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. 

Written July 7:
The Mets have their next 6 at home going into the All-Star Break. 3 against the Dodgers, owners of the best record in baseball, and the Cincinnati Reds. Figure the Mets go 3-3 over that span, losing the series to the Dodgers, winning the series against the Reds.

Written July 7:
After the All-Star break, the Mets go on the road for 4 against Atlanta, 3 against Washington, 3 against Houston. If this were truly the 2009 Mets with all their healthy starters in the lineup, it would not be absurd to expect them to win 8-9 of those 10 games.

But without those starting players in the lineup and the team's inability to score runs at a consistent pace, the more likely outcome of that 10-game roadtrip is 4-6.

Written July 7:
The Mets will finish up July with a 4-game set at home against the Colorado Rockies, and a 4-game set that extends into August (1 game in July) against the dying Arizona Diamondbacks. Over those 5 games, I'll give the Mets a 3-2 record.

Written July 7:
Taking into account all the series remaining in the month, that would bring the Mets to a July finish of 12-14, and a total record of 49-53 through 102 games played.

Written July 7:
In a perfect world, you get back all your healthy players PLUS Billy Wagner in the bullpen by August 1, 2009. Maybe you already have some of then back already. But the Mets would then need to go around 39-14 over the rest of the season, and pray that other teams in the NL East encounter troubles of their own. While that's not impossible, it's certainly not very probable. Keep in mind that this is also assuming that the team doesn't suffer any additional injuries to major players.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4366267

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Mets general manager Omar Minaya said Thursday that he has apologized to a beat reporter for his critical comments during a bizarre news conference earlier in the week.

Minaya said he met with New York Daily News reporter Adam Rubin on Wednesday. But the GM was unclear when asked Thursday if he stood by his statements that questioned Rubin's motives and credibility for a series of articles about former player development executive Tony Bernazard.

Minaya has been sharply criticized since he said Rubin had "lobbied" him and Bernazard for a job in player development. Rubin denied he asked Minaya for a job and insisted he had merely sought career advice.

Minaya says he believes Rubin accepted his apology.

Good. That's what should have occurred after Monday's debacle of a press conference where Minaya seemingly lost his cool, if not his mind entirely.

Now to the interesting question... It's one day before the trading deadline, and the Mets are pretty much doing exactly what I predicted here. Though there are still 3 games left to play in July, so we'll have to see how those games end out.

The issue is this. The Mets haven't died a horrible death over the last month, and the current 4-game win streak they are riding is helping things. But they're still a long ways out of the wild card race with 6 teams in front of them, and currently 10 games behind the Phillies in the NL East.

The Mets can't really sell any players, because the few options they do have to trade, they either need for next year (Pedro Feliciano, Sean Green) or are on the DL (Gary Sheffield, JJ Putz).

At the same time, expecting the club to make a play for a major impact player at this point in time, is going to cost a significant amout of prospects out of an already-depleted farm system.

So it seems the best thing for the Mets to do before the trading deadline, is really nothing. That's not to say you don't have conversations with other GMs about trade ideas, but there just doesn't seem to be any major actions to take right now except hope that the injured players begin to come back as soon as humanly possible.

There isn't a great free agent class for the 2010 season, but that's likely where the Mets will have to focus their attention. Perhaps there will be offseason trades to be made that will allow the club to improve in areas they need to, instead of making desperation trades right now for a postseason berth that isn't realistic.

Right now, put out a good product, have a winning season, don't do anything stupid, and plan for 2010.

Now that I've seen and heard the press conferences from the New York Mets about the firing of ex-executive Tony Bernazard, the absurd blame somehow put on New York Daily News reporter Adam Rubin because he allegedly asked how to get a job in player development (which Rubin later denied, only admitting to asking Jeff Wilpon at one point "how to go about getting a job in baseball,") and then then the apology from Minaya and COO Jeff Wilpon, here's what I've taken from the entire ordeal:

First, Mets' GM Omar Minaya stated that the firing of Tony Bernazard, formerly the Mets VP of Player Personnel and Development, occurred after the Mets HR department had conducted an investigation and presented him with the findings, which weren't pretty. He then presented his recommendation to the Wilpons that Bernazard be terminated, and the Wilpons agreed.

