That Which Wasn't Done

Life is divided up into the horrible and the miserable. The horrible would be terminal cases, blind people, cripples. The miserable is everyone else. When you go through life you should be thankful that you're miserable.

-Alvy Singer

I don't know that there was any one particular reason that I've only made 19 blog posts from the end of the Regular Season to now, the beginning of Spring Training 2010. You could accuse me of having sat on my hands while the Mets went to pieces, but in reality, what was there to say? Was I going to play some sort of bizarre company line? Should I echo the sentiments that every other Mets blogger was screaming? No, and no. The reality of the situation is that there just wasn't that much to say about the Mets, and their lack of activity during the offseason. The end result is that we're going into Spring Training 2010 with about as much optimism as Alvy himself shopping in a bookstore.

2007 and 2008 were the Miserable. 2009 was the Horrible. What the hell is 2010 going to be? I don't know, and I'm kind of scared to find out. But it's coming, and there's not much I can do to stop it. I've got 15 games worth of Mets tickets heading to my house imminently so I'll be at Citi Field, April 5th as per usual. I'll even be back in the Good Ol' 518, albeit a few rows lower than last season. But what the hell am I going to see?

Well, for one, I won't be seeing any of the following players: Joel Pineiro, Jason Marquis, Erik Bedard, John Lackey, Jason Schmidt, Randy Wolf or Todd Wellemeyer. I won't be seeing Matt Holliday, Orlando Hudson, Marco Scutaro or Russell Branyan either.

And you know what? I'm fine with that.

The problem the Mets have right now is that there's a little too much of the same going around, and they need an injection of a couple of impact guys to really cure those ills. But scan that crop of available Free Agents. Now, in your mind, remove the following names from that list: Jason Bay, Matt Holliday, John Lackey.

Is there anyone on that list that really lights you on fire, really gets you going? Anyone on that list that's going to come into this Mets locker room and change the attitude and atmosphere of the club? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Fact is, there were only 3 impact guys out there to be had, and the Mets got one of them. Everyone else would have simply been tacking on more question marks to a roster that already has enough of them. I would have started my 5 Key Mets for the upcoming season, but how can you pick just 5? Jason Marquis was not going to come to the Mets and immediately change the fortunes of the team. Neither was Joel Pineiro. Neither of them excited me a bit and deep down, I'm sort of glad the Mets didn't go out and sign them. So, then, what? The Mets could have a starting rotation of Santana, and yet another iffy guy to go with the iffy guys that already exist here?

The only reason the Mets would have made a move for any of those guys would have been to simply shake things up. Perhaps a shakeup is needed, I don't know. This particular group has proven itself only good enough to get tantalizingly close to the dream without actually getting there. Delgado's gone, Beltran's out until May at least (and given his feelings toward the organization, who knows if he's rushing to come back) and the Mets are functionally leaderless. Who steps up? Can Wright get out of his own head enough to do it? Is Jeff Francoeur's down-home, golly gee country boy style going to rub off on everyone? I don't know. I got no answers for the Mets. There are too many what-ifs that need to happen for the Mets to be successful in 2010.

All I know is that, going into Spring Training, we can't damn them for moves they didn't make. They really wouldn't have helped that much. If 2010 is Miserable, they wouldn't make it less miserable. If 2010 is Horrible, well, we're already screwed.

Descent From Grace

The Mets won their third game in a row last night, a feat which seems sort of secondary when you consider the absolute quagmire that the team has found itself in after the events of yesterday afternoon.

I found myself in my office yesterday afternoon actually listening to Omar Minaya's press conference. This shouldn't have even necessitated a Press Conference, let alone a stupid "Flushing Flash" mass e-mail to everyone. What the hell do any of us care about Tony Bernazard? You investigated, and you fired him. Nothing more needed to be said. Which is why once Omar said anything in that Press Conference beyond "We fired Tony Bernazard," I knew that he was in a lot of trouble. I would say that, basically, all Omar accomplished was digging a hole at the podium he was sitting at, jumping in it, and burying himself.

