On October 4th, after the conclusion of the worst season in the Omar Minaya era, Jeff Wilpon appeared with Minaya and Dave Howard on WFAN with Mike Francesa.
When Wilpon was pressed by Francesa to spell out specifically what he would do differently in 2010, Wilpon responded as follows:
“Obviously, mistakes were made with respect to how player injuries were handled. There was a lot of miscommunication, especially with injuries that occurred on the road. We need to do a better job with how the recommendations were handled from our doctors at the Hospital for Special Surgery.”
Wilpon said that the team will do a better job of getting everyone in the front office on the same page with regard to how injured players were being handled. He also emphasized that he “will change their medical protocols” to help limit injuries in the future, and that he will “personally see to it” that the team does a better job of communicating injuries to the media.
In his very first test of 2010, Jeff Wilpon has failed to deliver on any of the promises he made to Mets fans a little over three months ago.
His inability to do the right thing and fire Omar Minaya, may have been the catalyst for the recent public relations nightmare surrounding the team’s best player, Carlos Beltran. His decision to micro-manage Minaya and control every facet of his responsibilities has just blown up in his face.
Furthermore, the apparent lack of communication and coordination between the medical staff, the head trainer, the general manager, the assistant general manager and the COO of the Mets was appalling and disgraceful at best. In fact, it was an epic fail.
Here are the facts…
It was quite obvious that Omar Minaya was not in the loop while Wilpon, Howard and Ricco were scurrying around trying to delay the surgery. While they frantically attempted to find a doctor to get a third opinion, their GM (in name only) Omar Minaya was on the phone wishing Carlos Beltran good luck with his knee surgery in the morning. Can you believe that? How in God’s name was Minaya left out of the loop? He was absolutely oblivious to the fact the rest of the front office was trying to put the brakes on the procedure.
On the morning of the surgery, Mets Trainer, Ray Ramirez signed and faxed all the necessary forms to Colorado for the surgery to go forward that morning at 7:00 AM. Without these signed insurance forms the surgery could not take place that morning. Not only was the surgery done with the signature and approval of a Mets employee, but the entire procedure was approved and paid for by the Mets insurance company.
According to Dr. Steadman who performed the surgery, he was in constant communication with the Mets medical director David Altchek, who agreed with Steadman’s recommendation that he have surgery. Altchek left off with Dr. Steadman that he would relay the information to the Mets that Beltran would be having surgery in the morning. The Mets say they never knew, but that doesn’t ring true. They had to know. Why would they later mention that they wanted to get a third opinion, unless they already had the opinions of both their Medical Director and Dr. Steadman?
During the conference call, Assistant GM John Ricco, refused to elaborate on the discussions both Jeff Wilpon and Omar Minaya had with Scott Boras in the 24 hours preceding the surgery. He would only acknowledge that there were phone calls made, but that he wasn’t on those calls. So why not wait until Omar Minaya was available to have the conference call? And even though both Minaya and Wilpon were In Arizona, why couldn’t they participate from there? It was reported that they were on a plane during the 2:00 PM conference call, but it was later revealed that they did not board their plane until four hours later at 6:00 PM.
If they were going to levy these unsubstantiated charges against their star centerfielder, and if they are as committed to better communication as they said they would be, why weren’t the principal parties in those phone calls on that conference call to answer the important questions?
Why did the Mets go out of their way to make such a public spectacle of this even going so far as to simulcast the conference call live on SNY to gain the widest possible reach they could?
The conference call answered no questions and raised hundreds more. Not only were we not able to get the details of the phone calls between Minaya, Wilpon, Boras and Beltran, but John Ricco refused to elaborate on the legal aspects that the entire call was centered around. They wanted the world to know that they were invoking their legal rights under the terms of the contract, but they refused to tell us the whos, whats, wheres and whens. Is this the better communication they spoke of?
Finally, why the big delay? Last night, Mets third baseman David Wright wondered why Beltran would have the surgery now?
It’s a good question, but Wright pointed it at the wrong person (most likely under the Mets tutelage).
