And the sky hasn't even fallen...

...Not yet, anyway. Carlos Delgado just hit two home runs and drove in nine in this afternoon's double dip opener, the Mets first ever win in any game played as part of an intra-city, two stadium double header.

The second home run stoked the fears of sky-loving citizens everywhere, but it seems like everything's holding up alright.

Game 2 starts in about ten minutes. It's Pedro vs. Sidney Ponson, who I'm told won't be allowed to pitch with his customary jagged bottleneck.

Sidney Ponson everyone!

15 runs sounds good to me. Can it be duplicated? It's high time we fix the broken record.

Mets outslug Yanks in opener (sny.tv)

Images courtesy emptythebench.com, nydailynews.com

Battle of the Manuels

If the Mets somehow come roaring back this season to make the NL East race interesting, who wins the division may come down to an epic battle of the Manuels.

VS.

It should be CRAZY.

Aside from that, let's run through a few more points regarding today's news.

As mentioned, the Mets managed to screw up a move that should have been seen as a real potential rejuvenator for this team. Now everyone's talking about how little class the Mets and Omar Minaya have, and where most fans have wanted to see Willie go, we all really just feel bad for the guy at this point. In true Mets fashion, we've managed to generate negative vibes from what should have been a positive move. Nice.

So instead of being happy when I heard the news, I just sort of shrugged, and thought first about how our organization really can't seem to do much of anything right. How in god's name do you get your fans to react negatively to a move they all pretty much were calling and chanting in the seats for?

Only the Mets...and you do it by lacking the fortitude to make the move when it would have been bold and ballsy. Instead you cave into the pressure of your city's media, and then send subtle hints in your press conference that you shouldn't be blamed for the way it was done because in the end it was really the media who drove you to do it in the first place. “You guys do your job very well,” said a sarcastic-sounding Minaya to his media gathering (Thanks to metsblog for the quote). Was he hinting at the aforementioned pressure?

Second point, and for this we'll go counter-intuitive for a second. I might submit that maybe this whole debacle is a net-plus, because with the just about universal consensus that the Mets screwed this up, now the pressure is off the new manager and coaching staff, with more attention focused on how badly we screwed up. Yeah? Wishful thinking I guess, but maybe the negative attention on Omar lets Jerry Manuel relax a little bit for his first few games.

My third point is also one I made earlier this morning, and that's that this team has some other issues. It's got some talent, no doubt, but unless Jerry Manuel can wave a magic wand and get Carlos Delgado to hit and Moises Alou to somehow lose 10 years, there are still some issues on this team. I've been beating the Delgado and Alou thing to death, but they're the most glaring ones. In his press conference, Omar made the rare move of taking personal responsibility, noting that he bears some blame for the team he put on the field. Time to get to work, Minaya. The issues with Alou and Delgado may be a little harder to resolve, but the Mets could start getting their roster in gear by not carrying three catchers and promoting another guy from triple-A (Pascucci or Aguila) to fill out the bench and step in occasionally at, you guessed it, first base and left field.

So the Mets have a few more kinks to work out, but the other at least is that with the end of this whole saga, (Omar said unequivocally that Manuel is the manager for the rest of the year) everyone can chill out and focus on baseball again. Now that Willie's gone, Omar can think about how little sense it makes for a major league team to carry three catchers.

And while many fans are unsatisfied with the promotion of Jerry Manuel, I really don't think any of us know that much about the guy. Bench coaches rarely speak to the media; I don't even think I'd ever heard Manuel's voice before I watched some clips from the presser. He's got a smooth voice that Matt Cerrone over at metsblog compared to a radio DJs - I'd say it sounds more like a cross between Barry White and an old black preacher. His post game pressers will be fun to listen to, soothing if nothing else.

But that's neither here nor there. I'm encouraged because although he's not the fiery guy that many of us might have wanted, he's probably the best choice for an in-season replacement. He's here, he knows the team, and he probably is a little bit more outwardly fiery than Willie. He, not Willie, took on the umps forcefully after that blown call on the Delgado home run/foul ball against the Yankees. And regardless of his motivational techniques, he's new and he's bound to have some new ideas. For all the fuss about Willie's demeanor, we forget that a new manager also brings with him a few plans for how to shake up the lineup and the bullpen and get his own winning mix out there.

