A G.M. We Just Might Still Want To Keep

By Matt Himelfarb
Posted Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Flushing University has not been kind enough to Omar Minaya this off-season.

No, wait a minute, scratch my woeful euphemism; Flushing University has, probably, without my personal approval, sent a letter entitled “F.U.” that contains a list of grievances supported by the rationale of an eight-year-old and elaborated with language inappropriate for anyone under the age of five.

We have, after all, blamed Omar for not making effective change in certain areas, when there is no apparent improvement to be made. Not to mention the fact that our beloved Grand Poobah, Mike McGann, seemed to liken Omar’s trip to Israel in the midst of crazy season to Dubya taking yet another vacation, whereas I am sure Omar’s capability of acquiring Johan Santana while trying to teach Israeli and Palestinian children how to play baseball in the Holy Land is far greater than making foreign policy decisions in Crawford, Texas.

Which is why, after two largely anti-Omar and supposedly nitpicking laden columns, I must say; Omar has gotten crap where it is least deserved.

We have already debated what Omar should have seen (Heath Bell and his exorbitantly high BABIP) and what is simply fan 20/20 hindsight (Matt Lindstrom, Henry Owens). We have already examined, torn apart, and dissected Omar’s reasoning and that of our own for the Milledge-Church deal, among others.

But what “The Collapse,” and by that I mean the destruction of production from nearly every key member of the team Omar assembled for 2007, really allowed fans to do was try and point the finger at Omar as the origin of the Mets fall, and move beyond the glory of 2005 and 2006 and prove that Omar really was a short-term thinker with little knowledge of major league talent. In essence, fans are still debating the results of what has already happened.

The Carlos Delgado trade was the first of these moves and by far the most interesting, since, unlike Jose Reyes and David Wright, the Mets actually dealt highly rated young talent (Mike Jacobs and Yusmerio Petit, along with Grant Psomas) in return for a proven veteran such as Delgado.

It was hard not to think big of Jacobs, whose sweet left-handed swing, and needless to say not luck, largely won him the first base job down the stretch after posting a .310/.375/.710 line along with 11 home runs in exactly 100 at-bats with the Mets in 2005. Omar pulled the trigger on the deal in early November, likely citing concerns over his plate discipline in the minor leagues, though I myself thought his power potential was enough to subsidize for them.

Yusmerio Petit was at the time the Mets most highly sought after pitching prospect in the organization, after posting a 2.91 era, 28.7% K rate and 4% BB rate in AA Binghamton while relying on junk and deception to fool inexperienced hitters. Before falling into the trap of an organization player, the 22-year-old Psomas showed some promise, posting a .305/.383/.427 line with A+ St. Lucie.

Although skepticism of the deal reached an all-time high after Delgado’s lackluster 2007, there has never been more evidence in support of the deal. The Mets won the division in 2006 by a 12-game landslide, and Delgado was responsible for nearly half of those victories. Jacobs failed to improve upon his successful 2006 campaign, (.262/.322/.473) and his stark improvement vs. southpaws (.290/.333/.486) had no substantial effect on his overall production. Finally, Omar sold high on Petit, whose soft tossing approached failed to work upon his first taste of AAA, let alone the majors, and appears to be nothing more than a middle reliever.

A few weeks later, Omar swung another deal that I was against at the time, sending 19-year-old pitching prospect Gaby Hernandez along with organizational trucker Dante Brinkley, to, once again, the Florida Marlins, this time for catcher Paul Lo Duca. Following the departure of the revered Mike Piazza, I believed that Omar saw a catching replacement as far too much of a pressing need and therefore overpaid while there were other possible options. Ok, so you might expect me to say the Mets should have avoided Lo Duca at all costs, but the fact is Lo Duca was one of the better catchers in the game in 2006 (.318/.351/.428) while once again, Omar managed to sell high on Hernandez, who has put up largely mediocre numbers in the minors since 2005 and now has the ceiling of a number three starter.

And allow me to pull just one more 360 here with the slightest sarcasm: the deal sending Brian Bannister to the Kansas City Royals for Ambiorix Burgos is what Bill Clinton would call, “the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen.” No, we still do not like the trade anymore than when we denounced Omar for not looking into Burgos’s past makeup problems, but we find it far more inconsequential than just about every other fan out there. While his 12-9, 3.87 era. looks nice on a last place Royals team, Bannister’s strikeout rate is below average (11.3%) and his FIP in 2007 was much higher (4.47).Bannister is a mediocre pitcher who will have a mediocre career. Case closed.

Of course, this does not take away from all the bashing Omar and Co. deserved from the veteran- friendly, knee-jerk approach I believe he has taken in other deals. But what it does prove is that Omar has shown the ability to utilize several market techniques and his success was no short-term aberration. When Omar’s job is on the line by the all-star break, let us hope the Wilpons take an objective view on his entire record.

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