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Memories of Omar Minaya

John Cougar Lunchbucket Oct 04 2010 12:28 PM

* Hilariously awful behind a lectern. And only worse once he got comfortable! * "Show me talent, and I'll show you on-base percentage."

Benjamin Grimm Oct 04 2010 12:30 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Wait... who's Omar?

G-Fafif Oct 04 2010 12:30 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Inventor of the Adam Rubin Lobby. Was very good at taking victory lap: everywhere I went, like the bagel store, people told me to get relievers and I got K-Rod and J.J. Putz. Grew up near Shea but wasn't really a Mets fan.

metirish Oct 04 2010 12:33 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

The energy of his hiring , the 2006 season, the cover of SI with the players......his sideline gig with Rosetta Stone .

Edgy DC Oct 04 2010 12:41 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Loved a good bullpen arm. Seemed to thrive on scouting amateur talent and was perhaps less comfortable in the big chair. In fact, that could also explain some of his mistakes --- viewing established major leaguers (Perez, Burgos, Francoeur) through the lens of a talent scout, and seeing what they could become, instead of what they had become.

metsguyinmichigan Oct 04 2010 12:44 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Brought pride back after the Art Howe disasters. Getting Pedro and then Beltran. Had that one terrible off-season, but made some very good trades. Was nice to me when I met his at spring training game. Signed my Mets history book and everything.

Benjamin Grimm Oct 04 2010 12:46 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Played the Johan Santana trade market very nicely. Sure, there was some luck involved, but swinging that deal defied some pretty steep odds.

HahnSolo Oct 04 2010 12:54 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

The meeting with the press in Washington right around the time of the Bernazard firing.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Oct 04 2010 12:57 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: * Hilariously awful behind a lectern. And only worse once he got comfortable! Explosively, hilariously awful. Like diarrhea, not like fireworks. "We have a plan, and our plan... I like our plan."

bmfc1 Oct 04 2010 01:08 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

September 17, 2007. I'm standing behind the Mets dugout at RFK waiting for the game to begin. I'm worried about the Mets starter, Brian Lawrence, and wondering how the Mets could have such a lousy pitcher starting such a big game. Omar walks by, a little grin on his face, and I'm thinking "it's his fault." http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes ... 9170.shtml

Gwreck Oct 04 2010 01:27 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Dr. Joseph and Jeffrey Dello Russo. Everybody remembers the big deals. The little stuff that bothered me: Giving out contracts/picking up options for 1 year too many: Julio Franco Marlon Anderson Orlando Hernandez Moises Alou Damion Easley Alex Cora Failing to re-sign Chad Bradford but giving the same 3-year deal to Scott Schoeneweis.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Oct 04 2010 01:32 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Gwreck wrote: Everybody remembers the big deals. The little stuff that bothered me: Giving out contracts/picking up options for 1 year too many: Julio Franco Marlon Anderson Orlando Hernandez Moises Alou Damion Easley Alex Cora Weirdly, he got much better at these, and not a little worse at the bigger stuff, as the tenure wore on. And really, the bigger stuff is just this stuff writ large-- bad valuation leading to bad player choices, followed by overbuying those guys.

Edgy DC Oct 04 2010 01:48 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

September 17, 2007. I'm standing behind the Mets dugout at RFK waiting for the game to begin. I'm worried about the Mets starter, Brian Lawrence, and wondering how the Mets could have such a lousy pitcher starting such a big game. Omar walks by, a little grin on his face, and I'm thinking "it's his fault." http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes ... 9170.shtml I had forgotten about Aaron Sele.

smg58 Oct 04 2010 01:53 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

He definitely had his ups and downs. I think people forget that he did everything right in the 05-06 offseason. People also tend to get on his case for not doing enough big things, but the little things in the 06-07 offseason were what set the team back. That year, and his willingness to badly overpay to hold on to easily replaceable parts, did him in.

Willets Point Oct 04 2010 01:56 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

I always thought he was good at big things - signing Martinez & Beltran, trading for Santana, et al - but poor at getting the supporting cast for the big stars (often erring to players with impressive track records who were on the verge of precipitous decline or already declining).

Ceetar Oct 04 2010 02:06 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Willets Point wrote: I always thought he was good at big things - signing Martinez & Beltran, trading for Santana, et al - but poor at getting the supporting cast for the big stars (often erring to players with impressive track records who were on the verge of precipitous decline or already declining). I agree with this. I always felt he was one extra reliever away from a good pen, or always chose the 'safe/boring/crappy' bench guys when something creative would've worked better. I'd say teh turning point to me was when he rewarded the cheating bum Mota, who was one of the biggest culprits in '06, and gave the long contract to Schoe. Also how he refused to even call up a Buffalo reliever in '07 when Willie was wearing out the sucky guys that were sucking. (If I recall Colazzo and Muniz were both pitching well down there)

Edgy DC Oct 04 2010 02:09 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

He had a good pen, pretty much his whole tenure. What he didn't have is the manager to manage it well, or frequently, the offense to take the heat off of it.

