It’s Official

In a move that really should surprise no one, the Mets annouced today that Vice President/General manager Omar Minaya and Manager Jerry Manuel have both been dismissed from their posts.

These were moves that, frankly, I felt should have been made last year, but the tremendous amount of injuries the team suffered in 2009 bought both men an extra year, and the very good first half of the 2010 season made things look like they could work out. On July 4th weekend, officially one game past the mid-point of the season, the Mets had a record of 46-36, were 2 games out of first place and held a 1/2 game lead in the wild card. Everything pretty much went wrong after that. They suffered a bad series to the Braves (losing 2 out of 3) just before the All-Star break, then stumbled out of the gate after the break going 5-11 in the remainder of July and going 17-27 through the end of August. Throughout the rest of the season, injuries to Jason Bay, Jose Reyes, Johan Santana, Francisco Rodriguez and Bobby Parnell, as well as in the inability of Carlos Beltran to get himself going all contributed to the rough ending in which the Mets seemed like a totally different ballclub than they were in the first half.

So where do the Mets go from here? Well, like everone is saying, the Mets need a strong presence in the GM chair. They need an experianced guy with thick skin and a deep rooted history. They need someone who can be straightfoward with ownership and in the ned the new GM MUST be someone with extensive baseball knowledge. This sounds almost like a given, but some times it is not.

The team needs someone to take hold of the reigns and steer this ballclub (and the organization as a whole) in a totally different direction. I also feel (very strongly) that the entire Public Relations Department needs to be let go. Those jokers have been part of the problem as well.

In the weeks ahead we’ll expore the moves the Mets need to make to create a winning environment in which the club can contend and wash the stench of “joke” off.