Matt Harvey, Jacob Degrom, Jon Niese, and Dillion Gee. Any mets fan, or those who’ve jumped on the bandwagon know all four of these names.
Those are four pitchers part of the best team in the National leagues starting rotation, which also happens to be this same teams biggest strength. What you might not know is who drafted those players. It wasn’t current general manager Sandy Alderson who is getting all of the credit for the early season success. The Mets general manager from 2006-2010 was Omar Minaya, he is blamed for all the futility from 2009- 2014. Granted he made a lot of mistakes including big free agent misses, Jason Bay and Oliver Perez to name a couple but he is also responsible for the drafting and developing of those four starting pitchers as well as numerous other players currently shaping this 15-7 2015 New York Metropolitans.
“Familia deals, struck him out and the ball game is over!”
So far this year you have heard that saying from mets play by play announcer Howie Rose numerous times. As of today Jeurys Familia leads the MLB in saves. I’ll tell you one person who did not acquire him, Sandy Alderson. Actually it was Omar Minaya who signed Jeurys as a non-drafted free agent on July 13, 2007. After Jennry Mejia (who Omar ALSO signed as an international free agent) went on the DL, and Bobby Parnell (Drafted by Minaya in 200 ) was still recovering from Tommy John, the mets needed someone to step up and Familia has done that. Even in the Mets best years they always had bullpen troubles but for now even without three key pieces (Vic Black is also hurt) the bullpen, led by Familia is one of the best in the league.
When you think of breakout stars from last season Lucas Duda comes to mind. So far in 2015 Duda has continued where he left off and is leading the offensive charge. 2014 All star Daniel Murphy has had a slow start but Mets fans know he will break out of his slump. Wilmer Flores has been an offensive gem, he has been one of the hottest hitters in the league the past week. Eric Campell has came in for David Wright and no one has noticed Wright is gone. Those are the four infielders on the best team in baseball. 243rd, 394th, 254th were Duda, Murphy, and Campbell’s draft position with Flores being signed straight out of Venezuela. Omar made all of those moves. The Mets had the most players from their 40 man roster homegrown, (27) most of them from the Minaya era.
While Alderson may be baring his fruits Omar Minaya is who should be given credit for this unimaginable hot start.
