Minaya's bargain-basement gems fuel powerful Mets (SI.com)

davecrazy · May 30, 2007

Building a winner
Minaya's bargain-basement gems fuel powerful Mets
Posted: Wednesday May 30, 2007 11:50AM; Updated: Wednesday May 30, 2007 12:25PM

Mets general manager Omar Minaya may be the one man in baseball batting 1.000. Minaya is going so good that you start to think every sentence contains a pearl, every game will go his team's way and every acquisition has come to Queens to be a star.

Minaya recently phoned his beleaguered Yankees counterpart, Brian Cashman, to support his friend. Minaya advised Cashman: Stick to what you believe in.

The Mets' GM has his own set of beliefs, and competing GMs would be wise to take notice. He interviewed for at least eight GM jobs before landing one, but once he got the one he wanted, with the Mets -- a matter of miles from where he grew up in Corona, Queens -- he has barely made a misstep. The Mets, 33-17 and suddenly up five games on the rival Braves, look so solid now that they have established themselves as the prohibitive favorite in the National League the year after barely missing out on the World Series (thanks to one errant changeup to light-hitting Yadier Molina).

A lot of the new GMs are Ivy League educated. But Minaya, who has a high school diploma but chose a baseball career over college, is smart enough to knows what he doesn't know. So he leaves the number crunching to a team of anonymous young folks in the front office. Minaya also probably knows talent better than any of the new GMs. He knows talent in scouts, and he knows it in players.

Minaya has made a trio of big-ticket purchases, signing free agents Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran and trading for Carlos Delgado, and all have proved worthwhile. (While Martinez has been out a year, he gave the Mets a great year and a half and brought them needed credibility.) However, Minaya has proved his real worth with the acquisitions that came without notice, players who were second names in trades, minor-league spring invites or small-potato free-agent signings. He has made so many bargain-basement finds that it is obvious who is the greatest Mets bargain. Why of course, it's Minaya, at about $750,000 a year. (He is in the third year of a five-year deal.)

Yet Minaya doesn't grab credit as easily as he imports productive players.

"You're only as good as your scouts," said Minaya, who once was a scout himself.

"Was [a scout] ... and still am," corrected Minaya.

Folks have been saying since last winter that the Mets need another top-flight starter. But their pitching today is better than 28 of 29 other teams (their 3.40 ERA is topped only by San Diego's 3.00). The Mets' makeshift rotation has been among the best in baseball, and the clamoring for new arms is down to a whisper.

Said Minaya, "I'm always look for pitching ... Not a day goes by ..."

Some big names could be available come trade-deadline time, names such as Dontrelle Willis, Carlos Zambrano and Freddy Garcia, three pitchers who've been linked to the Mets via rumor. But there's no guarantee that Minaya will get any of them, no guarantee he'll need any of them.

This winter Minaya's Mets virtually passed on Barry Zito, who'll pitch against them on Wednesday night, and missed on numerous other big-name targets. Yet they still have about the best pitching in baseball, and what's more, they have four pitchers who've been out awhile and should make them even better. Orlando Hernandez has come back. Guillermo Mota is about to return. And Duaner Sanchez and Martinez may also return.

"If everything goes well with Pedro, we're hoping he'll be our trade-deadline acquisition," Minaya said of the greatest pitcher of this generation.

He won't comment on Willis, Zambrano, Willis or Garcia, and it's quite possible he'll find someone else out there, someone who isn't on anyone else's radar. "I like young guys," said Minaya, providing a clue (though he also has more over-40 players on his team than anyone else). "They give you more energy."

Oliver Perez and John Maine are two young guys who ranged from second pieces to afterthoughts when they were acquired. Now they are two of the most vital ingredients on one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. Minaya has a knack all right. He was right in the middle of it when Texas signed Sammy Sosa, Juan Gonzalez, Rich Aurilia and many other stars.

And now he's in charge, the Newtown High-educated baseball savant who leads a baseball department filled with bookworms, a nice guy from the neighborhood who made it big and never forgets the little guy. During a 15-minute interview with him on Tuesday, he named no less than a dozen scouts, assistants, coaches and a manager who deserve the credit.

"I've been fortunate to be around some very good people," said Minaya, naming Sandy Johnson, Bryan Lambe, Tony Bernazard, Willie Randolph, Rick Peterson and others. Yet, it's clear that the biggest curtain call of all should be reserved for Minaya, whose moves have made the Mets the class of the National League. Here they are, Minaya's nine greatest bargain hits:

1. Perez. He looked like a mere throw-in when the Mets desperately acquired Roberto Hernandez at last year's trade deadline after Sanchez hurt his shoulder in a freak car accident. But Minaya had been working for weeks to acquire the pitcher who was toting around a 6-plus ERA over a year and half in Pittsburgh. At first no one liked the trade, which sent Xavier Nady to the Pirates. Now Oliver has an army of supporters.

