But a few points about Omar. First, “if better than Duquette” is the best you can say for someone, that’s pretty bad. Second, while Omar did have a few successes, I fail to see how a few points made can be substantiated. Omar had little more success with Latin America than a number of teams, and the minors show it. There are a few decent prospects, but very few showstoppers and very little intrinsic depth (good minor league FA signings to provide a backstop against injury). He loaded the team and system with C-List fringe players who on other teams would be in AAA (or lower), or maybe a last-on-the-depth chart defensive replacement. We all know that a number of his big FA signings were terrible, and even if you can point to Beltran as a good signing, so what? Good signings over 5 years that can be counted on your fingers is to me a residue of doing stuff, rather than doing good stuff. Accordingly, some of the decent prospects that did come through the system had to be misused to plug holes, slowing or halting their development. There was no organizational plan for advancement, scouting, and signing.

I guess I just don’t buy the “air of legitimacy” argument. You know how you become legit? Win the division a couple of years in a row. You know how you lose that legitimacy quickly, no matter what names are on your roster? Win 70.