On December 3rd, Carlos Beltran was in New York to get an MRI on his ailing knee again. It was immediately discovered that there was loose cartilage and bone fragments caused by a degenerative disease known as osteo-arthritis. On December 13th the pain worsened and another MRI showed even more deterioration in the knee. He was told to “ramp down” his workouts. Beltran instead wanted a second opinion and he got permission to see Dr. Steadman who had treated him last season. It was determined that he would most likely need surgery to clean it up. Almost a month laster, a subsequent trip to Colorado this past Tuesday, only confirmed that original diagnosis which was also echoed by the Mets Medical Director.
To answer David Wright’s question “why now?”, the Mets already knew of this serious condition on December 3rd and yet their plan was to wait. It was a plan that was doomed to failure. Bone fragments, bone spurs and torn cartilage does not go away with “ramping down your workouts” as the Mets advised him. If his knee got this bad due to some light pre spring training workout regimen, what did they expect would happen with the full throttle rigors of spring training? Is this the better way of handling medical information that they promised back in October?
Could it be that the Mets suppressed that information for over a month so that they could sign Jason Bay without giving the player any further leverage in the negotiations? In the meantime they withheld the staggering news that their centerfielder’s knee was deteriorating rapidly. Is this their improved way of communicating player injury updates to the media as they promised in October?
The Mets have become their own worst enemies. Problems like this happen to all teams, but none of them compound their problems in the unbelievable way that the Mets do. The more they try to fix the problems, the greater the problems become. I’ve never witnessed a more colossal scale of ineptness and incompetence, as I’ve witnessed with the Mets in the last three years.
The Mets are an absolute disaster right now.
Mets=Clippers, only worse…
The day after the media blitz I posted a blog here on this site where I was skeptical on what they were promising and everyone blasted me, saying I was being too negative. I knew the Mets were full of it and here is the proof.
I also believed that they kept this injury quiet to keep Bay from getting the extra money. I also believe they kept this information quiet to make sure it didn’t interfere with ticket sales. We all know that the ticket sales were slow this year, they changed the date several times to renew your package plan.
It’s funny we haven’t heard a thing since Beltran released his statement, can’t wait to see how the Mets embarrass themselves and us fans next.
Isn’t it a terrible burden to be right? From a fellow Mr. Negative(Honest?) I congratulate you. And Joe, remember, in the Wilpon dictionary, the word “promise” makes no appearance.
I didn’t know you had it in you. Great post.
What the FUCK is going on here? Jeff Wilpon/Minaya continually surprise me with the staggering depth of their ineptitude.
Can we all become NATIONALS fans or something?
Mike, why don’t you say what you really think?
But to answer your first question, who really knows?
Become a Nationals fan? Never, ‘cuz then we’d have to listen to Chief Sucker-upper, Bob Carpenter, and his continual hawking of the Nationals. To listen to a Nationals game, you don’t have to hear the words — when the screaming starts, you know the Nats did something right!!
Great points made. Mets fans (including myself) have 2 realize that it’s gonna take a whole lot of years before we right the wrong on this team. I personally think the Wilpons should sell the team in order to start anew. We have to prepare for a long wait in contention.
Warrior, if the Wilpons were to sell what do u think the odds are of getting better ownership(competitively) through Selig & ownership committee is?
I’m confused by Joe D’s inference that this may somehow been avoided if Omar had been fired. Since when does the tail(Omar) wag the dog(Wilpons)?
I strongly & emphatically believe this clusterf&^% belongs to Jeff’s preferred frontoffice diffusement style being taken advantage of by scheming vengeful Boreass. This stinks of similarity to A-Rod manipulations a couple of yrs ago. Am I the only one suspicous that should Mets decide upon a F/A replacement (best availables Damon & Ankiel) both reped by Boreass. BTW the reference to Alckek as Medical Director implies he’s employerd by Mets, I beieve his W2 is likely issued from HSS and his position is derived from the Contract for Medical Services in place between HSS & NYM as such as Contracted Employee is restricted by the trems of said contract & I’m certain representing the franchise & making decisions for said franchise are not included.
For sometime it’s been known that the NYZM frontoffice specializes in being difuse regardeing decision making. I belioeve it was Bill Madden, who castigated the Mets’ frontoffice’s style as Fraternity like(“the frat house”) back in 2002 when Jeff became COO after DOUBLEDAY BUYOUT.
Did you really want them to let this information out and cost themselves millions with Bay if that was the case (which it shouldn’t have been if Beltran would be ready for Opening Day.. Of course, no one’s believing any of the diagnosis anyway, even though all timelines point to April)
Furthermore, immediately sending a player under the knife is not always the best answer, and may not have been in this case either. They definitely should’ve looked at setting a harder deadline that Wednesday..say 2 weeks ago or so that would put his return to Opening Day or so.