Ceetar Oct 04 2010 02:11 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Edgy DC wrote: He had a good pen, pretty much his whole tenure. What he didn't have is the manager to manage it well, or frequently, the offense to take the heat off of it. I'm simplfying. "good enough" pen? "Better" pen? While this is probably the case of every team, I always felt they could've used one more guy. (and with the possible exception of Manuel, who may have kept post-interim by others, he hired that manager/offense)

Edgy DC Oct 04 2010 02:20 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

It is the case with every team. The Mets pen was fine. One more guy or four mour guys wouldn't have helped. The Mets had one the top third most successful bullpens in baseball this season while Jerry continually lamented it. They also lost their closer and probably got better after.

metirish Oct 04 2010 02:24 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

I think Omar did plenty of the small fill in trades/signings too, as noted elsewhere he tended to keep them for that extra season. It just never all came together.

metsmarathon Oct 04 2010 02:26 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Willets Point wrote: I always thought he was good at big things - signing Martinez & Beltran, trading for Santana, et al - but poor at getting the supporting cast for the big stars (often erring to players with impressive track records who were on the verge of precipitous decline or already declining). i would say that omar was pretty good at reeling in the big fish that he cast after, and was fairly creative in trolling the shallower pools, but did a terrible job of catching the kinds of fish you could put round out a meal with. he'd pay wild salmon prices for canned sardines, all while the sockeyes are runnin' up in alaska.

metirish Oct 04 2010 02:28 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

metsmarathon wrote: Willets Point wrote: I always thought he was good at big things - signing Martinez & Beltran, trading for Santana, et al - but poor at getting the supporting cast for the big stars (often erring to players with impressive track records who were on the verge of precipitous decline or already declining). i would say that omar was pretty good at reeling in the big fish that he cast after, and was fairly creative in trolling the shallower pools, but did a terrible job of catching the kinds of fish you could put round out a meal with. he'd pay wild salmon prices for canned sardines, all while the sockeyes are runnin' up in alaska. Not sure if you are trying to be funny so if not don't take this as an insult......but I'm dying over here.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Oct 04 2010 02:33 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

metsmarathon wrote: Willets Point wrote: I always thought he was good at big things - signing Martinez & Beltran, trading for Santana, et al - but poor at getting the supporting cast for the big stars (often erring to players with impressive track records who were on the verge of precipitous decline or already declining). i would say that omar was pretty good at reeling in the big fish that he cast after, and was fairly creative in trolling the shallower pools, but did a terrible job of catching the kinds of fish you could put round out a meal with. he'd pay wild salmon prices for canned sardines, all while the sockeyes are runnin' up in alaska. All of a sudden, I've got a hankering. For some steak.

Centerfield Oct 04 2010 02:39 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Always felt he lacked imagination. Could make the simple signing, and seemed personable enough to reel in the big fish, but showed an inability to anticipate problems or come up with creative solutions. I've said it before, seemed like a C student.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Oct 04 2010 03:04 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Yeah, always too tempted to the big easy solution (Francisco Rodriguez = $aves!!) and [crossout:2y6d71rs]not great[/crossout:2y6d71rs] horrible at shifting gears on the fly to the point where he left himself no outs when things didn't break exactly as he hoped.

metsguyinmichigan Oct 04 2010 03:44 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Snake-bitten, too. Pedro and Deque going down before the playoffs probably did more damage than anything else. If Goggles doesn't take a taxi in Miami....No one could have predicted the mountain of injuries in 2009. He didn't have the people to back up those folks

Valadius Oct 04 2010 04:57 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Rebuilt the farm system, completely underrated by the media on that front. Horrendously awful on the free agent front (and Bernazard didn't help) but did well on trades.

Willets Point Oct 04 2010 05:45 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

metsmarathon wrote: i would say that omar was pretty good at reeling in the big fish that he cast after, and was fairly creative in trolling the shallower pools, but did a terrible job of catching the kinds of fish you could put round out a meal with. he'd pay wild salmon prices for canned sardines, all while the sockeyes are runnin' up in alaska. metsmarathon has become awfully folksy.

Zvon Oct 04 2010 06:49 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

I'm just very disappointed in him is all. I expected him to be right up there with the best GMs we ever had. There are still some residual results yet to be from his tenure that might shine him in a kinder light in the future.

Edgy DC Oct 04 2010 07:00 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

He is right up there with the best GMs we've ever had. It's just time for a competitive team to move forward. GM-ing is hard.

Fman99 Oct 04 2010 08:17 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Got yelled at on an airplane. Called out Adam Rubin. Spoke English like he had a ball-gag stuffed in his mouth.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Oct 04 2010 08:46 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Didn't learn from his mistakes (Wagner, then Rodriguez) Replaced a subpar manager with a different subpar manager

Edgy DC Oct 04 2010 08:57 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

No sex scandals. Tended to say knowha'mean during pressers early in his tenure. Caught a lot of terribly unfair and reckless flack (almost from the beginning to end) accusing him (directly or through insinuation) of putting remaking the Mets as a Hispanic-oriented team ahead of competitiveness.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Oct 04 2010 09:16 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

up. That said, the promise of Pedro Martinez's signing making the Mets a preferred destination for the Youth of Latin America didn't really come to fruition during his tenure. It could though, were he assigned to that mission on a full-time basis.

metirish Nov 19 2010 01:28 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Per Rubin The Arizona Diamondbacks have offered Omar Minaya a position as a special assistant to GM Kevin Towers, although Minaya has not yet decided, the Wa Street Journal reported The former Mets GM is due to make $1.1 milliona season through 2012

John Cougar Lunchbucket Nov 19 2010 01:34 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

metirish wrote: Per Rubin The Arizona Diamondbacks have offered Omar Minaya a position as a special assistant to GM Kevin Towers, although Minaya has not yet decided, the Wa Street Journal reported The former Mets GM is due to make $1.1 milliona season through 2012 WoW. He could be taking Roco Brogna's old role!

Lefty Specialist Nov 19 2010 02:35 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Can't wait to read his new book:

Ashie62 Nov 19 2010 02:59 PM Re: Memories of Omar Minaya

Can't wait to read his new book: Where is Chico Esquela?