So after firing Bernazard, you could easily use this PC to move on from this distraction and create a smoother relationship with the NY media. At least that’s what any GM with a clue about PR would do. Instead, you come across as defending Bernazard by accusing Rubin of digging up dirt for his own benefit, and basically create an entirely new and damaging distraction. I want to say unbelievable, but sadly it’s to the point where it’s almost expected.

inquired of the Wilpons how to break into the industry? Hmm. I’m not sure if that was s smart move by him. Not that it isn’t the way people go about changing fields. But it doesn’t exactly help him in his current role covering the tem owned by the Wilpons.

Maybe he could have just asked for John Henry’s number or something.

Anyway, this soap opera sure is entertaining.

Do I have this right, Omar insinuate’s that Rubin had an ulterior motive for slagging on Bernazard so he fires Bernazard?

One problem and sometimes benefit with Wilpon is that he’s a big PR person. Judging by this, Minaya was ORDERED by Wilpon to can this guy.

Minaya, obviously not having gotten the message, makes the same blunder attacking a member of the press. News to Minaya, you just screwed yourself. Wether or not a motive was invloved on the part of the writer does not change the fact that Bernarazed was a raging lunatic.

Minaya is gonna get eaten alive by the press. Wilpon is gonna can this guy.

hopefully he is gone too, along with omar and jerry

The lack of anything resembling PR skills, for a GM of a team in New York, is mind-boggling. Whether Rubin’s reporting of the Binghamton incident was completely accurate or whether it was blown out of proportion, Omar decided to fire Bernazard in large part because of reporting done by Rubin. So, that means that regardless of whether or not Rubin has a vendetta against Bernazard and/or a (highly speculative) conflict of interest, the Mets believed that his reporting on Bernazard was generally accurate and acted accordingly. If they thought the incident didn’t warrant a firing, then they shouldn’t have fired Bernazard. There’s no way of reading what Minaya said as anything but a cheap-shot at a reporter he doesn’t like, and that’s inexcusable and inexplicable and will only worsen his problems.

There’s a nice little article in last week’s SI on advances in baserunning stats (using Carl Crawford as the hook):

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1158164/index.htm

There are some good quotes in there from Andrew Friedman and other front-office reps – as well as coaches – from teams that are actually paying attention to these and other advanced statistical methodologies. And all I could think of while reading it was, “Could I ever picture Omar talking about this stuff?” And now I’m reminded that our front office is focusing on reporters with imaginary agendas instead of, you know, making the team better.

He’s angry that Tony B’s incident came to light, angry that Rubin (a Minaya critic) broke the story, and angry that it’s further embarrassed the franchise and the Wilpons.

Rather than making this about Bernazard, he has decided to take out Rubin, or at least impugn his character by making public the fact that Rubin asked about how to get into a different line of work. It’s a simple “eff you” by Minaya and very petty.

It’s very Surprising that Rubin didn’t realize that could come back to haunt him.

It’s unprofessional that Rubin asked that of the team he’s covering. Absolutely.

The Wilpons are just going to hire another stooge from within the organization to run the team. When was the last time they went outside the organization to make a hire? I don’t include Omar, he was working for MLB while running the Expos and had been running the Mets before – he was a placeholder in Montreal. They’re just going to promote Ricco or some other dope who is already part of the problem with operations within the team, and they will continue to run the team on the same bad course as they are now.

Where do you even start?

This is all Tim Marchman’s fault for saying that the Mets wouldn’t just lose, but that it would be spectacular.

My read, based on what I’ve read (didn’t see the presser) is that Omar was forced to let his boy go. He knows the Wilpons are making him walk the plank so he figured he’d take Rubin out on his way down. It was filthy.

I don’t even necessarily know that Rubin had something personal against Bernazard. I do think he was flexing his muscle on a guy he thought was vulnerable. Omar’s response was that of a man who was given your basic “either he goes or you both go” edict. He knows he’s done.

Tony was on one of my favorite teams, the 1986 indians. I am a Mets fan, but in the AL i always liked the Indians. The 1985 Indians won about 60 games but they finished above .500 in 1986, sparking a lot of calls for them as a team on the rise. They promptly fell back to 60 some odd wins in 1987.

But in 1986 Bernarzard was part of the DP combination with Julio Franco, both under 30. Bernazard went .301/.362/.456. Nice.

In addition to Bernazard and Franco, the team had Brett Butler, Joe Carter, Mel Hall, Brook Jacoby, Cory Snyder, Pat Tabler and Andre Thornton.

The “aces” were Tom Candiotti and 47 year old Phil Niekro.

when they split screen away to Rubin reacting to Omar bringing up his name, I don’t see anger. I see a kid that just got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and is quickly trying to think of an excuse. Kinda.

I think there was a small little vendetta of sorts from Rubin. Not saying he fabricated the info, but he took a little too much enjoyment in reporting it, and he knows it was unprofessional.

