Meet The Mets — GM Candidates Edition

Favorite piece of Monday's proceedings: During Omar Minaya's farewell press conference, SNY running the summary caption at the seat of the screen stating that Minaya hopes the Mets win the World Series. Yeah, he said it, but is that actually the most important soundbyte? (Photo by The Associated Press.)

Now that Omar Minaya is officially looking for work, Mets fans can officially begin choosing their candidate in the worldwide manager horse race.

It`s variety of like quickly scanning the curriculum at the track for information on how the horse you`re about to bet on performed in its last race. You need to take an educated guess, but really, you`re going off a somewhat small sample size of information.

But hey, we all alike to bet.

So here are some quick soundbytes on various of the men thought to be entering the paddock as we speak.

This is by no way a comprehensive list, but instead a cheat sheet of about of the more prominent names that are circulating. I swear, they`re not all former D`backs GMs. But for some reason, they generally are.

Jon Daniels - Doing a secure job with the Rangers, and as any Blueshirts fan can say you, that phrase isn`t written very often. But since he`s doing a secure job in Texas, he might not desire to use his secret "out" in his declaration to get second to N.Y.

Josh Byrnes - Former D`backs GM.

Jerry DiPoto - Former D`backs interim GM (not to mention Jersey Shore product and former Mets reliever). Passed over for permanent GM gig, but has a job waiting for him there. Still, he can interview for GM jobs.

Gerry Hunsicker - Former Astros GM, now a VP with the Rays. Also has Mets front office experience.

John Hart - Former Rangers GM. Now talking baseball for MLB Network.

Rick Hahn - White Sox assistant GM who is a pet of the Baseball Prospectus crowd. Also the first candidate on this name not to make a first epithet that starts with a "J" sound.

Sandy Alderson - Former A`s GM and now an exec for MLB. While he is a grizzled baseball vet, he wasthe predecessorfor Billy Beane in Oakland. No discussion on who will bring him in the "Moneyball" movie.

Terry Ryan - Former Twins GM. Did a lot with a short in the early-2000s in Minnesota, including trading A.J. Pierzynski for Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano and Boof Bonser. But he also traded for Luis Castillo.

Bobby Valentine - Former Mets manager. Apparently, rumors of a dinner appointment with Jeff Wilpon, Minaya and Wally Backman were just rumors, but Bobby might require more say in baseball moves if he were to take to Flushing. Also a captain of disguise.

Unfortunately, that last resume item probably won`t help him get off to a quick start out of the gate.