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Mets GM Omar Minaya and LHP Oliver Perez were guests during last night’s Mets Hot Stove Report on SNY.
To watch a clip of Minaya’s appearance, click here.
…i was able to run down to the studio and ask him a few questions, before he went on air…keep in mind, i was only allowed five minutes…
Matthew Cerrone…
It was reported in the New York Times, towards the end of the season, that Scott Schoeneweis had been pitching with a severed tendon in his knee. Did he have that taken care of?
Omar Minaya…
A tendon issue?
Matthew Cerrone…
Yes, it was reported that he had some sort of knee issue, and that it may have been the cause of his early-season struggles…
Omar Minaya…
Nah, that was something he had before. It was mostly in his leg, it was nothing major and he pitched through it. It was early in the year and he had problems with the knee, but overall he was fine.
Matthew Cerrone…
He was great against lefties. Did you, or will you guys consider using him only against lefties, or…
Omar Minaya…
Well, I think it’s fair to say you wanna use guys where their strengths are. I mean, Willie will have to decide that. But, his numbers against lefties were very, very good, and when we brought him here we knew that. i think we tried to expand him a bit against righties, but overall his success against lefties was very, very good.
Matthew Cerrone…
I know you guys won 88 games last season, and I know you’re proud of that, but the end of the season was obviously disappointing. That being said, what did you learn about yourself and about the job, you know, what could you have done differently, given how difficult that ending had to be.
Omar Minaya…
Yes, the ending was disappointing. When you’re a General Manager, you look back and think, ‘What could I have done different.’ You know, the truth is, Matt, all I can think of is to be very supportive of the manager, and be supportive of the players.
Umm, you know, that’s a good question, though.
I mean, all you can do is put the best team on the field and it always goes back to pitching and defense being so important. You always have to keep improving the pitching, and I’ll always believe that. But, when you look back at our pitching, and when you look at the division, we were probably better off than most teams in the division and our relief pitchers did a good job, they just didn’t do a good job at the end of the season.
Matthew Cerrone…
Lastly, I know you guys gather at the end of the year to create a game-plan for the off-season, and decide how best to improve the club for next season. That said, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being ‘everything is going perfect, you’re hitting everything out of the park,’ and 1 being ‘everything is going wrong, nothing is working, we’re striking out left and right,’ how do you feel your off-season plan is going so far?
Omar Minaya…
So far, I wanna say that we’re doing fine, that we’re doing good, but at the end of the day, in this market place, there is always a need for that big-name…If we are able to improve our starting pitching, and can go out and get that front-line starter than we can say it’s been a successful winter. So far, it has not, I can say that it has been good, but it could be better.
Matthew Cerrone…
Do you sense the hype from fans, that we want that front-line starting pitcher? Do you feel we expect anything?
Omar Minaya…
I think people expect it, but - we have a very educated fan base - and they understand that in the free-agent market there is not that guy, so the only way to do it is in trade. And, when you’re talking about trades, you know, sometimes it’s just the timing of it that makes it work. You can’t force it. You cannot go out there and give up the whole thing, you know, six or seven players for one guy - and I think most fans understand that, and it makes no sense to give up a Jose Reyes for one of those aces.
Great job with the interview Matt, glad to see this new SNY – Metsblog agreement is paying off.
it was another SOFTBALL interview. what are you smoking?
Here’s is an excerpt of a recent interview between Omar Minaya and genius:
Genius: Omar, you suck. Last season was a disaster. When are you going to force Freddy Cupons to spend some money on this team??
Omar: Umm, this interview is over *walks off*
Genius: Omar? Hey! We’re you going? HEY!
*end interview*
LMAO…
This is huge for Matt to have this access, even if it was for only a few minutes…who knows what kind of access he would be alloted later on down the road.
Good job, Matt.
Nice screen name.
Good job Matt. Much better than the softballs Kevin was throwing to Omar. I like that he thinks that he really hasn’t done the job yet to bring in a big gun.
