Darren O'Day Quiz

[Ceetar]

bmfc1 wrote: You may be onto something here, Gwreck as Minaya is the GM that demoted R.A. in Spring Training. It appears that he had a bias against non-traditional pitchers.

Reportedly that had more to do with Manuel. Omar at least had been trying to sign up for years, so sounds like he had a little bit more faith.

Then again, I'm not sure how much anyone was autonomously calling the shots that year.

I was okay not resigning Bradford or Oliver (though both of those over Mota would've been my pick..) if it was for contract length reasons, but then he either couldn't get the guys he wanted for 1 year, or had a change of heart and designed Schoe was worth 3..

I didn't hate the Smith stuff for Putz cause I felt like Putz was at least a good reliever, but they gave up too much for a guy they knew to be injured.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

metirish wrote: Top 3 side-winding relief pitchers that Omar Minaya screwed up and let go: 3. Chad Bradford Ok, fair, he was a free agent and wanted lots of dough. But the 2007 Mets really could've used him. Plus, the money saved by not signing Bradford was used to sign...wait for it...Scott Schoeneweis. Omar really dropped the ball on that one.

Ouch.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Top 3 side-winding relief pitchers that Omar Minaya screwed up and let go: 3. Chad Bradford Ok, fair, he was a free agent and wanted lots of dough. But the 2007 Mets really could've used him. Plus, the money saved by not signing Bradford was used to sign...wait for it...Scott Schoeneweis. 2. Joe Smith Traded away for JJ Putz. Just finished his fourth consecutive effective season with Cleveland for $3.475 million. No, that's not the per-year salary; that's the total salary over all 4 seasons. 1. Darren O'Day see above You may be onto something here, Gwreck as Minaya is the GM that demoted R.A. in Spring Training. It appears that he had a bias against non-traditional pitchers.

Non-traditional white pitchers, you mean.

THAT WAS A JOKE, PEOPLE.

In reality I think Omar liked these kinda guys, he was very much behind Joe Smith, whom he drafted and got into the bigs almost right away, and to his credit when he got rid of one trick-pitcher in a dumb deal he at least looked to get hold of another. One of the interesting things I learned in Dickey's book in fact was his mentioning that the Mets were asking about him even before he went to Seattle.

[Edgy MD]

I agree that Omar liked pitchers with a gimmick. I don't see him as the guy who demoted Dickey at all. I see him as the guy who picked him up and gave him the chance. For all we know, starting the season with Buffalo was an important part of the journey.

I mean, for Pete's sake, Dickey barely got into any Spring Training games in 2010 and exited camp with a 9.00 ERA.

[Gwreck]

Ceetar wrote: I didn't hate the Smith stuff for Putz cause I felt like Putz was at least a good reliever, but they gave up too much for a guy they knew to be injured.

I used to think the Heath Bell/Royce Ring deal was the worst of Omar's moves but the Putz deal was probably worse. Jason Vargas just had his third consecutive effective season of 30+ starts for Seattle.

[Ceetar]

Gwreck wrote: Ceetar wrote: I didn't hate the Smith stuff for Putz cause I felt like Putz was at least a good reliever, but they gave up too much for a guy they knew to be injured. I used to think the Heath Bell/Royce Ring deal was the worst of Omar's moves but the Putz deal was probably worse. Jason Vargas just had his third consecutive effective season of 30+ starts for Seattle.

I kinda liked Vargas.

Relievers are such crap shoots sometimes. I find it hard fault any GM for giving up on one, but when you turn around and give long term contracts to guys or rewards guys that just tested positive for cheating it's not good.

It's one of the reasons though, I advocate keeping Ramon Ramirez around. History suggests he's a better reliever than he showed.

[metirish]

Putz didn't even want to be here IIRC, Omar had to sell him on the 8th inning role....it was going to solve all of the previous years pen problems, then Putz couldn't get up for the role.....

[Ceetar]

metirish wrote: Putz didn't even want to be here IIRC, Omar had to sell him on the 8th inning role....it was going to solve all of the previous years pen problems, then Putz couldn't get up for the role.....

like most whiny closers. But I feel like it was probably more the injury. Didn't Schoeneweis have a disconnected tendon or something in his knee or something too? Paid way too much for those damaged goods guys.