Now, Beltran has had surgery and will likely miss some time, however, this was pretty much unavoidable. Maybe they could’ve rushed through diagnosises and MRIs and gotten it done a little earlier, but the fact remains that he had to have surgery. It sounds like a disagreement between the front office and Boras. (There is little love there I imagine, but I think Omar has a good relationship with him.) The press conference covered A. there was an injury, this is what happened, and B. no, we’re not terminating, or trying to terminate, Beltran’s contract. Those were the two important points. The other stuff is internal politics that they shouldn’t have brought up and we shouldn’t need to hear. The dirty little secret is that airing it makes it look much worse, because all front offices have disagreements and disconnects, but by publicizing it so much, it makes the Mets look like they have it worse, which they might. However, as it pertains to baseball, right now everything was done roughly as it should be. there are speculations about things the Mets do and don’t do that cause signing problems or what not, but a lot of that is unfounded speculation. (no money on the draft for instance)
Thinking about it more, it seems like this may have been a power play by Omar. Not even an intentional one, but Omar, as he should, acted as a GM should, and called Beltran and wished him well. Omar, apparently, recognizes what needed to be done, and was not looking to delay. (One of the reasons I think a lot of the ‘fire Omar’ stuff is actually aimed at parts where his hands may be tied. It’s impossible to know, but I’ve seen stuff from Omar that I like, and if he’s in full command, maybe things are better. Maybe it’s the handcuffing that’s causing us to see cracks. Wouldn’t it be worse if they fired Omar only to hire a puppet, a stupid puppet, that basically means Jeff is calling the shots rather than Omar putting in what little influence he has left? Not to mention it seems Omar, and not the Mets, have a relationship with Boras, which, despite his assholeness, is important.) Instead of ceding the authority to Omar in this situation, where he spoke for the organization as if he was the GM, they decided to make them all look bad by saying Beltran didn’t have permission, negating any authority Omar has.
the Mets front office _does_ seem to be a mess, however the team itself is very good. ‘Omar’ has made some good moves over the years, and he _did_ get Bay, and I can’t imagine he won’t get a pitcher. To compare them to the Clippers, or the Knicks, is just stupid. Because they have the talent and the smarts, it just gets obscured sometime. (And honestly, if it wasn’t for the no salary cap, the Yankees would probably be very like the Knicks at this point)
It’s very obvious by now that the Wilpons are incapable of doing anything right. They can talk all they want about change and making improvements whether about communications or staffing, but it’s just all so much whitewash. They have shown there is a total disconnect in their operation with one hand not knowing what the other is doing. In this instance, waiting for an additional opinion would only delay things further. They already had the opinion of the top doctor in the field, why get another? JW has demonstrated once again that he is not capable of providing leadership in any dimension. For this franchise to improve, the Mets need to be released from the clutches of the Wilpons and the team needs to be sold. In the meantime, we need to wait for Carlos to return to the field and do the best we can in the meantime with what we already have. The Mets should not attempt to acquire a CF now as that will only be an additional distraction. They need to concentrate on acquiring additional pitching and let Pagan hold down CF unil Carlos returns.
I THINK IT’S TIME THAT THE WILPONS SELL THE TEAM
I have been a Met fan all of my life. I desperately want them to do well. But we all need to acknowledge that nothing good will happen as long as the Wilpons are involved. No promise from JW will change the fact that the Wilpons do not and never will know how to run a baseball team. They should sell the team for the sake of all Met and baseball fans. We have had enough suffering.
Wilpon delivered on these promises though:
“I promise to build a new stadium that will be a shrine to the Brooklyn Dodgers”
“I promise to ignore the 1986 Champions”
“I promise to have a mush-mouthed simpleton as GM, and give him a long contract extension after epic failures”
“I promise to turn this franchise into the laughingstock of MLB”
“I promise to compete against Al Davis and Dan Snyder as the worst owner in all of sports”
He is a man of his word!
I will NEVER stop being a METS fan. But I am a realist. THis team needs a complete 360 make up. It has 2 start with selling the team & firing Minaya. Enough is enough already. Ths team is heading nowhere fast & they’re only a step up above the Nats. Let’s be real? When do u see this team contending? I like to think positively but the Wilpons take that away from METS fan. Can someone in the front office finally take the initiative to listen to the fans?