“I SAID A SCALE OF 1 to 10! ANSWER THE QUESTION!!”
haha, I think the MC did a nice little job on this, eliciting some new information however slight. My understanding was that Shownblow indeed had some medical issues, and it is surprising that Omar seems taken aback. Also, we now know that Omar does not understand the 1 to 10 scale.
Great interview Matt. These are the kinds of questions where you wonder “How’s Omar going to respond?”
Matt I so glad you brought up the Shoenweiss injury. I don’t think Omar was being completely honest about everything. Wasn’t the original report that Shoenweiss tripped over a sprinkler while running in the outfield during spring training? I thought that’s when the injury occured and supposedly Shoenweiss was going to pitch through it and possibly get surgery after the season. I know Shoenweiss is’nt the biggest part of our bullpen, but after giving this guy crazy money and a 3 year deal, you would hope the Mets would want him %100 for 2008.
As suspected it looks like Cerrone was wrong about Santana. Buster Olney of ESPN is reporting that Santana to the Sox is close. Thanks for false hope Matt. Looks like this guy just made up this rumour hoping he’d be right and then he’d get some credibility.
Well if Buster Olney says so, it must be true.
Is it done yet?
No? So dont make assumptions
In the article posted today that I read, he didn’t say it was close — he said they continued to talk. There’s really nothing new in that article. The Red Sox are undeniably one of the favorites to get him. It all depends on what they decide to give up. Matt conceeded as much.
Matt was pretty wrong with that post, I feel. The Mets have no real shot, no one wants our prospects. We have no one to give them, really. They want established major league talent, OR top-notch can’t miss prospects. Who do we have that fits that bill?
nobody likes me
i had a party and nobody came
my socks are too tight
a random blogger told me my prospects where no good
HAHAHHAHAHAHA LOL ~!!!!
gbaked, i’m reading this baked, & it sounded that much funnier……
Juuu know what I’m Sayin? he’s got a point, you gonna cry bout things, can’t expect people not to rack on yah, now do u know what I’M SAYIN??
hhahaha ROFLMAO~!!!
What? Where exactly did he say it was “close?” All I saw in his article today was that they are still talking…
Right, becuase Olney has been batting 1.000 this offseason…He’s also the founding member of the Reyes for Santana club
Hey, if it’s true that Olney only said they were still talking, then shame on you. “Still talking” is quite different from being close to a deal.
I think Olney is very reputable when it comes to reporting. Not his opinions, but just straight reporting.
We expected a front line P b/c you said that was our number 1 goal, dummy.
i find it hard to believe omar only said “UMM” once in that whole interview, i want that retyped.
under/over amount of times omar said “UMM”
24 times. I take the over.
Haha, I just tried posting 5 messages about Omar that were blocked. I even changed wording! Haha, too funny. What a Homer.
Hey guy, messages sometimes get blocked with no Omar or met bashing references at all.
Tone it down a notch
tone it down? are you alright?
You disappoint me, you’re supposed to end all your posts with
“Juuu know what I’m Sayin?”
I’m doing great actually.
These kind of posts are getting OLD. We get it. You guys think Matt is deleting your comments because he’s the Homer of Mets Homers and he wants you all to follow the company line. WE GET IT!!
You don’t have to post comments like that EVERY time it happens.
are you ok, dude? seems like you’re getting frustrated for no good reason. tone it down, man. we’re all here to talk baseball. i probably used an inappropriate word (i said “p00py”)….my bad, i admit my mistake
juu know what i’m sayin? (sorry kevinelster)
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being dumbest question, where do you score this question? A Schoenweiss question? First off, I thought it was a tendon in his ankle. Second, why not ask why the Mets are stockpiling ‘roiders in the bullpen.
And there HAS to be a question regarding the farm system and that being Omar’s strength as a long time scout.
