A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
Mets Moves

On August 1, just after the awful trades of almost all of the Mets' top prospects, I wrote:

"The Mets won't win with [Jim] Duquette or Art Howe. They should replace both at season's end with Omar Minaya and (former Mets player and coach and current Triple A manager) John Stearns. Should but won't." More recently, on the day Art Howe was fired, I wrote, "Ideally, Bobby Valentine would be rehired... Bobby V would restore credibility to the Mets. If, as is much more likely, the Mets decide to go with a cheaper alternative, Willie Randolph and John Stearns would be two of my top choices for the job."

I was in Israel when Minaya was hired and have no idea what public or media reaction has been, but I certainly am pleased. The Wilpons had little respect for Jim Duquette and didn't let him do his job. For his part, Duquette came across as far too much of a yes man, unlike Brian Cashman of the Yankees, who has stood his ground against George Steinbrenner. Still, Duquette did get a raw deal being fired as GM and essentially being demoted back to his old job as assistant GM after only a season and a half, after the Mets for years refused to allow him to interview for GM positions with other teams even as they let Minaya and Gerry Hunsicker leave their assistant GM positions to become the GM of the Expos and Astros, respectively.

Will the Wilpons really let Minaya have "full autonomy"? I doubt it. Almost nothing the Wilpons promise remains in place a year later. But they will likely give him more autonomy than they gave Duquette to work out a long-term plan to make the Mets competitive again. Minaya's trades as Expos GM haven't all been good ones, but with a 5 year deal he'll be more secure to position the Mets for long-term success than Duquette or Steve Phillips ever were.

I still don't think the Mets will bring back Valentine, though I'm sure he'd come back if offered a 3 year deal. The move would be a gamble; Valentine wasn't effective in 2002, but I think he'd get something out of young guys like Victor Diaz, Eric Valent, Jeff Keppinger and Craig Brazell as well as a couple of young pitchers. Howe was obsessed with ensuring that Todd Zeile reached 2000 career hits, and in the process let Zeile bat 348 times for a .233 average, while Valent, whose performance was far superior, inexcusably got much less playing time.

The Mets need as many young (and cheap) players on the roster so that they can sign one or two free agent stars, rather than four or five mediocre veterans like Kris Benson and Richard Hidalgo. The four aforementioned players, plus David Wright and Jose Reyes would provide the Mets with six players making a total of about $2 million.
posted on 10/05/2004