So don't sleep on Jerry Manuel. There's really not a whole lot to lose at this point - we either turn it around this year, or Manuel's probably gone and we get a new manager next season with a few new players as well.

In the meantime, with the drama over, hopefully we can all remember how much we love our Mets instead of how much we don't like our manager. Send some positive vibes; with Santana on the mound tonight the Mets have a chance to win a second straight series. A new day has dawned and we can all move forward.

Let's go Mets. Now let us go forth and be fruitful.


Images courtesy cnnsi.com, jamd.com

Fired Willie

As of around 3 am Eastern Daylight Time this morning, Willie Randolph is no longer the manager of the New York Mets.

Two ex-Mets

After a win? Now that hardly seems fair.

A win, no less, in which Aaron Heilman struck out Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter with two men on in the seventh to keep another lost lead from fully slipping away. A day after Robinson Cancel gave Willie a temporary reprieve, even the embattled Heilman couldn't save his erstwhile manager.

I should be happy, right? I'm just not so sure if this even matters. Rick Peterson and Tom Nieto are also gone, although Nieto in this situation is pretty much an extra in Omar Minaya's drama. And it's all even unfolding under the bright lights of Hollywood! Well, Anaheim, but Arte Moreno's not counting, so why should you?

But I'll refer back to the point I made yesterday: this Mets team has a few more problems than anything Willie's done. If Omar Minaya's got any guts he'll release Carlos Delgado and Moises Alou tomorrow, and follow through on his four years old pledge to make the Mets younger, faster, and more sustainable. I don't know, however. His bungling of the Willie situation would lead me to believe Delgado and Alou aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

Did it just occur to Omar last night that Willie deserved to go? Not last October 1, or at any time in the last three weeks? Was Omar waiting for the right moment? If he was, I dare say that it's not right to fly the manager of a New York team out to California to tell him he's lost his job, after his team wins. If Willie was going to go, he should have gone before the Rangers' series, before game 2 yesterday, or after the next Mets' loss. Or at any time in last three weeks/8 months. The Mets really screwed this up, and despite calling repeatedly for his head this season, I actually feel bad for Willie Randolph.

On the bright side, we can write Rick Peterson's obituary as Mets' pitching coach. He catches a lot of flak for the Victor Zambrano "10 minutes" claim, but in a cleaning house like the Mets just performed, he had to go too. He's been here too long, and the Mets aren't pitching well enough. Plus the guy's full of it and thinks he knows everything. I'm ready to see what Dan Wharthen can do. As for Tom Nieto: Tommy, it seems we hardly knew ya. Any words of wisdom for Ken Oberkfell?

Jerry Manuel will take over as manager, with Oberkfell (formerly the AAA manager) coaching first and Wharthen (formerly the AAA pitching coach) assuming the same duties at the major league level. Luis Aguayo, the New Orleans team's field coordinator, will step in as Manuel's bench coach.

Jerry, Jerry, Jerry! We'll see what Manuel can do to fix the mess...



Images courtesy nydailynews.com, tshirthell.com

Robinson Cancel saves Willie's skin

With his first hit in...nine years? As pathetic as the 2008 Mets' season has been, you know things are getting interesting when the third string catcher wins the game with his first hit since Orel Hershiser was pitching for the Amazins'.

Which brings me to my next point: the third string catcher? The Mets' roster management has been so bungled in the past three weeks that its left me with a healthy doubt that anything can change this season with the current hierarchy.

Extending well beyond the status of our beleaguered manager. Two or three weeks ago, whenever it was we got swept by the Braves, I was fairly confident that the firing of Willie Randolph had the singlehanded potential to turn these Mets around and get us on a roll toward the playoffs. A fiery type - Lee Mazzilli perhaps? - could have gotten this thing fully turned around.

Now I'm singing somewhat of a different tune, inspired by Jim Mora. PLAYOFFS?!? Let's hold a lead first. Or replace our injured starting right fielder with someone other than, say, a third string catcher.

