Castillo was a mistake of truly historic proportions, but, to the Mets’ credit, at least we played other guys at the end of the year, and Murphy is playing 2B in winter ball. If Slappy is still around, he will probably be a very expensive backup in 2009. Slappy did have a good career until the last two years, and played on good teams, and I think it was a good move when we picked him up. But that 4-year extension was utter insanity.

I like Ollie a lot too, but wonder what he would be like after getting the mas sive payday…but I do not think the door is closed on getting him back.

And your last sentence could not say it any better.

Sorry if I overreacted to your original post, which maybe did not really enunciate your overall ideas.

My problem is with guys like Luis Castillo. That was a MAJOR, MAJOR mistake on Omar’s part and for the life of me, I CANNOT think of a BASEBALL reason why he signed Castillo to a FOUR YEAR DEAL!! THAT is the kind of deal that makes me question Omar’s vision. You don’t think that David Eckstein would have signed a 4 year deal to play second base here? That probably would have been a bad deal too, but don’t you think we could have gotten more than 73 hits out of Eckstein?

I’ll take an all Latin team if it’s made up of winners — guys that can play the game. I stand behind what I said. Remember last year? Reed Johnson wasn’t good enough for the Mets to take a shot on — for nothing! He may not be great, but he played with the division winning Cubs ALL year and hit .300. You don’t think having him in left field everyday would have resulted in an extra 2 or 3 wins over the course of the season? How much did the Mets lose the division by?

I think Omar should invest in good players no mater what their race or nationality is.

And from all accounts, KRod is VERY fiery, and Ibanez is an excellent clubhouse guy.

Delgado is not a vocal leader, in my opinion, because he is not a vocal leader, not because of his ethnicity. And I would say that Beltran IS a leader, he is just not a rah-rah type guy.

And as for Omar’s “comfort level” with Latino players, perhaps that is part of the reason we have Santana and Beltran, two of the very best in the game at their positions, and why Reyes signed a VERY reasonable long-term extension.

The thing is, I wouldn’t care if the whole team was latino, except I’m concerned about the chemistry. We don’t need another Beltran or Delgado type in the clubhouse. We need a fiery vocal leader. You can’t win with a bunch of quiet nice guys. And it’s unfair that David Wright has to bear the burden of every media inquest — not only because he’s one of the most popular and accessible Mets, but because he is one of only a handful that will actually talk to the media and give thoughtful answers rather than the same brief cliche.

Maybe Hudson is the guy to shake things up. What do I know. I just think that Omar has tunnel vision sometimes. I really think that his “comfort level” with the latin players can sometimes cloud his vision and cause him to close his mind to other options. That’s the way I see it watching the Mets for 40 years. If someone wants to be self righteous and say that’s a bigoted attitude then what can I say? At least for now we are still allowed to have an opinion and express it in this country.

Also must be one of those fans that only knows his own team and does not realize the same things happen to other teams every year. Like a coach coming back to haunt you, an awful trade, a bad player succeeding elsewhere, etc.

And this hasn’t even happened.