You are right. Enough is enough. SELL THE TEAM PLEASE!
“His inability to do the right thing and fire Omar Minaya….”
First things first. If Jeff wants to do the right thing, he should take some management and communications courses. Then if he can’t handle the job, he should fire himself. Only then will it be Omar’s turn.
Jeff has been groomed his entire life for this job! And he does not get it. He never will!
I think the Wilpons ought to go to work for NBC.
In this modern era, how many owners know how to run a baseball team? What is needed is a team President who directs the entire baseball operation. The job requires the knowledge and skill to determine the direction that the club is taking. Frank Cashen revived the team when the Wilpons and Nelson Doubleday bought it. What has happened to the Mets is unfortunate due to the injuries that players suffered but more importantly due to a lack of swift action to make decisions. When it was evident that the managers job was too much for Willie Randolph they took way too long to fire him and when they finally did, they did it in a totally poor way.
Now the major problem is the way injuries are being handled with the medical staff. Who is running the ship? With this latest fiasco concerning Carlos Beltran we have heard from the assistant GM. Where is Omar now? I have been hesitant to criticize Omar in the past but at this point he needs to take a swift and decisive approach before this gets out of hand. The media will be swarming like a school of blood thirsty vultures not to mention the bloggers who know sh#t from shynola about baseball. If Omar is going to remain passive and continue to act cautiously he will find himself on the unemployment line really soon!
Not many owners know how to run a baseball team (or a football team for that matter), but the good ones know to get out of the way and let the baseball people make the decisions. If you have the right baseball people in the job, and you support them, they will do the right things. The problem with the Mets is that Jeff Wilpon thinks he knows what to do in all aspects of running the Mets. The facts, we all know, say otherwise. Nelson Doubleday (who owned the great majority of the Mets in the early 80′s) was smart enough and humble enough to hire Frank Cashen and let him do his job. We know what happened as a result. The Wilpons and especially Jeff are unwilling to act in a similar manner. Things wil never change with the Wilpons in control.
I have been an Omar supporter in the past, and was thrilled when he got the job after 04. But the last 12 plus months have caused me to see what a real problem he is. I am not going to hammer him on his public speaking ability since english is his second language, but the fact that an assistant GM gives the conference call (you can say Omar was “traveling” all you want) speaks volumes of this situation. We know the mets are petrified to let omar speak publicly after the Rubin fiasco. his interviews and press conferences leave more questions than answers. I don’t even know how many strikes this is against him, from the Willie firing, to the Tony B incidents, to the Rubin nightmare, to the medical screw ups, to the front office communication nonsense, to Beltrans knees. I multi billion dollar organization runs itself this way? The mere fact that they had a press conference to announce the firing of Tony B shows how far they let things spin…any other team gets rid of a front office guy and you never hear of it. Now to isolate your BEST player…it boggles my mind. I have always and will continue to always root for the mets, but i can’t allow myself to have any emotional attachment to them anymore until this situation changes drastically
I second that
The reason that I believe the team should be sold is 4 the simple fact that the METS need a complete 360. They need new & fresh faces in the front office, A GM can only do as much as he is allowed 2 do by ownership. Realistically many owners make ALL of the decisions & the GMs initially only make the suggestions. Is this the case 4 all teams? No…but 4 alot. We can blame Minaya if we want 2, but in the end it is the Wilpons that sign those checks & make the FINAL decision. They have the power 2 spend more money on top free agents. Selling the team isn’t a resolution, but it can be the starting point in rectifying this team.
Warrior, I understand & agree that an ownership change could do wonders; but if they are sold to a Corporate entity or a Jeff Loria type you’ve gained nothing other than a decisive frontoffice over a non-competitive club putting profits as the primary goal. Look what Time-Warner did to the Braves, or CBS to the Yankees back when. There’s absolutely no way Selig would allow an owner he suspected of using the Big Market value to become more competitive or similar to NYY or BOSOX. I know it’s Chicago; but did u notice how Mark Cuban’s interest in acquiring the Cubs atrophied in favor of an owner now pulling back on the acquisition reins? There are too many instances where former strongly competitive franchises have whithered into irrelevancy after ownershop change was controlled by Selig. Pirates,Cincy,Royals, Braves were all perenial postseason combatants prior to change in ownership. If the product on the field isn’t going to improve why change owners? I’m reminded that even “BAD BREATH IS BETTER THAN NO BREATH” Those of us Old Timers from the Brooklyn Dodger Days can certainly attest that a Bad Team is better than No Team!