Weak.
well, once you’ve applied sweat, blood, and tears for many years to develop an audience with the gm, you can ask those questions. how about we appreciate what matt has been able to accomplish and give him some slack. this is a groundbreaking relationship with a major sports franchise and i for one am tremendously impressed and thankful for what matt has created.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
a homer simpson
I usually criticize Matt’s interviews as being soft but this time Matt was great. He asked exactly what we want to know. Will we get an ace and if not is this offseason a failure. As usual Omar danced around it but at least Matt asked. Good job.
Yeah, my # 1 question would have been about Scott Schoeneweiss too…..uhm, FALSE.
HAHAHA. Mine would have been about Mike DeFelice…
Schoenweis….please.
This site is affiliated with SNY now….it’s going to be:
“all Mets’ Homers all the time” now. Negative questions or comments will not be posted.
then GO AWAY!
Achilles400 — you are 100% correct.
Yes, he was. Very accurate.
Why not go after Fukudome? I mean as it stands now, we have a $380,000 4th Outielder- type in Right Field. Why not act like a big market team for once? The payroll, as it stands now, it under $100 million and has been cut since last year. I’m sure you apologists will come up with 1,000 reasons why you don’t want Fukudome…This team has the money, why not spend it? He is probably the best free agent out there. The idea that the Mets have this big time offense is nonsense- last year, this offense CRUMBLED in big spots and got shutout by the likes of David Wells, Tyler Clippard, and the great Mike Bacsik. And thus far the offense has been downgraded by replacing LoDuca and Milledge with Schneider and Church (definitely an overall downgrade).
So yes, this team obviously needs pitching, but there’s not a lot out there- and thus why not upgrade the offense and sign Fukudome? Freddie Coupons is not interested, I’m assuming- they stupidly probably will never consider another Japanese position player just cause Matsui was bad. How close minded and dumb. Come on Fred, open up the walltet. Start acting like a big market team.
Cubs might give the dude $50+ million, that’s kind of nuts.
firemetmanagement,
I agree with the Coupon statements, but please no more Japanese players. They use a different ball over there.
I second that motion. No need for Kaz Matsui, part deux…
Schoenweis and great are two words that should never appear in the same sentence when describing last year. Show did well the last few months, but the first 4 were horrrendous whether it was against lefties or righties.
From the Olney Article:
“Wrote here last Friday that the folks in position to have insight into the Johan Santana talks strongly believe that the Twins and Red Sox will eventually work out a deal</b), and as Joe Christensen writes this morning, the two sides continue to talk. The Twins seem to prefer a package built around center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, rather than Jon Lester. ”
I think that means a deal is close.
And for those of you who think that Olney isn’t that accurate, I’ll believe a real journalist before I’ll trust some internet blogger.
After this entire ordeal, there’s only one thing to believe. And that’s don’t believe anyone until a deal is done.
Touche. Agreed.
go post on olney’s blog then.
zing
I think that means they’re “still talking” which is EXACTLY what it says.
Matt never said the Twins weren’t talking to anyone else. That would be crazy. The Rex Sox have good prospects –ones that we cannot match if they put the right ones in. That said, obviously, they have not done so, or the deal wouldn’t only be “close” it would be “done”.
if you think matt made up this santana rumor with the mets then you obviously haven’t been to this site often or read his blogs carefully. matt, like many of us is a die hard mets fans and rarley if ever uses his met blinders when blogging. so i trust his report was accurate and he even stated that if the red sox pushed hard they would get santana. All he said was that santana preferred the mets and the twins preffered to send him here which is very believable. Santana would dominate is the national league especially at shea and citifield after which is designed to be pitcher friendly also. It would benefit the twins also seeing as they won’t have santanas’ legacy haunting them on an american league team. but like matt said its all about who offers the best package.
Hey Met_Fan,
Why are you here, then?
Ya can’t blame Matt for not grilling Omar, though. This is Matt’s full-time job….he started a blog for Mets’ fans, and he probably made a nice amount of of loot for signing with SNY. The way he conducts himself and the site got him that deal.
I know he always tries to put a positive spin on things, and we’re critical most recently, because we expected more the off-season after the largest collapse EVER. As Mets’ fans, we want a title here. And we see the organization going backwards right now a bit, instead of forward from 2006. And it annoys US that Omar Minaya takes up for morons.
