Today Omar Minaya was a guest on Boomer and Carton this morning. They talked about different Mets topics including Dickey's performance, Luis Castillo, Johan's Velocitiy, K-Rod's "traffic", Citifield and more. Here were his responses to some of the questions he yielded...
When talking about the unexpected performances by both Takahashi and Dickey...
Of course it wasn't a surprise to see these guys come out and perform as they have but he believes both pitchers will continue to be successful for two reasons, they field their positions well and most importantly they throw strikes. In addition to Dickey, Minaya reminds us that Knuckleballers usually don't put it all together until late in their careers which is why R.A. might keep this up(He's only been throwing the knuckler exclusively for the past 3 years).
In regards to trading away prospects like Mejia or Tejada...
The Mets are going to do everything they can to keep these guys in the system but Minaya does not like labeling a player as "untouchable" when looking to upgrade the team.
Talking about concerns over Johan's velocity...
Omar said he is not worried in the least. Johan is a slow starter and usually turns it up midseason to be the immovable object that he is. The one thing he touched on was that given some more run support, Santana could easily have had 4 or 5 more wins by this time. Dispelling any conversation as to a diminished velocity.
Of K-Rod's inability to work a quiet 9th inning...
After signing him he had a conversation with the GM for the Angels who told Omar to expect a lot of "traffic" on the base paths. Even with all the noise he creates, K-Rod is one of the best in the game which he proved in LA with his record breaking save season.
More on this interview later where we'll discuss Citifield, plans for Pagan when Beltran comes back and more.
Minaya Interview On WFAN Part 1
