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In The Aftermath Of The Collapse - Part Four: The Maestro posted on 11/15/2008

Part Four:  The Maestro

           Has Omar Minaya been a good general manager of the New York Mets?  Well, for one, he didn’t trade Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano.  No, when he traded the Mets’ top prospects, he got a much better return—Johan Santana anyone?

           Since Minaya took over GM duties for the Mets, Santana hasn’t been his only impressive acquisition.  He also brought in Pedro Martinez, who restored the Mets to some respectability and allowed him to sign Carlos Beltran, and he traded for Carlos Delgado, another instrumental part of the core of the Mets team that has been competitive every season with Minaya on board.  Other useful acquisitions include Paul LoDuca, Darren Oliver, Jose Valentin, Duaner Sanchez, John Maine, Oliver Perez, Endy Chavez, Ryan Church, Damion Easley and Fernando Tatis.

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MVP Award Picks posted on 11/05/2008

With the regular and postseason over, and the hot stove not quite on fire just yet, it’s a perfect time to pick my regular season award winners for the 2008 season.  Here are my MVP picks.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

American League:  Justin Morneau (1B, MIN) .300 BA, 23 HR, 129 RBI

           For the second time in three years, the Twins’ Justin Morneau put together an MVP season.  On a team largely dependent on speed, pitching and defense, Morneau led the way offensively with 187 hits, 47 doubles, 23 homers, 129 RBI, and an .873 OPS.  The only Twin to play in all 163 games, he was by far the most potent bat in Minnesota’s lineup and carried the team to a surprise appearance in a one-game playoff with the White Sox for the AL Central title.  Morneau scored 97 runs and was the only player on the Twins to drive in more than 85 runs, and one of just three Twins to hit double digits in home runs.

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In the Aftermath Of The Collapse - Part Three: The Skipper posted on 10/27/2008
Part Three:  The Skipper

           On June 16 the Mets defeated the Angels to pull within one game of .500, at 34-35, but more importantly they made a managerial change that would alter the scope of their season.

           Up until that night in Anaheim, the underachieving Mets seemed to be playing through a haze, still haunted by the demons of the 2007 collapse.  Each and every loss was rife with heartbreak and every win included threats of the same.  Starting with the first loss of the season, rumors and uncertainties about Willie Randolph’s job security swirled around the Mets and ran rampant throughout the intense New York media.

           With every loss Randolph moved closer and closer to the edge, and became more and more noticeably distressed in his dealings with the prodding media.  His insecurity came to a head in early June, when he mistakenly made some off-hand remarks that were construed to mean he thought he was treated unfairly by the SNY broadcast team, the media and the Mets’ organization in part due to his race.  Naturally, his comments, although somewhat taken out of context, did nothing other than add fuel to the fire.

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In The Aftermath Of The Collapse - Part Two: The Core posted on 10/09/2008

Part Two:  The Core

     After the Mets collapsed in 2007 Omar Minaya made several changes to the roster, the most notable of which was, of course, acquiring Johan Santana.  The Mets came one win shy of a post-season berth in 2007, and the obvious presumption was that Santana would have increased the Mets’ win total by, at the very least, one win.  So after going 88-74 in ’07, the Mets went 89-73 in ’08, and once again coughed up a division lead late in the season and finished one win shy of the promised land.

     With Willie Randolph already fired mid-season, fans and media types have had to search elsewhere for a scapegoat.  As a result, many have opined that the Mets’ core of offensive talent (Jose Reyes, David Wright and Carlos Beltran) is simply unable to take the team to the next level, and should be broken up via trades.  Let’s take a look at what getting rid of those players would mean for the Mets, one by one.

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In The Aftermath Of The Collapse posted on 10/08/2008

    First of all, sorry again to those of you who were reading my blog regularly and missed it (if there are any of you out there).  I'm actually working on another project right now as well.  For those of you who are into fantasy sports, check out www.FantasyPhenoms.com.  I've been writing weekly fantasy football columns previewing and recapping each NFL game from a fantasy perspective, and I may be writing other various articles for both fantasy football and fantasy baseball.  Fantasy Phenoms is a really great resource for fantasy advice and insights, especially for baseball, where we have provide some really in-depth sabermetric analysis.  A lot of the articles are free to access but some require a membership.  If you're interesting in a membership (very cheap), shoot me an email (mdeutschman@gmail.com) and I'll give you my promo code.

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