I've certainly been critical of the way the media in New York handles certain things, and you're certainly entitled to think that any newspaper columnist has some sort of agenda. Hell, even I've got an agenda, and I'm just writing a dopey blog. But there are times and places to talk about people's specific agendas, and in front of an audience with flash bulbs popping, microphones in your face and the guy who you're slinging accusations at in the crowd, that's not the best place to start slinging mud.

I find myself often asking who, exactly, is driving this Mets bus. Because the more this team makes misguided decisions and stupid mistakes, the more I think there's nobody at the wheel, and there's nobody who wants to take control. It's amazing that it took this particular incident, an out-and-out horrendous, flaming embarrassment for Jeff Wilpon to get up and say something, or at least appear conscious. I know he won't hold his own press conference because the idiot media will just ask him "How much did Madoff take you for?" but at some point, you have to take control of things. It was bad enough slogging through last season and the way things ended. This year, there's stadium that everyone seems to hate (which I guarantee wouldn't be the case if the team were winning), the Medical Staff appearing to be comprised of a group of Semi-educated mongoloids, the Assistant GM running amok, and now the GM opening his mouth and picking a direct fight with the fourth estate. When did this organization turn itself from a team on the rise into a complete and utter joke again? Things weren't supposed to turn out this way.

We go from being one inning from the World Series, to blowing a 7 game lead in the last 2 weeks of the season, to getting eliminated from the playoffs in the last game ever at our beloved old Stadium, to this? God, how the mighty have fallen.

It shouldn't be this particular incident that gets Omar Minaya canned for good. It's no stretch to say that the Media will turn on him completely. It should be the progression of that last paragraph. . 3 years ago, you would have thought we'd be running around with a couple of World Series trophies by now. Nope. Instead, that trophy is in the hands of our most bitter rival. Us? We're eating hamburgers and watching our team slog through while our GM seems hell bent on blaming everyone else for the problems that he's managed to create by not taking any kind of control. Well then. If he won't do it, it's time for one of the Wilpon boys to wake up. Take a look around Citi Field in September when there's 20,000 or less in the stands per game.

This is what you fucking get when you let the inmates run the asylum, Jeffy.

The Horror...The Horror...

When Carlos Beltran speaks his mind, it gets people's attention. More often than not, he's 100% on the money.

Beltran's postgame statements this afternoon, calling out the Mets as an Embarrassment is, rather sadly, the truth right now. The Mets left town on Sunday looking pretty good, sitting at 28-21, right down the Phillies' necks in the standings. Three lifeless, miserable games later, the Mets are in complete and total disarray. I guess you can consider last night's rainout a blessing in disguise, because it's more than likely the Mets would have lost that game as well.

It's absolutely baffling the way the Mets run. They go from hot to cold, players seem to get injured on a regular basis, injuries are understated, injuries are kept under wraps, guys get stomach viruses and miss a week, injured players are flown cross-country, guys replacing injured guys get injured...It never stops with this team. Two weeks ago, Jose Reyes was day-to-day. Now, with the revelation that he's got a hamstring tear, we're looking at him possibly being out the rest of the season!

It's very easy to knock the Mets fan while they're down, and right now, it's very easy to be down on the Mets. But just examine the way the past month or so has played out for the Mets, between the hot streak, all these players getting injured at once, injuries suddenly getting much worse than they originally appeared, Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya talking really quickly and not saying anything...Only the Mets. That's all you can say. This only happens to the Mets. And I'm not quite sure how or why this happens, but it does. Only to the Mets.

The collective Karma around this team right now is so putrid that it wouldn't surprise me at all if the Mets go into Yankee Stadium next weekend and get swept by a combined score of 44-3. The fans would probably commit ritual suicide off the 59th Street Bridge. El Guapo and I will probably end up shooting Maker's Mark by the bottle. But one good thing would probably happen: heads would finally start to roll.

A lot of times, the coaching staff has this safety net of the fact that their players need to execute, but you have to really be concerned about the general lack of fundamentals this team exhibits most of the time. I'm not sure how often it's happened this season, but it seems like it's just about a daily occurrence that Razor Shines has gotten a runner thrown out at home plate. I'll paraphrase an old Bill Simmons joke about former Boston 3rd base coach Dale Sveum, but if Razor Shines was a school crossing guard, kids would be getting pancaked all over Central Park West. Ho-Jo remains mostly clueless; nobody seems to point any fingers at him because he's a "True Met," but considering the way David Wright has run in and out of hot streaks, and Reyes getting homer happy, and players like Church, Murphy and Castillo being inconsistent, does he actually work with these guys, or does he just stand in the dugout in his shades doing his best Art Howe impression? I'd axe these two first, just to get the ball rolling.

