I.P.C.T. (10/4/10)

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

In press-conference thread.

Mets:
Jay Horwitz
Jeff Wilpon
Omar Minaya
Mystery Guest 1
John Ricco
Fred Wilpon
Jay Horwitz

[Guest Edgy DC]

Oh, dear.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

What's happening?

[ashie62]

The Second Spitter wrote: What's happening?

They are all being terminated.

[metirish]

Jay is so useless he is there twice.

[G-Fafif]

Adam Rubin should be aware of being brushed back.

[Frayed Knot]

I bet Fred's not gonna show.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Lennon expects a 1 p.m. first pitch, though no announcement yet.

Jeff is apparently taking some cuts as we speak.

[metirish]

Burkhardt tweets he has been at the stadium all morning, get a fucking life, a miserable a place as ever this day I'd say.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I'm glad he's there, or somebody, at least. While I sorta disagree with the whole "Most Important Hire Since Frank Cashen" talk*, I'm interested to know what they say and get some perspective on it.

* -- This is what Howie said some writers said. I think Omar needs to get out of the main office but good on his tenure for producing a few promising ballplayers: I hope they don't burn everything.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Me and Howie are getting together a little bit there.

We def don't see eye-to-eye on Jerryball.

[metirish]

Burkhardt -

" Manuel is here , meeting with ownership now"

[Guest Edgy DC]

Edgy DC wrote: Me and Howie are getting together a little bit there. We def don't see eye-to-eye on Jerryball.

I misread that. That's Bucket speaking.

Me and Howie still far apart. Film at 11.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm not sure about the "since Frank Cashen" part, but it is an important hire. It's very important to get things turned around before this decline accelerates. And we'll need a bright GM in place for 2011, which is going to be a very challenging year.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah, but that much is true of every GM hire or fire. The "most important since Cashen" (and who knew how important he was at the time, huh?) is just hyperbole created to put unreasonable expectations on the Mets and the hiree.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Tweets say it's official.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Ricco named interim GM. No word of Omar is reassigned within.

[Benjamin Grimm]

True. It's rare to change GM's (unless a guy is retiring) when things are going well, so you're always bringing a new guy in at a "crisis" point. The one exceptional thing this time is that the new guy is coming in handcuffed to a lot of bad salaries for 2011, so the more ingenuity he has, the better.

[MFS62]

Adam Rubin on his ESPN blog is saying the same. Both have been "relieved of their duties".

Press conference at 1:30.

Later

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Heyman saying Omar to say with some job other than GM.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

It does mean that he's kinda got a breather year of sorts (albeit a rough-from-a-PR-standpoint one-- "heavy breather," maybe?); 2012 and beyond will be the real tests of his (or her?) stewardship.

Burkhardt tweets he has been at the stadium all morning, get a fucking life, a miserable a place as ever this day I'd say.

Good place for a nap, though or a crappy tour. (I think this cheesed me off more than anything I've read or thought about re: the Mets over the last season or so.)

[soupcan]

This was the first sentence in an article in the NYTimes today -

"An item in a Connecticut newspaper on Sunday said that Jeff Wilpon, Bobby Valentine, Omar Minaya and Wally Backman were seen dining recently at a restaurant in Norwalk called Quattro Pazzi, igniting speculation about the Mets� future plans until the report was roundly dismissed. "

I read it and immediately started salivating at the prospect of a Bobby V. GM / Wally B. manager combo. The last 5 words did not even register on the first read-through. Then of course...they did. Booo.

Good restaurant though - excellent Chicken Milanese.

[Frayed Knot]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Heyman saying Omar to say with some job other than GM.

HOTDOGS ... GET YER HOTDOGS HERE

[HahnSolo]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: Heyman saying Omar to say with some job other than GM.

Just clean house, please.

[bmfc1]

1:30 presser.

Goodbye Jerry. Heyman, in the midst of telling us what great people Jerry and Omar are, says that Omar is staying "in some capacity."

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

October 4, 2010


Dear Mets Fans:

Thank you for your support during another extremely disappointing season. Like you, all of us at the Mets had high expectations for 2010 and we did not come close to meeting them. Since reaching the National League Championship Series in 2006, we have underperformed. The failure is unacceptable and we share your anguish.

As Ownership, we are ultimately responsible and have determined that changes are necessary to produce a winning team for the long term.

Earlier this morning, we relieved Omar Minaya of his duties as Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations & General Manager, and advised Jerry Manuel that we are declining to exercise the club's option on his contract as Manager for 2011. We appreciate all that Omar and Jerry have done for the Organization and thank them for their time and effort. Changes like these are never easy, especially when dealing with people you like and respect.

We feel a fresh perspective in the leadership of our baseball department will elevate the performance of our club. That person will work with Ownership to hire a new Manager and will be responsible for creating a winning culture.

We have a lot of work to do to regain your confidence and support. Thank you for the opportunity to do so.


Fred Wilpon
Chairman & CEO Saul Katz
President Jeff Wilpon
COO

[bmfc1]

"We have a lot of work to do to regain your confidence and support." No kidding.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Here's the AP crawl at the top of my work screen, with the e-mail from the Mets coming at the exact same time.

[Chad ochoseis]

I was relieved to see this season end, too.

[MFS62]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: That person will work with Ownership to hire a new Manager and will be responsible for creating a winning culture.

Uh oh. What ever happened to autonomy?

Later