Great job Matt!
A few highlights:
1) It hasn’t even occurred to Omar to look in the mirror to see if he is at all to blame for the September Swoon. It’s all on Willie and the team, but he’s supportive. Either get starters that can pitch more than 5 innings or bring in a bunch of fresh relievers for the second half!
2) Favorite answer: Omar Minaya…A tendon issue? That was mostly in his leg. LOL
The thing that annoys me most recently is how Omar thinks we’re so much better now, than at the end of 2007…does he really feel this way??
Losses:
Glavine
Milledge
Lo Duca
Additions:
Schneider
Church
Anyone explain this to me?
We still have to replace Glavine but Schnider and Church do replace and give as good of numbers as Loduca and Milledge. Plus Schnider is LH and a good platoon with Castro and Loduca was not.
Mota and Sele are also gone, so that goes in the upgrade pile.
One thing that gets overlooked is, evenif the same players come back, you can’t assume they will perform at the same level.
Young guys like DW and Reyes are likely to improve as they reach their prime. Neither one has likely had their monster year yet.
Old guys normally tail off if they had a strong year. Alou is a wildcard. Delgado already had a lousy year, so let’s hope he can’t get worse!
For pitchers, OP and Maine should (could?) improve given age and service. glavine was likely to go down, so good thing he is gone.
You forgot Brian (future CY Young) Stokes!
given that , mes think Omar’s right, we’ve really improved!
People expect Matt to do, say, wright and ask a bunch of things they would be unwilling to do themselves if they were in his shoes…
We’d all like to believe we would break bad on Omar if given the shot…the reality is, few of us would knowing…
A) that’d be the last interview ever
B) he’d duck the “tough” question the same way he ducks the “easy” ones
urrr…write, not wright
Different ball over there? Last I checked, Ichiro and Hideki Matsui and Takashi Saito and Hideki Okajima were pretty good players. Can’t be gunshy just cause that stiff Kaz Matsui was bad. Like I said- closeminded and st*pid.
So you spend 50 million..what’s the big deal? The Mets have the money- they are rolling in it. Even if you payed him 15 million this year, that would only put the payroll at 115 million- which would still be less than last year. And there is no reason why the payroll can’t be in the 130-140 million dollar range anyway, with the incredible revenue streams pouring in.
Ante up, Freddie. Let’s go. Santana and Bedard are pipedreams- so at least do something here. You can’t have a collapse like last year and then (a) Not fire anyboddy and (b) have a cr*p offseason and do nothing. Heads should have rolled after that collapse- but since they didn’t, you have to do something big/make a splash or two in order to win back your ticked off fanbase.
Open up the wallet Freddie, let’s go.
Kaz Matsui, Hideki Irabu, Tsuyoshi Shinjo, Kei Igawa….it can go either way.
I waiver on a Fukudome signing…he might be nasty…or he might be K. Matsui.
But you’re a homer…
you sweat brian schnedier’s offense, who’s the homer?
Metsblog
Nice Ball.
I’m gonna take a second to respond, though I am sure what I am saying will go right over your head or through it without stopping for a second…
The model franchise in sports most recently I would have to say is the New England Patriots. The thing that makes them so great is their talent evaluation and their penchant for refusing to give people more money than they are worth. In business this is called a cost/benefit ratio. They have let franchise type cornerstones like Ty Law and Lawyer Milloy and Willie McGinnest and countless others leave because they WOULD NOT overpay.
Before you argue I’ll grant you that salary cap structuring in the NFL almost mandates this type of behavior however very few NFL execs are able to pull off both aspects of the skillset.
We don’t need to throw money at the problem, spending more hasn’t done anything for the Yankees has it? What we need is better talent evaluation and the ability to spot a diamond in the rough. Getting guys who overperform as it relates to their salaries is the way to win because it frees up other resources for the superstars. If instead of spending 3.5 million or whatever on a Shoenweis we could find a cheaper alternative who performed at a similar level, we could more easily justify opening up the cash flood gates on some other player.