Then, we have the guys at the top. Manuel is homing in on a year as the team's manager, and he's basically been no better or worse than he was last season, except that half his roster is on the DL and the other half has a difficult time picking up the slack. His in-game moves continue to often be baffling, and he's still way too by-the-book. He also gives you just an unsettling enough impression that the patients are running the asylum.

Then, there's Omar, the head of the clown car. Somehow, without any fanfare, Pittsburgh dealt their best player to Atlanta for some meager Minor Leaguers right under the Mets nose. And what I wondered more than anything else was why wasn't Omar on the horn making a deal for Nate McLouth? People seem far too consumed with the Mets need for pitching, but, as the case has been so often in the past, pitching isn't the problem here. Yes, Pelfrey was rather awful this afternoon, but he's also been flat-out excellent for a month prior to this, without a victory to show for it. Santana wasn't great the other night, but whether he finished the game or not, the Mets still weren't winning. Why? BECAUSE THE METS DON'T GENERATE ENOUGH OFFENSE! Nobody, or at least nobody who talks about the Mets in a public arena seems to realize this. You can bring in whatever stud pitcher you want. The Mets will just lose games 2-1 instead of 3-1. THE METS NEED ANOTHER BAT! It doesn't matter where he plays, just get someone. But whenever Omar makes an in-season deal like this, it's always for a guy who's not quite good enough to fill the gap he's supposed to fill. Atlanta goes out and trades with Pittsburgh for Nate McLouth. Omar will go out and trade with Pittsburgh for Craig Monroe. That's not going to cut it. The M.O. for the Mets the last two seasons has been a day late and a dollar short. I'm really starting to get tired of the act.

The Mets are going to Washington this weekend, to play a Nationals team that right now stands at 14-38, on pace to post 43.6 wins this season. The Mets themselves just got swept by a Pirates team that is just slightly better than the Nationals. I have a really bad feeling about just how embarrassing things are going to get for this team.

He Said, They Said...

I'm beginning to wonder who, exactly, is driving this bus.

The Mets can continue to add pitchers to try to round out their starting rotation, but in reality it's no secret that if the Mets really want to make themselves a bonafide contender, they need to add a major bat to the middle of their lineup.

I'm not at all against the signing of Freddy Garcia. I really liked Garcia back in his Seattle days, and I certainly think the move is a great low-risk, high-reward kind of deal. Should Garcia prove himself healthy and capable of eating up innings and winning games, the move is a steal. But there was another news blip late in the week that left me a bit perplexed about how the Mets are approaching the 2009 season.

The article, of course, involved the Mets lack of interest in Manny Ramirez.

I'm kind of confused as to who, exactly, is telling the truth. For all we've heard, or at least all that's been indicated to us, Omar Minaya is a huge fan of Ramirez, and has been so for years. I don't know if it's substantiated, but I keep hearing word that both Freddie and the Boy-King don't like Manny because of Character issues.

This strikes me as a pretty sorry excuse. Manny Being Manny is going to pop up wherever he ends up. So will a guy who's a pretty safe bet to hit about .300, with 35 HRs and 110 RBIs. The kind of bat who would look pretty damn good in the middle of a Mets lineup that was simply dying in key RBI spots late last season. He'd look pretty good in a lineup that already boasts major question marks at no less than 3 positions, and probably 4 if you figure that Carlos Delgado is another year older and for at least 70 games last season looked to be completely past it.

But nooooooo, apparently this guy isn't even an option. The Mets can continue to load up on pitching and more pitching, and have that shutdown bullpen that will keep the Mets in games that they will continue to lose 3-1 and 4-2 because they couldn't get a key hit. The argument that the offense wasn't the problem because the Mets finished tied for 2nd with Philadelphia in scoring 799 runs is a load. The Mets tended to score runs in bunches. I'd bet that, more often than not, the Mets were either scoring 9 runs or 2 runs, with no in between. I can't buy that this thought hasn't crossed Omar Minaya's mind. Minaya isn't a guy who has been timid to make a major acquisiton; it's part of the reason the Mets have had the modicum of success they've had over the past 4 seasons. And I'm sure the Mets players would certainly be glad to have him around, at least David Wright has indicated as much, and I'm sure plenty of other players agree with him.

