7/29/09

Minor Thoughts - more press-fest




Extended Camp:.

New York Mets

Signed: RHP Chris Mason, LHP Juan Urbina

Draft pick signed: 2B Jeff Greene (16)

Released: 1B Michel Abreu, OF Emil Brown

Placed on suspended list: RHP Jimber Mueses

Recalled: OF Cory Sullivan

Placed on 7-day DL: RHP John Holdzkom, C Julio Rivera, 3B Shawn Bowman

Reinstated from DL: C Josh Thole, 2B Andy Green, SS Mark Kiger, OF Rafael Fernandez

Reinstated from inactive list: RHP John Holdzkom, LHP Arturo Lopez

The son of former big league closer Ugueth Urbina, Juan, a 16-year-old Venezuelan, was considered one of the top pitching prospects available on this year’s international market.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=5868



B-Mets:


Wednesday, July 29 at Altoona 7:05 pm RHP Brad Holt (2-3, 5.45) vs. LHP Daniel Moskos (7-8, 3.90)

Thursday, July 30 at Altoona 7:05 pm RHP Eric Brown (4-12, 6.73) vs. LHP Kyle Bloom (4-5, 3.54)

Friday, July 31 Akron 7:05 pm RHP Jake Ruckle (1-2, 7.50) vs. LHP Bobby Livingston (1-4, 7.89)

Saturday, August 1 Akron 7:05 pm RHP Dylan Owen (3-6, 5.24) vs. LHP Ryan Edell (3-1, 2.48)


Queens:

The Mets have now held three news conferences in 24 hours, the first one Monday afternoon to fire a guy, the second Monday night to say they were sorry to another guy and the third yesterday to say they were really, really sorry for the whole thing.

I still have no idea precisely why they fired the guy, what exactly they were sorry for, and why they felt the need to do it all over again before last night's Mets-Rockies game, which, incidentally, became the Mets' fourth straight victory, their best run since May.

But those questions, truly, are inconsequential compared with the big hanging curveball they left floating over Flushing: Why, exactly, is Omar Minaya still their general manager?

"He's this close to being out of baseball," Jeff Wilpon told me, holding his thumb and forefinger a half-inch apart.

So why is he still in the Mets' front office?

Whatever their actual reason, the Mets had to can Tony Bernazard after a five-year reign of terror that extended from Flushing to Binghamton and back, and whether they were sincere or not, they had no choice but to apologize to Adam Rubin, the Daily News reporter who exposed the Pandora's box that was Bernazard's human resources file.

http://www.newsday.com/columnists/wallace-matthews/mets-haven-t-fired-minaya-blame-it-on-madoff-1.1333702



If you’re a student of Cold War politics, or perhaps just a fan of early R.E.M., Monday’s Omar Minaya press conference announcing the termination of Mets Vice President of Player Development Tony Bernazard might have had a familiar ring to it. The moment came when Minaya deviated from his "I’m not going to get into the details" stance to accuse New York Daily News beat writer Adam Rubin of writing reports on Bernazard’s inappropriate behavior because, "Adam, for the past couple of years, has lobbied for a player development position."
In dragging Rubin into the story, Minaya took a few flying leaps of logic into base vindictiveness. Now, it is possible that Rubin erred in asking people he was covering for pointers on how to break into baseball. While it wouldn’t violate journalistic ethics to ask, "How do you get a job in baseball?" It is possible that the question could be misconstrued as "How can you get me a job in baseball?" Though he denied he felt Rubin had an ulterior motive in writing the pieces about Bernazard, Minaya seemed to be implying exactly that.

Rubin, of course, would have had to be mad, completely out of touch with reality, to think that somehow that a series of articles about Bernazard ripping his shirt off in front of a bunch of Double-A players would clear the way for his own hiring by the Mets. That would be a delusional plan worthy of Norma Desmond, with Rubin maniacally plotting like some comic book super-villain.

It’s hard to believe someone like that could function in society well enough to hold their job, but in any case, it is clear that this is not what happened in the Bernazard situation, nor what Minaya really thinks. Consider several other statements he made during the press conference:

http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=9302


The newspaper industry is dying quickly; we all know and acknowledge that. But can’t it at least die with dignity? Of course, to die with dignity you have to have lived with dignity, and not all newspapers and reporters have done that. Many certainly have acted with an absence of professionalism.

Believe it or not, these thoughts in my head stem from baseball. As bad as things have gone for the Mets this season, with more injuries than a rehab center and fewer hits than Tiny Tim, they got worse on Monday.

The Mets fired Tony Bernazard as their executive in charge of player development and bungled their way through a related episode. General manager Omar Minaya raised a serious, relevant issue involving a reporter for the New York Daily News at the Bernazard news conference, then reconvened reporters in the rear of the CitiField press box and apologized for bringing up the issue in the context in which he did. He was right in the first instance, wrong in the second

http://www.murraychass.com/?p=876



First of all, a word about Adam Rubin.

You, the reader of pressconnects.com, Behind the Plate and the Press & Sun-Bulletin have benefited from Adam Rubin. For the three-plus years I've been covering this beat, Adam has provided me with information from New York on the organization. If something happened in New York that had an impact in Binghamton, Adam would help get me that information. That's the information I passed on to you. He's the only major-league beat writer to make regular appearances at NYSEG Stadium (no slight on the other beat writers, who have work loads that would drown most people, but it's a credit to Adam). When I traveled to Shea Stadium last season to write on the B-Mets with the big-league club, he showed me around, made sure I was in the right place at the right time.

Simply put, Adam Rubin is a writer's writer, a reporter's reporter. The insinuation thrown out by Omar Minaya at his press conference today - that Rubin was angling for a job with the Mets front office, and that's why he wrote all the stories about Tony Bernazard - is insulting to all of us in this business.

Now ...

Bernazard was under fire long before all the stories of his bad behavior started to surface. The Mets' minor-league system has been criticized a lot lately, and this year's been an especially bad year. The first-year of Triple-A ball in Buffalo has been a disaster - people up there want the Mets to leave after next year already. The B-Mets are having one of their worst seasons in team history. Since Bernazard's in charge of the minor-league system, that's on him. Add to that the stories that have come out in the past week, and the Mets really had no other choice.

Matt Cerrone at MetsBlog said it best - how many fans of other teams even know who their vice president for player development is? The fact that Mets fans know Bernazard enough to have an opinion on him is a bad sign

http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?
category=PluckPersona&U=f37835fbe0f5406eb8d0c1d1c6de3d8f&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3af37835fbe0f5406eb8d0c1d1c6de3d8fPost%3ad8424db2-70e0-4370-a1b5-004e2df2e340&sid=sitelife.pressconnects.com


Mets Alumni:

The Los Angeles Dodgers signed 1B Brett Harper.

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