Omar Minaya

If nothing else, the Omar Minaya era certainly hasn’t lacked drama.

At first he looked like another Frank Cashen in the making when he rebuilt a floundering Mets franchise. His ability to lure Hispanic marquee free agents, coupled with his ability to find diamonds in the rough (John Maine for Kris Benson?! What a steal!), seemingly appeared to trigger an era in which the Mets would be a force for many years.

The New York Mets had a year to forget in 2009.

The team was inept in playing the game on a daily basis not to mention they dealt with litany of injuries. Then, they watched their hated rivals facing each other in the World Series, and the Yankees capped off the Mets' troubled season by winning the championship.

In a week from now, the year will be over, but it does not mean the misery will end next season.

The Mets will do okay as long as they don't have injury issues. With that said, they are no better than the Phillies, Braves and the Marlins.

It appears that Pedro Martinez won't be making a trip back to Big Apple after all.

After numerous reports that the Mets were interested in the veteran, who pitched for the team from 2005-2008, Anthony DiComo of MLBlogs is reporting that Mets officials have denied having any interest in resigning Martinez.

"There's no truth to it," a source close to the Mets said. "There are no discussions going on."

The Mets need an everyday left fielder—on that we can agree—but the question of who Omar Minaya will make the effort to acquire and who he is willing to give up in the process is what fans are concerned about this winter.

Free agent acquisitions are obviously a big issue with the winter meetings in December, but trade opportunities will no doubt also present themselves, and Minaya needs to be aggressive but not further deplete the Mets' anemic farm system in the process.

It is June 17, and we're almost at the halfway point of the season known as the All-Star break. The Mets have played 62 out of 162 games, and currently sit three games out of first place in back of the rival Phillies with a record of 33-29. Much like the life of Britney Spears, the Mets' season has been filled with peaks and valleys.

Although many refer to baseball's current generation as the "steroid era," far from the only changes in the game can be traced to medically enhanced physiques. Pitcher wins, losses, and saves, batting average, RBI, errors and bunting all seem to be on the way out in favor of adjusted ERA, BABIP, VORP, range factors, and pitch counts, all leading to a newer era in baseball influenced by the work of sabermetrics—trying to measure objectively what leads to wins and losses, challenging the conventional wisdom, and often upending it.

At some point during December's winter meetings in Las Vegas, Mets GM Omar Minaya stopped rolling up seven's at the free agent slot machine. After bringing in Francisco Rodriguez and J.J. Putz to fix what was a terrible bullpen in 2008, Minaya forgot to do one thing, one very BIG thing...fix the starting rotation.

How much longer is Mr. Wilpon going to deal with Omar Minaya as the general manager of the Mets? What will it take for him to realize that he is the wrong man to be running this franchise?

Take a step back a couple of seasons. Minaya's bullpen wears down and the Mets collapse to finish off the 2007 season by losing 12 of their last 17 games and missing the postseason.

Most of the New York Mets off season predicated on fixing the leaky bullpen responsible for pulling the plug on their season in 2008. 

They went out signed K-Rod and traded for J.J Putz.  Bullpen—check.

After that, the Mets stabilized the middle of their rotation by signing Oliver Perez, after being spurned by Derek Lowe. 

Middle of the rotation—check.