In Omar we trust....For four more...

The Mets made it official today by announcing that Omar Minaya will be the general manager for the next four years. I'm disappointed with how the last two years have ended but lets be real overall Omar has been a good GM.

Lets not forget where we came from, between the four years prior to Omar (2001-2004) the Mets had an overall record of 294-352 (.455%) and the best year in 2001 was good enough for a third place finish with a record of 82-80. They finished in last place twice (2002-2003) and squeaked out a fourth place finish in 2004 beating Montreal by three games. The staff ace was Steve Trachel, closer Benitez/Looper, Mike Piazza was still around but the his supporting cast rapidly left, by 2002 the entire World Series team from 2000 was gone. When talking about bad trades just remember that third place finish in 2004 was thanks to a week of trades at the deadline; Zambrano/Kashmir and Wiggington/Benson.

Since Omar became the GM the teams record has been 357-291 (.550%). His worst season was his first when he went 83-79 (.512). Whether it was getting the Wilpon's to spend, his reputation or changing the franchise climate, finally big name players were signed; Beltran, Martinez and Wagner. In regards to the trades look at the positive ones Delgado, Santana, Maine, Perez, Lo Duca, Hernadez, Church, Schneider, Sanchez, Castillo, Green and Nady. Not one prospect who was traded from in these deals has turned out to be a star, most have never been heard from again and the only regular is Mike Jacobs.

All aggressive GMs make mistakes and I can think of three bad ones. Heath Bell for Johnson/Atkins, Bell has gone on to be a set-up man while the other two players are out of our organization. Bostick/Vargas for Linstrom/Owens, the two lefties have never panned out for the Mets while both Linstrom and Owens have contributed to the Marlins pen. Finally Bannister for Burgos, Bannister almost being the ROY put many Omar haters over the top but he's back to what I thought he would be a number 5 starter, meanwhile Burgos might end up on Dog the bounty hunter before SNY. But none of these trades are colossal mistakes or direction changing blunders, they were risks with role players that didn't pan out. When Bannister was moved there was a glut of starters and when the relievers were moved the pen was strong and there were prospects behind them.

Omar and his staff have done an amazing job of evaluating talent not only in finding diamonds in the rough for the major league level like Valentin, Tatis, A. Reyes, and Chavez (to name a few), but look at the farm that was suppose to be decimated by the Johan trade had major league contributions from Evans, Murphy, Parnell and Niese. Lets not forget the players they choose to pass on that everybody wanted like Barry Zito.

As far as bad signings, there has been two Scott Schoneweis and Luis Castillo. Other then his love of lefties there's really no excuse for passing on Bradford and picking up Schoneweis for the same contract but in three years, one signing is a pretty good record. If you believe that Pedro's true value was the credibility angle then you have to give Castillo the Johan angle otherwise both were bad signings of injury ridden older players, choose your own path but you can't have it both ways.....

My biggest problem with Omar isn't a bad trade or signing it's that he became too conservative after the success of 2006. Hopefully, this years failure will really shake things up and he won't continue to be in tweak mode. They need a starter, 2-3 relievers, left fielder and second baseman....

Bottom line is Omar deserves the job based on his track record........