2. Maine. Hardly anyone noticed when he came with Jorge Julio for Kris Benson. The Orioles got their throw in (Anna Benson), and Minaya got his. Folks figured Minaya was blowing smoke when he talked up Maine, a middle reliever in Baltimore. Yet Minaya remembered on Wednesday that Maine was second in the minors in strikeouts two years before the Mets got him.

3. Sanchez. Minaya was criticized for giving up starter Jae Seo to the Dodgers for a reliever, but before Sanchez hurt himself he gave the Mets about as perfect a half season as a set-up man can have.

4. El Duque. Julio went west for another pitcher with a 6-plus ERA, one Minaya had acquired as Expos GM and who thrived previously in New York.

5. Endy Chavez. Another player whom Minaya liked so much that he acquired him twice. No one thought anything of it when the Mets signed Chavez. Now, after making one of the greatest catches in playoff history and becoming baseball's best fourth outfielder, he's a fan favorite.

6. Mota. He was terrible in Cleveland. But scout Russ Bove liked his arm strength, and Mets people recalled that he did his best work throwing to catcher Paul Lo Duca in Florida.

7. Lo Duca. He's more of a front-tier fellow than the other eight on this list, but he was still a cost saver after neither Ramon Hernandez nor Bengie Molina jumped at bookend $18 million, three-year offers. He's been a consistent threat, a steadying backstop and a clubhouse key -- not bad for $6.25 million a year.

8. Jose Valentin. This one even surprised Minaya. A little, anyway. Coming off a year of injury, the Mets knew he was better than most folks gave him credit for. However, they still looked to deal him early last year, before he became, in Minaya's words, "one of the best defensive second baseman in the National League."

9. Damion Easley. Right-hand man Bernazard, who himself carved out a fine career at second base, recommended Easley, who has stunned folks by being tied for third on the team with seven home runs (David Wright and Beltran each have eight, and Delgado hit his sixth and seventh on Tuesday night), despite having half the at-bats of the regulars. The Mets outbid the Yankees for Easley's services by offering $800,000, making him perhaps the second-best bargain in New York baseball.
Around the Majors

• The Mets weren't shocked to see a 'Mando meltdown on Tuesday night. Armando Benitez's two balks scored Jose Reyes with the tying run in the bottom of the 12th inning and were followed by the game-winning home run by Delgado. Benitez, who has always been a Mets killer (first as a Met, then as a Florida Marlin), appeared to throw a fit behind the mound after balking home Reyes. "We knew we could rattle him," one Met said.

• The first call, imperceptible to the human eye, was nonetheless spied by umpire Bob Davidson, who isn't called Balkin' Bob for nothing. The Giants didn't argue, though.

• Anyone who can guess who leads the Red Sox in RBIs wins a prize. No, not David Ortiz. Not Manny, either. It's Mike Lowell with 39.

• With all the Cardinals' offensive woes, maybe it's time for Rick Ankiel. The former pitcher has 11 home runs and 39 RBis in 41 games for Triple-A Memphis (not to mention a .575 slugging percentage).

• Not everyone sees Roger Clemens as a savior. The six shutout innings vs. Toledo on Monday didn't sell everyone. Some noticed fastballs that barely hit 90 mph. Speaking of the $18 million they'll pay Clemens for two-thirds of a season, one competing executive said, "I don't get that one, I really don't."
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My favorite part of the story is that Omar called Cashman to give him a pep-talk.

Maybe if Cashman gets fired Omar can give him a job as Vice-President of High Priced Free Agent Acquisitions.

FITM · Apr 3, 2008

Why isn't Omar's Expo's trade here?

The one where he sent Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips, and Cliff Lee to the Indians to rent Bartolo Colon for two months?

xjets2002x · Apr 3, 2008

FITM said: ↑

Why isn't Omar's Expo's trade here?

The one where he sent Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips, and Cliff Lee to the Indians to rent Bartolo Colon for two months?
Click to expand...

Terrible trade, but the guy was trying to save baseball in Montreal. It wasn't a matter of waiting a few years to see if Lee, Sizemore, and Brandon Phillips would turn out. He had to take a shot at making the playoffs and Colon was the guy.

I don't love Minaya, and I question his competence quite often(especially after watching Brian Bannister last night), but I'm not going to kill him on making that trade in the situation he was in.

-X-

Minaya's bargain-basement gems fuel powerful Mets (SI.com)

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Minaya's bargain-basement gems fuel powerful Mets (SI.com)

davecrazy Active Member

FITM 2006 TGG.com Best Photoshop Artist Award Winner

xjets2002x Active Member

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