To sell, or not to sell. That is the question.
However, the answer is not as easy as you might think.
If the Mets become sellers, then Omar Minaya will be rubber stamping this season which was engineered by him, as a failure.
If the Mets become buyers, and they still don’t make it, then the fans will be rubber stamping Omar Minaya as a failure.
What a choice huh?
Newsday’s David Lennon is doing what some of us are already considering,
I’m jumping ship on the whole treading-water-until-they-get-healthy thing. I was on board for a while, guzzling the Kool-Aid about the Mets reloading for the second half, but Omar Minaya’s “updates” yesterday finally changed my mind.
Adam Rubin of the Daily News gives us some perspective by looking back at the 2004 season.
If it wasn’t clear already, Thursday’s 5-3 loss to the Braves cemented the notion that it would be irresponsible for the Mets to make any trade this month, unless it was a swap that made sense for 2010 and beyond, whether that’s trading Gary Sheffield for prospects or otherwise. The Mets dropped 7 1/2 games behind the Phillies. And with none of their injured stars returning soon, how can it make sense to go for it?
Remember the Mets’ desperation in 2004? Trailing the Braves by six games entering a series at Atlanta the weekend of the trading deadline, the Mets dismantled the farm system for Kris Benson and Victor Zambrano, including parting with Scott Kazmir. The Mets were swept that weekend by the Braves anyway, falling nine back.
Surely, the Mets won’t be that reckless again.
I’ve come to the conclusion that if the Mets are forced to blow this season up and go into rebuild mode, Omar Minaya should be relieved of his duties. He has presided over three straight seasons that can each qualify as disasters, and this year may be the worst one yet.
The farm system is in shambles, and both AAA Buffalo and AA Binghamton are hopelessly in last place and are the worst teams in their leagues and their levels by far.
He has grossly mismanaged the largest payroll in the National League, and his claim to fame has been the acquisitions of Pedro, Beltran, Santana and K-Rod, which were mostly the result of owners who were willing to throw more money at these players than any other team.
His bad trades overwhelmingly outweigh his one or two good trades. He passed on players that could have helped this team, and bid against himself for players like Guillermo Mota, Luis Castillo, and most recently Oliver Perez. The latter two will have the Mets in a choke hold for two more seasons.
He has shown no vision or foresight as a GM and manages the team each off-season with a band-aid approach, merely being reactive as opposed to proactive.
He has proven himself to be a poor evaluator of talent, anointing Mike Pelfrey as his number two starter, and tabbing Dan Murphy as the team’s everyday leftfielder. Pelfrey has never shown himself to be anything more than a bottom of the rotation starter. Murphy misplayed himself out of leftfield defensively, and has not repeated the offensive success he showed in a brief trial last season.
He overestimates the value of his prospects and considered players like Eddie Kunz and F-Mart as untouchable last season, only to see their stock tumble out of most top prospects lists. Still, he gave both of them brief trials and neither player showed themselves to being anything close to major league ready.
Some may say, the Wilpons are at fault for the Mets deficiencies, or that the Bernie Madoff situation played into it as well, but that’s a load of bunk. Omar had $145 million dollars to spend as he wanted. It was more than any other GM had to play with. The Marlins made do with a $39 million payroll and have a team that shows more promise and is more exciting to watch.
Omar Minaya has worn out his welcome as far as I’m concerned, and the Mets should rid themselves of this very likable, but incompetent general manager.
