http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/mets/mets-don-t-have-plans-to-speak-to-jaramillo-1.1524107 Often when Met fans want someone fired, they don't have a solution to who the replacement is other than someone from the 1986 Mets, or Bobby Valentine. But in this case, if there was ever a person in MLB that could be a significant upgrade over Howard Johnson at the hitting coach spot (and mind you, I don't put a ton of stock into hitting/pitching coaches unless there's significant data that you can't ignore) it'd be Rangers' hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo. Like Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan, Jaramillo isn't going to stick with his former employer come 2010, and as it would have it, the Mets COULD bring him on board if the club felt Howard Johnson was not the best man for the job. As it turns out, the Wilpons love HoJo, and based on the Mets' team BA of .270 this season (tied with the Dodgers for 1st in the NL), and relatively strong RISP hitting numbers, you can't necessarily find cause to fire him either. From a political perspective, with Rudy Jaramillo once a former managerial candidate for the Metropolitans, you can understand why the club might be somewhat loathe to bring Jaramillo on board in any position other than hitting coach for fear it would be perceived as him waiting in the wings to take Jerry's or Howard Johnson's job.