Can Minaya Do Anything Other than Spend?

It seems almost everyday that Omar Minaya's seat as GM of the Mets gets just a bit hotter. With the often-cited injuries the Mets have shown an extreme lack of depth within the organization and Minaya has taken most of the blame. This morning the Mets fired Tony Bernazard, their vice-president of development for an alteraction with a minor leaguer and issues with Francisco Rodriquez. At the press-conference Minaya got into an argument with a Mets beat writer over one of his articles about Bernazard. It showed an extreme lack of professionalism on Minaya's part and it begs the question whether Minaya has the organizational and leadership skills to run the Mets club through this tough time.

Without a doubt you cannot deny that Minaya can create headlines and bring in star power. He helped an attention-starved Mets team compete with their cross-town rivals, the Yankees, on the sports pages. When the Mets hired Omar Minaya he immediately made a splash with the signings of Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran. He went on to sign Billy Wagner and Francisco Rodriquez, trade for Carlos Delgado, Johan Santana, John Maine and JJ Putz. He helped turn the Mets into an immediate contender but from what we see now it seems he only built a contender on the surface.

Minaya has yet to have any of his draft choices make any type of impact on the major league level. Granted hes only had about four drafts to get it done but his picks have left much to be desired. All Minaya has to show is under-performing prospects Bobby Parnell and Fernando Martinez. Steve Phillips, the Mets old GM boasts Jose Reyes (signed at 19), David Wright and Scott Kazmir (Phillips also has Mo Vaughn under his belt).

It is unfair to blame Minaya for all of the problems the Mets have been facing this year but this unprecedented run of injuries has exposed the holes in his club. The Mets have been unable to plug in their minor leaguers for any type of success. They also lack those platoon players that can shift around the diamond. The Mets seem to be more about flash than fire.

Minaya's professionalism has also been cited as of recently. He mishandled the Wille Randolph firing last year when he canned him just one day into a west coast road trip. Randolph's job had been in question for a few weeks but Minaya called him in his hotel room after a win over the dodgers and informed him of the firing. Many Mets players and staff found out through media outlets rather than from the organization. Then there was the debacle at this morning's news conference. You don't see Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein, the gold standard of GMs, pulling something like that.

Whether its missing third-base, falling flat on your face in center field or calling out a writer the Mets always seem to make themselves look like a second class organization. Minaya has proved that he can spend money and create headlines with the best of them but when it comes to the nuts and bolts of an organization Minaya just flat out is lacking.