Minaya's Imprint on the Mets Is Seen All Around the Diamond Omar Minaya was vacationing with his family in Florida on Monday, reacquainting himself with his wife and children after the grind of spring training. Even so, he plans to sneak away now and then to see prospects for the coming amateur draft. Scouting is Minaya's passion, and now his eyes belong to the San Diego Padres. The Mets fired Minaya as the general manager after the 2010 season, and he is working again as a top assistant in San Diego. But he keeps a home in New Jersey and keeps an eye on his old team, which has started well despite low expectations. The Mets have done it, mostly, with Minaya's players. On Monday, they started a lineup with eight homegrown players: Ike Davis, Lucas Duda, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Daniel Murphy, Mike Pelfrey, Ruben Tejada, Josh Thole and David Wright. All but Wright entered the organization during Minaya's six seasons as the general manager, and Wright was drafted when Minaya was an assistant in 2001. "You like to see the kids do well," Minaya said over the phone. As an industry, the scouts knew we had one of the better systems in baseball. The lineup is not all by design. Nieuwenhuis is replacing the injured Andres Torres, the opening-day center fielder, who was acquired in an off-season trade. Financial worries have kept the Mets from adding major free agents lately. But this was the first time the Mets had started eight homegrown players in a game before September since April 19, 1990. Symbolically, at least, that meant something. "The Mets should be pretty proud of this lineup tonight," said Manager Terry Collins, who was hired by Minaya as minor league field coordinator in 2010. I think it's great. I think it's a tribute to the scouting system, the player-development system, to get homegrown players to the big leagues. Collins added: "This organization was ridiculed for not having a good minor league system. Well, we're running out a pretty good lineup. Any team can field a homegrown lineup, of course. The important question is what kind of impact those players will have. Nobody in that 1990 lineup ever played for the Mets in the playoffs from that point on, and a few - Mark Carreon, Barry Lyons, Keith Miller - turned out to be marginal. Time will tell for this version. But Minaya, from afar, expects these players to grow into a solid core. Some were first-round talents, like Wright, Davis and Pelfrey, but others were picked in lower rounds, like right fielder Duda, a seventh-round choice in 2007 from the University of Southern California. "Early on, he was an inside-out guy," Minaya said, referring to Duda's swing. He hit the ball to left field a lot, mostly a singles hitter. But you had to like the size, and he always had good balance. He used to lock himself off, and he wasn't able to use his hips. But that can be taught. To be sure, the Mets sometimes misfired in Minaya's drafts. The first pick of his first draft, Pelfrey, has failed to sustain success in the majors. Pelfrey was chosen ninth over all in 2005, ahead of the first-rounders Andrew McCutchen, Jay Bruce, Jacoby Ellsbury and Matt Garza. Even so, the Mets" overall haul in the Minaya era is fairly impressive given the circumstances. The Mets were limited in those years by adhering tightly to league-recommended bonuses, which could not be enforced at the time, and by their draft position. Because of free-agent signings, they forfeited several picks and did not have a choice among the top 30 in 2006, 2007 and 2009. But Minaya's final No. 1 selection, pitcher Matt Harvey, is considered a top prospect, with pitcher Jeurys Familia, who was signed from the Dominican Republic in 2007. Minaya said both could be front-end starters. Jenrry Mejia, another Dominican pitcher, was rushed to the majors in 2010 and needed reconstructive elbow surgery last year. Minaya credited his successor, Sandy Alderson, with moving players through the system and continuing their development. He is friendly with Alderson, and said Alderson had been complimentary about the young talent Minaya left behind. "They have a good system and good people in place, and they'll continue to do the right things," Minaya said. The Mets are probably still a long way from really contending; if it was true a week ago, it is still true. But some combination of Minaya's players could become part of a winning group. If that happens, Minaya will have company among former general managers. Bill Bavasi brought in much of the talent that led the Angels to a title in 2002, but by then, Bavasi was gone. Dan Duquette, now the Baltimore general manager, was fired in Boston before several of his stars led the Red Sox to the 2004 championship. Players drafted under Ed Wade lifted the Philadelphia Phillies to the 2008 crown, after Wade had departed. "When you sign up for the job, you know that," Minaya said. When you talk about scouting and development, you're talking about five, six, seven years away. We take the job, we do the best we can - and we move on.