New York is a city of blame. The Yankees have a three game losing streak? The Post has a field day with who to blame. The New York Mets are imploding as an organization - and the blame is endless. Endless it seems, except for one person. Omar Minaya. In the past month or so I’ve heard just about every excuse possible for why the Metropolitans are playing poorly:

1. Willie Randolph
2. The weather
3. Age of the players
4. Willie Randolph
5. Shea Stadium
6. The fans
7. Willie Randolph
8. Did I mention Willie Randolph?

But absent, almost every time this subject comes up, is the General Manager of the team - the “architect” you might say - Omar Minaya.

Minaya had basically one good year as a GM - 2005 - when he landed Pedro and Carlos Beltran (and maybe a little in 2006, when he got Delgado). But were those really such great years? Delgado is basically useless right now, Beltran is pretty pedestrian, and Pedro is junk. So really, were those moves so brilliant for 2 years of a legitimate title run?

What did he give up for those rental players? Anyone who follows the Mets knows - a lot. Even before Minaya was there, Met GMs traded away gems like Scott Kazmir, but Minaya has continued the trend, and to the detriment of the organization.

A few years ago, even the New York Yankees began to learn that to build a truly championship caliber team that would compete basically every year, a GM needs to protect some high value young talent, mix in some experienced veterans, and build around solid role players that fit in nicely to the mix. Going out and signing or trading for over the hill superstars so that you can “win right now” is a faulty thesis, and it will leave you exactly where the Mets are right now - old, tired, and frankly - pretty bad.

Minaya did it again this offseason, completely selling the farm on Johan Santana - a move that was widely viewed as something that would put the team “over the top”. Alas, people forget that a dominant pitcher can only march out there once every five days, and there needs to be a team to catch the ball behind him, and a team to score some runs to support him.

The Mets GM simply doesn’t get it. And on top of it all, he’s probably one of the most racist executives in sports. Have you looked at the roster lately? The fact that there is anyone on the roster who is not of latin origin is more a matter of his predecessors drafting people who can’t miss (David Wright for example), or lack of any other options to replace somebody. I’m not going to begrudge him for having a predisposed bias toward latin players (well, yes I am, but that’s a subject for another article), but it is a philosophy that is hurting the team.

So, what has Minaya done that earned him the reputation as a great GM? Traded away basically as much young talent as possible for aging veterans from Latin-America who last 2 or 3 years max - check. Signing overpriced veterans who are incredibly overpaid and underproductive - check. Fired a manager in one of the most unprofessional ways in baseball history - check. Effecitvely blaming the team’s problems on said manager - check. Being completely unable to identify and acquire complimentary pieces to help the team (a la a Sean Casey type of signing for the Red Sox) - check.

Somebody needs to tell me why this guy still has a job.