Bringing in Ramirez is, the more I think about it, an absolutely necessary move. Going into the season relying heavily on Fernando Tatis, Daniel Murphy and Ryan Church to carry a major part of the offensive load is not going to inspire confidence in anybody, certainly not anyone who really picked apart the Mets struggles last season. I don't care about the fact that he's a space cadet. I don't care if he wakes up on the wrong side of the bed one day and decides he doesn't want to play. Manny spent a large chunk of his childhood in Washington Heights. If he comes here, he immediately becomes the King of the City. He can carry the team on his shoulders, act like a goofball, whatever. I don't care. He needs to be here.

One final point on who we ought to believe: Nobody will say it, and any reporter who does would likely be fired on sight. But if Freddie and Jeffy are such keen judges of character, then how did they manage to get swindled out of $300 million by Bernard Madoff? If that's not a ringing endorsement for Omar to bite the bullet and bring Ramirez on board, I don't know what is.

Hope Dies Last

In the midst of processing the 3AM Massacre Tuesday morning, my hastily thrown-up post might have seemed a bit too sympathetic towards Willie Randolph. That's not to say that Willie isn't deserving of sympathy. Lord knows I've been raking him over the coals for the past however long it was. But, as has been the feeling echoing through Metsdom over the past 20 or so hours, only the Mets could manage to fuck up a move that needed to be made.

I don't know what exactly transpired in that postgame meeting with Willie and Omar, although suffice it to say that it doesn't matter at this point. The situation was too far out of hand to play out any different than it did. There was, in reality, no logical reason to maintain Willie as Manager. But why, then, at this particular moment? Why, after flying cross country and winning? Why, if Peterson, clearly an organizational guy and not one of Willie's guys was fired, was Ho-Jo maintained, particularly when the offense has been an equal, if not a far greater, problem with this team than the pitching. There are many questions on this night that is vastly different from all other nights. Most of them probably won't be answered. That, perhaps, is what is most maddening about this whole saga.

I'm not going to do an about face and defend Willie at all. There's nothing to defend. When a change needs to be made, you look to the top, but, much the same way that Art Howe got a raw deal, Willie got a raw deal. I've mentioned that before as well. It's not necessarily his fault that he was given a team built to win now two years ago. And it's not his fault that when the flaws of the team began to show themselves in repeated fashion, very little was done to fix it. But with that said, Willie's moves often left a lot to be questioned. From Kaz Ishii's 16 starts, to Cliff Floyd, to Schoeneweis and Feliciano, to Philip Humber, to Mike Pelfrey and Wagner. But such is the peril of being a Big League manager operating in a Media vacuum that seems hell bent on imposing their will on whomever will listen.

It doesn't help, then, that the Mets, at the top, seem all too willing to read and absorb what is said about their team. It also doesn't help that someone within the Mets organization, with a cool ear to the inner machinations, is also the owner of lips far too loose for his or her own good. It's one thing to have this go on in silence. Once it becomes public knowledge, once the Media gets a hold of it, there's no stopping the firestorm as it gains power and blazes out of control.

So, then, we are led to Tuesday, June 17, 2008. One of those days that could live up there with June 15, 1977, October 20, 1999 and October 19, 2006 as days that will live in Met Infamy. In his press conference, which I didn't see and only read about much later in the day, Omar was all too willing to point his finger at the press. He's right to do so, but then again, the onus is now clearly on him for the remainder of the season. If Fabulous Freddie and Ruprecht the Idiot Manchild are conscious at this point, and not polishing off their second bottle of Black Label, they'd say something and make this clear. But we don't hear anything out of them.

