N.Y. Mets ~ Farmer Sandy Inherited Good Dirt

From the desk of:   HEAD-BUTTING MR. MET

NEW YORK METS:  Outside of Jason Bay, Welcome to Omar Minaya's All Home Grown Amazin Mets.

There's Worms in Our Dirt!

The seeds of this organization planted by Farmer Alderson are still way below the dirt.  Now if you  got worms, you got good dirt.  And of you got good dirt, your seeds should grow just fine.  There should be few worries there Met Fans.  We just need to be patient, because our dirt has some good worms.

It wasn't too long ago, this club's minor league system came to a grinding halt sometime between the 2001 and 2005 seasons.  David Wright; who came to the Mets via the supplementary pick for losing Mike Hampton; Scott Kazmir; and Jose Reyes; were for all intent and purpose the last credible minor league prospects to come through our system before the dust bowl hit and blew dirt into all our gears.  A minor league system reorganized and built-up by Joe McDonald back in 1966 grew into a machine that continued to pump out prospects for thirty-five years until the Steve Phillips/Jim Duquette era brought that run to an abrupt end.

By 2006; 2007; 2008; this organization was starting to feel the effects of their prolonged dry seasons.  Of course, the Wilpons, and their adherence to the unwritten Slotting System didn't help.  And in my opinion, AA-Binghampton had additionally become a town where baseball dreams went to die.  Omar Minaya wound up taking the brunt of the heat for the drought of prospects.  Why?  Because he was the one currently in office at the time.  But make no mistake, he inherited the problem his contemporaries left behind.

Let's fast-forward through the extraneous details and histrionics of the Tony Bernazard era, because what happened prior to him, or, all the development that wasn't taking place prior to Bernazard and Minaya was the real problem.  For the B's had been well into their second decade without a playoff appearance to that point.  Ken Oberkfell was a part of all that.  And it's precisely why Sandy Alderson purged him from the circle of trust.

Let's get to the point of all this - While Omar was drafting players down below, he was spending Wilpon Dollars up above.  But those contracts; Reyes; Wright; Delgado; Beltran; K-Rod; Castillo; Perez; Maine: etc.; and all the other periphery players he signed were all designed to expire roughly in the same short window of time, precisely as all these present Mets are making their way on to the big club.

Of course Omar was operating with a different Met economy back then.  But 2010 and 2011 would have been the years when Omar would have picked and chose who to keep (Wright and Reyes) while this new crop of youngsters became his new core.

Many things that occurred outside the realm of putting a representative team on the field led to Omar's ultimate downfall.  But with regard to how Omar was going to be transitioning during these years  anyway, means his plan is still alive and well.  And I'll say this too - Low and behold, we like many of these players!

Omar Minaya didn't have the luxury that Sandy Alderson had when he assumed office.  Sandy Alderson came to a team with all these players ready to step-in like they were designed to.  In 2005, Omar Minaya had nothing to call up from the system because the machine was rusted and rendered inoperative.

Omar resuscitated it.  Although he never got the chance to see his prospects graduate.  Omar didn't have an up and coming crop of prospects to get him through a more financially sound process.  All he had to work with was a barren farm system and Mr. Wilpon's (at least then...) willingness to spend and try and fix it.  By the time of the Jason Bay signing however, all was lost for Omar's vision and the Wilpon's financial wherewithal to boot.  But we also shouldn't forget the front office also became a public relations nightmare as well.  So this isn't exactly an apology for Omar Minaya.

What Sandy Alderson, Paul DePodesta, and J.P. Riccardi are doing is completely rebuilding everything.  Team Alderson had the luxury of using Mr. Wilpon's near financial collapse to quietly give reasons for their controlled demolition.  While Omar had a mandate to make the Mets relevant again and pronto.

Two General Managers - Two totally different dynamics at work - At current, only one plan rules the field.

The Curious Case of the Foreseeable Mets' Line-Up:

ss - TEJADA  -  Omar Minaya's
2b - MURPHY  -  Omar Minaya's
3b - WRIGHT - Pre Minaya
1b - DAVIS  -  Omar Minaya's
lf - BAY  -  Omar's Signing
rf - DUDA  -  Omar Minaya's
c - THOLE  -  Omar Minaya's
cf - NIEUWENHUIS  -  Omar Minaya's

Thursday's Starter  -  SANTANA  -  Omar's Signing
Saturday's Starter  -  DICKEY  -  Omar's Signing
Sunday's Scheduled Starter  -  NIESE  -  Omar's Minaya's 
4th Starter  -  PELFREY  -  Omar Minaya's
5th Starter  -  GEE  -  Omar Minaya's





Let's Go Mets!




Mike.BTB