Finally I wish you’d shut the hell up about what we can and can’t spend, how much the revenue stream is and what a cheap owner Wilpon is when you don’t have facts. All you have is conjecture and opinion (which is valid when presented as such) that you spew as though it were factual. The FACTS dictate that we spend far more than the majority of teams out there. The FACTS dictate that plenty of owners pocket revenue sharing money that the METS pay out instead of investing it back into their team. The FACTS dictate that the availability of big name free agent pitchers TO SPEND ON was negligible this season… you want to overspend on some unproven japanese player just because he’s the only one out there, knowing full well this would limit our ability to get a big name free agent pitcher next season (ps: johan COULD BE a free agent next season ya know)..
Look, everyone is entitled to their opinion and I think we’re all pretty sure what yours is (read: we don’t need to repeating it in every post) but if you’re so disgruntled go be a fan of some other team, because you’re clearly not a fan of the mets. Justified criticism is fine, we all do it, but you’re just ridiculous dude. Get laid or something.
+1
While he’s at it, he may as well flush the money down the toilet…
Juu know what I’m saying,
Good point. The offseason has been embarrassing and flat out bad. And the additions/subtractions you noted represent an overall salary dump of close to 20 million (don’t forget to factor in Mota’s dump- they will just let Estrada go and in a very sneaky way dump another 3 million).
Yeah, but they have added ZERO to the payroll as of now…well, until they sign Livan.
Minaya is lost. He needs to get creative. He is waiting and waiting for Santana, Haren or whoever. In the end, he will get none of those big guys and he will be the author of an awful offseason – unless Livan wets your whistle.
Ah, boy….such is the Mets.
P.S. When they do sign Livan, I better not come onto this site and see a positive vibe about it or I might vomit.
The Mets have the $$$. Make a splash- the offseason has been so embarassing and uneventful…you have to do SOMETHING. Act like a big market team, Freddie. Ante up. The Cubs spent like 400 million in player salary last year, and they are going to get yet another player? Where’s our team? They haven’t made a big splash since signing Wagner (more than 2 calendar years ago).
Ante up Freddie.
you don’t have to do something…you have to do the right thing.
there’s a big difference…
But didn’t the Cubs stink last year, even with their big money wasted signings?
Spend money on a player that yo uneed and is worth it. Otherwise you are just p’ing it away.
Ticket prices are being raised every year yet the payroll either stays the same or gets lowered..it was lowered this year. Not the way you are supposed to do it.
I just can’t justify spending 1 cent on this team, I’m sorry.
Matt said last week…
…since the Yankees and Red Sox will not part with more than one or two of their best prospects, acquiring up to five or six semi-developed, high-ceiling players from the Mets is starting to be Minnesota’s most attractive option, and they’re comfortable with that.
Omar said…
You cannot go out there and give up the whole thing, you know, six or seven players for one guy.
In combination, if the Mets are not willing to give up five…or six…or seven players for one guy (and I don’t know that they should, either), not looking so good for Johan as a met.
Metsdude13,
You are a pathetic troll. Move out of your mother’s house already.
And then walk in front of a train.
i’m sorry dude, but your the pathetic one…
I enjoy the comments here because I like others opinions and you know what , we all know your opinion, if you don’t have a new one, i’m with metsdude that you don’t waste the space, I read all your comments unfortunately for me hoping you’ll have something new and interesting to say…
In other news…metsdude, good for you for callin him out….
I don’t post that much but I have been reading Mets blog for at least 4 years. Matt has built this sight up and improved it each year. I have watched as his connections to actual Mets personel has improved and his information has improved. Being connected to SNY is a sign that this blog has made it big and Matt deserves credit.
By its very nature a blog is providing possible rumors and information that may or may not be true. IT IS NOT NEWS and is more a pulse of the baseball world around the Mets. If Matt was wrong (and I don’t think he said anything that was wrong since he did not preict that Santana was as good as a Met) it is not gospel but a perspective.