But 62, the team has potential to be good. It’s the ownership and mgmt that is dreadful. The way to recovery is through new ownership. I’ll take a partnership of The Donald and Jerry Seinfeld. The Donald will clean house and throw out the clowns and eternal Mets fan Jerry will keep a happy face on for the followers. Together they will bring in professional BB mgmt to run the day to day operations once the clowns are cleared out.
Mask have u always been so naive? Your candidates stand as much chance at being approved by Selig & his ownership Committee as Mark Cuban had of being approved to buy the Cubs. Selig’s mission in life is competitive balance, do u reaLLY THINK HE’D APPROVE ANYONE THAT SMELLED LIKE THEY’D SPEND MORE MONEY?
Joe, point of order in your stipulation of “facts” u said;
“On the morning of the surgery, Mets Trainer, Ray Ramirez signed and faxed all the necessary forms to Colorado for the surgery to go forward that morning at 7:00 AM. Without these signed insurance forms the surgery could not take place that morning. Not only was the surgery done with the signature and approval of a Mets employee, but the entire procedure was approved and paid for by the Mets insurance company.”
Reports I’ve read state that the forms Ramirez sent were Workman’s Compensation Forms and as such preclude the Mets’ private insurance from culpability.
2 “METS62FAN”, I DO FULLY UNDERSTAND & YES, U MAKE A VERY GOOD & VALID POINT. IT’S UNFORTUNATE THAT ALL WE CAN DO IS SIT & WATCH THE DAMAGE THAT THE WILPONS & MINAYA INFLICT ON US METS (WE DESERVE BETTER) FANS.
wow what a mess
Joe, fantastic post and great points and analysis. An even bigger question is: why didn’t the Mets push Beltran to have the surgery during last season when it was obvious he had problems in the knee then. In that case he would be ready for spring training. But no, they pushed him to play the way they did Church and Reyes.
It is now painfully obvious, if it wasn’t before, that the whole organization needs to be overhauled. Selling the team would be best. But the incompetent son of the real owner should not be running this team. Omar has to go. That ineffective PR man Jay Horwitz has to go. There needs to be new management blood from top to bottom. What a disaster this franchise has become.
As far as public spectacles go…remember, the mets haven’t had one in a long time. Since the Bernazard firing press conference. Six months is a long time for them. If they had one strong management person who ran everything through his office and kicked ass when someone tried to get behind him, this would not happen. No such man exists in this organization. Probably never will, with these weasels owning the team.
You are right. Time and again they show they are weasels. Nothing they say can be believed. John Ricco has shown he is cut from the same cloth. Firing Omar is no fix if Ricco is to be the replacement. It’s possible that Omar is actually better than Ricco after what Ricco has demonstrated in his press conference.
Mask, I’ve been trying to tell you for months that Omar has been doing as good a job as anyone considering the handicap he must work under(Jeff) at least Omar has always had the Old Man’s confidence that Phillips never did. from what I remember at the time, Fred resisted Phillips’ wanting to make Omar available for Expos job(phillips wanted his in-house replacement gone!); but was pressured by Selig desperatly wanting a minority candidate. Another consideration, I don’t ever remember any d/l issues with the Expos as exists here. I’m guessing the discrepancy issue with frontoffice pushing players to keep playing & rehabing under trainers is unique to Mets. Wouldn’t u say?
The conduct of the current Mets ownership is beginning to me make miss the straight forwardness and candor of M.Donald Grant.
First positive words about that jackass in over 30 years doesn’t bode well for us.
What’s sad is that it wasn’t meant as positive for the rightfully despised Grant.
