hey, it worked for isiah[sic] thomas.

If they waited until after the season, they'd be doing this amidst cries for Minaya's head after his team failed to make the playoffs in choketastic fashion two years in a row. This way is a lot quieter.

Classic. I posted TODAY saying that I "assumed" Minaya would be gone if NY missed the playoffs.

This makes me laugh.

Omar is a competent GM and the Mets could do worse but he has yet to show that he's anything more than that. Just like the Josh Byrnes extension, there's no need for so many years.

That said, the Mets have thrived economically under his watch. Their attendance has increased by 1.8 million and their station is doing quite well. Not sure how much credit he deserves for that.

I like Omar so I can't say I'm too upset. And to be fair, the Mets still have a pretty good shot of making the playoffs this year.

Omar, You're doing a heck of a job.

Omar, You're doing a heck of a job.

Thank God you didn't just call him Brownie:)

Omar is at his most irritating when he glories in the bullsh1t artist role. But every Mets GM since Cashen has been incompetent and venal on top of being a BS artist, so Omar seems at least tolerable.

It's worrying that Omar has not grown much at all for three years at the helm. The tendency to sign injury-prone geezers with only marginal (if that) backups worked in 06 but has cost us since, just for one example.

I posted TODAY saying that I "assumed" Minaya would be gone if NY missed the playoffs.

And what did I post in response? In essence, not so fast, my friend.

On all things Mets, listen to me, boys. I won't steer you wrong. ;-)

It's worrying that Omar has not grown much at all for three years at the helm. The tendency to sign injury-prone geezers with only marginal (if that) backups worked in 06 but has cost us since, just for one example.

I don't think that's been the problem this year. He didn't do enough to improve a bullpen that struggled at the end of last season, hoping that Sanchez and Heilman would be enough as setup men. That was the mistake.

He didn't do enough to improve a bullpen that struggled at the end of last season, hoping that Sanchez and Heilman would be enough as setup men.

Well, don't forget he also signed Wise. Had he stayed healthy, and pitched as the slightly-above-league average pitcher he's been for the last three years, it would have made a HUGE difference in the second half.

What's the upside here? Did they think they'd lose him in the offseason? It is pretty reminiscent of the Isaiah deal, only not as bad.

I am not as high on him as I once was. He has done a poor job with complementary players; a team with that much money should not be so thin at the margins.

Well, don't forget he also signed Wise. Had he stayed healthy, and pitched as the slightly-above-league average pitcher he's been for the last three years, it would have made a HUGE difference in the second half.

I don't call Matt Wise enough to improve the pen. Minaya went cheap on the bullpen when he needed to splurge.

What's the upside here? Did they think they'd lose him in the offseason? It is pretty reminiscent of the Isaiah deal, only not as bad.

The Mets have averaged 91-92 wins the last three seasons. That's not bad considering he took over a team that won 75 games in 2004. Minaya isn't a bad GM. If the Wilpons are comfortable with him, it's not such a bad move to keep him.

He has done a poor job with complementary players; a team with that much money should not be so thin at the margins.

I am actually hopeful now that they are turning a corner on this front. The farm system is showing signs of developing the kind of complementary players who can give them stronger help up and down the roster -- Nick Evans, for example, can be an excellent platoon player and back-up OFer and first baseman, hitting lefties very well. That should relieve the pressure on Minaya to be right in every one of his decisions when it comes to signing Proven Veterans™ for the bench. Some of those have worked for a year or so (Easley in 2007, for example); others haven't. But if we get some home-grown ones, and if Manuel will play them, then Minaya can look good for having drafted/signed and developed them. And it will free up $$$, too.

EDIT:

I don't call Matt Wise enough to improve the pen. Minaya went cheap on the bullpen when he needed to splurge.

Well, facts are facts. Given the situation we found ourselves in, a healthy Matt Wise pitching to his career norms would have been an improvement. And a potentially critical one. Hey, that's the logic you use in judging the Church/Milledge trade: we shouldn't judge Minaya on what Church couldn't do when he was injured, since you couldn't anticipate that. He could reasonably expect Wise to have been an OK contributor, and that was something they clearly could have used. That's all I'm saying.

Any Brewer fan will tell you that Matt Wise was toast Sam. He hit somebody in the head in late July, and was awful ever since then.(Allowing 3+ baserunners per inning.

Any Brewer fan will tell you that Matt Wise was toast Sam. He hit somebody in the head in late July, and was awful ever since then.

