Epstein. A sabermetrics type guy who can find undervalued talent and pay them what they are worth so that when the big $ players become available they have enough to go get them. They need a small market mind with a big budget agenda.
I completely agree, Jessep. We need someone with a history of drafting consistently good prospects. If anyone underestimates the importance of this, look at the Rockies’ starting lineup.
“A sabermetrics type guy who can find undervalued talent and pay them what they are worth so that when the big $ players become available they have enough to go get them. They need a small market mind with a big budget agenda”
Possibly Paul DePodesta fits that description.
Are you for real?? Why not make a laundry list of all the horrendous trades Omar Minaya has made in his career including that ridiculous Grady Sizemore trade to name one.
Look at your sabremtric guy Ricciardi and where that landed him.
You sabermetric guys are all obsessed with this magic math of yours, and just last week somebody on this site said Murphy was rated the second best defensive first baseman in the NL. Really??? That tells me all I need to know.
OMF
You’re wrong on so many different levels that I’ll try to break all of them down for you as best I can.
#1 The minute you use Omar Minayas track record as the GM of the Expos during a time when the remaining 29 teams OWNED the team, you’ve run out of time with me.
#2 The Expos were on the brink of folding in 2002 when he dealt for Bartolo Colon and were also trying to win a playoff spot. When a team is about to be deleted from the league and at the same time they have a chance at a playoff berth why would you NOT deal prospects for a strong arm at the time?
My sabermetric guy Ricciardi has a cable company owning his team and controlling every dollar he wants to spend. Look at Theo Epstein, Andrew Friedman, Jon Daniels. If you’re going to sit there and tell me a sabermetrics mind isn’t valuable than I think you must be standing behind Boston’s 2 championship banners and they are blocking your view.
Yeah sabermetrics are so dumb. People who discredit them like you’re doing are just discrediting it because you don’t understand it. Before the idea of sabermetrics which every team uses in some degree by the way, a guy like Kevin Youkilis wouldn’t be more valuable than a guy like Aaron Hill.
Jessep, I just want to correct you on something. Oliver Perez was not drafted by Towers. Oliver Perez was a minor league free agent and was sought after by Oakland, Texas and San Diego who ultimately signed him.
You’re right he was an amateur free agent that the Padres signed. Still means the same thing though. Towers went and signed him and bought into his hype
That was 10 years ago. You’re seriously going to knock him for signing him in 1999 because of how he is now? He had very good numbers in the Padres’ system and was a big piece in the trade that brought Brian Giles to the Padres.
I’m not knocking him for the move at all. I’m merely bringing up the fact that he is another GM that bought into Perez and many on this site attack Minaya for buying into Perez.
Joe, I don’t think your setting the bar very high by asking if anyone can be better than Minaya…LOL…But seriously, I think aquiring Towers would be good for the organization. Besides the possible GM position, Towers brings alot of baseball knowledge and is well respected. I say hire him for that reason, and having Towers can only benefit the organization, no matter what role he takes on. Maybe he could provide Omar with some much needed guidance.
This would be just another disasterous decision by the Wilpons. Spare parts players, spare parts GMs.
They need to go out and get a guy who is actually doing the GM job well, actually accumlating talent at the minor and major league levels. Not guys who’ve been fired for not doing that job well (Towers, Toronto guy) or who have been involved in the Mets organization not doing their job well (Ricco and for that matter — Minaya, Phillips, Duquette, etc.).
But what I expect is that someone over the next year — Ricco is the leader at this right now — will talk up the Wilpons, show some sort of irrelevant “skillset” (translation, can BS the Wilpons) and get hired so that the cluelessness and inability to accumulate talent continues.
I have to agree with Ace on this one.I do not want Towers as my GM. It will just lead to more turmoil over the next few years. However, i do like him at any other vacant position in the Mets organization. His experience and knowledge can help the Mets out.
No need for angst and turmoil. We just need to get younger and more durable. It takes time. The sooner the man at the helm, whoever it is, recognizes this truth, the sooner we can rebuild this organization into the proud franchise it once was.
Pitching first, please. Young and hungry preferred.
Tommy, this is the second time I’ve responded to you today. You are spot on. Everyone wants to win the World Series in January. Take a few years, struggle, get better and then have a team like the Phillies that is going to be good for the foreseeable future instead of always taking one shot for one year.
I keep on bringing up the comparison of Omar to Isiah Thomas, they are both con-men who conned their way into there respective jobs, and at the same time destroyed two organizations. On the subject of Kevin Towers, he has experience, respected around the league, and might be a better talent evaluator than moron Minaya. Blame the Wilpon’s for giving useless Minaya a three year contract, or he would have been shown the door. Maybe, Towers can fix things at the major and minor league levels.
Omar destroyed the organization?? Dont you think you’re being a bit of an alarmist? I’m all for letting Minaya go, but I wouldnt say adding Beltran, Santana, K-Rod, Maine, Omir, Francoeur and Pelfrey is destroying the organization.
Mark, the bottom line is they have not one with these guys because they are not winning ballplayers. Minaya went overboard with the Latin connection which got him nowhere near a world series.He traded power arms like Lindgren and Heath Bell for a bag of baseballs(Vargas &Bostick). Are you kidding me? He does not want to sign players with a New York connection like Marquis, Aurillia, or character guys with toughness. These latin players except for Santanna, Castillo lack mental toughness.
KT would be a huge upgrade over Minaya. Also, he wouldn’t fight with reporters.