At the beginning of the press conference, in his opening statement to reporters, Omar basically said that HR had been looking into Bernazard before Rubin made these stories public. It was something that they were already investigating. Then he says that after Rubin’s story became public, they had to consider the source, since Rubin had been looking for a job in player development.

Well, if HR is already looking into Bernazard, why the heck does it matter that Rubin may have been looking for a job? Doesn’t the fact that HR was looking at Bernazard independent of Rubin mean that there was probably at least a degree of validity to his claims? Attacking Rubin contradicts Minaya’s own opening statement and did nothing but make himself look horrible.

Just wondering if it falls under the gangsta umbrella.

At the risk of being an apologist it seems like it have been blown out of proportion. It seems like Minaya was trying to say, “These allegations were written by Rubin who had lobbied for a job in the past so we had to speed up our investigatation to see if they were true.”

While it may seem to be the same think I think it is different. I think he was saying that initially there was the fear the Rubin was doing a smear job on Tony B but their investigation proved otherwise.

Omar is just such a crappy speaker.

But now it seems that the NY press will parse every single word and make this a huge distraction. Just like they do with everything.

Not giving Omar and the Mets a free pass here but it seems like business as usual in the NY press.

just to take a stand against these idiots. Fuck Adam Rubin. That dirt bag can write anything he wants about anybody, fabricate anything, with no consequences, and hide behind his column. Now Omar calls him out publicly to his face and Rubin is upset? This is what douche bags like Adam Rubin do for a living, now my man is all apalled when somebody calls him out on something like this? Omar is pissed. His boy got fired because Rubin railroaded him and now he finds out this little scum bag is trying to get a job in player development? Fuck that, fuck Adam Rubin, and way to go Omar, calling him out on this shit. Even if it gets you fired, good for you.

Omar seems like a very likeable guy, I know he is a good scout, and I really want him to win. I give him one more year and I want to see two things. 1) Does Omar learn from his mistakes in the last couple of years about depth. Depth wasn’t the issue this year, I don’t care what kind of depth you have, you don’t replace what the Mets lost with any kind of “depth”. However, it did bring the issue to the forefront, and he should know now he must address this and go about it in a different way then he has in the past,

and 2) What keeps happening with the farm. In all this crap, Omar gets forgotten (though around here he does get credit, one of the few placeswhere this happens) in the revamping of the farm system. The Mets rarely have a round 1 pick, and rarely go over slot. Because of this, almost all of their impact prospects are coming from later rounds and latin america. A lot of their high ceiling prospects were signed as 16 or 17 year olds. You would expect it to take 5 years before you really start seeing serious returns from guys like this, and we finally are. Omar has also made the most of first and second round picks a lot of the time, finding Pelfrey, Davis, Havens, and Holt. He also has shown the ability to find talent in later rounds with guys like Thole. There is a lot of exciting things happening in the Mets farm, mostly because of Omar.

I know a lot of you don’t like Omar. I kind of do like him, but I understand the reasoning if you don’t. I do think though, that you have to give him credit here. Beat writers forever get away with writing lazy, bullshit columns about grission and batting average, RBI’s and clutchness. They don’t really know shit, and to make things worse, they routinely fabricate stories and do things to get more hits or readers, regardless of whether or not they are true. Minaya stood up and told one of these fucks off, knowing it may cost him his job. I just can’t believe that Adam Rubin is all upset that he was called out for something he did, when he does just that to other people for a living, sometimes not even correctly. He gets to hide behind his computer and nobody that he writes about gets to defend themselves. At least Minaya called him out, in public, to his face, and Rubin had a chance to argue on his own behalf. Regardless of whether this gets Minaya fired or what, I think it was a cool move, calling out a dirt bag writer who seemingly did have other motives, while protecting his boy Bernazard. Whether you like Tony or not, it is cool that Minaya would do that to protect his friend and finally fight back towards these writers who constantly stretch the truth and the facts for the sake of their story.

Everything Rubin has written has proven to be accurate about Bernazard. And if Rubin really wanted a job with the Mets above all else, wouldn’t he have buried the story?

Omar was on life support before, now I think the plug is about to be pulled. When Jeff Wilpon has to do damage control for you, you are in big trouble.

Am I missing something or did Jeff Wilpon basically throw Omar under the bus when he said he saw nothing wrong with Rubin contacting him for career advice? And if he already thinks Omar blew it that badly, then can’t we all be assured he will be gone absent a playoff berth.

There’s some crosstalk toward the end of your transcription — as Rubin asks Minaya “…so I could take their position? Is that what you’re saying?” You have Omar saying just “Adam…” there, as he overlaps with Rubin and his words are hard to make out. But after listening to that section several times, I’m pretty sure what he said was:

Omar Minaya: Adam, I’m saying, that’s what I thought.

This is actually potentially significant. In the heat of the moment, as Rubin challenged him, it appears that Minaya was on the brink of confirming his apparently baseless claims about Rubin’s reporting being meant as campaigning for a job with the Mets.