Cut Matt some slack. He’s putting a lot of time into whaty started out as a hobby and has built it into an enterprise. Great job Matt.
Matt has done a very good job. I know I am critical at times, but he built up a good site here. It’s not “honest”, at times, but he can’t afford to rip Minaya for doing a poor job, it’s money out of Matt’s pocket.
Oh, and I totally agree PereztoHeilmantoWagner……if I come on here next week and see this site “praising” the signing of Livan Hernandez– I will vomit.
Spend some money Freddie…loved that pathetic, lowball, cheapo offer to Guerrero- that is symbolic of Freddie. Just pretend to be interested to get the good PR.
Open up the wallet- no reason this team can’t have a payroll in the 130-140 million range. Not saying it has to be 200 you mor*ons.
With all of the incredible revenue streams, increased ticket prices, SNY, new stadium, naming rights, etc- can one person tell me why the payroll shouldn’t be 130-140 million? Why should it stay at the same lousy 100 million. I’d like to see one person justify this, with ticket prices skyrocketing. If we are spending more, they should be. Time to raise your cheapo “budget” Freddie, to better match the increased revenues…Ante up.
Dude, if they spend money, it will be on the “ace” Livan Hernandez….I’d rather you pitch firemetmanagement. The Mets love to make signings for the sake of not being considered “cheap” instead of bold moves. i.e. Livan….
STOP already with that garbage!!
Freddy-Skill-Sets has spent plenty over the years.
Actually, Little Stevie and O the great have spent plenty.
JUST NOT WISELY!
I can’t believe we’re still whining about not signing Vlad 4 years and 1 division title later….get over it already..
Great job snagging Omar. I work across 51st from the Studio and thought I may have seen him. Next time you see him a pint is on me, for you and him, at Heartland across the street.
I’m a biomedical engineer.
all these people are trippin` out over Matt being wrong about Santana…as of now he’s not and the Red Sox are “still talking” to the Red Sox, they have two offers on the table, one including Ellsbury & the other including Lester
Omar has said he is looking to get an Ace pitcher. So let him do his job.
Anybody say, Larry King.
Ummmm, kinda like he was looking to upgrade the bullpen at the trade deadline? and how he was looking to “upgrade” his catching situation?
Guy has been brutal for over a year now, so let’s not give him all this slack.
It’s pretty much been proven by now that the majority of successful bullpens are built from within, not from overspending on free agents.
Thank You!!
It’s one thing to weigh in with a bit of a critique of Matt’s interviewing skills (as I did, partly in jest) but it is another thing to accuse him of somehow misleading the fan base regarding the likelihood of Santana ending up a Met. First off, anyone that reads Matt’s opinions and somehow interprets them as inside information is a moron. Matt gathers info and spews it out. It is no different than what any non-adle minded fan is capable of doing on their own. Go read all the rumors and “news” on the situation and you come up with the same stuff. Johan is better off in the pitcher friendly NL, Twins would be better off shipping him out of the AL, maybe they would be willing to accomidate him to some extent, but in the end they will take toe best package that is offered, which I personally believe will be from the Yankees if they trade Matsui to SF.
Just because some people in here are dillusional about who the Mets can and will get and emotionally stunted is not a reason to attack Matt. Grow up and stop blaming Matt for your disappointments. May want to seek therapy so you can talk about how your mom and dad didn’t love you enough.
A post of yours I can finally agree with, nicely put.
Yeah, that’s what I was going for, your agreement! ;-)
hey anyone know where firemetsmanagement stands on these issues? it’s been 12 minutes since he posted and i’m thinking maybe he chantged his mind.
He’s busy engineering a biomecial widget. Isn’t that the same as Homer Simpson’s job? Oh wait, he’s a nucular engineer. I jest.
Good job grabbing Omar Matt.
INtersting that no one has mentioned Omar’s total mishandling of the questions about Heilman. Berkhardt actually had to save Omar from himself by explaining that Heilman was more valuable as a releiver (rob peter to pay paul) instead of Omar running down Heilman’s trade value by saying he sucked as a starter, and the numbers proved it.