Apologies to Robinson Cancel, who makes Ramon Castro look like Kate Moss

This Mets team is deeply flawed. The flaws carve a canyon far deeper than the depth of any of Willie Randolph's ineptitudes. Would I still like to see Randolph fired?

Maybe, but I'm not so sure it would make any difference at this point. Perhaps Willie would do a better job if, say, the Mets had a starting left fielder. Or a real first baseman. Or a bench that included hungry players who have put up numbers in AAA and earned a chance at the major league level. Instead of, you know, Marlon Anderson and his sub-Mendoza line batting average.

Where's Chris Aguila? Hitting over .300 with good power in New Orleans, he was up for a day last week, until Omar Minaya somehow determined that Cancel was a better option. Then there was Abraham Nunez, and Nick Evans, and, heck, Raul Casanova, all promoted over Val Pascucci, the 6 foot 6 first baseman/left fielder in triple-A who's got 10 home runs in just over a month with the Zephyrs.

Nunez had one hit in about three weeks with the AAA club. Raul Casanova, like Cancel, is also another catcher...a waste of space with 25 precious roster spots. Nick Evans came from double-A. Omar Minaya doesn't seem to have the attention span anymore to perform any General Managerial duties other than making a blockbuster trade.

I'll tell you what I can't stand: that the Mets continue to trot out a old first baseman who doesn't look like he gives a crap, despite his .240 average and power numbers in a two year decline. Or that they don't have the balls to release the 42 year-old left fielder who's played all of fifteen games this season due to three different injuries. Or that their pitching coach seems like a better fit at a zen monastery or on a self-help bookshelf than in a major league dugout. Why isn't anyone talking about Rick Peterson (myself included)? The Mets' pitching hasn't exactly been stellar this season.

All I'm saying is that the Mets' travails these past couple of weeks have made it abundantly clear that this whole thing is so much bigger than Willie Randolph. Do the Mets have some quality pieces? Sure. But if the Mets rallying to win 7 of 9 and then going 3-6 in their next three series has taught us anything, it's that this is absolutely not all Willie's fault.

I used to think that in order to save 2008, the Mets would have to man up and fire Willie. Now it seems clear that in order to save 2008, the Mets are going to have to grow a pair and find a way to cut the dead weight. Omar Minaya should dump Delgado, Alou, and Rick Peterson. Then learn that the 23rd, 24th, and 25th men on the roster are just as important as Wright, Reyes, and Beltran, and perhaps give some of those minor leaguers who have earned it a chance when the Mets have a roster vacancy.

The Mets need change, but it's of the more wholesale variety. What they do with Willie Randolph doesn't matter. Several smaller but still significant moves are both more pressing and can easily match firing the manager for shock value. I don't want to root for Carlos Delgado in October, or a pitching staff that's still led by the Mullet, or the Jacket, or whatever you want to call him. Which is convenient, because there's a good chance that with the present orange and blue formula I won't face that dilemma.

In true Mets' fashion, the job status of Willie Randolph is what's being truly mismanaged. I'm thoroughly convinced, though, that if the Mets want to catch a good Phillies team this season (or the two other teams in front of them), they might want to look at some other potential improvements.


Image courtesy bp1.blogger.com

In a weird place

I'm not sure what to make of the Mets' 4 game sweep at the hands of the cellar dwelling Padres. Which is interesting, because two weeks ago, I might have picketed Shea. Right now, I'm just confused.

I feel bad for not having written anything on Wednesday. I missed a chance to talk about how well the Mets were playing - that's in the past now. Perhaps it was Gary Cohen who jinxed it, when after Wednesday's win he told Matt Yallof on Mets' Post Game Live about how badly the Mets were going to beat up on San Diego this weekend.

You couldn't blame Gary, really. The Mets went into San Diego having won 7 of 9. The Padres entered Thursday night's game with a 24-37 record, and the distinction of being the worst hitting team in the National League. The latter held up over most of the weekend, as the Pads scored just two runs in each of the first three games this weekend. Unfortunately, two is more than one, so by this afternoon's game the former stat had improved by a factor of three.

