Worst Closers in Baseball

The Mets were operating for years with a higher payroll with the Braves only to significantly underperform expectations. Phillips might have been good at signing or developing talent, but he had an unfortunate tendency to trade it away for mediocre veterans, as seen in the trade of Scott Kazmir to the Rays for Victor Zambrano. There were a number of other trades that ended rather badly for the Mets during his reign (Vaughn/Appier, for example).

In reality, the perception of “pathetic” Mets in recent years is something that has grown out of the relative success of their chief rivals, the Braves and Yankees, over the same time period, as well the success of the Marlins despite the fact that the Marlins operate on a shoe-string budget. The Phillies operated under a similar haze until their World Series victory last year.

to the contrary, I earlier stated that it dates back to 1962.

The problem I am having is with people who want to use 2009 as a fulfillment of the Mets prophecy of ‘patheticness,’ and proof that they are a terribly run, mismanaged franchise that can never compete because they’re idiots. To the contrary, the 2009 season is, first a foremost, an example of godawful luck being thrust upon a team all at once.

In 2006, the Mets were favorites to win the NL, and possibly the entire World Series. They ran into a hot club and were depleted by their own injuries, and fell short. 2007 came with high expectations, and a devastating collapse. As far as Minaya’s tenure goes, that is essentially the only year I will concede the franchise as being ‘pathetic.’ It was a historic collapse of near-unrivaled proportions (albeit, one that also was largely do to a HUGE Phillies surge, as well).

Last year, 2008, everyone wanted a reason to think the Mets would continue to be pathetic (as they do every single time the team shows a glimpse of it, ever). So, looking for that, they grasped at straws. They lost the playoff spot on the last day of the season for the second season in a row, so people automatically billed it as a collapse to fulfill this image they have of the Mets. The idiot Dodger fans at work, and idiot bloggers of the world still like to bill it as ‘back to back collapses.’ Quite to the contrary of that, the Mets were actually a down-and-out team last year. They were run into the ground by Willie Randolph, who was canned for his mismanagement of an otherwise great team. In came Jerry Manual, and the team instantly turns a corner. From the time of his move to the manager’s spot, the Mets went from a .500 club, to one in playoff contention. At the all-star break they were around .500 still, and under Manual they had one of the best records in baseball to finish the season. Unfortunately for the team, they were in a deep hole to come out of. They spent half a season playing catch up, finally caught up in the last couple weeks of the season to a Brewers team in utter collapse, but at the last moment, fell desperately short of the finish line. People conveinently re-wrote the script from “Brewers narrowly avoid massive playoff collapse” to be “Mets choke away playoffs two years in a row.” It’s bullshit.

And as I said, I won’t defend Minaya. He’s nuts, and he’s not a good GM. But to say he has been poor is a mistake, too. Look at the Santana trade. Sure he traded away the depth of the system…but who in that trade are the Mets desperately in need of right now more than the man they got in it? No one. Carlos Gomez, the centerpiece of the trade, is OPSing .658 with 10 steals this year. Down right awful.

In 2006, this is the man who took Kris Benson (yes, THE Kris Benson), who he had inherited from the previous moron to run the franchise, and spun him off to Baltimore, dumping his ugly contract and insane wife, on another city. In return, he got Julio Lugo and John Maine (a throw-in that Minaya wanted). He then spun off Lugo shortly thereafter for Orlando Hernandez. So from one troubled starter with poor numbers and a distraction of a wife, he got John Maine and Orlando Hernandez. Then he took Xavier Nady and sent him to the Pirates, for Roberto Hernandez and Oliver Perez (a trade of need, as Duaner Sanchez was gone for the season the day before the trade deadline). So from Nady and Benson, he extracted 3/5ths of the 2007 rotation. That 3/5ths managed to go 39-25 (.609) with a 3.71 combined ERA.

Dare I say, those moves were damn-near brilliant. Yes, the Mets have had problems in the last couple years. Yes, their farm system rather blows. But to suggest Minaya is a poor GM because he traded away Mike fuckin’ Carp from the Mets’ 1B depth chart is a little nuts. The dude is OPSing .822 in AAA, and Ks 1/4th of the time. Sure, it’d be nice to have him around somewhere down the line…but Minaya inherited a bad farm…he didn’t develop it. He’s made stupid moves, and the depth this year could have been better. But they aren’t losing this year because of anything he did. And the ‘pathetic’ label is not only unfair, but largely untrue.

Minaya’s major issues with me are character related. As a GM, he’s done a mediocre job with a big budget and a bad system.