After a devastating loss Friday, general Omar Minaya announced a surprise press conference the following morning to announce some serious personnel changes.

"First I've decided the best direction to take this team is with a new manager," he said, shocking all press members in attendance. It had been widely thought that Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel were on good terms and at no point this season was Manuel's job at risk.

"While I think Jerry did a good job with our young players and was very popular, I just think the lack of focus on the fundamentals and small tactical mistakes won't fly in a close pennant race. I just want to make the change before these problems become magnified in September. That being said and all, I'd like to introduce Bobby Valentine as our new acting manager"

Then, Valentine, a fan favorite who lead the Mets to their last World Series appearance, joined Minaya on stage to don the blue and orange Mets hats once again. The announcement was met by a surprising number of claps from the media section. Before Valentine could field questions, however, Minaya dropped several other bombshells.

"I also like to announce two trades. First with the Seattle Mariners. We've made a move sending Scott Moviel, Eddie Kunz, and Daniel Murphy to the Mariners for Russel Branyan, Ichio Suzuki, and Erik Bedard. Obviously we felt this move shored up our offense, defense and pitching, and gave us flexibility in how we use youngster Fernando Martinez, who we have alot of faith in."

Minaya wasn't done there, however. Without missing a beat, he preempted the inevitable questions with the following speech: "Now I don't want this move to seem like a reaction to an obviously a tough loss last night. I think our guys showed some passion out there, getting a big hit off Mariano Rivera and fighting back. We just felt this move prepares us to finally finish out the season strong, and fight through these injuries. Actually, I've done alot of reflecting on last night's loss and found it oddly fitting that Luis Castillo dropped a ball that cost Francisco Rodriguez a save. Luis Castillo, probably the worst contract of my tenure here, represents my tunnel-vision failure these past three off-seasons to take a holistic approach toward building a roster. Just like I neglected the bullpen, and the outfield depth in previous seasons, so to did I neglect defense and starting pitching in my need to secure the 9th inning. After all, if there's anything this loss taught us, it's that you can't save games if you can't catch. As such, I'm resigning as general manager, and volunteering my services in recruiting an acting general manager better-suited for building a championship caliber team than myself."