Mullah Omar

Omar Minaya's risen fast from an unheralded talent-spotter who a lot of people thought was as dumb as he looked in Moneyball to a very loudly trumpeted baseball genius.  And it looks like his anointment as boy genius is finally complete with this new two-page fluff-job from Jon Heyman on SI.com.

It's not that I disagree with the basic gist of the piece, which is that Omar's mix of top-of-the-market free-agents and great bounce-back seasons from cheap replacement parts is a fantastically smart way to build a winning roster.  But (a) something in the tone of the piece rankles (I think this is what the Fire Joe Morgan guys would call a massive fawning cockstroke) and (b) some of the specific stuff the article says is demonstrably bullshit.

To pick one example out of many, Heyman claims that Oliver Perez was a mere throw-in: "At first no one liked the trade, which sent Xavier Nady to the Pirates. Now Oliver has an army of supporters."  In fact, many of us here loved that deal right from the beginning.  I don't recall more than a bit of grumbling about missing Nady's bat.  Maybe I'm blowing this out of proportion, since it's just a question of emphasis, but I think Heyman is playing the "underappreciated" card a little too heavy here.  Omar has had supporters from day one, and it's a little early to anoint him as a god.