Defending Your Omar; The Mets New Pitcher

I stirred up a reader's thoughtful comment and a couple of truly mean-spirited emails with last night's post. All felt that I was defending the Cameron and Seo trades. In a way I was, I guess, but not from the standpoint of saying that I agreed with them. I wouldn't have personally made either move, but that's not the point. I'm tired of the way that some of the baseball press seems to attack Omar Minaya's moves while completely ignoring any baseball logic behind them.

I thought SI's Alex Belth came across as biased. He used Dodgers blogger Jon Weisman's quote on Jae Seo, but I question how many times Weisman has actually seen Seo pitch, or how unbiased his opinion is. I don't care for writers that write with an agenda: starting off with an opinion, and only looking for "facts" that support it.

There are a lot of them out there, just hoping that Omar and the Mets fall on their faces as they have done so often in the past. It just might happen, too. However, don't unfairly paint Omar Minaya as an impatient, overpaying buffoon. He spent months working on deals for a reliever, and I'm confident he made the best deal he could -- certainly a better one than trading Aaron Heilman for Danys Baez. No, I don't agree with a lot that Omar has done. Our philosophies differ drastically, but I respect him as a hard-working and creative manager.

I spent some time visiting some Mets sites this evening. D.J. Short, one of the bloggers that is covering MetsBlog this month, also took note of the 2 SI articles that I criticized. Regarding the Richard Deitsch rant about Victor Zambrano, Short makes a great point that the Dodgers paying Brett Tomko $8.7 million over 2 years had something to do with skewing the market.

Lastly, I believe I have finally "arrived" as a Mets blogger, as I have now been accused of blindly attacking Omar by some and blindly defending him by others.

Enough of this, let's turn to some news:

AP: The Iriki Signing
Ronald Blum reports on the Yusaku Iriki signing. He quotes Omar Minaya on the significance:

He has the ability to start and also the ability to pitch in the bullpen. I just felt bringing him on board gives us a little more depth.

Blum also cites Omar in giving us a head-up on what to expect from Iriki as a pitcher:

Minaya said Iriki has a fastball that tops out at 90-93 mph, and also throws a curveball, slider, changeup and shuto -- a two-seam pitch that breaks outside and down to right-handed batters and was used by Masato Yoshii with the Mets.

Blum also quotes Iriki through a translator:

It was my dream to pitch for a major league team. I'm so happy right now that I could just go outside and pitch right now.

Daily News: Iriki's former manager weighs in
Anthony McCarron cites Trey Hillman, who managed Iriki with the Nippon Ham Fighters last season on the Mets new addition:

...a hard-nosed guy who pitches with his hair on fire.

...He's max effort and gives you everything he has.

...He'll take the ball any time he is asked and in any role. I'm very sorry we lost him.

The "hair on fire" quote was a little weird, wasn't it?

Newsday: Empire State Development Corp approves stadium plans
Neil Best reports that both the Mets and Yankees new stadiums have passed a hurdle, as the Empire State Development Corp.'s board approved adoption of both stadium plans.

Mets.com: Mets Catchers
In the latest weekly installment of Around the Horn, Marty Noble looks at Mets catchers Paul Lo Duca and Ramon Castro.

ESPN Insider: Which Division Winners Won't Repeat?
Rob Neyers looks at last year's division winners and opines which will fail to repeat. Here is his take on last year's NL East champions:

I hate to do this, because it's exceptionally easy and I'm going to antagonize, once again, all the loyal Braves fans. Here it is, though: I don't see them winning again. They've made one significant move -- replacing Rafael Furcal with Edgar Renteria -- and it's a negative move. They don't have a closer, and they've lost their pitching coach. Meanwhile, the Mets, whose 89 second-order wins last season were three more than the Braves', have added Carlos Delgado and Billy Wagner to their roster. Things never seem to go exactly as planned in Flushing Meadows, but the Mets look to me like the best team in the National League.

I don't know whether to be happy about this, or look at it as the kiss of death...