Fast forward to the eighth inning of today's game, with Duaner Sanchez on the mound, the Mets up 6-4, and two Padres on base. Sanchez powers a 93 mile-an-hour fastball by Scott Hairston for the second out. He bears down well, and seems poised to get out of the inning with Jody Gerut coming up next. The catch? Gerut's a lefty, and Sanchez is a righty, so the first law of over-managing states that Billy Wagner, the lefty, is forced to come in to face Gerut and try to nail down a four out save.

There are libraries of conventional wisdom to vindicate Willie Randolph's decision here. Your closer's ready; bring him in to set up the lefty vs. lefty match-up and end the threat in the 8th.

But it's interesting to note that while Randolph did the conventional thing, Pads skipper Bud Black saw something in Gerut, opted not to pinch-hit, and Gerut came through with an RBI single. 6-5. Tony Clark follows with a three-run homer, to give the Padres an 8-6 lead they wouldn't relinquish. Oh, snap. Sunny San Diego wasn't so sunny this weekend for the Metsies.

I didn't like taking Sanchez out there for the mere reason that he just looked like he was getting out of that inning. And he looked pretty disappointed walking off the mound when he got the hook the moment he struck out Hairston, as if he too was wondering why people act like it's a felony to have a right-handed reliever pitch to a left-handed batter. And for christ's sake, it's not like Jody Gerut is Tony Gwynn.

Willie's known for going with his gut quite frequently, and it often backfires. The gutsy thing to do today would have been to leave Sanchez in to face the lefty, trusting in his capability after a big K to get one more out. Today, Willie went by the book, and it backfired.




But what's more interesting to me is that Willie ultimately chose to go with a barely-warm Wagner instead of a pumped up Sanchez. Especially knowing that Wagner has trouble coming in in the middle of an inning.

In the broadcast, Keith Hernandez said that Willie made the right move. Matt Cerrone agreed - twice - in his post-game remarks on metsblog, as if trying to preempt the all-but-certain anger of his site's readers.

And to be fair, we wouldn't be talking about any of this if the fastball Wagner zipped by Clark the pitch before the home run had been called a strike. It was a strike. The Mets should have been out of that inning. Instead, we're all left only to ponder.

The Mets need to figure it out, and soon. Sanchez should have stayed in. But I can't even fault Willie for anything else these last four games. The Mets aren't playing listlessly anymore; now they're just losing. I really am confused, because for nine beautiful games the Mets were fun to watch and looking solid again. Now, I'm left only to ponder.

30-32, 100 to play. 7 1/2 behind the first place Phillies...ugh. They'll turn it around, right? I mean, right? Time's running out on "it's still early."

I just want my team back, and I'm still waiting.


Pictures courtesy padres.com, mets.com

The NY Times OP-ED Page Does Baseball

Former Cub, Phillie, Yankee, and Texas Ranger Doug Glanville waxes poetic in today's New York Times about the Cubs' heartbreaking loss in the 2003 NLCS against the Marlins. Glanville was a reserve on that team, but I would recommend his piece as a must-read for anyone else who watched or remembers that series. The Mets were irrelevent at the time, but after a 95 loss campaign I was still focused on what was both a riveting and in the end pretty disappointing post-season. With the Cubs and Red Sox both in 7 game LCS series that year, that's probably the closest we ever came to seeing an epic World Series battle of two cursed organizations; of course, in perhaps the most authentic fashion the Cubs and BoSox both lost that year and we were instead treated to the double downer Marlins and Yankees show.

It's interesting that with both teams (Cubs: 39-23, Red Sox: 38-26) looking pretty good right now, we could be set up for a Cubs/Sox battle in 2008. But of course, the number of cursed organizations in such a potential battle has since fallen to one (twice).

Note the other fans not named Steve Bartman also reaching for the ball

Anyway, check out Glanville's piece. Let's all hold hands and pray for the health of Johan Santana's bruised shoulder, as the Mets try to leave California with a winning record.

