I know; it was a desperate move to keep the franchise.

That's usually how it goes, the man currently in power usually plays with the pieces left by the former. Kind of odd. Life.

In fairness... He dealt Milledge, and Gomez was part of the Santana deal. He held on to Martinez for too long, true... but Pelfrey eats innings.

I agree with you though, Omar is proving to be a better GM than people give him credit for.

Can we talk about the future? Omar was not a good GM but I would not question his scouting abilities. It would have been interesting to see what he could have done with more #1 choices and the Wilpon's willingness to go overslot.

Omar often gave the impression that he was only capable of working on one thing at a time. He (and Jeff) failed to fully understand the free agent market and how to realize a return on all assets, especially Type A's. Who can forget how they mismanaged the Wagner situation, and cost the Mets two #1 draft choices.

Those of us who looked beyond his press conference embarrassments and formed stereotypes attempted to explain that to others long ago.

Actually, save Wright and the pen this is basically Omar's team

I think that "one thing at a time" theory was formed when Piniero went to the Angels without the Mets being in on it because they were busy with Bay (glad we lost out though). I don't think any team, or GM, focuses on one thing at a time. I suppose lack of trust and so on in those who are below you can make things harder, or more time-consuming, but I'm not really sure. I doubt he sat on his hands all day and only picked up the phone to deal with specific things, especially when much of negotiations only concerns sending a message and waiting for one back. Plenty of time in between everything.

I didn't at the time and still don't understand why Sandy rushed to sign Carrasco. To be honest I'm not a big fan of Rauch either, and one can argue R. Ramirez is also a byproduct of Omar in that Omar's piece got him, but eh.

"I agree with you though, Omar is proving to be a better GM than people give him credit for."

Omar never choked, the players did.

Omar had the team within a game of the World Series in his second year

wait til we can add some pieces to this cast, there is alot of potential, plus the three pitchers in the minors, Wheeler, harvey and Familia- you gotta see some light here

two seasons away from having the ability to win the division

Omar is a judge of YOUNG talent. He is better than this three team overpaid group.
BUT, he also can be blind when it comes to veteran guys.
I wish he was still with the Mets as a vice president of scouting of something.
Give him Yankee money and he would sign the right guys and charge off the bad contracts...But he had Met money, so he hands were kinda tied in certain situations.

<<< two seasons away from having the ability to win the division

How do you know this????? Can you predict the future or something? It is absolutely IMPOSIBlE to predict what a team will do in two years... especially in baseball.

After the 2006 season... did you think the Phillies would own the division while the Mets would not make the playoffs since then???? Yeah... that's what I thought.

Some people are good at certain things, but poor at others. Omar's problem was never his eye for talent. He just didn't seem the have a wide array of skill sets to be a very good GM - a GM in New York.

Drafting talent is one thing, but having the organizational skills to build a developmental system to hone that talent into major league plays is a whole other story.

It is like being able to buy a top line stereo system, but playing it through low end speakers. It doesn't matter how good the stereo is, if you can only output the sound on poor speakers.

Omar should get, and deserves major props for finding a lot of this talent, but Sandy will have get some credit too for having the skills sets to make the right decisions about processing this talent to the next level.

>>>"Omar often gave the impression that he was only capable of working on one thing at a time. He (and Jeff) failed to fully understand the free agent market and how to realize a return on all assets, especially Type A's. Who can forget how they mismanaged the Wagner situation, and cost the Mets two #1 draft choices."<<<

The Wilpons later all but said that they hired Omar realizing that he wasn't fully capable, in terms of having a full range of skill sets for the job, and they had to basically give/get him help in areas.

Sandy on the other hand, has a full array of skill sets. He knows the baseball end of things, and having a law degree he knows contracts and legalities, as well as being a knowledgeable business man - having taught business classes at university in California. A great organizer, and a leader of men.

I liked Omar, but he had become clear that it was time for him to go, and the job was getting beyond him after all the novelty of hiring the neighborhood guy had worn off.

He was always well regarded as a talent evaluator. He was just a lousy executive.