Omar really needs to lock himself in his office, along with Willie who also runs down his own players in the press (see Carlos Gomez comments from last week) instead of giving legnthy interviews that weaken their trade position.
Just funny.
I’m replying to this a little late, but this is exactly what I was thinking when I watched it as well. What the hell was Omar thinking saying that? Awful job, nice save by Kevin B.
Ayayay!!
5 minutes or not, Show would’ve been one of the last players on my mind to ask Omar about. The questions did come accross as pretty soft to say the least.
As for this concensus by some that the Mets are not spending, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
In a sense I agree about the money and am all for giving it away, since it’s not mine and ticket prices are going up regardless. Personally however, I couldn’t care less whether we fielded a $5 million team or a $500 million team as long as we fielded a group of players that gave us a chance to win consistently.
The Mets already have one of the top 3 payrolls in baseball which points to being a big city team, so I don’t see that part of the argument. The Yankees and Red Sox currently generate more revenue so having a bigger payroll than the Mets makes sense. The Mets are pretty much where they should be for now. They’re spending enough and will undoubtedly continue to spend, hopefully wisely, going forward.
Which brings me to the “Coupon” thing. Where and how does that make sense?
Maybe if Omar just fired Willie after the season ended, there would have been less pressure to make a big move with the players.
Metsdue and Mrose,
In my profession I’m trying to clone younger, prettier versions of your mothers because I’m getting tired of giving it to your real moms.
Spend some money Freddie Coupons, open up the wallet already.
Does anybody else here feel that it’s wrong that revenues are skyrocketing, ticket prices are skyrocketing, yet the payroll is going down (and at most will be the same this year as last year)? That is just unacceptable in my mind.
Time to stop having this ridiculous “budget”..or at least bump that budget to 130-140 million.
Ante up, Freddie Coupons. You owe it to your fanbase after the horrific collapse- especially after how EMBARRASSING and LUDICROUS it was for you to not fire anybody after the collapse…all because of affirmative action and the fact that you were scared of the PR hit you’d take from firing black Willie and/or lat*no Minaya. They’ve proved time and again that they are incompetent for their respective positions. Fire them now- and just bring in other black and hisp*nic people as manager/GM if you are afraid of the bad PR from the NAACP, etc., from firing them. And again, spend some $$
Mister Koo,
Amen. Haven’t you had enough of all of the apologists/schills/patsies on this site?
I totally agree though- good point. If Willie (and Omar) had been fired after the collapse, there would not be near as much clamoring for the Mets to make big offseason personnel moves.
The firing would have been enough, in my mind. Change the culture and make people accountable for collapse. And since nobody was held accountable, you need to make a splash or do something big to win your p*ssed off fanbase back.
Exactly. Just Willie himself would have been enough. His overconfident attitude is what spilled over into the players making them think they were entitled and didn’t need to play with a sense of urgency.
That is so true. NOBODY was held accountable for last season’s debacle.
You hit it, Mister Koo. It had a lot to do with the attitude of the players, as if they were entitled to repeat. I’m certain that this had as much to do with the collapse as the personnel that Willie trotted out there day after day, probably more.
I tend to doubt that they have that ‘tude this year. Jimmy Rollins showed that the Phillthies do have that attitude. If Brad Lidge is the Brad Lidge of ‘06 and ‘07, the Phillthies are going to be third, behind the Mets and the Braves (in whichever order). If Jose Reyes is the Jose Reyes of September of ‘07, we’re screwed. If Jose Reyes is the Jose Reyes of, say, ‘06, then Rollins will be eating his words, as the Mets will win the division by 3 or 4 games.
Let’s remember that Rollins pissed off the Braves, too, and with the Nats improving themselves with Milledge, Tyler Clippard, and Paul LoDuca, I don’t see how in Hell that the Phillthies win 100. 93 wins takes the division, and the WC will probably come from the East.