This is standard operating procedure for HR issues in corporate America involving problem employees. So the fact that it happened the same way with a professional baseball club should not be a surprise to anyone. None of us are privy to the terms of the contract that Tony Bernazard had with the Mets, but you can't simply drop the axe on someone in a company without dotting the i's and crossing the t's. The legal ramifications are far too dangerous if you don't go through these procedures. Employees of companies have sued for unfair/wrongful termination and won a lot of money from those companies as a result. Some of those cases were justified, others were not. However, a ballclub like the New York Mets had to make sure that their ass was covered before Bernazard was terminated.

Minaya had mentioned that the HR report had found that there were complaints filed against Tony Bernazard by unnamed employees within the Mets organization, people interviewed did not speak highly of him, and the findings were of an interpersonal relationship nature. Basically, people didn't like him to the point they complained to HR about his behavior. If you've ever worked in the corporate world, you have to usually be a real special type of asshole in order to garner those types of complaints in numbers.

Second, Omar Minaya's bizarre attack on New York Daily News reporter Adam Rubin. Minaya stated that since Rubin's initial report on the Binghamton Mets clubhouse incident in which Bernazard took off his shirt and challenged players to a fight, had expedited an ongoing internal Mets HR investigation in regards to Bernazard because of other complaints within the organization filed by employees.

But Minaya also questioned the motives of Adam Rubin in writing the reports about Bernazard because he had previously lobbied Omar and others in the front office for a job in player development. Rubin, who was in the room, asked Minaya if he was implying that the only reason he wrote those articles was in hope of getting Bernazard fired in order to take his job. Omar Minaya denied that to be the case.

That... doesn't quite make sense.

Let's momentarily assume that Adam Rubin had indeed asked about how to get a job within the Mets front office and everything Minaya said about Rubin was 100% true.

Is it reasonable to assume that Adam Rubin was going to obtain that particular job simply by asking? If you're going with Omar Minaya's bizarre theory, Adam Rubin was somehow naive enough to go from Mets beat reporter for the NY Daily News, into Tony Bernazard's position overnight?

If anything in Adam Rubin's articles about Tony Bernazard's behavioral issues were found to be factually incorrect or baseless speculation without any foundation, and Rubin was hardly the only one in the NY sports media to report about Tony Bernazard incidents over the last month, then Minaya should have attacked Adam Rubin or NY Times reporter Ben Shpigel or Newsday reporter David Lennon or NY Post reporter Joel Sherman for falsely reporting information. That's not what happened.

Heck, if any of these reports were fabricated or completely made up, Tony Bernazard could have a potential libel suit on his hands against Rubin and others since it ultimately resulted in the termination of his job, defamed his character and it has obviously damaged his reputation. Except it's tough to prove libel when people are telling the truth about you.

Minaya seemed to be in a mindset of "shoot the messenger" instead of focusing upon the content of the message itself. The content was, in a nutshell, "Tony Bernazard has developed a pattern of pissing a lot of people off up and down the Mets organization." That content was corroborated by the Mets' own HR department. So then he goes after Rubin for essentially... being right. Utterly ridiculous.

Omar Minaya, and perhaps Tony Bernazard as well, were acting like Scooby Doo villains in this situation. "We would've gotten away with it all, if it weren't for you meddling kids!"

Omar Minaya and Mets COO Jeff Wilpon had another press conference later in which Minaya apologized for airing his thoughts about Adam Rubin publicly in that forum, but stood by his comments. So basically, he's sorry for unjustly punching him in the face in public, but would do it again in private, even though the punch in the face isn't justifiable in either situation.

My best guess is that this was Minaya's ill-conceived emotional way of "getting back" at Rubin for the somewhat scathing article published on July 11, 2009 which did not paint Omar Minaya in a very favorable light, seen here.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2009/07/11/2009-07-11_meet_the_mess.html

As of 10:30pm Pacific Time, the NY Daily News web site has not published any article or story covering the Mets 7-3 win over the Colorado Rockies on Monday night.

At this point, Omar Minaya owes Adam Rubin a sincere apology, a public retraction of the accusation leveled against him if it is indeed untrue or inaccurate. Because frankly, if he doesn't, it could get a whole lot worse.

After a 3-game sweep at the hands of NL East rivals and current division leaders Philadelphia Phillies over the July 4 weekend, it's time to call it. The season for the 2009 New York Mets is basically over.

Understand that unlike a lot of Met fans, I'm not the whining complaining blame & flame-throwing type. I don't fault any one person for the failure of the 2009 New York Mets. I don't beat drums about firing everyone in the front office, or demanding that they trade away part of "the core." I'm generally pretty optimistic when it comes to all things baseball. But I'm also realistic.

