Hopefully neither happens.

We already know that. Anyone who saw him play the last three years is well aware of that fact. We’re also aware that he wasn’t brought in here to stink up the joint for 6 M a year and his defense was far less than adequate. Far less. When he came back after off season knee surgery the year we signed him he had not had time to fully recuperate, rehab and get himself in shape for the upcoming season. How are you supposed to rehab both knees and at the same time prepare the rest of yourself for a baseball season. Some people obsess about one AB by Wright that cost the entire 2008 season but they gloss over what a terrible year Castillo had.

He wasn’t signed for four years to suck.

He did play hurt and he did play hard you cannot take that away from him. He also had the wisdom to not try to do things he was incapable of but his offense was punchless and his defense rangeless. Even his once brilliant glove started to betray him as the quickness he once had left him. The only part of his game that remained brilliant was his turns.

He and Delgado formed a welcoming committee for anyone wanting to turn a routine GB to the right side into a base hit. Ground ball after ground ball that just about any first or second basemen would have gotten to became singles that year and while it got marginally better in 2009 never even came close to being anything like what Luis Castillo was with the Marlins. When Valentin was stretching the lineup with an additional bat you could get away with that but Luis bat wouldn’t even allow runners to move up two bases when he singled because the OF played him so shallow.

Then again you know how many second basemen in the entire history of baseball have defied the odds beyond age 32 and continued their good play on both sides of the ball? About 5 total in the entire history of the modern era and those guys didn’t have knee surgery on both knees. Second base is really the ultimate young mans position.

Signing Castillo to a four year deal clogged the roster and prevented us from getting a good second basemen cause Minaya wouldn’t admit his mistake and be done with it.

No other GM could have made the same mistake on Perez because no other GM was even trying to sign the guy. No one else even talked to Borass about him but Borass sensed the weakness in the Met rotation. Santana, Pelfrey, Maine, Redding, Livan. He knew all he had to do was wait out Minaya and desperation would set in and that’s what happened.

People who defend bad signings with the old standby of “well who else were we going to get that year” miss the whole point of what being a GM is all about. You don’t wait around every year to see who becomes available, you do something about it beforehand. You anticipate needs and provide your self with a FEW credible alternatives, you don’t paint yourself into a corner. Two years before signing Perez Minaya made a run at Zito and a year before he obtained Santana. Are you implying that Minaya was only able to sign free agents and make salary dump deals? That he was nothing more than a one trick pony

I’m of the belief that Minaya was talented enough to have engineered a few trades of young pitchers and pitching prospects with some of what he inherited or brought into the farm but he spent all of that on the 25 man roster and then got caught short. He even got rid of a couple of young starting pitchers to address the bullpen and the idea that “Ollie didn’t matter” is ludicrous. Ollie was counted on for a spot in the starting rotation in both 2009 and 2010. How can you expect anyone to believe that Ollie didn’t matter? Cause we were blindsided by injuries in 2009 so it doesn’t matter what the healthy players do? Everyone who has competed in team sport knows that having a guy your counting on to play a major role not giving you anything is a big deal.

2010 we actually were in a wild card hunt in mid July, without Perez contributing, imagine if he was? And he wouldn’t even give up his roster spot for the good of the team. That doesn’t matter? Getting zero return on a 36 M investment absolutely matters. Could even have been the difference in signing Chapman that off season who got 6/30 M from the Reds for all you know.

