Opinion: Omar Minaya
…i am a fan of Omar Minaya, mostly because he had brought a new sense of local and national credibility to this team, and a level of buzz and excitement that i had not seen as a fan since the 80s…that being said, his poor decisions over the last year ultimately helped to contribute to the team’s biggest embarrassment since its first season in the league, and they cannot be ignored…
…it should be noted that omar was not helped out by Paul Lo Duca, Carlos Delgado, Guillermo Mota, and especially Jose Reyes, all of whom underachieved following strong seasons from the year before…also, as Moises Alou hit the disabled list, as we all expected he would, nearly every single player on minaya’s back-up list hit the disabled list, nearly all at the same time, including Endy Chavez and Lastings Milledge, among others…frankly, the loss of endy cannot be overstated…neither can the loss of Jose Valentin, who, from what i can gather, had a super-positive influence on reyes, who has been accused of breaking down mentally this season, either from exhaustion, a long pennant race, or, according to bouncers on Long Island, from partying way too much, none of which can be proven, but all of which seem plausible…
…by the way, i enjoy watching alou and Orlando Hernandez, and while i believe it is very important to have a strong number of winning-oriented veterans on the team, no team should ever rely on winning-oriented veterans who have a history of being injured…it’s one thing to have alou and el duque on the team, it’s another thing to be leaning on them with so much weight, because they will break beneath it and will take the team with them…alou is wonderful, but he can never be the center of the team’s offense…the same can be said for el duque…as i wrote the other day, while i have no problem with el duque coming back next season, especially with his current one-year, $6 million deal, at no point next season can he be considered the team’s best pitcher…if he returns as a fifth starter, occasionally as a reliever, all under the notion that he will certainly miss a chunk of the season, maybe even the playoffs, that’s fine…but if it’s mid-summer, and for whatever reason he is this team’s best option at anything, they’re going to be in trouble again…
…in other words, omar did a lot of gambling this last off season…while he gambled that John Maine and Oliver Perez would rise to the challenge, and that Shawn Green, Damion Easley and Jorge Sosa would settle in to new roles, all of which panned out, he also gambled on Duaner Sanchez and Guillermo Mota, among others, which did not…
…in fact, the loss of sanchez may prove to be most costly of all, since i suspect it helped pave the way for minaya to trade Heath Bell, Matt Lindstrom and Henry Owens, all of whom had success this season for other teams, while the players who were acquired for them all faltered or got hurt…i understand trading all three of these pitchers, especially when under the assumption that sanchez would be healthy, because not one of owens, bell or lindstrom had been touted by minor-league experts prior to the season – and if they were so valued one year ago, how come a) they had yet to succeed in the major leagues by their late 20s, and b) why did the Mets get so little in return…it’s an open market, remember…it’s not a free for all…our perceived value of them today is all based on hindsight, but try to recall their value from 12 months ago…that being said, these players would almost certainly have been helpful this season, considering the loss of sanchez and their eventual lack of options in the bullpen…at the time, i had no issue with trying to trade a 28–year-old pitcher, who had never shown any sign that he could succeed in the big leagues, for a pitcher with much more of a ceiling…i mean, who knew the team’s major-league bullpen would be such a disaster…but, there in lies the problem…while i am not a major-league general manager, and minaya is, and that lack of preparation and foresight ultimately came back to hurt him, although there is still plenty of time for Jason Vargas, and Ben Johnson to help out in future seasons, though i’m not holding my breath…
…for the record, i wrote the following on the day that Brian Bannister was traded for Ambiorix Burgos…
…i am disappointed to see bannister go…however, the Mets have a lot of bannister’s at this point, be it John Maine, Oliver Perez, Philip Humber, or Mike Pelfrey, i.e., young, very promising, highly-sought-after starting pitchers…what they do not have is a collection of strong, power-arms in the bullpen, and burgos is just that…in other words, the Mets traded from strength to fill a weakness…and i am cool with that…
…also for what it’s worth, you’ll be hard pressed to find a fellow blogger who was overtly passionate about seeing bannister go…frankly, i liked bannister, not only because he is into photography, like me, but because i always admired his poise and pedigree, two things that can never be underrated when staffing a team in new york…that being said, there is no way to know that bannister would have duplicated his impressive stats from the last-place Royals here in new york, for the Mets, in a ridiculously wild pennant race…
…lastly, i worry that minaya has created an awkward and embarrassing environment for his manager, allowing his assistant Tony Bernazard, among others, to regularly communicate with team’s players…i understand that tony b once worked with the Player’s Union, and that he can connect with the latin players in a way that maybe willie cannot, but that doesn’t make it right or effective…
…for more on this, read Bill Madden’s outstanding column for the Daily News…
…now, i understand that this may have been a good idea during willie’s first season or two, to help ease him through his first experience as a major league manager…however, this will be willie’s fourth season at the helm, and i believe he has earned the right to command his locker room and dugout as he sees fit with no downward or outside influence…he’s with his players every day, all season, and is being charged with getting the most out of that talent, and to truly be effective as their leader he has got to be their only leader…the players have got to know who is boss, otherwise pulling a player from the field for not running out a ground ball will not matter…i mean, if i’m the player, why do i care what willie thinks if i can so easily go over his head for justification and approval…minaya and his assistants should certainly keep a watchful eye, that is their responsibility, but if it is determined that their presence is undermining their manager in any way then they have got to pull back to arm’s distance…it’s only fair…willie has earned this leeway and will never succeed if he’s limited in how much respect he can command from his players…
…at the end of the day, minaya took some risks, and left himself very, very little room for error this season – as he did in the previous season, as well, by the way…this year, though, those gambles came back to bite him…i still trust in his command of the open market, his ability to work with other teams and the creativity and passion that he brings to the job…however, to bring this organization to the next level, and move past this current bump in the road, he has got to acknowledge and learn from his mistakes, which, from what i can tell, are a) putting t oo much responsibility on older players with a history of injury; b) not giving his manager the proper distance for total and necessary control; and c) not allowing for ample back-up plans at the team’s most important positions, that is to say if the bullpen is most important, then back it up and back it up again with players who are ready to contribute, if it’s the rotation, then back that up, but since you can’t back up every position equally, he must focus on what is most critical and the biggest risk and committ to it…if he does this, when coupled with his special ability to solicite opinion, evaluate talent, creativly and aggressively pursue free agents, and connect with people while always keeping the lines of communication open for trades, i have total faith that this team will return with more than enough talent to win the NL East next season, and for many years to come…