Warrior, our biggest issue, in my opinion is just one Wilpon, Lil’ Jeffie, COO & presently head ringmaster of this circus. It’s unfortunate how badly he’s screwed this pooch going back to ordering Duquette to make the Kazmir deal on the advice of his guru, Peterson. It used to be that the Yankees were the infamious team in town regarding instability in the frontoffice; but few realize that since 2000, the Mets have served 2 owners(Doubleday/Wilpon & Sterling Enterprises), 3 GMs(Phillips,Duquette,Minaya), 4 Field Mgrs(Valentine,Howe,Randolph,Manuel) another interesting note is that Omar possesses the second best w% of all GMs, #1 slot held by Johnny Murphy, who subsequently died in office in 1970. Here’s the complete rogues gallery:
General managers
#[a] Name Seasons Ref
1 Weiss George Weiss‡§ 01 1962–1966 [2]
2 Devine Bing Devine 02 1967 [2]
3 Murphy Johnny Murphy§ 03 1968–1969 [2]
4 Scheffing Bob Scheffing 04 1970–1974 [2]
5 McDonald Joe McDonald 05 1975–1979 [2]
6 Cashen Frank Cashen 06 1980–1990 [2]
7 Hunsicker Gerry Hunsicker 07 1991–1992 [2]
8 Harazin Al Harazin 08 1993 [2]
9 McIlvaine Joe McIlvaine 09 1994–1997 [2]
10 Phillips Steve Phillips 10 1997 [2]
— Frank Cashen 11 1998 [2] *
— Steve Phillips 12 1998–2003 [2]
11 Duquette Jim Duquette 13 2004 [2]
12 Minaya Omar Minaya 14 2005–present [2]
* Interim position sitting in for Phillips during team suspension for adultery, LOL
As anyone can see certainly not a distinguished group(excl Cashen). the addition of Jeff’s Frat House style decision process is tantamount to making any GM’s task nearly impossible. Just the simple ability of producing a team on the field that actuallty contended throughout most of his term to date, Omar deservers praise instead of condemnation. Every one of the biggest blunders in post ’02 period is attributable to Jeff, >signing Matsui for SS moving Reyes to 2B
>Trading Kazmir for Zambrano while acquiring Benson
>Hiring a sseparate Pitching Guru with GM powers over pitching
>employing a player advisory group amongst Lieter,Franco, Glavine over weekly BBQ outings at Jeff’s house
>using WFAN callin shows as input for decisions
>creating an anti-met sentiment on SNY programming
To me it’s apparent that everyone of these items as revealed through multiple columns written in various publications that much of the bad decisions apparent are not being made by a person with a rich background in MLB, Wonder who?
Put all of this under the umbrella of Fred’s restrictions regarding Luxury Tax & Draft slotting and the atmosphere is far from ideal.
Few also remember how Fred vetoed the acquisituion of Piazza only to be overridden by Doubleday. The ONLY positive to be said regarding the Wilpon regime is there apparent wuillingness to reload after failure instead of letting the franchise lose all hope. Other ownership may have chosen to answer LF with available talent such as F-Mart/Pagan instead of investing 80M in Bay if 5Y option is earned as expected.
Very interesting. The problem with new blood is that Jeff won’t let anyone do anything without getting involved. No matter who comes in, its the same old thing. It really is hopeless in a way.
Agree. Until we get new ownership I don’t see this turning around. Jeff is, excuse my language, a f#cking idiot when it comes to running a baseball team.
Nosh, as I keep bringing up whenever a naive fan makes the obvious ownership change solution recommendation, WHAT ARE THE ODDS OF IMPROVING ON THE COMPETITIVE/SPENDING NATURE OF OWNERSHIP WHEN BUD “PARITY” SELIG & HIS COMMITTEE OF SM MKT COMPETITORS MUST FIRST APPROVE ANY & ALL PERSPECTIVE NEW OWNERS?
I believe the correct answer is NIHL!
I too once dreamt of a consortium led by Metfan Donald Trump until I ascertained the futility after seeing Mark Cuban’s foiled attempts at acquiring the Cubs from the Tribune Co. There is absolutly no way Selig will allow his dream of parity aka ‘parody’ do be disrupted by allowing another “Damned the Torpedoes” Owner amongst the likes of NYY & Bosox.
Outstanding post Joe,
I cannot take issue with anything here.
I don’t know what to do here. The Wilpons won’t sell and I don’t see any public pressure building in the media for it.
And there’s certainly no lack of good people to hire to run the show so Jeff can step back (Kevin Towers, etc.)
There’s some type of animosity, lack of respect and lack of communication at the top. And there’s lack of respect for coaches in the dugout.