The Mets did not have half a dozen compensatory picks, they had 2 supplemental rounders and two compensation picks which turned out to be in the 2nd and 3rd round and they blew them all by choosing the guys who they thought could get up here the quickest instead of selecting the best guys available. They didn’t give up any of those picks for Alou, they gave up the best pick. The first one and they gave away the pick a week before SF had to offer Alou arbitration which they almost certainly would not do as they were after Zito for big money that off season. It wasn’t an either or with Alou and the #1 draft choice. If we had just waited a week we get both. What was the rush? Even if you thought a 40 yr LFer was worth a #1 draft choice (which I find incredibly naive) why wouldn’t you have just waited a week and at least SEEN if you could keep the pick. For that matter why wouldn’t you have waited to see who might be non tendered or if there was a rule 5 that year that your talent evaluation skills told you might be a longer term solution or even just more likely to be able to stay on the field or maybe explore a trade. Alou was signed before those lists were submitted and so was Castillo the next year. Nothing else was even considered except the big money deal and the loss of a draft choice and Alou being hurt in 2007 cost us more than just one game and 2008 the same again so it was hardly inconsequential. The fact that he was signed BEFORE the winter meetings wasn’t inconsequential either. He had to be added to the 40 man roster before the rule 5 draft. There is a very good chance that Jesus Flores was left unprotected because Alou had to be added so by signing Alou before the winter meetings not only cost us the chance of drafting a good player, but also cost us a player we already had and desperately need right now.

Your defense of signing Perez, flimsy as it was is all based on who else we could have signed as a free agent but if we had anyone coming up even close to ready that might have changed the thinking too. Flushing a #1 draft choice down the toilet, and failing to take one back and bungling roster moves is exactly the reason that this team always has so many “holes to fill” and constantly gets burned in the free agent market.

Hey we could have signed Lowe, Zito, Burnett AND Carlos Silva and it still wouldn’t have the Perez signing a good deal.

At the time that Minaya flushed that draft choice for Alou he was probably counting on just one guy for every future need down on the farm. That’s not a very smart philosophy. Fern and Pena have both flopped to date and they shouldn’t have been counted on to the point of not even providing a single solitary other option.

I also find it very hypocritical of you to state that the owners decided they weren’t going to compete by raising payroll when Minaya was the GM, but it’s suppossedly Alderson who doesen’t want to compete by spending any money now.

Slick double standard.

I would argue that the Wilpon’s did raise payroll above and beyond what they budgeted in 2009 and justified it by the fact that they felt good about the teams chances and were opening a new stadium so when the Putz deal appeared out of nowhere they decided to raise it. They then had Minaya sell Wagner to pay for Putz by avoiding the two signing bonuses those draft choices would have gotten thereby screwing us out of two more chances at obtaining a very good player. The following year they returned the payroll back to where they were comfortable but they still followed Minaya’s recommendation to sign Bay for 66 M + vesting option. That signing prevents Duda from playing a position he’s more suited for now and has produced offensively less than the average Major League SS and screwed us out of yet another chance of developing a future solution to one of our many “holes to fill.”

The way I feel about Minaya is that if he had just spent most of his time doing what he was good at, evaluating young players, he would have done a great job here. Instead he spent most of his time doing what he was really bad at. Evaluating older players and their ability to continue to perform at a high level and stay healthy. He also failed to understand that when you put together an older team and everyone on it is on a guaranteed deal and there is not even the hint of competition for playing time anywhere in the organization, your just not going have that sense of urgency vibe that you need permeating through the clubhouse.

Certain things occurred that were out of Minaya’s control. Sanchez, Schneider’s **** play, Church’s concussions Wagner never being available anytime you really needed him but the worst thing of all that Minaya wasn’t able to control was Bernazard sabotaging Randolph through Delgado and running that vibe through the clubhouse. Was Bernazard angling for the managers job? Good chance in my opinion. He sure wasn’t doing his own, and really how could he? Minaya kept throwing the best draft choices down the toilet.

Perez was a mistake any GM could have made. Very easy to complain about it after the fact. Once again, Ollie didn’t matter in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The owners had already decided they weren’t going to compete by not adding to the payroll. And selecting Ollie was not at the expense of better pitchers after the 2008 season. Hypocrites cry about Perez but forget the options were Burnett or Lowe. Those were the only two who had more talent and greater success who were available at the time.