It's funny, because it seems like it's always been this way with Fred. On the Bonus Disc of the 1986 World Series box set, there's an interview with Wilpon on the podium. It was Wilpon who cajoled Nelson Doubleday into providing him the muscle with which to purchase the team in the first place. Yet, here he is, at the pinnacle of his reign as owner, referring to the team, his team, as "Frank Cashen and his Mets team." Not "our team." Their team. As though he's somehow detached from all this, save for signing the checks. Perhaps he prefers to shrink from the spotlight. That's one thing. But to provide us with an air of seeming disinterested, or uninvolved, particularly when things are spiraling out of control, and leaving his Houseboy in charge to his personal interests, which appear to be an A-Ball team and a new Stadium, is right on the border of complete and total insanity. I guess my point is that the owner of a team should care about what's going on with his team, right? I'm not seeing that out of Right Said Fred.

I'd like to see Omar get his head spun a little bit here. He seems awfully comfortable right now. Again, he's made the necessary move in a rather ass-backwards fashion. He's built a team that consists of two young stars, two outstanding veterans who are signed to insanely large contracts, and a horrendous cadre of Has-beens and never-will-bes. Last year, he dismissed the hitting coach, and replaced him with a hitting coach who has managed to fix absolutely none of the existing offensive problems, and has even served to create new problems where none existed in the first place! And yet, when Omar has decided to cut off the head and hack the limbs, HE LET THIS GUY KEEP HIS JOB!

I refused to listen to Mike & The Mad Dog Tuesday. I wasn't particularly in the mood to listen to those jokers cackling away about what an absolute joke the Mets allowed this situation to become. I avoided it most of the day, aside from a few comments here and there, and a call from my co-worker, out of the office for the day. I missed the early part of the game, but it seems that Jerry Manuel only needed about 5 or so minutes to attain his first controversy, with Jose Reyes at first, stomping off and throwing his helmet after being removed from the game. Manuel, apparently, then spent the better part of the inning lecturing Reyes on growing up. Reyes sounded mostly contrite after the game, which I suppose is a plus. On the field, blah, blah, blah. The games are still scenery, and everyone seemed to be in a fog after this truly bizarre day in what has been a complete train wreck of a season. I know the right move was made. I know it wasn't made well. I also don't know if it's going to make anything better.

I guess there's still hope, right? Hope dies last.

The Plot Sickens

By splitting the Single-Admission Doubleheader on Sunday, the Mets managed to take 2 out of 3 from the Texas Rangers.

My, how benign such a sentence sounds. I suppose to tell that to someone who had no idea about Baseball, or didn't live within the Media Vacuum that is New York City, it wouldn't mean much.

If the Mets managerial and coaching situations were unstable before the Rangers came into town, now, it appears to be even more of a mess.

It's not enough to say that Willie kinda sorta might be fired, now, it appears that he won't be fired today, but two of his coaches, Tom Nieto and Rick Peterson, just well might.

Even so, as the Mets depart for what appears to be their 3rd trip to the West Coast in the last 2 weeks, calm is not the name of the game as far as the Mets are concerned. When the Mets return, after their games in Anaheim and Colorado, who knows what the team will look like. And if changes are made, who knows if they'll do any good.

I've done my share of Willie-Bashing over the past several months. That's no secret. Willie has taken the brunt of the criticism for the team's shortcomings. But while the blame that has been put on him is hardly unjust, it's now to the point where Willie has become the new Art Howe. We know he's a goner, he knows he's a goner, and yet this whole mess has been dragged out in such a sub-moronic fashion by Omar, Freddie and his Fan-Boy, that Willie is now the sympathetic figure in this mess. People are beginning to feel bad for him twisting in the wind. He's getting a raw deal, just like Howe got a raw deal. He's basically been given a team, the past two seasons, that was barely cohesive and just about past it. I know I've said it before (or it may have just been in an e-mail circle, I forget), but Omar apparently built a team to win now, only now was two years ago. Now is now, and now, the Mets are no damn good.

Yet, the changes are only happening at the top, as the bullpen is a shambles and the offense is a horrible mishmash of pressing young stars trying to carry the load left behind by aging veterans who can't hack it anymore. Omar has, according to "Rumors" and "Sources" close to the team (one such source is that bastion of drunken, asshole journalism, that dope, that Gin-Blossom Drunk Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, who should be having peanuts thrown at him, not reporting on Baseball), been given the green light to fire Willie whenever he sees fit. He's snuck onto the flight and is headed West with the rest of the team. The only quotes are given in cryptic, half-hearted endorsements, basically saying that Willie is the Manager on a day-by-day basis.