Outside of some type of major fan revolt i don’t know what’s going to happen.
Right now, the only person in the organization that I have any sort of confidence in being able to right this ship is Wally Backman, and he has been out of affiliated baseball for the past few years for outright LYING to Arizona and running his personal and professional life into the ground.
Fred Wilpon – disinterested figurehead
Jeff Wilpon – clearly should let legit baseball people run this team
Omar Minaya – disgraces the organization every time he opens his mouth
Jerry Manuel – nice guy, but over his head running this team
Mets training staff/”NY Hospital For Special Surgery” – maybe they should freaking communicate once in a while.
I am EMBARRASSED to be a life-long Mets fan, and have been for a few years now. Its not worth the public ridicule anymore.
While I can understand the Wilpon bashing from you guys; we musn’t forget that as an owner in the purest sense, the Wilpons do an above average job when it comes to opening up the wallet.
We should be thankful that we don’t have an owner who’s buying yachts and summer homes with all the team’s revenue. The Wilpons may be pretty shabby when it comes to day to day operations but they do deserve the respect of Mets fans when they’re paying for players like Beltran, Johan, Bay, any other free agent. K Rod got 36 mil for a closer. While it was a good deal, no other owner would have done that? Lots of smaller market teams have plenty of cheddar to spread around but the fact of the matter is that they don’t. Their fans suffer because they lose all their home grown guys even, come free agency. It could be a lot worse fellas. At least we can contend with high profile players.
Just opening up the wallet, though, does not qualify as running an organization. Turning your operations over to a nitwit who can only do one thing at a time and hires his cronies instead of trained profesionals does not qualify as running an organization. That is the problem with the Wontpons. That, and their dishonesty and their meddling ways.
Jdon, I’m certainly more likely to be part od a Wilpon firing squad than fan cklub; but I believe some of your assertions regatrding Omar’s'cronies’ qwualifications is inaccurate & bogus. Every nesly hitred executive is likely to fill available opennings with people he trusts based upon pastr experiences aka “cronies” Hell, even Bernazard was a former player & an employee of the Player’s Union also experuienced from Selig’s HQ, I believe. His past relationship with Omar is less clear than others; but reports at the time Willie was fired indicated Bernazard had been corrupted into becoming Jeff’s man promised Omar’s when vascancy arose. Jdon,I’m personally convinced that Jeff Wilpon is the most inept top Met executive since M.Donald Grant & certainly as destructive if not more so. While Omar certainly may have entered into some arguably inadvisable contracts, Jeff’s errors have been much more insidiuous. & destructive/devisive!
Quite honestly I’m sure a lot of the “bashing” stems from the anger & frustration that we METS fans have faced over the last few years. Additionally, those who aren’t METS fans seem 2 4get that we did go thru many injuries in ’07 & ’08. W/ that said, 1 of my problems w/ the WIlpons is that althought they do sometimes spend money (M. Piazza, J. Santana, J. Bay), they sometimes seem 2 miss out on great opportunities that only a few more dollars can lock up 4 them (O. Hudson, J. Lackey, J. Marquis). I’m sure my memory is 4getting some others. Look, I’m not an owner so I could only imagine some of the issues that the Wilpons face that none of are aware of, the “behind the scenes” things. SO I do give them that. But many of 2days owners need 2 read blogs such as this 1 & @ times listen 2 the fans.
Joe D-
Theres the opinion I was looking for. Nice write up brother. The last 2 sentences sum up my feelings on this organization. The last 3 years have just been one train wreck after another. When wil it stop? Who knows. Perhaps when and if the owners ever decide to sell.
I think the status of his injury was kept private as to not adversely effect ticket sales for the 2010 season. I love the Mets but I don’t love how they are run. They don’t have a great minor league development system. The Twins do a much better job of developing their players while teaching them the fundamentals consistently thoughout every level of their organization. The Mets tend to hold on to players too long (i.e. Milledge, Delgado) where they should trade them when they have the most value and can retool their farm system with prospects. They should also evaluate their conditioning and training programs and should consider having someone like Mackie Shilstone consult. He was very helpful to Reyes and countless others over the years when the Mets had someone try to teach Reyes how to run differently (totally obsurd). Also, I think they should being a sports psychologist on board to help toughen their mental psyche and develop a winning attitude. Guys like Pelfrey and Oliver Perez would benefit. Delgado has used one. I could go on. However, my heart does bleed Met blue and orange and I don’t want to crap on the organization too much. But we can do much better!!