Amazing ignorance crying about Moises Alou. The Mets had over half a dozen compensatory picks in the 2007 draft. Giving up 1 to get Alou was WELL worth the risk since the Mets were competing for the World Series. LMAO @ anyone who thinks a draft pick in 2007, who would eventually be a ready to contribute in 2010/2011 team was more important than getting Alou.

Edited due to comment guidelines violation.

Here’s where people like you don’t understand athletics. Pujols has the type of skill that doesn’t erode from one day to the next. He doesn’t need to guess as a hitter. His reflexes are excellent, but so is his coordination. Things like balance, timing and a total lack of holes within the strike zone are what make him who he is. Albert’s footspeed will diminish, but his other talents WILL carry him as long as he doesn’t have a major debilitating injury in his future. Take a peek @ Manny Ramirez and Derek Jeter. Although Manny cheated, he and Jeter never had a major injury. Same holds true for Albert.

It’s amazing how anyone could question giving Albert Pujols a major contract. Goes to show the lack of intelligence when it comes to athletics within the typical baseball fan. Questioning supreme talents like Albert Pujols and Jose Reyes. Who would have thunk it? And all because Omar Minaya went after the best and didn’t win a ring, while forgetting he took the Mets from the toilet to the best team in baseball in 2 years, while having the best record in the NL from 2005-2008 and breaking Met attendance records in the process.

Talk about stupid, UNGRATEFUL Met fans, man…SMH

As far as Reyes, I can’t see him going to Milwaukee at all. St Louis is my wild card team for him, if they lost Pujols.

The subject is OBP and nothing else.

You’re insane and there is no other explanation for it.

Anyone with even a single functioning brain cell still remaining would clearly understand that what the author was saying was OBP = more runs, which in turn gives you a better a chance for more wins.

Your just trying to turn every discussion onto a sabermetric flame war.

Muttonhead

The subject was high OBP=more runs=wins

That was the subject

You lost the debate and now you’re going down kicking and screaming again like you always do.

go back under your rock you mongoloid.

You chose two teams at random that both led their league in OB% (and runs scored) and then wondered why they didn’t win their Division.

Well there is a whole other side to the game as well. That would be called the pitching and defense.

Don’t blame me that you can’t comprehend such a simple idea.

You must have lost half your stratamatic game when you were a kid.

the subject is OBP and NOTHING else.

GOT THAT? UNDERSTAND? COMPRENDE?

Second guessing, back tracking, and making excuses as usual.

A person like you must talk yourself out of a lot of things.

You must blame your parents for something i would assume.
I mean a person like you? Why not stop just keep on going up or down the ladder looking for excuses and blame.

“You mean if you get OB a lot it doesn’t help you shut the other team down?”

Just so you know the ’77 Twins also had the Leagues 4th worst OB against and gave up the 3rd most amount of runs.

There are two sides to the game. On one hand there’s the trying to score runs part, and on the other hand there’s the trying to stop runs from scoring part.

Then what you do is you figure out who scored the most runs at the end of the game and that’s the winner.

And just for your information I’ve played thousands more games than you have.

Got it loser.

I’m not interested in 4th place.

But hey, they led the league in OBP and even Craig Lerner said it – The Mets 2011 season was a success.

go back and salivate over the stats and what they mean and while your drool is falling all over the stat sheet make sure you clean it up before typing your next 543 paragraph manifesto that you expect everybody to stop in their tracks and read.

OB% can only positively or negatively affect the number of runs a team scores. It cannot do anything about preventing runs from scoring.

The 1977 Minnesota Twins had the leagues highest OB%. They also scored the most runs in the League.

That in no way helped (or hurt) them in preventing runs.

I think you need some serious help.

1977 Twins lead league in OBP (back when it was in the back of everybody’s mind as it should be)

Guess what place they finished it. Now time for t agee to come up with an explanation.
Of course this could go on and on and on picking random good offensive teams from any era