And the reality has finally set in for this team. It's not Jerry Manuel's fault. It's not Omar Minaya's fault. It's not Fred and Jeff Wilpon's fault.

It's the fault of overwhelming injuries to a multitude of players.

Injuries are the great unequalizer in sports. It's what makes fantasy sports such a tough game to win. You can draft the best players in any fantasy sports league, but if your #1, #2 and #3 picks go down for an extended period of time, you're going to have a very tough time of winning your fantasy league. Now translate that to REAL sports, and you've got a serious problem.

The 2009 New York Mets have lost a lot of players this season to injury. Some minor, many major. Oliver Perez was first to fall. To some, that's not a big deal. But then Carlos Delgado went down with a hip injury. Then Jose Reyes's calf and hamstring. Then JJ Putz with his elbow. Then the oft-injured starting pitcher John Maine and his shoulder.

But the biggest loss on top of all of the others that had already accumulated, was Carlos Beltran and the debilitating and painful bone bruise on his right knee.

There were periods of time in which the Mets were also without starters Ryan Church (RF), Brian Schneider (C), and backup utility man Alex Cora (SS/2B). There's a revolving door/platoon in LF once the Daniel Murphy outfield experiment ended. Fernando Tatis is not hitting at even close to the pace he was in 2008, and the backup players (Alex Cora, Gary Sheffield) are being worn down by playing nearly every day.

David Wright has become a very streaky and inconsistent hitter who has lost his power swing. Despite being the only major Met starter to remain healthy all season, he is going to have a career year in most strikeouts at his current pace, and his final BA could end up being .260 or .350, depending on what streak he ends the 2009 season on. But even assuming the best for David Wright, he's one player. Even Albert Pujols has a superior supporting cast surrounding him.

There are some Met fans who want to blame GM Omar Minaya for not providing a better set of backup players, forgetting that backup players are just that. Backups.

They're the guys who alternate in to give the others rest on a Sunday day game after a Saturday night game, and occasionally a couple of them can fill in for extended periods of time over the course of a season when needed. But when your backup players get hurt, and then you're calling up minor league players to fill-in for THEM before they are ready to produce at an MLB level a la Fernando (K-Mart) Martinez, Nick Evans, Argenis Reyes, etc. it's an unplanned recipe for disaster.

There are some Met fans who want to blame GM Omar Minaya for not having already traded for another offensive player, like an Aubrey Huff, Mark DeRosa or Matt Holliday. The three major problems with these concepts is that one player alone isn't going to turn the Mets around. The second is that despite the simplistic belief of many a baseball fan no matter which team they support, other GMs have to actually agree to the trades. The third is that Minaya has gone on record stating he wasn't willing to mortgage the future prospects of the franchise for short-term solutions. A very wise decision. However, the pill of potentially giving up on 2009 to have a shot at legitimately competing in 2010 and 2011 is proving to be a tough one to swallow.

The indisputable facts are this:

• Through 81 games, the halfway-point of a MLB season, the New York Mets have gone 39-42. They are 3 games under .500, and 4.5 games behind the Phillies.
  
• Last year, the 2008 Mets were 40-41 at the halfway point, 3 games behind the Phillies. They went 59-32 over the 2nd half of the season, which was still a game short of the NL wild card. And that's a team that didn't have nearly the number of injury problems that the 2009 team has endured.
  
• There are SEVEN teams currently ahead of them (Giants, Rockies, Brewers, Cubs, Marlins, Reds, Astros) in the wild card race, with Atlanta just a half-game behind the Mets in both the NL East and wild card race.The Mets are 5.5 games behind current wild card leading San Francisco Giants.
  
• Since June 1, the team has went 11-21, which would only be slightly palatable had they not gone 9-12 in April. Even though the team went 19-9 in May, things started to slide when June came, and went to hell in a handbasket once Beltran went on the DL (5-9 since June 22), including series sweeps against the Yankees and Phillies.

The Mets have their next 6 at home going into the All-Star Break. 3 against the Dodgers, owners of the best record in baseball, and the Cincinnati Reds. Figure the Mets go 3-3 over that span, losing the series to the Dodgers, winning the series against the Reds.

After the All-Star break, the Mets go on the road for 4 against Atlanta, 3 against Washington, 3 against Houston. If this were truly the 2009 Mets with all their healthy starters in the lineup, it would not be absurd to expect them to win 8-9 of those 10 games.

