Why?

$140M payroll.

Minaya proved himself to be a great GM with little money in Montreal, but I wasn't sure those skills would translate to a club with tons of cash to spend.

Minaya has spent money with the best of them and the Mets have almost always got the premier free agent each year.

Martinez, Beltran, Wagner, Lo Duca, Santana.

He overpaid for all of them (which a GM often has to do to get a guy to leave a team) but add in terrible contracts for Alou, Delgado, Castillo (that contract will eat them alive for 3 more years) and the throwing away of Kazmir shows that a frugal GM with a great eye for talent doesn't always translate to a GM who can spend lots of money wisely.

Fine Dave, but the Kazmir deal was pre-Omar. The problem isn't just Omar - its the Wilpons' need to try anything to win - even the shortsighted and misguided.

I'm not sure Minaya proved himself to be a great GM in Montreal. The amount of talent he gave up for Colon was ridiculous.

Minaya hasn't "proved himself" to be much of anything. He didn't do anything special with Montreal and got rid of Sizemore and a decent Cliff Lee (and an okay...Phillips [?]) too. He's totally wasted money.

I take anything Buster Olney says with more salt than the Pacific holds. The guy knows every steroid rumor and little if anything else.

But that "most damaging" paragraph, if true at all, is most damaging to Randolph himself. If he's badmouthing his players behind their backs while not confronting them honestly, he's the ultimate fool on Shea's hill. OF COURSE that stuff will get back to the players concerned.

If Randolph was so gutless that he couldn't honestly confront his players with his true opinions, but instead hid them in what he naively assumed were staff-ears-only meetings, he never should have been hired in the first place.

Again, this is Olney speaking. And Olney is clueless about anything except whatever rumor Canseco is spreading lately. But if Buster's comments have the tiniest scintilla of truth - an elephantine if for Olney - then Randolph was grossly incompetent.

1) Tony Bernazard's Office is the leak. Just a hunch, but I guarantee if anyone asks Jeff Wilpon if Omar Minaya has the authority to fire anyone below him (answer will be yes), and that is followed by, "Even Tony Bernazard?" you'll get a spun answer. Bernazard is Jeff's boy, thinks he is the GM-In-Waiting, and reportedly spends too much time in the clubhouse in quiet conversation with players right before those players become problems. (Ed Coleman, WFAN, reports that Bernazard informed Jerry Manuel before yesterday's game).

2) Anyone who manages (and I'm not talking sports, I'm talking anyone who supervises employees) knows that when asked by your boss, you give an honest evaluation of your employees. And anyone who manages knows that telling your employees your honest opinion is not always the best way to motivate your employees. Randolph should not be blamed for his evaluations getting back to his players. He should be pissed.

3) You can't accurately measure Minaya based on his Montreal moves. There was a good chance the team would be contracted, which made Sizemore, Lee, and Brandon Phillips worth much less than Bartolo Colon for a team that was surprisingly in contention.

4) You can blame him for overpaying for some players (Castillo for 4 years?), and now is really the time for Minaya's reasons for overpaying Pedro to pay dividends. Pedro gives the Mets more credibility in Latin America? Then sign Inoa in July, and sign at least one more of the top Latin Amateurs this summer.

"And anyone who manages knows that telling your employees your honest opinion is not always the best way to motivate your employees. Randolph should not be blamed for his evaluations getting back to his players. He should be pissed."

Absolutely and flatly and every other which way disagree. If Randolph is badmouthing his players to his superiors while not being honest with the players themselves, he doesn't deserve the job in the first place. Anybody who thinks that such backstabbing won't get back to the players is an idiot. Any manager who engages in such backstabbing in the first place while not leveling with his players is fundamentally dishonest.

Now I don't buy any of Olney's stuff because I think Olney is completely bereft of clue. I don't know if Randolph was backstabbing his players, and I really hope he wasn't. But if anything in that "most damaging" paragraph has the itsy-bitsiest taste of truth, Randolph should have been fired long ago as foolish (for thinking his badmouthing wouldn't get back to the players) and dishonest (for not having the guts to give his evaluations to the players' faces).

Maybe if they hadn't lost in '86 to the Cards then collapsed last year and sucked all year this year he wouldn't have gotten fired. Please stop the crying.

Evaluating is not the same as backstabbing or badmouthing.

Evaluating: Luis Castillo refuses to play aggressively in RBI situations, and he continues to attempt sacrifice bunts in the early innings against my wishes.

Badmouthing: Luis Castillo sucks. He absolutely sucks, and he sucks the life out of this team. The best thing he does for us is work the count to 3-2 before finding a way to ground into a double play.

I was writing quickly at work. Okay, so gauge Minaya on his Mets moves...and "this." What a ridiculous franchise.

Isn't anyone READING the post?

"Words of Randolph's honest player evaluations in those staff meetings somehow made their way to the ears of players."

Honest evaluations ISN'T backstabbing or badmouthing the players. Having those leaked to players IS backstabbing the manager. The manager and the GM have to be honest with each other in evaluating talent and if those reports were leaked then management was undermining the manager and setting him up to fail.

Encouraging a pitcher on the mound is completely different that telling the GM that he may have lost his stuff and can't help the team anymore.

Next time your boss badmouths you behind your back to his superiors while not being honest with you, and you get wind of it, just remember...it's not backstabbing, it's WONDERFUL.

Again, I hope this didn't happen. And since Olney is the source, I doubt that it did happen.

What a mess this team is! Why can't we handle anything like pros? And why is Minaya seemingly made of teflon? He should be out with Willie and he can take his V.P. with him!