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In a series of posts to Bucs Dugout, Charlie pits every General 
Manager up against one another, in tournament style, to determine who is the league’s worst GM.
Today’s match up: Mets GM Omar Minaya vs. Cubs GM Jim Hendry.
…i guess it’s only fitting that a Pirates blog would be hosting a Worst GM Tournament…seriously, what is going on with that organziation…get it together, man…
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Yeah, sorry. The worst GM in baseball doesn’t turn a joke franchise into a contender over night….nor does he sign some of the best talent in the MLB…nor does he sign the best pitcher in baseball for some prosepcts when any sane person would assume a top starter at least…
All GMs have blunders, but few have done what Miniya has…
let’s give credit where credit is due - to steve philips, who was in charge when they brought in reyes and wright. that’s what turned this franchise around. omar gets far, far, far too much credit.
Didn’t he also bring in Mo Vaughn and Alomar?? Both of those busts far outweigh anything he did. But its a wash in the end…I just think Minaya gets a hard time when no one understands how hard it is to acquire talent and asses players behind closed doors…
…and, like I said, any GM that can score Santana in his prime for 4 prospects is a great GM in my mind. A year ago I thought the only way to get a Santana pre-FA would be to get rid of Reyes or Wright…which would obviously suck…
The biggest mistakes I think he made were some of his bullpen decisions from 06 to 07. Most of the guys he got rid are doing pretty well (Bell, Bannister, Oliver and so on).
alomar and vaughn stunk, but there’s no way on earth that acquiring them outweighs bringing in reyes and wright. those two are by far more important, they’re going to be here for 15+ years each and are the main reason for the team’s recent success.
I don’t think Omar is the best or the worst. He’s somewhere near the top, but not quite there. What takes away from him is his propensity for making very strange, unnecessary moves (see: Brian Bannister, Xavier Nady, Lindstrom/Owens, Bell).
Please don’t jump on me with the “OLIVER PEREZ! OLIVER PEREZ” attacks for saying the Nady move was unnecessary. Perez was a throw-in, and while Omar deserves credit, it was quite clear that the point of the trade was to get Roberto Hernandez. I understand the sense of panic after Duaner went down, but you just don’t trade your starting right fielder for a relief pitcher. Especially when that relief pitcher is R. Hernandez.
All that being said, I like the job Omar has done. He’s made his fair share of mistakes, but what GM doesn’t? He’s alright by me.
sigh…Perez was not a throw in, he was the guy who Minaya really wanted.
If F-Mart had been in the trade for Santana, would he have been a “Throw-In” since he was the last player added?
whether ollie was a throw in or not, it doesnt really matter. The point is that there’s no way he was the guy omar really wanted, since about an hour after acquiring him, he essentially flipped him to SD for linebrink…luckily for us in retrospect, SD pulled the deal at the last minute…to me, I can’t see how that proves ollie was the guy omar really wanted, unless he only really wanted him to flip him…
True, I completely forgot about the almost-was Linebrink trade.
I refer to Perez as a throw-in not because he was “the last player added.” That has nothing to do with somebody being a throw-in. He was a throw in because Perez was NOT the guy Omar wanted all along. It was Roberto Hernandez. At the time, there was no reason to assume Oliver would be able to return to dominant form or be a viable option for the rotation. Not to mention the fact that this was before El Duque bailed on us before the playoffs, and we needed his spot filled. The primary goal was to fill the huge void left by Duaner. In my opinion, getting Perez was a complete afterthought, but one that I don’t think he or any Met fan regrets.
Who cares about the reason a trade went through?
Was Steve Phillips a brilliant GM for drafting David Wright or was he a horrible GM for trying to trade him straight up for Jose Cruz Jr? Everyone gets lucky sometimes, but you have to judge him on the success of the deals and not the intention at the time.
I’m sorry, but you should care about his intentions when making trades.
Omar made the Nady trade, and got lucky by getting Perez. And that’s great, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. But if you keep making strange trades like that, more often than not, you’re not going to get that lucky. Omar struck gold with guys like Maine and Perez, who were afterthoughts. But chance isn’t always going to fall in our favor, and you can’t rely on it to get the job done.
I love when people get on omar for trading nady away without giving him credit for getting him in the first place. which is it??
Yes and John Maine was also a throw in. good thing we can’t give Omar any credit for our two aces (well, technically, three, but I don’t think johan will even be the best pitcher on staff this season)
I truly feel bad for Pirates fans. For all of our complaining, we as Mets fans can at least enter each season with an optimism that is somewhat rooted in reality. I can only imagine the hopelessness of Pirates fans even before a single game has been played because there appears to be zero interest on the part of ownership to put a competitive product on the field year after year.