How the hell does he get off running a Ballclub like this?

The games right now appear to be a mere distraction from what has dissolved into a Circus Sideshow. And it's not a good sideshow. People continue to write about the games, but what's the point at this point? It appears to be the same story over and over again. The Mets played the Texas Rangers this weekend, and by Wednesday, who'll remember that? They may as well have played the Podunk Jerkoffs. You come, you show up, Ball 1, Strike 1, Home Run, Hit, don't hit, Pitch, don't pitch, Starter does well, Reliever X screws it up, Yay, Boo, go home. The Mets and Rangers played two games today, the stadium seemed relatively full at the outset, and when I turned on Game 2 in the 2nd inning, there looked to be about 10,000 people in the ballpark, at a game when Pedro was pitching. The Mets appeared to mostly stagger through the afternoon, winning the second game pretty much on dumb luck. Willie, figuring he's got nothing more to lose at this point—and he doesnt—just threw Robinson Cancel up with 2 outs and the bases loaded in the 6th, and somehow, Cancel pulled a Chip Ambres and knocked in the winning runs. Then, the game ended, and the focus went back to the coaches and the Manager and the rumors flying around.

Who starts these rumors anyway? I have a feeling that either the Idiot Boy-King might just have his lips too loose, or he's trying to bag a page from the Daily News, or something stupid like that. Knowing him, the situation just reeks of it. Why are there "leaks?"There's a time to talk, and a time to keep your mouth shut. Is this just a way to let the fans know that the people in charge are actually doing something, or that they just like to act like morons? There's a history of unprofessionalism within this organization, especially when it comes to leaking things that really should remain internal. I wonder if it has something to do with this team's inferiority complex dealing with the Yankees, or the insecurity of the Wilpons, or something else. It goes back to Mike Piazza finding out he was moving to First Base by reading the Post one morning. Art Howe got treated the same way. Now, there's this mess.

I forgot to mention something else El Guapo and I encountered last Wednesday at Shea. I didn't leave it out on purpose, I just forgot, since it was late when I was writing that, and I wanted to go back and put it in, but I forgot to do that too. Sometime in the 10th or 11th inning, there were two guys walking around the Mezzanine with paper bags on their heads. They were, for the most part, getting a positive response. They were each holding signs. One held a sign that said, "OMAR MUST GO." The other said "FRED, PLEASE HELP US!" El Guapo and I had, in a rather jocular fashion, discussed doing this ourselves earlier in the afternoon. When we saw them, we couldn't help but laugh. It wasn't because it was particularly funny.

I wonder if Fred is even conscious at this point.

Spring Cleaning

There's an article in today's New York Sun, by Tim Marchman, which calls for the head of Willie Randolph. Should the Mets sweep or get swept this weekend in Arizona (and either one is a distinct possibility), Marchman believes Willie should be fired.

Marchman is pretty much right on just about all of his points. I've made my case for firing Willie in the past. Jason at Faith and Fear agrees with Marchman as well. Willie, despite being a very nice, amicable and talkative person, has not been able to accomplish what has been required of him as the Mets Manager, and has consistently fallen short of the goals set forth for him in his 3+ seasons at the helm (You can give him a partial pass for 2006, based on the injuries to the pitching staff, but even so, the Mets should have filleted St. Louis and everyone knows this—they just won't admit it).

It's become my belief (and the theory of my insane co-worker) that Willie Randolph is, for the most part, an over-glorified and flashier version of Art Howe. He's very calm, unfazed, and looks real sharp standing in the dugout with his shades on.

But let's take it a step further. A common argument you might hear against this particular stance is that the Manager can only be as good as the players he has to work with. Of course, it doesn't help that players like Delgado and Beltran have been underachieving, pitchers like Perez, Sosa, Heilman and Schoeneweis are routinely hammered and, overall, guys seem to play like they're in a fog. Any Manager in the Major Leagues will have to deal with his share of malcontents on their team. But when it appears that the roster is overloaded with guys who have cashed in on "trade high" status, it's time to question the guy who put the team together.

