Does the name Pedro Martinez ring a bell, Omar? It should.
You were smart enough to bring him to New York, and it was a brilliant move, because it started a whirlwind movement by Latin players who wanted to come to New York to be in his presence.
Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Johan Santana, all expressed publicly that coming to the Mets to play with Pedro was paramount in their decision to want to play in New York.
The fact that Omar had the chance to re-sign him this year at a much lower cost to the organization was a wasted effort on Omar's part.
Well, Met fans, I screamed about this for nine months only to see Pedro wind up in Philadelphia, of all places, and come back magnificently and literally kick our butts all over the northeast part of the US.
I felt the beatings here in Vegas and the only saving grace for me was I put my money where my mouth is and collected on every game he has started for the Phillies.
I may be richer for it, but I'm miserable as hell.
Now Omar is about to make the exact same mistake all over again. The chances of re-signing Carlos Delgado are slim to none.
Fast forward to next September and I sure hope he's in the American League, because without a crystal ball I can give you his numbers going into Sept. 1. Write them down so you can choke on the paper next year.
450 plate appearances, 155 hits, 28 doubles, 3 triples, 29 home runs, 91 RBI, .282 batting average, .372 OBP, .585 Slugging percentage .957 OPS.
Crazy, you think? I think it's as real as it can get. He's had hip surgery. The same surgery as Chase Utley and Alex Rodriguez and Mike Lowell. This injury, when fixed, is fixed, period.
If the Mets re-sign him and he plays only 120-130 games, so what? Daniel Murphy and perhaps Ike Davis are the heirs apparent for the Mets at that position. I would have Murphy playing winter ball at second base and use him as the super-sub in 2010.
Delgado is a core player for a reason. He is a leader both on the field and off. He takes the pressure off David and provides motivation for Beltran, Reyes, Pagan, and every player on that team.
Omar now has the reputation of being a problem fixer. That's not his job. He needs to develop the farm system through the draft and through the international market.
His results as a fixer are terrible. One could even argue that K-Rod was not the fix the Mets needed when Houston Street, Brian Fuentes, and a few others were out there last year to be had at a much lower cost and you really don't want to bring up JJ Putz, do you?
I'm going to take a lot of flack on this, the same way I did on taking the side of Pedro Martinez. Believe me, it's not a matter of being right or even saying I told you so. I'm way too old for that. I just want to see this organization be proactive instead of being reactive all the time.
To be proactive would be to resign Carlos Delgado and to move on from there. In Part II, I will give my opinion of what it's going to take to get back into contention for 2010. You'll be surprised, it really doesn't have to take too much.
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