But without those starting players in the lineup and the team's inability to score runs at a consistent pace, the more likely outcome of that 10-game roadtrip is 4-6.

The Mets will finish up July with a 4-game set at home against the Colorado Rockies, and a 4-game set that extends into August (1 game in July) against the dying Arizona Diamondbacks. Over those 5 games, I'll give the Mets a 3-2 record.

Taking into account all the series remaining in the month, that would bring the Mets to a July finish of 12-14, and a total record of 49-53 through 102 games played.

For the New York Mets to actually have a reasonable shot of winning the NL East or even the wildcard, they'd have to amass at least 88-90 wins by season's end at the bare minimum.

In a perfect world, you get back all your healthy players PLUS Billy Wagner in the bullpen by August 1, 2009. Maybe you already have some of then back already. But the Mets would then need to go around 39-14 over the rest of the season, and pray that other teams in the NL East encounter troubles of their own. While that's not impossible, it's certainly not very probable. Keep in mind that this is also assuming that the team doesn't suffer any additional injuries to major players.

Whether the Mets should be buyers, sellers, or neither at the end of July will ultimately be determined how the team plays their next 21 games. Will they still be in the race? Will they be completely out of it? Will they barely be hanging on? And can GM Omar Minaya afford to publicly wave the white flag at the risk of lost ticket sales and other revenues at Met home games in August and September, and depending on what moves he makes, 2010?

Only time will tell, but you can put this one in the books. The 2009 Mets will not make the postseason because they've gone too many games without their horses. By the time the cavalry comes back, it will be too late.

I really hope to be proven wrong, but this time, I highly doubt it.

Go Angels.

Tampa Bay Rays 2008 Starting Rotation:
James Shields 14-8 3.56 ERA, 215 IP, 40 BB, 160 K
Andy Sonnanstine 13-9 4.38 ERA, 193.1 IP, 37 BB, 124 K
Matt Garza 11-9 3.70 ERA, 184.2 IP, 59 BB, 128 K
Edwin Jackson 14-11 4.42 ERA, 183.1 IP, 77 BB, 108 K
Scott Kazmir 12-8 3.49 ERA, 152.1 IP, 70 BB, 166 K

- James Shields, drafted by Tampa in 2000.
- Andy Sonnantine, drafted by Tampa in 2004.
- Matt Garza, acquired in a 2007 trade along with SS Jason Bartlett with the Minnesota Twins.
- Edwin Jackson, acquired in a 2006 trade with the Dodgers. Jackson was TERRIBLE with the 2007 Rays, going 5-15 with a 5.76 ERA. Jackson was traded to Detroit for OF Matt Joyce after the 2008 season.
- Scott Kazmir... we know.

At this point in time last year, the Rays were 35-24.

Now we look at the 2009 starting rotation for the Tampa Bay Rays and how they're performing so far...

Tampa Bay Rays 2009 Starting Rotation:
James Shields 4-4 3.53 ERA, 74 IP, 20 BB, 52 K
Matt Garza 4-4 3.67 ERA, 73.2 IP, 28 BB, 66 K
Andy Sonnanstine 4-5 7.07 ERA, 56.0 IP, 16 BB, 32 K
Jeff Niemann 5-4 3.77 ERA, 59.2 IP, 24 BB, 39 K
Scott Kazmir 4-4 7.69 ERA, 45.2 IP, 29 BB, 35 K

And since Kazmir is now on the DL, and the Rays FINALLY called up top draft pick David Price...

David Price 1-0 3.00 ERA, 9 IP, 7 BB, 17 K

So from examining the starting rotations based on the available stats, the only major issues are the falloff of Andy Sonnanstine and the injury to Kazmir. Kazmir will come back later this month. 

Ideally, the Rays would best be suited to have Price and Kazmir healthy and in the rotation, and find another role for Sonnanstine, who likely peaked in 2008.

The offense for the Rays is primarily the same as it was last year with the major changes being Pat Burrell at DH instead of Cliff Floyd.

So despite having a very similar roster to the 2008 team, this is a .500 team at 28-28 on June 3, 2009. 

Every team has injuries:
But the Rays suffered a big blow with 2B Akinori Iwamura tearing his ACL and he's gone for the season.

SS Jason Bartlett is currently on the 15-day DL with a sprained left ankle.

