Yesterday's press conference regarding the Wagner trade and the Santana injury was rehearsed. Apparently Mets GM Omar Minaya was instructed to stick to the script, which allowed the press conference to last 12 minutes and 20 seconds.
Joel Sherman - NY Post does an autopsy on Minaya's press conference, pointing out some disturbing facts:
Minaya could not remember the elbow injury Johan had during Spring Training, in which his opening day start was in jeopardy.
Minaya did not remember the medical results of the exam on Santana's elbow, just prior to the All Star Break.
At the time of the press conference, Minaya had a call in to Santana, but had not yet spoken to him about the results of Johan's exam.
Lastly Sherman says it was inexplicable letting Johan continue to pitch with the discomfort in his arm.
Minaya, who has been out of the press conference business since The Bernazard Fiasco, once again stumbled and stammered for 12 minutes 20 seconds.
Now, I'm not one to kill Omar for his lack of Public Speaking expertise, but the one glaring fact is that Omar, for quite some time, has been unprepared for his media conferences, which makes him look incompetent in dealing with issues. Whether this is true or not, all one needs to do is to look through his public comments and conferences, along with the ineptitude of handling injuries and complete incompetence in communicating not only through the press, but through his own organization, and it makes one wonder.
Omar made the team better when he came on board at the end of the 2004 season, but the Mets have failed in getting better.
In 2005 they under achieved. Granted, this is my opinion, and they did better in '05 than in '04, but to me, they didn't do as well as I had expected.
In 2006 they almost got there. They had a real good season, winning 97 games, but were upset by the eventual World Champion Cardinals. After so many down years, 2006 was great progress.
Then we get to both 2007 and 2008 where our team fell apart, and blew late season leads, to not only finish up poorly, but to have the play-off door slam in their face, leaving them on the outside looking in.
This year isn't all the fault of Minaya. These sort of injuries would have killed the cross town Yankees too.
My issue the lack of progression and the lack of quality minor league development. That rests on Omar's shoulders.
In defense of Omar, regardless of what he says, he does not have autonomy. Jeff Wilpon is pulling the strings and calling the shots.
I keep thinking back to Nelson Doubleday's comments when he sold his remaining shares of the Mets to partner Fred Wilpon:
"Mr. Jeff Wilpon has decided that he's going to learn how to run a baseball team and take over at the end of the year. Run for the hills, boys. I think probably all those baseball people will bail."
These comments were made in back in 2003, and still remain true today. The Wilpon's might be real good people; I'm not saying they aren't. I just believe they are ill equipped to run a baseball team. They need to hire people who know how to run the baseball business and build the team (Gerry Hunsicker?); to build the minor league system so that they have talent for not only the present, but for the future. Omar and the Wilpon's have failed in this regard. Daniel Murphy is the only player under Minaya's watch that is an everyday player that has made it to the bigs and plays on a consistent level.
Five years is enough time to have built a team better. Yes, there was credibility in '06, and somewhat '07, but the last two years...
Whether Sherman's take is accurate or not, it does raise some frightening issues. With Minaya's stammering, stuttering, and ramblings, makes you wonder if the baseball business is conducted in this same manner.
I was in Omar's corner for some time, but the tide is shifting. For this team to be competitive, one of two things must happen:
The Wilpon's need to sell the Mets or
The Wilpon's need to let Omar (or Ricco, or whomever) run the baseball business without interference.
I don't see either happening under the present leadership.
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