Reese Kaplan - Does "Crazy Eyes" Lo Duca Have a Point?

It’s easy to read the words said today by Paul Lo Duca regarding Omar Minaya, Citifield, David Wright and the current Mets catchers as the ranting of a disgruntled former player who was kicked to the curb, but just as there’s often a kernel of truth inside humor there is also a basis for the hostility.  Let’s take a look at some of the points he raised.

On Omar Minaya he characterized him as a rough-around-the-edges clown who didn’t know his age nor his phone number.  The first part is most certainly true.  It was painful to see Omar “Umm” and “Like” his way through any press conference.  However, a lack of articulation didn’t necessarily mean that he was incompetent at his job.  His drafts, for example, produced a great many of the players worth watching on the current Mets.  Of course, he also had free reign to spend and used the Wilpons’ money to bring both Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran to New York in the same off-season.  Sandy Alderson has never had that luxury but he also didn’t seem to have the cojones to roll the dice on a  Yasiel Puig or Jose Abreu, either.   In Omar’s defense when he chose to part ways with the fiery catcher, the man was only able to play in another 67 big league games, so  maybe he was a good judge of talent after all.

On Citifield, yes there were problems since its inception.  Originally people decried it as an homage to the Brooklyn Dodgers rather than the home of the Mets.  The fences were positioned to make it an extremely difficult place to hit home runs.  Even after moving them in the park remained one of the more difficult in the league (23^rd of 30), yet its psychological impact on the Mets team has never been undone.  Players are convinced they can’t hit home runs there despite visitors seeming to have not nearly as much difficulty.  Furthermore, the ballpark in the other borough is the easiest park in which to hit home runs.  If you’re a free agent whose paycheck depends on slugging, where would you want to play?  It’s a long term ripple effect and not in a good way.

Compounding the problem with the lack of money and the stadium where home runs go to die is the monster contract handed to David Wright.  It was a recipe for disaster and results suggest he performed far better in Shea than in Citifield.  I’ve covered this territory in depth in the past, but Lo Duca’s suggestion that the Mets should trade David Wright now is ludicrous.  You don’t sell low.  The time to trade him was before the big contract extension was signed and then rebuild in multiple positions for the future.  Right now he’s as untradeable as Curtis Granderson. 

Finally there’s the matter of the catchers.  Anthony Recker is a career .200 hitter and he’s not going to turn into Johnny Bench overnight.  Travis d’Arnaud is playing capable defense but for whatever reason his offense is sorely lacking.  Whether or not Lo Duca could hit better left-handed as he suggested, the fact remains that the team is not getting anything out of this position.  The question is whether they would be better served getting d’Arnaud out of the spotlight to rediscover his swing with Wally Backman (since no one ever does that under Terry Collins), or simply let him play through it.  I’m of the opinion to keep him here through the All-Star break and then bring back Juan Centeno (and PLAY HIM – not Recker). 

It would be interesting to see a former Met do a similar analysis of the jobs and odd decisions made during the Sandy Alderson regime.  Perhaps Scott Hairston or Ike Davis or the very articulate R.A. Dickey could pontificate on the decisions the current GM has made.   It would make for some good reading.