DH Pat Burrell is on the 15-day DL with a neck strain, though expected to return in late June.

3B Evan Longoria has a sore left hamstring right now, but SHOULD be ready to play by the weekend. Losing Longoria for any period of time would be extremely devastating to Tampa.

Closer Troy Percival, who had a huge comeback season in 2008, has had a disappointing 2009 and may be gone for the year with shoulder tendinitis, if not his career.

So yes, you can have a great farm system and develop quality players like Longoria, Shields, Price, etc.

But the Rays also have their share of veterans. Some are extremely productive stars (Carl Crawford) or underrated veterans (Carlos Pena), others are filling up roster space (Gabe Kapler, Jason Isringhausen).

And despite having a very similar team to a year ago, they're not playing the way they were. They could potentially have a strong second half and make a run at the AL East, but with Boston and New York having strengthened their rosters in the off-season, that's going to be a tough going.

Here are the current contract numbers for the 2009 season:
(all numbers from Cot's contracts: http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2004/12/new-york-mets.html)

Note that the 2009 MLB minimum salary is $400K. 

Omar Minaya Press conference notes:

- Omar Minaya said that he hadn't made the final decision to drop the axe (my words, not his) until Monday night and took full responsibility for the decision, emphasizing Willie was his hire, and this made it all the more difficult to fire him. He continued to underscore that this was his decision, seemingly distancing the Wilpons from this entirely.

- He could not have made the decision on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, because he hadn't made the final decision until sleeping on it Sunday night.

- The decision was made because the team is underperforming and has been since last season.

- During the meeting on Sunday night between Omar and Willie at Shea Stadium, Omar told him he was going to come to a decision sometime during the road trip whether to retain him for the year, or fire him. He came to that final decision Monday morning after sleeping on it, and decided to meet the team in Anaheim to deliver the news personally.

- Omar took full responsibility for the leaks that came out prior to the weekend detailing the plan of who would be fired, who would get promoted, etc. Minaya felt that those stories were also causing more distractions in the clubhouse and had created an unfair environment for all.

- Omar explained that he never wanted to say "Willie is going to be our manager for the rest of the year" because if the Mets had lost 15 in a row, then what? (you can still fire him, dummy.)

- Jerry Manuel will definitively be the manager for the rest of the 2008 season. Omar said that Jerry Manuel was the best person available to take over the team. Omar also reviewed Jerry's history as a manager with the White Sox, and winning Manager of the Year in 2000.

- Omar fired pitching coach Rick Peterson and 1st-base coach Tom Nieto because he didn't want Willie to take 100% of the fall. Other people he felt, were accountable for the team's poor performance. There was a need to change more than just the manager.

- Logistics prevented Omar Minaya from getting to Anaheim prior to the team getting to the ballpark. Omar felt it would be extremely disrespectful to Willie if he had been fired in uniform. He felt it was much more respectful to do it face-to-face in private, outside the confines of a baseball stadium. This is why he wasn't fired prior to the game.

- A reporter asked Omar about the reaction from the media and fans that this was handled very poorly and how people continue to view what happened through their own glasses, as opposed to the facts. One example is the constant references to 3am East Coast time, as opposed to 11pm Pacific Time when the firing actually took place. Omar said people have been making their assessments of the situation without having all the facts (which is exactly what I have been saying). Once the facts are out there, then you can decide to believe what you want.

- At the end of 2007, Omar Minaya was given the choice by the Wilpons whether to fire him or not. He chose not to and was supported in his decision by the Wilpons. Omar said this has always been his call and he has autonomy from the Wilpons, per their agreement in 2004, to make all baseball decisions without ownership interference.

- Is this change enough to turn the team around? He doesn't know, but he does not regret the decision to keep Willie Randolph at the end of last season, as he could not make that call based on the last 3 weeks of the team's performance in 2007.

- Omar said after the 4-game sweep at San Diego, that was one of several times he thought about firing Willie. The September collapse last season was another time he thought about it.

- Omar believes that everyone on the team has been working hard, but for whatever reason, things weren't working. One stat that Omar noted was the team's inability to come from behind to win games.

- I couldn't hear the reporter's question too well, but Omar's response seemed to indicate that it was in reference to Minaya hugging Manny Acta at Shea Stadium in full view when the Nationals came to play the Mets. He noted that people always perceive the things they want to perceive, or read into things that aren't there. Omar is a hugger, and Manny is a friend, so he hugs his friend, the end.