The Problem With Being Preordained (New York Times)


Image courtesy generalstupidity.wordpress.com

Perez

You get the distinct sense that if Oliver Perez can't put it together this year, he probably never will. It's still the bottom of the first inning right now, and Perez has already given up a single, a double, and a home run. Just a little triple and he'll have pitched for the cycle! There's a walk. Oh man, this is SO exciting.

This last week has been promising, don't get me wrong. But if the Mets are going to go anywhere this season, I don't think they'll be able to count on Ollie Perez. Just as I finished that last sentence, Ray Durham pounded a two-run double into the left-center field gap to give the Giants a 4-0 lead. Just as I finished that last sentence, Ryan Horwitz launched an 87 mile-an-hour straight ball into the left field bleachers for the second home run of the inning and a 6-0 San Francisco lead. This is getting old.

In general, I mean. Willie Randolph is out of the dugout and Oliver Perez officially just lasted 1/3 of an inning. That's Tom Glavine game 162 stuff right there...except for the part about Perez not being a Hall of Fame pitcher. But I digress; OP has just been horrible this year. I don't know whether he can't handle expectations, or whether last season really was just a fluke, or whether he really is just a crazy head case, but the exciting, energetic lefty the Mets thought they'd stolen from Pittsburgh has proven to be more of an enigma than anything else.

When you win 15 games one year, hire Scott Boras as your agent, and are entering the walk year of your contract, you have to be pretty special to pitch the way Perez has thus far in '08. Special, in this context, is not a term of endearment. Perhaps it's all part of some elaborate scheme on Perez's part to stay in Queens. He knows the Mets aren't likely to give him a Gil Meche contract. But maybe he doesn't want to pitch anywhere else, so he's doing his best to insure that there's no chance in high heaven he gets a Gil Meche contract, and the Mets will be the only team that wants to sign him.

Next question: is Oliver Perez capable of that kind of cold calculation? I don't think he's very smart. Scott Boras probably is. But I do think that Billy Wagner hit it on the head when he said that trying to talk to Perez about pitching is like talking to a brick wall. Even when Perez pitches well, you kind of get the sense that it's all smoke and mirrors and the slider somehow goes over the plate and it all just finds a way to work out. I certainly don't have any confidence that he'll be able to duplicate his success from start to start; in fact, I've never not been nervous before a Perez outing. Any optimism is always cautious.

Oliver Perez is the pitching equivalent of a really attractive girl with a horrible personality

It just doesn't look like he thinks or cares enough about the science and the head game behind pitching. Where Johan Santana pitches, Oliver Perez throws. And you can't be a consistent and successful major league pitcher by just throwing.

I don't know how much longer the leash is going to be on Perez, but a 15-game winner, however erratic, probably deserves at least a few more starts. The question after that is what the Mets should do if Oliver Perez still can't figure himself out. Send him to the minor leagues? Trade him? Who takes his spot in the rotation? Quite frankly I just hope the kid can realize his immense potential. We've seen it, which is why it's all the more frustrating when he gives up 6 runs in 1/3 of an inning.

****

The Mets did look good on this last homestand. They'll play 7 straight in San Francisco and San Diego, and if this isn't just another flash in the pan they should be able to win some more games here against the NL West's bottom feeders. I can excuse a loss tonight, after the Mets arrived in San Francisco at 4:30 this morning and Perez didn't really do anything to help anyone's cause. In general, I'm trying to hold off on judging the big picture anymore with these Mets, because that's driven me crazy for the last year and the whole thing just kind of keeps repeating itself.

All I want is to see them play well, and maybe provide the added bonus of being fun to watch. The wins usually follow. Two comeback victories in the same week is a phenomena that I'm not used to, and it's really amazing how much it looked like everyone on the Mets just started having a good time in the middle of last week.

****

6-2 in the sixth now. I slotted myself in to watch this entire game, but with a 5:30 wake-up tomorrow morning, it looks like Oliver Perez might have punched my ticket to sleep. It's worth noting that Claudio Vargas pitched magnificently in relief of the lackluster Perez tonight. Somebody wants to stay on the team...


(Image courtesy mikesmets.com)