The Crane Pool Forum

Inspired by JCL's post in the other thread.

Who was the worst GM in recent Mets history?


Suspended for IL Manipulation GM



DUI GM



Dick Pic GM



Jeff Wilpon PR Guy GM



Was not at all expecting to get the job GM

After this,we can have a poll to determine which of these recent GM's was the best base-runner. Tournament! It's a tournament! I can't wait.

For those inclined to write in.


I traded Kazmir GM



Sexual Harassment GM

Is this about their character? Or about their performance as GM? Jared Porter wasn't around for long, and his character is certainly questionable, but he did swing the trade for Francisco Lindor.

Similar to the TCD, the reader should apply their own criteria.

It just struck me how many idiots we've had heading our ball club.

I went with Brodie.

Steve Phillips gets negative points for violating the vows of his marriage in order to doink a fat Star Wars fan and then get caught with his hands in her "Death Star."

Modern times it's probably Phillips or Minaya. I can't really demerit some of the short term guys because they likely were just following orders and/or working with established protocols set in place by their predecessors. Although honorable mention for the 'GM' group of the second Alderson run.

But Phillips and/or Minaya were specifically old-school in a rapidly changing environment that put the Mets behind the 8-ball for years and years to catch up. Although those things always look worse in hindsight because you can sort of see the whole trajectory of how things ultimately worked out. Like a world where the Mets actually just "pay the man" to A-Rod, who put up 8 more rWAR than Ordonez in 2001, a season the Mets lost the division by 6 wins.

In retrospect, 2002 feels like a "fake rebuild" year, with Alomar meant to be a "star" to tide us over. Jives with the ownership shuffling happening. Maybe none of that happens with a successful 2001 and a playoff berth. Maybe they keep rolling. With A-Rod here and Reyes looking promising, they probably don't trade for Alomar, OR sign Matsui.

A-Rod had 27 fWAR in 2001-2003. The Mets totaled 4.9 from ALL their SS. 2.2 of that from Reyes' 2003 debut.

It's hard to imagine a singular decision having as big as swing as that.

I see Jim Duquette on SNY all the time, but I can't say I remember anything specific about his time as the GM. What were his signature deals? I'll have to look it up, unless someone posts something here before I get around to it.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: ↑Thu Nov 14, 2024 4:28 pm I see Jim Duquette on SNY all the time, but I can't say I remember anything specific about his time as the GM. What were his signature deals? I'll have to look it up, unless someone posts something here before I get around to it.

Kazmir for Victor Zambrano. It's bad, not just for the trade in itself, but severely undervaluing the value that Kazmir had around the league. One of the biggest undersells in Mets history.

Every once in a while you will see a Jim Duquette trade proposal and you'll realize that the trade was no accident. If left in power, he would have done something worse.

Okay, I looked it up.

Here are some of Duquette's most "high-profile" deals:

Free agent signings include Mike Cameron, Kaz Matsui, Braden Looper, Todd Zeile (second time with Mets), Scott Erickson, Ricky Bottalico, and James Baldwin.

Notable trades:
New York Mets traded Timo Perez to the Chicago White Sox for Matt Ginter.
New York Mets traded Roger Cedeno to the St. Louis Cardinals for Wilson Delgado and Chris Widger.
New York Mets traded Scott Kazmir and Joselo Diaz to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for Victor Zambrano and Bartolome Fortunato.
New York Mets traded Ty Wigginton, Jose Bautista and Matt Peterson to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Kris Benson and Jeff Keppinger.

Not a whole lot to brag about.

He was GM from October of 2003 until he was replace by Omar Minaya twelve months later.

Omar certainly made some big impactful deals, bringing in (off the top of my head) Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez, Carlos Delgado, Moises Alou, Johan Santana, and others.

It's not an easy call. Eppler's 75 wins with the ludicrous payroll was impressive in a bad way, but the team won 101 games on his watch the season before.

I'm going to go with Zack Scott, because trading Pete Crow-Armstrong for two months of Javier Baez when it was clear that DeGrom wasn't coming back still has the potential to be the most regrettable move the team has made since the Kazmir trade, if not even worse.

And Eppler should get some credit for the way he restocked the prospect list when he traded Scherzer and Verlander.

Is the team supposed to hire a general manager this offseason?

I think I read that they're not planning on doing that, but I may be remembering from last year.

We heard later that Duquette thought he was getting Carlos Zambrano in the Kazmir deal.
That is unforgivable for a GM.

Later

I voted "Other."

Joe McDonald was general manager from October 1974 until 1978, possibly the worst era in Mets history. The expansionn era doesn't count. I know he was a longtime team employee serving in every role possible. And he was working with an ownership group that was, at best, antiquated and out of step with reality. But the June 15 massacre occurred on his watch, and those late 1970s teams were abysmal. Give him points for being a good soldier, but he was at the helm with the team became a disaster.

I don't think Brodie gets a little bit of a bad rap. Not perfect by a long shot. But not the worst.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: ↑Thu Nov 14, 2024 4:54 pm

He was GM from October of 2003 until he was replace by Omar Minaya twelve months later.

Omar certainly made some big impactful deals, bringing in (off the top of my head) Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez, Carlos Delgado, Moises Alou, Johan Santana, and others.

Omar made brilliant trades and signed dumb contracts, which was probably why he was such a success with a team where he couldn't sign big contracts.

The trades that brought in Luis Castillo and Oliver Perez were inspired. Particularly the Perez trade. The Duaner Sanchez freak accident had left the team desperate, and Omar managed to turn Xavier Nady, who didn't do much for the Mets and did even less after, into Perez and Roberto Hernandez. They were both key contributors in 2006.

Signing Perez and Castillo to big contracts after the season was, of course, less inspired.

Omar also traded Brian Bannister for Ambiorix Burgos, so not every trade he made was brilliant. But his signature move was taking on Adam Rubin "has lobby." That really should have embarrassed the organization every bit as much as a drunk-driving incident.

I voted for Brodie but hadn't given it much thought. Smg makes a convincing argument for Zack Scott.

MFS62 wrote: ↑Fri Nov 15, 2024 10:10 am We heard later that Duquette thought he was getting Carlos Zambrano in the Kazmir deal.
That is unforgivable for a GM.

I don't believe there's a shred of evidence that that's true

I don't believe that for a minute either.

Omar also made the very stupid JJ Putz trade, giving up Heilman, Jason Vargas, Joe Smith and Endy Chavez, among others, for an out-of-shape injured reliever and two other worthless players (Jeremy Reed and Sean Green)

JJ didn't like the 8th inning as I recall

What do you do when your veteran name-brand closer gets hurt and your team collapses down the stretch?

If you are Omar, you try to go out and get two name-brand closers for the next season.

I look at a lot of the Mets in first decade or so of the 21st century as putting too much focus on trying to solve last year`s problem.

Wilpons were more concerned with the appearance of addressing problems than addressing problems.