- The racial remarks that Willie made a month ago to Ian O'Connor, even though he apologized for them, had increased the tension regarding the situation.

- Willie Randolph did not know that Omar Minaya was coming out to Anaheim. Omar did not want Willie to hear the news from any 3rd-party source. "Standard procedure" was followed in letting him go at 11pm at night.

- In response to those who say it should have been done in New York, that wasn't possible since the final decision had not been made.

Jerry Manuel then answered questions from the media:

- Willie Randolph and he have become very good friends during their time together in New York. He spoke with Willie on Tuesday morning.

- The team is underperforming, so the first thing that needs to happen is to freshen up the everyday players. But that's difficult to do when you have an urgency to win. The ability to rest Beltran yesterday and have him DH instead of play OF was helpful, and Manuel plans to do the same with David Wright tonight. He will DH but not play the field.

- How much did the 2007 collapse impact the team this year? Manuel says it weighed on him all winter and they all felt the urgency to get off to a good start this year. They will carry the weight of that collapse until they get on track this year.

- What was Manuel's job as bench coach? To spill his heart and guts to Willie as to what he would do in certain situations. Jerry Manuel said Willie wanted to put the collapse behind them, but Jerry felt it was important to remind the team of it at times in order to motivate them.

- Does Jerry Manuel have a better relationship with some of the players than Willie did? Jerry says that's one of the advantages of being a coach because you have a slightly different relationship with the players than the manager does. Now that he has moved into the manager's role, he feels those player-coach relationships will help him with the team.

- Sandy Alomar Sr. will now be the team's bench coach. Ken Oberkfell will be the 1st-base coach, Luis Aguayo will be 3rd-base coach, and Dan Warthen will be the pitching coach. Manuel says he expects all of them to want to manage at this level and is looking forward to them being with the club.

- Jerry Manuel had spoken with Willie Randolph about the ongoing drama regarding his job over the course of the season, saying he was one of the very few who could truly understand what Willie was going through, as Manuel experienced it in Chicago.

- Jerry believes that the team is capable of playing much better and wouldn't have taken the job if he felt otherwise.

- Jerry explained that every manager says the same thing about "hit and run" and do this and that more when they come into a new job. He feels it's more important to teach the players when the times are right to do certain things as opposed to running for the sake of running.

- Jerry said that there's a fine line between creating an environment where players can have career years, and having career years on a team that can win championships. Often they can go hand-in-hand.

- Jerry joked that since Omar won't fire anyone while they're in uniform, he'll be staying in his at the end of the season no matter what happens.

- Jerry believes the team does have leaders, and some may not have stepped into those roles yet. But first, Jerry is going to do that, and then it will trickle down to certain players who should be in those leadership positions.

- Jerry wants bullpen roles to be more clearly identified and will work with Dan Warthen on that.

- It sounded like someone asked about pitch count, and Jerry thinks that while baseball as a whole has gotten too obsessed with pitch counts, it's going to take some time to change the mindsets of people in order to slowly move away from it. At the same time, he wants to be careful and not have his pitchers get injured/fatigued. He would prefer to remove a starter once the game is over, but realizes that's not going to happen very often.

- Jerry Manuel says that lineup changes will be occurring over time. Sometimes your cleanup hitter won't be your cleanup hitter.

- David Wright has joked to Jerry that now we have a "gangsta" running the team.

Thus ends the press conference.

Ok, I've mentioned a couple of times that the Luis Castillo signing was more complex than most people know or understand, and I've been meaning to write about it forever.

But thankfully, Metsblog.com's Matt Cerrone makes about 65% of my point. There's good, and bad in Luis Castillo.

-------------------
http://www.metsblog.com/2008/05/27/note-luis-castillo-likes-double-plays/

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Luis Castillo has grounded in to seven double plays in only 25 opportunities, which is the third-worst rate in baseball.

…what’s worse, it feels like so many of castillo’s double plays occur during what could be a big rally…first and second, one out, castillo hits in to a double…over and over again, it seems…

…for what it’s worth, from what i can gather out of people close to the team, Mets GM Omar Minaya wanted to sign David Eckstein, not castillo…

…however, eckstein’s plan was to hold out a) for more money from another team, and b) the opportunity to remain at shortstop…in fact, there are lots of people who believe eckstein had zero intention of playing second base…anywhere…

…meanwhile, castillo had a three-year offer from the Astros, and, for the sake of not waiting around, the Mets gave castillo one more year and ended their search for a second baseman…

…and so now the Mets have a 33–year-old, rally-killing second baseman with bad knees, earning $6 million per season for the next four years…

For what it’s worth, Eckstein is batting .246 in 30 games for the Blue Jays, while starting at shortstop.

