Sportsology: Fire Minaya

Posted by Rick Morris

Our good pal Russ Cohen at Sportsology is really ticked off about the state of the New York Mets, the team he has followed all of his life. I can relate -- stay tuned for my rant on Eric Mangini! But that's another story for another time. Courtesy of our content-sharing arrangement under the auspices of The 21st Century Media Alliance, here's another edition of "Russ's Rants."

Russ's Rants - FIRE MINAYA!
By Russ Cohen

The Mets have been on this runaway roller coaster since last season and we have watched the Mets GM Omar Minaya, and his office literally decay in front of our eyes. It has now come to a head with the “Carlos Beltran” situation, which should have been just an operation, but now it has turned into a big story. Once again, the Mets, who already have a reputation for choking, now have a reputation for having a front office that's in total disarray.

It’s hard to take sides in the this latest saga but one thing that is unforgivable and that’s the amount of time that has passed until the team or Beltran or Scott Boras, or one of them, decided to get the procedure. If this was done weeks ago, he would have been able to start the season on schedule, but now he will miss at least a month of the season. Once again, Angel Pagan will be patrolling CitiField this season. No slight to him, he’s just not Beltran, and now before the season even begins the Mets are already falling out of the pennant race!

To be honest, this season’s expectations had been lowered a lot, by me and others, but now I’m not sure if I shot low enough. The team did sign Jason Bay, and they addressed the bullpen issue with some unknown pitchers, but they haven’t bolstered the starting rotation and the catching position is still a platoon situation at best. Who is to blame for that? Omar Minaya!

He’s been coasting now for two seasons and the Wilpons have either backed him with blind faith or they don’t want to pay him for doing nothing; either way, they are getting almost nothing in return, so it’s time to cut their losses.

The Mets have very little chemistry on this team. They have some great players, but their supporting cast is getting weaker and weaker and the idea that Carlos Delgado can come in and resume starting at first base is a joke at best. He needs to prove it a lot more than a stint in winter ball. Let’s see how he is in spring training before we cast off Daniel Murphy, who gave it his all in every game last year, and that’s a lot more than some of the other players on the team.

Minaya and his entire staff should be removed and if the Wilpons want to save an employee or two, fine, but if they stay status quo, the Tony Bernazard debacle will be small potatoes. More devastation will come and it won’t matter how much money the Mets have, because their fans will stop going to games and the franchise will be in decline once again. If they nip this in the bud and get a GM who can infuse a new no-nonsense winning attitude, then they can move forward.

Who has the worst job in baseball? The Mets’ manager, Jerry Manuel. With all of the injuries and on and off-the-field distractions, he hasn’t really had a chance to correct the team’s problems. My advice would be to let him go along with Minaya, it’s the humane thing to do, and bring back Bobby Valentine who took a less talented team to the World Series back in 2000.