Paging Omar Minaya
Mr. Minaya, Mr. Minaya …
Paging Mr. Minaya …
Mr. Minaya, please pick up a house phone … Mr. Minaya, Mr. Minaya …
Oh crap … it appears that Omar slept through the snooze alarm. Or maybe his cell phone battery went dead. Or perhaps it was something really simple, like he forgot it was the trade deadline. My wife’s birthday happens to be July 31, and as a result my attention was, shall we say, divided as a result. There’s a really good chance that there’s a member of Omar’s family (wife, mom, kid?) whose birthday is July 31 as well, and all the excitement in ordering flowers, getting a gift, picking up the cake, etc., simply dominated Omar’s day, and he just didn’t have the time or the concentration to make a deal.
Unfortunately, this means the Mets got no one to improve their club. No corner outfielder. No reliever. No starting pitcher. No future Hall of Famer. We’re told not to worry, though, because there will be “plenty” of players available after the deadline.
Uh huh.
Anyway, look at the big picture. All the Marlins did was get Arthur Rhodes. The Phillies did nothing. And looking into the future, we’ll (hopefully) have Church, Pedro, Castillo, Nixon, and possibly El Duque coming back. The Fish and Phils have nobody significant. Those additions could very well mimic 2nd half trades. And you know what? Just 2 months ago we were all ready to write off the season and trade the spare parts and expiring contracts. Now we want the total opposite. Nah, man, that ain’t right. Be thankful for the nice run we’ve been on, but realize there’s a 2009, and a 2010, and so on, to worry about beyond this year. And I believe Omar is right not to be mortgaging the future (again) for the off-chance that the Mets can win the 3-horse NL East race this year.
🙂
I’m glad Omar didn’t trade anyone of significance for Raul Ibanez — that possibility scared the heck out of me. But there are visible holes on this team that need to be addressed. Yes, of course he was working hard on the phone all day, I’m certain. But as some consultant once told me, he needed to “work smarter, not harder”.
In addition, I wanted Griffey, so that slanted my outlook from the get-go.