Also, in 34 games for the Braves, Ruben Gotay is batting .258 in just 31 at bats.

--------------------

Here's the thing about 2B in the league... There aren't many who are great at the plate. Can you name someone other than Chase Utley who is a superstar at that position?

At the end of last season, the Mets simply didn't have a whole lot of viable options at a position that is already tough to fill.

- Ruben Gotay. Currently riding the bench in Atlanta as a backup. Defensive liability. Had one good year at the plate with the Mets, and not surprisingly, hasn't repeated that in his bench role with Atlanta.

- Anderson Hernandez. Great defensively, can't hit major league pitching, can't hit minor league pitching. Other than pinch-running or as a late-inning defensive replacement, I'm not sure what purpose he would ever serve to any major league club.

- David Eckstein. 2B is not his natural position, and as Cerrone alludes to, he likely wouldn't have agreed to play 2B to begin with. It should also be noted that Eckstein was actively looking for more money, and FIVE years. He ended up signing with Toronto for one year when the leverage his agent thought they had, was gone.

- Tadahito Iguchi. The Mets don't have much luck with Japanese players to begin with, but aside from that, look at his current numbers with San Diego. Worse than Castillo.

- Kazuo Matsui. Couldn't handle New York. Some players are meant to play elsewhere. And while he's been better with Colorado and Houston, he's hardly the same guy any team expected him to be based on his play in Japan.

- Damion Easley. Really? As an everyday starter?

- Jose Valentin. A lot of fans don't comprehend that Jose Valentin was the team's "accidental 2B" in 2006, and turned out to be a genius signing by Omar Minaya, even if it was never planned that way. A shortstop most of his career, Valentin was more than likely on steroids during his time with the Chicago White Sox, as his mediocre power numbers while with Milwaukee, jumped when he got to Chicago. He was hitting 25+ HRs a year, and increased his BA that hovered around .225, to .260 for the next couple of years. To be fair, Valentin was never caught but the numbers are quite suspect.

Once Valentin became a free agent, the White Sox moved on, and he signed with the L.A. Dodgers for the 2005 season. Valentin's numbers with Los Angeles were abysmal, and it didn't help that he was on the DL most of the season after suffering torn knee ligaments. He put up a BA of .170 in 56 games. His career was pretty much over.

Until he signed with the Mets for the 2006 season as a bench player, and backed into the 2B position mid-season once Kazuo Matsui was traded to Colorado and it was apparent that Anderson Hernandez wasn't the answer either. Valentin revitalized his career, at least for one season.

But the 2B position still needed to be filled, and Jose Valentin wasn't the full-time answer. In the offseason, the team signed him to a one-year deal with an option for 2008, as Valentin was still a player who should've been valuable in a bench role, but not as a full-time 2B. However, there were still no better options available.

So Valentin began 2007 as the team's everyday 2B, but didn't quite put up the same numbers he did in 2006. In a game against the Dodgers in Los Angeles on July 20, 2007, Valentin broke his leg off an foul ball. After recovering from the freak injury, Valentin has been working his way back through the Mets minor leagues, and would be great to have on the bench. But no longer as a full-time 2B.

Oh yeah, Luis Castillo...  As far as the available 2B free agents the team had at the end of the 2007 season, Castillo's agent had the leverage over Omar Minaya.

There weren't better options available and the Astros had made a 3-year offer to Castillo. Minaya gave him a better deal and that was that.

Was the 4-year deal too long? Definitely, but at that point, what else could Omar Minaya do?

But lets look at what should at least be the positives of Luis Castillo...
- Above-average defensively. Of the aforementioned options listed, only Anderson Hernandez is better at fielding the position. Maybe Valentin too.

- Career .300 hitter with a 1:1 BB/K ratio, if not better during certain years. Maintains a higher OBP than Jose Reyes every single season.

- As a solid contact hitter, he is difficult to strike out.

- Even on creaky legs, still maintains good speed, and is 9 for 10 in SB this season.

Luis Castillo is not having the best start this season (though other than Ryan Church, what Met is?), but if you look at the other 2B options that were available to the Mets, he's STILL the least of all evils.