Pat Gillick

Phillies' GM Pat Gillick takes calls from fans on WPHT during the pre-game. Doesn't do it all the time, but I've heard this a few times. Imagine Omar putting himself out there like that? No, me neither.

"Championship talent"

Jack Curry agress with Omar that the Mets have a lot of talent.

The Mets (23-26) have perhaps more talent than any team in the National League East, but they are six and a half games behind the first-place Marlins. Minaya said that the Mets, whose payroll is almost $140 million, had "championship talent," but that there was a difference between championship talent and a championship team.

This is what boggles me. What is the definition of talent that these two are using and how do they measure it? The Mets are NOT that talented. They're expensive, but not that good.

Obviously a sportswriter's opinion is not that important. The GM's, however, is crucial. And the Mets' GM has confused the 'big name' with big talent. On paper the Mets clearly have the best team - if this were 2005. But, it's not. Omar doesn't seem to be paying much attention. Many big name players are NOT as good now as they were a few years ago. The Mets lead the league in this category. Omar's still thinking like it's the late 90s.

Omar's invested the Wilpons' millions on the wrong things. He bought yesterday's designer labels when he should have invested in finding tomorrow's hot items. The Mets have been going the wrong way since Beltran struck out and that's mostly on Omar.

Santana

As for Santana, I was not with the majority of Met fans on the Santana deal. I just thought it was too much money, too big a commitment in years for a pitcher. AND, there's a reason why so many teams have been getting younger.

I'm not saying that Santana was up to anything in the past, but I think after the 2006 season was the time to almost start over, to at least consider that what you thought you knew may not be true. Resources should have been thrown at scouting, player development, etc.

It's almost like the Mets are in denial regarding what went on in baseball through the 2006 season. 2007 was the time to start getting younger because too many of the game's older stars were at least 'suspect', but the Mets don't seem to have understood this.

Everyone assumes that Florida will fade because the team is young and unknown, but it's also possible that their youth means that these guys are the face of baseball's future. Players who were less likely to be seduced by the chemical advantages that created so many of the game's stars over the past two decades.

Going the youth route might be painful, but that was the right move to building a winning organization after 2006. It's still the right move. Instead, the Mets have assembled an overpaid, under-performing cast of players who may never again be as good as they were. And they also have virtually no talent in the minor leagues to call on. To my mind this is all on Omar and if Willie is going to go, so should Omar.

Pitching conundrum

Matt Wise is ready to return and the Mets have to demote someone, probably a pitcher. Joe Smith seems to be the odd man out, according to most accounts because he has options left. Yet, he's pitching well. How does it help the ball club to demote a guy who's getting the job done?

Jorge Sosa has a big contract, which seems to indicate that he cannot be demoted. I'm not sure why that is, but that's what I read everywhere else. Figeuroa? Well, the Mets need him to start until a better option presents itself.

So, what to do?

One thing that occurred to me during the blown game Tuesday night was that the Mets might send Aaron Heilman to NOLA in order to stretch his arm out. He's gone 2 innings each of his last 2 appearances and been effective.

I'm not sure it's a great idea, but I don't think Heilman ever fully adjusted to the mental demands of pitching under pressure in the 8th inning. And, the Mets seem to need a starter more than they need a middle reliever right now and middle reliever is what Heilman is.

I blame Omar more than Willie

It's definitely NOT too early to be concerned about the Mets. Sure it's very early, but we have seen too little evidence that the team is in any meaningful way changed from last year's catastrophic collection of individuals.

I wrote a comment on Kranepoolsociety.com about this and thought I'd restate it here.

I get it that a lot of people question Willie's in-game management and, yeah, it's not great at times. However, the bigger problem is that this Mets team just seems to lack character.

The team was put together by Omar. There are simply too many aging, fading big name/big salary players on this team. You know all those jokes that Yankee fans (and others) like to make about how old the Mets are? Well, there's more than a grain of truth there.

Omar is responsible for this. He signed Castillo to a four-year deal. He traded Milledge and resigned Alou. He decided that it was okay to believe in Pedro and El Duque. He put together this bullpen. He assembled the squad of characterless players. And, he's presided over the understocked farm system. That's all his doing and that's a bigger issue than anything Randolph has done.

Oh, and Omar's responsible for hiring Randolph. I don't think Willie's a bad manager, but he sure looks like the wrong manager now. Bad fits, bad arms, bad legs, bad contracts - that's all on Omar.