They haven’t been the same since Ralph Kiner left.
Why do I get a feeling that a topic like this is only going to lead to uneccesary “baiting” between the “sunshiners” and the Debbie downers around here?
Bottom line, the post a few up from here nails it. Omar is not one of the worst GM nor is he the best, but he’s done more bad than good and if a Pirates blog wants to vote on that, let them. There are scores of GMs who are contantly put on a pedastel by the mainstream sports media who have made just as many mistakes with giving away young talent, or relying on aging talent, as Minaya has.
Omar has done more bad than good? Would you rather have the team that Omar inherited, or the one he has built?
I will take the ‘08 Mets over the pre-Omar Mets any day.
That was a typo on my end. More good than bad. I’m sure people who have followed my posts around here the alst few years did a double-take. My apologies for the confusion.
the pre-omar mets had a lot of talent. if omar never made a move the team would look like:
c: flores
1b: jacobs
2b: keppinger
3b: wright
ss: reyes
lf: gomez or floyd
cf: cameron
rf: milledge
more bad than good? I’m soprry, but is the current team and organization in general better now than in 2004 when Omar was brought in? That would be a resounding yes and there is no way to argue otherwise.
I’m soprry, but is the current team and organization in general better now than in 2004 when Omar was brought in? That would be a resounding yes and there is no way to argue otherwise.
Your standard for a good GM is “better than Steve Phillips”? It wouldn’t take much to improve on those Mets teams that were flushing millions down the toilet on Mo Vaughn, Roger Cedeno, Roberto Alomar, Rey Ordonez, and so on, especially with two inherited superstars (David Wright and Jose Reyes) about to make impact.
but those two inherited superstars were phillips guys. Heilman too. You have to give him credit for that one signing and 2 draft picks if you are going to kill him for everything else.
Thanks for the link, Matthew.
I’m not sure if you all have noticed, but in the past year the Pirates have replaced their team president, GM, manager, scouting director, farm director… They’ve also announced plans to build a $5 million new facility in the Dominican. Criticism of the on-field product is of course utterly deserved, but the “what is the ownership doing” line of critique is a bit behind the times.
By the way, the backstory here is that a blogging friend who writes about the Dodgers did a similar “worst GM” tournament two years ago, and my blog and another big Pirates blog actually pointed our readers to it so we could vote for Dave Littlefield, who then “won” the tournament in a walk. Most serious Pirates fans are acutely aware of the team’s shortcomings. If we want to celebrate a bit for finally ridding ourselves of one of the worst GMs in big-league history, I think we’ve earned the right.
Also, why should the Pirates have to be well-run for me to claim that other GMs are bad? I am not the Pirates, and when Littlefield was running the team into the ground, no one was more critical of them than me.
hey man, was just about to write the same thing (although you did it much better then I could have.. as I dont really read much about your team… just pick up a little here and there).
From what I understand, the new GM is very into sabermetrics and has been working hard to change the overall attitude in that organization.
good luck to you guys (but not too much luck)!
Thanks.
I hope you didn’t take my post the wrong way. I was speaking explicitly about the on-the-filed product and wasn’t aware of some of the organizational moves you mentioned. As you might expect, my familiarity with the day-to-day as far as the Pirates go is somewhat limited. I’m glad to hear they are stepping up their efforts to develop, assess and hopefully to retain young talent.
Best of luck in ‘08!
Nah, no offense taken. Thanks for the kind words, and good luck to you too.
the mets were a joke from 2001-2004. they are one of the best in the nl the last 3 years. that tells you what you need to know about omar. he’s far from perfect, but that’s true of all the good gm’s
For anyone to be nominating Omar as the worst GM in baseball…you’re officially out of touch with the rest of baseball. Hello? Wayne Krivsky anyone? Jon Daniels? Brian Sabean? Ed Wade? Whoever the heck is the GM of the Marlins this month? IMO, Omar is a middle of the road, just above average GM. He’s not great nor terrible. And actually yes, I think I would take him over Jim Hendry (who got the bright idea of hiring Dusty Baker as a manager…ya *really* think we got it as bad with Willie?).
And FWIW, Minaya only has 16% of the vote as being worse. Hendry has 83%. I didn’t vote because neither guy deserves to be the worst GM. Still, VERY radical split. Either Mets homerism, fatalistic Cubs fans, or (probably) a combo of both to help that out.