I disagree. I got the sense that Omar is not happy with the way things have been going so far and that is a different reaction then we usually get from him.
+1
100% agreement. I hope you know i was referring to Met_Fan
Olney is talking out of his you know what. Fact is nobody will know for sure where Santana will go until the deal actually happens (if it happens at all).
But Omar says we’re an educated fan base?
I think he meant to say “well-informed” rather than “educated”. lol
Imagine Matt typed out all the “Uhm’s” and “Juu know what I’m sayin’s”? Haha! It would have looked like he was mocking Omar!
Ughhh
least of three evils?
Not a fan of Steve Phillips, but he did lead this team to their last WS appearence. Until Omar, or the next guy, does that, Phillips is better.
I’d say Bobby V lead a overachieving team to the WS, Phillips merely compiled the pieces.
Amen!! AND would Duquette OR Phillips be our
only choices??–No one else qualified to run a
BASEBALL team??–What is this Castro’s Cuba?
And No , Not Ramon.
Well.. for the record. Phillips/Valentine were the only combo to get this team into the playoffs in consecutive years in the Mets entire existence, so maybe they weren’t that bad. I dislike Phillips, but you have to give him some credit.
My point exactly…I never said Omar was better or worse…All I know is that the last time the Mets were in the WS, Phillips was the GM. He put the pieces together…That 2000 team wasn’t the best ever, but neither were the recent White Sox WS champs or the Deadbirds of ‘06.
bash steve phillips all you want and believe me i have in the past but give credit where credit is due. he traded highly touted (future leadoff man with 55 stolen bags in 99) roger cedeno and octavio dotel for mike hampton who ended up winning the nlcs mvp, and we all know how cedeno paned out. not to mention he drafted wright and heilman and signed reyes. if all goes well that guy could be responsible for getting us the two best position players in our teams history. (piazza owns that crown for now but wright and reyes are definitely on pace to surpass him)
the mets were only outscored by 3 runs in that series, FYI. they weren’t “outclassed” at all. get your facts straight.
are you agreeing with me or disagreeing?
Don’t think of it as “scared for the future” think of it as you’ll “always be employable”. That’s what I like to do!
LOL
its not easy to tell sarcasm on blog posts! Plus people on this board just love to get in arguments, so you never know
hey the dumber other people get the smarter i look.
It’s very testy relying on guys like Padilla and Duaner Sanchez for the pen, I mean, they have not pitched in over a full year. That’s playign Russian Roulette.
they all adjust differently over here, though, Kaz Matsui hit 30 HR in Japan before the Mets’ signed him, no?
Metsdude, haha, that was kind of harsh bro. Mets’ fans are frustrated…you call that other guy pathetic, yet you’re on here posting too, along with hundreds of others. Doesn;t make you much betterm does it?
Alright fellas, we’re all Mets fans here….some people are more frustrated than others, and this is their outlet to vent. We all root for the same team here, let’s not lose sight of it. In the end we all want to win.
Please take your logic elsewhere.
I was for signing Fukudome, and still will be if we trade Church, but nice arguement for Church starting fulltime.
Good point Dude
his logic sounds fairly reasonable to me.
why pay a guy who has proven nothing in the majors and projects somewhere slightly better than church 30 times what church is due? that’s just stupid.
Hey, it’s your life, you can be harsh if you want.
I’ve been critical of the Wilpon’s in the past, too, but there are no FA’s worth signing this year! Don’t spend for the sake of spending.
I can’t believe we made that Milledge-deal.
he’s lying, he’s a librarian
People can vent all they want, but when they go post to post and spew the same garbage it gets old, real quick.
WHat if he were Matt Cerrone’s alter ego? You know like Matt has a split personality or something? He blogs at the top with real professionalism but then he logs in as Mr. MEt or Mr. Met 41 or firemetsmanagement or whatever other screen name suits him and he just starts blasting the same message. A little like a combination of Turets syndrome and bipolar disorder combined with whatever the professional name is for split personality disorder.