Omar didn't find Jose. Rueben Tejada yes, but not Reyes or Wright

Omar knows baseball better than Sandy, but Omar could not handle the media or the business end of it.
Sandy is a conservative lawyer not a deal maker. Omar was out of control. Sandy is too detached and deliberate.

Omar also had $140 million to work with (and that went a lot further than that does in today's market). Omar failed. He built a team to win over a 5 or so year window and that team only reached the playoffs once. Sandy has taken a different approach to rebuilding and he has yet to succeed nor fail. It's inconclusive. Ask this question in about 5 years when we see the end product of what Sandy built

Omar was the Mets Asst GM when we brought in Reyes and Wright.

So you honestly can't see the difference between the situations they walked into? Omar walked into a situation with a blank checkbook. Sandy walked into a situation where he was forced to cut payroll. I get the feeling some of you are just willfully ignorant of reality.

They have both been poor in my opinion making too many errors. How many are attributed to them or the Wilpons is hard to say. I could have done a better job as I see the errors of their decisions as they make them.

True, but I have never heard Omar credited with discovering him. Who was the international scouting director during that time?

Not sure man. I was just pointing out to the OP that Omar doesn't get credit for those moves on his GM resume, so they're irrelevent.

To be fair though, in my Omar defending days, I've used those moves to his credit. But I've grown wiser (just a little bit) since then.

Omar Minaya was a lousy GM. Yeah he built a good core for us, but surrounded it with nothing. Stood by and did nothing of any significance to fix the 07 bullpen that cost us a division title & post season berth. Did nothing to try to offset the loss of Pedro Martinez. Rushed Mike Pelfrey. Wasted tons of $ on players like Moises Alou, El Duque, LOLiver Perez, Luis Castillo, Jason Bay (though I was on board with the Bay signing as I'm sure most of you were too). Hired the wrong manager...took too long to fire him...hired the wrong replacement. And he was an embarrassment to listen to in the media. not so much because of his fear of speaking infront of the mic, but more because of that whole Adam Rubin thing. That was just, ugh.

Sandy has faults too. Not trading Jose Reyes, even if it's really the Wilpons fault, is a big blemish on his Mets career. He could have gotten back a couple of really nice pieces for him. But overall, I feel it's unfair to judge him. He had to cut 50 some odd million dollars from the payroll. It's a struggle for the Mets to sign a 4th OFer that will likely be one of their starters. That's how bad things have gotten here. I don't think he ever thought the payroll limitations would be this bad when he first signed on. But the team is building towards the future. Something I wish they would have done back in 09. I don't know if this will all work out or not, but he's acquired a few really excellent prospects for pieces that were no longer useful to us. That RA Dickey deal could potentially go down as one of the best trades the Mets ever made. Ditto on the Beltran deal.

Do you see the issue here? You are pointing out players Omar drafted and kids he found on the international market as some of his greatest achievements, and asking us to compare it to what Sandy has done before the fruits of his labor have ripened. Omar also had A LOT more resources at his disposal, and Sandy is in this position by the mets poor investments on and off the field.

Are you serious?

One guy with an open checkbook and another with bupkis? That open checkbook got us bupkis too.

Matt Harvey was originally drafted by the Angels so Omar went with their scouting analysis. He knew which answer sheet to copy from which I give him credit for.

This is like asking, who had the better second term as President of the United States, Clinton or Obama?

In all fairness, Sandy has been cleaning up Omar's mess ever since he became GM. Still has $~45M on the books this year(Santana 25.5 and Bay 18.1) that are essentially useless which currently represent over 50% of the current committed payroll. As a GM Omar was a complete total disaster, he had been given all the money to sign anyone possible and he made mistake after mistake that handcuffed Sandy since he became GM. Remember, Castillo and Perez contracts that were still on the books the cost $18M per year or about 20% of the budget Sandy has been given. Now I'm not saying Sandy has done a great job either but from the looks of it we will be pleased with the results of the 2 big trades he has made. He has however made some mistakes but honestly none of them so bad that they have handcuffed the team and the operating budget like carrying the contracts of Bay and Santana. (And yes I expect nothing out of Santana and doubt he tosses more than 75 innings for that 25.5 M plus another $5.5 buyout, so in essence we will get 75 innings for $31M). I would like to see what Sandy can do with the extra $45M+ per year as that could turn into 3 or 4 very good players if spent wisely. And I personally believe Sandy is a much more intelligent GM than Omar.

"He also tried to always have a solid middle of the lineup, with Wright, Beltran, Delgado and he took more risks than Sandy, whose just playing money ball. "

Dear lord, I wish you people really understood things. The differences in their situations are light years apart, but sure, let's compare a guy who had ~150 million to spend every year to a guy who's been here 2+ years and the first thing he was ordered to do was cut payroll and shed contracts.

I think that's a fair way to look at it. Sandy hasn't even been able to really make his own team yet, he's still waiting out and trying to repair Omar's old team.

It's too soon to pass a verdict on Sandy, IMO, especially if you're accepting the notion that we're restructuring and gearing up for 2014 and beyond. All that aside, however, from a fans' standpoint Omar was far and away more amiable and outgoing. Failure or not, there was excitement every year to see what acquisitions the Mets would make, and he did manage to put competitive teams on the field. You got the sense he did want to appease the fans, whereas Sandy tows company line and the Wilponzie's agenda of watching every penny. It's a tough sell to ask fans to wait a few years before you see results, no less to get excited about signings like Cowgill, and you could argue that Omar's spend thrift ways (and Madoff) brought us to where we are now too, but I miss the Omar era purely from an excitement/star level. What's going on right now isn't much fun.