Harold, I never stop being anmazed at the rediculous number of Met fans who use the Twins as an example of developing a Pipeline, yet never, ever consider the fruitlessness of it if you aren’t going to compensate them propeerly & trade them away rather than pay to keep them.
This is the reply I posted in the Metsforum.. I’ll repeat here because it is so relevant..
Thanks for the analysis… 100% concur…
Here is my take..
Jeff Wilpon – Way over his head in running Billion dollar corporation.. He has a job security as if his father owns the company.. (wait… his father do own the company)… Worst of all he LIES and is Deceitful…He would rather ruin somebody’s season in exchange for more season tickets…
So bottom line is.. We don’t care how Mets finish this season… as long as we make money!!!!!!
REason why Omar is GM – 1) he keeps his mouth shut…. and do as his boss tells him to do… in other words, he has no balls….
2) He takes all the blame for all the things going wrong… (How many times does he say… “it was my decision, and my decision only…” – right Omar.. and Moon is made of Cheese)
3) Omar made lot of money for Wilpon last 4 years… With near 3M attendance every year… it doesn’t matter if Mets made playoff or not.. bottom line, Wilpon made boatload of money… The big reason why he got 3 year contract extension…
4) Contract extension – Wilpon hates admitting mistake and eating a contract… (see Castillo as prime example) – nuff said..
5) Most of the baseball decision was not made by Omar, but by Wilpon… – how can you fire someone if you are the biggest problem with Mets…
Mess, obviously u don’t want to see improvment & prefer to only see the top empty portion of the glass: In the 48 yrs this franchise has existed it’s finished in the bottom half of the League 29 times & in the top three 7 times resulting in 3 postseason berths(2 postseasons(’99,’00) were from 4TH place overall finishes)
During “Omar’s tenure of 5 yrs we’ve finished first for the first time since ’88. with the other finishes still better than franchise average:
yr pl record
04 12 71-91
05 5 83-79
06 1 97-65
07 5 88-74
08 4 89-73
09 13 70-92
those were the finishes within the entire league & as we all know within division the placement was considerably better incl one first & two sends in 5 yrs. The only better period in franchise history was the 5 yrs:
84 3 90-72
85 2 98-64
86 1 108-54
87 2 92-70
88 1 100-60
Somehow it certainkly sounds like you believe Omar should’ve quit as GM because he didn’t like the “CONDITIONS of EMPLOYMENT”. As a fan, what would u expect to improve if Omar quit? Would restraints/rules placed by ownership be relaxed dealing with a GM they wre unfamiliar with? Would Fred actually fire the problematic COO, son & partner, Jeff?
If you prefer to root for a team that only wins, I suggest u look elsewhere.
This is a franchise that’s been flawed from the very beginning when they prioritized initially drafting former NY related players over talented, younger prospects. in 47 yrs there have been 4 owners with none having “win at all costs” as a mantra. We all know where that philosophy reigns supreme.
4 owners? Joan Payson to Charlie Payson, 1975
Charlie Payson to, Nelson Doubleday/Fred Wilpon, 1980
Nelson Doubleday/Fred Wilpon to Sterling Equities, 2002
Please Fire Wilpon. He’s killing us! Let the Baseball people be baseball people. You’re not a General Manager and you’re not a Skipper. You’re a pampered control freek, spoild brat.
You cost Mets Kazmir for two time Tommy John (Victor) Zambrano. You accepted Mo Vaughn’s bone-on-bone, cheese burger eating fat ass, but sent Vladimir Guerrero’s bad back packing. Now, you’re telling Francoeur to play with bad thumb with no playoffs in sight, only to cost him a ligament from his arm.
You suck!!!
Check out great podcast from Seven Train to Shea about Mets Ownership Woes: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/seventraintoshea/2010/02/01/mets-ownership-issues
Nelson Doubleday, who dodged the limelight, said of the Wilpon’s meddling would unravel Mets into a minor league team. Please sell the Mets! Please sell the Mets!
I don’t have a lifetime to give to wait for you to die; and we can’t win with you running the team into the ground. Please sell, so Mets fans can Live again!
realgm.com-Nats and Orlando Hudson close to deal, damn it