NY Sports Dog: Omar is Wilpon's Guy

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Omar is Wilpon's Guy


Bart Hubbach reported the following from Fred Wilpon in response to a question from The Post's Mike Puma: "Am I going to bring Omar [Minaya] back next year? Absolutely. That's a fact."

Oh boy.

Let's look at some of Omar's memorable moves, both good and bad...as you look through the list you will see some real doozies, including the trade for Bartolo Colon in exchange for Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips and Cliff Lee that might be, in my opinion, the worst trade of all time!

As GM of the Expos

As GM of the Mets

The noise Omar made in 2009 was primarily to throw some money around--he did this to acquire Frankie Rodriguez and to re-sign Ollie Perez. He also went cheap on the 5th starter, signing Tim Redding and Livan Hernandez. I liked the pickup of Alex Cora for the bench and the trade of Scott Shoeneweis.

The "big trade" of 2009 was an Omar creation--and I did like the trade at the time though I wish we had managed to hold on to Mike Carp, long a favorite of mine--The New York Mets sent Aaron Heilman, Endy Chavez, and Mike Carp to the Mariners and Joe Smith to the Indians in return for JJ Putz(closer), Sean Green(RP), and Jeremy Reed(OF). The Mets also dealt 3 other minor leaguers, including Jason Vargas.

The trade itself has actually failed for each team--Jason Vargas is 3-6 with a high ERA for Seattle--Endy Chavez went down for the season with an ACL--Joe Smith had a poor first half, and he is pitching well now--Aaron Heilman's been a huge disappointment. Franklin Gutierrez has been the best value of the whole deal--he's having a very good season for Seattle.

For the Mets the trade was supposed to be addition by subtraction, but it really hasn't worked out at all.

JJ Putz cost money for very little return, and his future is in doubt following surgery. Jeremy Reed is a dime a dozen player. Sean Green has flashed hot and cold.

The in-season trade of note was swapping Ryan Church for Jeff Francoeur--by all accounts this looks like a good move for both teams.

Bottom line is that Omar is from a GM school that is somewhat old fashioned--he likes to spend money--he likes older veterans--I believe he undervalues prospects and needs to learn to draft out of slot. I also think he fails when it comes to measuring players using newer, more advanced stats--something that is so commonplace these days.

The thing with Omar is it's not just the moves he makes--and again, he has made some good ones--but he has drafted poorly.

Remember, this is the guy who, in 2002, passed over Cole Hamels, Prince Fielder, Zach Grienke, James Loney, Jeremy Guthrie, Nick Swisher, Jeff Francoeur, Matt Cain, Joe Blanton and Scott Kazmir in order to take Clint Everts 5th overall.

So if we're to believe the Wilpon's it looks like the Mets will have Minaya at the helm for a few more years--that's unfortunate.
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1 comment:

Unknown said...

Here is my major beef with Omar. I think that GM's who have been successful over a long stretch (John Schuerholz, Billy Beane)keep their farm systems full with good prospects by trading their stars. Andruw Jones comes to mind. Tim Hudson also comes to mind. The Mets should have traded Carlos Delgado while his value was high at the end of the season last year. The odds were good that he was going to get hurt too. Jose Reyes may have peaked and they should consider trading hhim too. Another beef is that Omar tends to overvalue prosects. When the Mets were trying to trade for a top flight pitcher. Lastings MIlledge always came up but we held on to him to long. We should think about F-Mart in the same light!!!

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