Omar: Learn From History: Resign Carlos Delgado

Does the name Pedro Martinez ring a bell Omar? It should. You were smart enough to bring him to New York and it was a brilliant move because it started a whirlwind movement by Latin players who wanted to come to New York to be in his presence. Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, Johan Santana, all expressed publicly that coming to the Mets to play with Pedro was paramount in their decision to want to play in New York.

The fact that Omar had the chance to resign him this year at a much lower cost to the organization was a wasted effort on Omar's part.

Well Met fans, I screamed about this for 9 months only to see Pedro wind up in Philadelphia, of all places, and come back magnificently and literally kick our butts all over the northeast part of the US. I felt the beatings here in Vegas and the only saving grace for me was I put y money where my mouth is and collected on every game he has started for the Phillies.

I may be richer for it but I'm miserable as hell.

Now Omar is about to make the exact same mistake all over again. The chances of resigning Carlos Delgado are slim to none. Fast forward to next September and I sure hope he's in the American League because without a crystal ball I can give you his numbers going into Sept 1st. Write them down so you can choke on the paper next year.

450 plate appearances, 155 hits, 28 doubles, 3 triples, 29 home runs, 91 rbi's, .282 batting average, .372 OBP, .585 Slugging percentage .957 OPS.

Crazy, you think? I think it's as real as it can get. His had hip surgery. The same surgery as Chase Utley and Alex Rodriguez and Mike Lowell. This injury, when fixed is fixed, period.

If the Mets resign him and he plays only 120-130 games, so what. Daniel Murphy and perhaps Ike Davis are the heir apparents for the Mets at that position. I would have Murphy playing winter ball at second base and use him as the super-sub in 2010.

Delgado is a core player for a reason. He is a leader both on the field and off. He takes the pressure off David and provides motivation for Beltran Reyes, Pagan and every player on that team.

Omar now has the reputation of being a fixer of problems. That's not his job. He needs to develop the farm system through the draft and through the international market. His results as a fixer are terrible. One could even argue that K-Rod and I love him a New York Mets uniform was not the fix the Mets needed when Houston Street, Brian Fuentes, and a few others were out there last year to be had a a much lower cost and you really don't want to bring up JJ Putz do you?

I'm going to take a lot of flack on this the same way I did on taking the side of Pedro Martinez. Believe me it's not a matter of being right or even saying I told you so. I'm way too old for that. I just want to see this organization be pro-active instead of being re-active all the time.

To be pro-active would be to resign Carlos Delgado and move on from there. In Part II, I will give my opinion of what it's going to take to get back into contention for 2010. You'll be surprised, it really doesn't have to take too much.