We'll never know what we would have done with a full 2008, will we? He threw seven innings, hardly enough to judge him or Minaya on the signing. If he was affected by what happened in July last year, maybe he would have put it behind him this season. Who knows?

Minaya certainly gambled on a return to reasonable form by Sanchez, which didn't happen, and on Wise contributing. And he expected to get career norm seasons from Heilman and Wagner, which also didn't happen, in the latter (and perhaps the former) case due to injury (Heilman apparently having had a knee tendonitis case that may have had an impact on his pitching this year to some degree). If those things had happened, the Mets would have had an OK, acceptable pen. I can't honestly say they were horrible gambles.

Omar Minaya will receive a four-year extension to continue as general manager

Well, since his buddy Francesspool signed his extension...

The Mets have averaged 91-92 wins the last three seasons. That's not bad considering he took over a team that won 75 games in 2004. Minaya isn't a bad GM. If the Wilpons are comfortable with him, it's not such a bad move to keep him.

That's fair. I guess I was thinking more along PR lines. You're going into your new stadium. Do you want to do so with a guy who's just presided over what have largely been perceived as two straight collapses (if that's what happens)?

Truth be told, a lot has gone wrong for the Mets with respect to the bullpen.

1) Wagner got hurt, and even when he was healthy, his bad outings tended to come in big spots.
2) Heilman, who had a 3.00 ERA as a reliever prior to this year, has been awful.
3) Sanchez never did get the 2-3 MPH he needed to be a good setup man.
4) Wise didn't help at all.
5) Feliciano, who had been pretty good against righties, turned into a loogy.

Still, I expected the bullpen to be the weak spot for this team and Minaya should have done more to correct that problem.

Fielder hits a walkoff HR. Nuts.

Still, I expected the bullpen to be the weak spot for this team and Minaya should have done more to correct that problem.

But that's the thing. They could afford it to be a garden-variety "weak spot" in the way we all expected, but somewhat improved from a year ago, just because we figured -- reasonably -- that Sanchez's return would be an upgrade (hell, it HAD to be an upgrade; it couldn't be worse) than Mota, and he together with Pedro II and Heilman could cover the 7th and 8th. Adequately, if not great. Then you'd have Wise to fill in where needed as a serviceable guy, too, and SS as a LOOGY.

That's an OK major league pen -- or Minaya could have thought. With a team otherwise strong in the rotation (which, in turn, should have helped the pen by reducing its IP), and with an excellent line-up, an OK pen with a very good closer should have been sufficient.

But as you say, a lot has gone wrong, all at once. Can/should Minaya be held to account for not having built a pen good enough to withstand ALL those things? Perhaps, but that's a tough standard.

Omar replenished the farm system this year (to a sufficient degree). That was his job priority 1A this year and he succeeded. I have no problems with him being extended.

Omar is fine. He sees the big picture. But the Mets need to have a strong farm system to feed the big league team because Minaya does not seem to be able to build the roster around the edges. With the performance of Flores, Marte, Murphy, Evans, Carp and Holt this season, it seems that the Mets have done a fairly good job of building the farm to where it needs to be.

Also, Minaya deserves credit for finding the two decent relievers we do have left - Stokes and Ayala.

He has done a poor job with complementary players; a team with that much money should not be so thin at the margins.

The irony is he was pretty good at this his first two years. He got Castro, he got Roberto Hernandez and he also got Jose Valentin, Chad Bradford, Xavier Nady (who he turned into Oliver Perez) and Endy Chavez.

The Fernando Tatis rebirth helped immensely. But both Pagan and Church went down early, then Trot Nixon got hurt almost immediately upon joining the club. I don't think anyone could have anticipated Heilman tanking this badly (Cohen and Darling have mentioned that he's been dealing with a leg problem all year); had he been having his normal season, Wagner going down would have been a nice opportunity for them to audition him at closer. And losing Maine in August hurt the bullpen as well, not that he had been going particularly deep into games. The Mets in 2008 have had about as much go right as they've had go wrong.

I don't disagree with any of the points that have been made in Minaya's favor in this thread, but not one of them answers Srul's question in the intro: why not wait a week? The only conceivable answer is that the Wilpons did not want to let the torches-and-pitchforks crowd force them into cutting him loose if the Mets fail to make the playoffs for the second straight year, but as Darren points out, do you really want to make a commitment to a guy who's presided over the worst two debacles in franchise history?