Extended Camp:.
When Mets general manager Omar Minaya signed Pedro Martinez after the 2004 season, he predicted an influx of Latin American teenagers would follow in signing with the organization because of their interest in being affiliated with the ace. That never materialized. And now the team's special assistant in charge of acquiring talent from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela has been ousted.Ramon Pena, officially a special assistant to Minaya, was dismissed by the Mets.The front-office turnover also is expected to include the retirement of vice president of scouting Sandy Johnson. Minor league field coordinator Luis Aguayo is being let go as well. The changes follow the July 27 firing of vice president of player development Tony Bernazard, who had a wild confrontation with Binghamton Mets players in the Double-A team's clubhouse.With only director of amateur scouting Rudy Terrasas believed to be under contract for 2010, more turnover is expected in the Mets' hierarchy.Pena had joined the Mets on July 18, 2006 after spending a decade with the Tigers. His dismissal underscored the Mets' failure to develop Latin American prospects to offset draft picks forfeited for signing high-profile free agents such as Francisco Rodriguez last offseason.
If the plan were to fire Omar Minaya after this season, the Mets would probably not have made these minor moves first, and they certainly would not have allowed Minaya to make the decisions about firing and hiring staff members. Several baseball executives who know about the Mets' situation said that Minaya had been given the authority, and encouragement, to evaluate his staff and make the changes, and that he had come to the recognition that changes needed to be made. Minaya also surely knows that if the team does not improve significantly next year, both he and Manuel, the manager, will probably pay the consequences with their jobs -- NY Times
Mets starter Mike Pelfrey allowed four runs and nine hits in six innings, and fell to 10-12 this season with a 5.08 earned run average. "I think any way you look at it, I've had a bad year," Pelfrey said. -- NY Times
http://msn.foxsports.com/rumors/mlb
Braves first baseman Adam LaRoche had traded inflammatory remarks with Carlos Beltran back in June, after the Mets were swept in Pittsburgh. Beltran said he was "embarrassed" losing three straight to the lowly Pirates, and LaRoche, then with Pittsburgh, shot back that Beltran had "zero class and zero professionalism" for making the remarks.
Braves first baseman Adam LaRoche had traded inflammatory remarks with Carlos Beltran back in June, after the Mets were swept in Pittsburgh. Beltran said he was "embarrassed" losing three straight to the lowly Pirates, and LaRoche, then with Pittsburgh, shot back that Beltran had "zero class and zero professionalism" for making the remarks.
Well, invited to gloat after Wednesday's 5-2 win by the Braves—Atlanta's eighth straight win against the Mets—LaRoche had no interest. In fact, the first baseman said he smoothed things out with Beltran the first day of the series.
"I respect him," LaRoche told the Daily News' Kristie Ackert. "We talked the first day here. It's fine. We both said things we shouldn't have but we cleared it up. It's no big deal. It seems like a very long time ago, almost a different season.
"It's unfortunate the way the Mets are playing. They are so much better a team than they are playing. I have never seen anything like the misfortunes they have had. It was like every week they had another player injured. Half their team is gone. Nothing has gone right for them. It shows how much luck is in baseball, and it does show how quickly things can change in baseball through a trade or injuries."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/mets/#ixzz0S2P14kQo
In happier times for the Mets, during spring training of 2007, members of the team's front office wore caps with the letters F.O.O. stitched across the front. The headgear marked them as "Friends of Omar," a playful term tossed around among the executives in Omar Minaya's inner circle.
In happier times for the Mets, during spring training of 2007, members of the team's front office wore caps with the letters F.O.O. stitched across the front. The headgear marked them as "Friends of Omar," a playful term tossed around among the executives in Omar Minaya's inner circle.
But those hats are nowhere to be found these days, and that circle is tightening around the embattled general manager with the recent firing of Ramon Peña, a Minaya confidant who was in charge of the Mets' operations in Latin America.
Peña is the second of the team's high command to lose their jobs in the past two months after Tony Bernazard, the vice president for player development, was axed on July 27. Bernazard was removed for his embarrassing behavior, which reportedly involved challenging minor-leaguers to fights and berating other team officials in public.
As for Peña, a person familiar with the situation said Wednesday that his firing was the result of both poor performance and questionable conduct. When asked to elaborate, the person said, "There can't be any more Tony Bernazards."
http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/minaya-is-running-out-of-loyal-followers-1.1469629
World Cup:
Ike Davis had a solo homer for Team USA in a 3-0 semifinal win against Puerto Rico in the semifinals of the World Cup in Europe. Team USA advanced to Sunday's finals.
Canada 9 Venezuela 2
Canada got another strong start from Matt Kniginyzky, six shutout innings where he gave up only four hits. For Matt it was his second win of the Cup. Shawn Bowman and Adam Loewen each went deep for Canada. Rene Reyes hit a homerun for Venezuela, his fourth for the Cup and second game in a row in which he went deep.
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