That would be Omar Minaya.

Willie is pretty far from blameless in this equation, but Omar should shoulder the brunt of the blame. You can hail Omar as a genius for bringing in guys like Pedro Martinez and Johan Santana, but it's not as though these moves were made out of some great wizardry on Minaya's part. A large number of the gambles that Minaya has made haven't paid off. Sure, one might say, the Nady for Hernanadez/Perez deal was a heist. But the reality is that the deal wasn't necessary. In making the deal, the Mets gave up one of their more solid righty bats (and, yes, the Mets did hit that season, but not when it mattered most) for a reliever that they didn't need and didn't use in the Postseason, and an erratic starter who has mixed brilliance and misery, sometimes within the same game. Sure, one might say, the Bannister for Burgos deal was a wash. Bannister hadn't shown anything, and Burgos had a great power arm. Nobody knew Bannister would go to KC and light it up or that Burgos would get hurt. But, again, it was an unnecessary deal. Burgos wasn't going to make or break the Mets bullpen, and they were already short starting pitching. Bannister deserved a better chance, at the very least.

The point is, and I'll steal the theory brought up in yesterday's Bill Simmons column, that Minaya has made a lot of "Critically Acclaimed" deals. Trades and signings that involved names to light up the sky, but either didn't require a lot of thought (and sometimes a little dumb luck in the case of the Santana deal) or calculated gambles that worked in the short term, but proved to be long term failures. Omar's stock can trade high because he likes to take these risks, but a closer examination would reveal that they rarely have paid off well.

If Willie is going to take the fall for this poor start and the underachieving of past seasons, Omar has to do so as well. Freddie and his Boy-King ought to be smart enough to realize this before things spiral completely out of control.

It's Time To Fire Willie Randolph [New York Sun]

The Relentless Pursuit of Nobody in Particular

I'm still stewing over the Lastings deal. I suppose I've softened my stance since Friday, where I said to the former El Guapo, "I don't think I want to be a Mets fan anymore. I am switching to the Pirates. It's easy to not be disappointed when you have no expectations for success in the first place." But still I ask myself, "Why?"

There really was no good purpose for dealing Milledge for the National Pu-Pu Platter. If that was the best deal to be made for him, why do it at all? Because Schneider will be the galvanizing force that Estrada will never be? Because Church is going to surprise us all and become a big time hitter? This deal can at best be a wash for the Mets, and at its worst, a catastrophic blunder.

Even Joel Sherman, two-faced ass that he is, is ripping this trade. And this man never said a kind word about Lastings Milledge in his life.

But I digress. Names and players and deals are sure to be flying around this week as the Winter Meetings have commenced in Nashville (despite the fact that it's not even Winter yet). And so far, the only rumor I've heard concerning the Mets is that they're talking to Baltimore about Erik Bedard. Who's being offered, though? Who's left? It's beginning to sound an awful lot like Pelfrey and Humber have no real value, at least not to the teams the Mets are likely to deal with. My personal preference would be Haren from Oakland (who I'm convinced could be Santana-Lite, kind of like how Rick Reed was Maddux-Lite), but who knows what exactly Billy Beane is using to rate prospects these days. I seem to remember him having a massive orgasm for Milledge a few years back, but if that were still the case, I'd have to imagine Lastings would be packing his bags for Oakland right now.

All this talk, or lack thereof, makes me nervous. Is there a plan? Does Omar really have anything up his sleeve? These articles from the Daily News seem to indicate that he's grasping at straws. It's a little scary to read that your GM is ready to cash in with authority for...Bartolo Colon. Right. I can see it now. I'll be walking down 14th Street drunk, after seeing another Mets debacle, and I'll see Bartolo Colon in the KFC at 2nd Avenue, face down in a bucket of Extra Crispy. That's a deal that doesn't inspire much confidence in anyone.

Right now, I'm inclined to agree with Billy Wagner's comments last week, because this is shaping up to be something in the neighborhood of a 3rd place team, unless a front-line starter finds himself under my Chanukah Bush sometime soon.

Omar Minaya brings mixed record to table for the Mets [Daily News]
Omar Minaya may throw Bartolo Colon into Met Mix [Daily News]