Mets Should've Fired Omar Minaya, Kept Jerry Manuel

I like Jerry Manuel too (who doesn't?) despite the fact that he too was also a part of the two biggest collapses in Mets history. I knew it was a longshot, but I wanted the Wilpons to fire Omar Minaya and keep Manuel. Omar doing nothing to help the Mets horrible bullpen this year is the biggest reason why the Mets aren't in the playoffs, thus, giving him a 4-year deal was yet another asinine move by the Mets owners. But I'm glad that Jerry Manuel will be back, he deserves a chance to put his own stamp on this team.

Mets Give Omar A 4-Year Extension

I heard about this tonight on ESPN, if it's true they can't be serious:

General manager Omar Minaya and the Mets have agreed on a four-year contract extension, SI.com has confirmed. An official announcement is not expected until after the season.

Minaya's several high-profile acquisitions have built the Mets into a perennial contender in the National League, and while the timing of the news is a little unusual in that the Mets are struggling in September for a second straight season, an extension was expected all along based on the club's overall improvement during his tenure. He also enjoys an excellent working relationship with the Wilpon family, which owns the Mets.

Unbelievable! And yet another example of why the Wilpons should sell the team. The Mets are on the verge of collapsing for the second straight season and ownership is busy working on an extension for a GM who stood by and did NOTHING to fix his team's most blatant problem. God, where is Nelson Doubleday when you need him?

Jerry Manuel's Mistake

The Mets are falling fast and everyone is rightfully talking deja vu. But again, if the Mets don't make the playoffs Omar Minaya needs to be fired mostly for failing to address his team's most dire need: bullpen help. I'm sick and tired of people like Mike Francesa covering for Omar's ass with his "well it's tough to get a reliever", "know one was out there" BS. If the Mets had Brian Cashman or Theo Epstein as GM, I guarantee that either one would've done better than bringing in a 1-7 pitcher with a 6+ ERA from a last place team (no offense to Luis Ayala whose done a pretty decent job, but you get my drift). And yes there were guys out there like ex-Met Chad Bradford (picked up by Tampa Bay) and the A's Huston Street (considering that the A's have tossing out pitchers like wet rags this year, I don't see how the Mets just couldn't get Street before the trade deadline). Either one would've helped this team immensely, but if as I suspect Omar didn't want to let go of his personal "super prospect" Fernando Martinez (who's so good that he wasn't even promoted to the big leagues with the rest of the September call-ups), it just shows you another reason why overall Omar has been a failure as a GM.

Besides all that Jerry Manuel isn't helping his case by refusing to let Luis Castillo bat second in the line-up, where he's a much better fit than 7th. Castillo is a proven hitter, high OBP guy, a veteran and a winner. Ryan Church hasn't been himself since May, he should be batting 6th or 7th. Judging from Castillo getting benched for Argenis Reyes today, you definitely get the feeling that there's something personal going on between Castillo and Manuel, but now not the time for that stuff, Manuel needs to concentrate on doing what's best for the team and batting Castillo down in the order is not it.

Braves 7, Mets 4

Yeah, chalk this one up to "One of the Worst Loses of the Season". Ayala clearly didn't have it and of course it comes against the Braves, still shooting us in the foot after all these years. I guess the only good thing to come out of this is that even of the Phillies sweep the pathetic Brewers today, we'll still be one up in the division and one out of the wild-card. But I want the division, dammit!

On Billy Wagner's Injury...

No disrespect to him, but for the Mets I honestly feel that they're better off without Billy Wagner. Wagner blew some incredible games this season, he's never done well in the clutch (including the playoffs) and so far, Luis Ayala has done a pretty decent job. Yes, the bullpen is still the Mets biggest weakness, but besides Aaron Heilmann, I really feel that they're going to step it up down the stretch. As for Wagner, he'll get better soon enough and maybe he'll be able to pitch again sometime for somebody, but ever since he came to the team and disrespected Mariano Rivera by continuing to use the same entrance song, I've found him hard to like.

Mets Take Series From Marlins

The Beltran grand slam was probably the biggest of his Mets career and yeah, that comeback shocked even me. Yesterday's loss was just horrible and showed once again why after this season the Mets just need to let Aaron Heilman go be a starter somewhere. Today, Pedro pitched well, Reyes got a key hit and hopefully we'll be back up 2 by the time the day is over.

Manny Acta and the Nationals Really Suck

Ok, I'll admit to being a little upset that the Nationals aren't even competing against the Phillies in their current series and yes, we more than took advantage of the Nats ineptness just last week. But the irony here is Nats manager Manny Acta and all the love he was getting as a possible replacement for Willie Randolph during the offseason....I mean, this guy has done to show that he should be managing a major league baseball team during his entire tenure in D.C. Nothing!

Mets Take 2 Outta 3 From Padres

I know Johan Santana is going to get all his millions regardless, but he wouldn't be human if he wasn't pissed at just how inept his bullpen is. Yet, another blown save...seems like the bullpen has cost Santana at least 10 wins this year. Anyway, nice to see David Wright make up for his huge error yesterday, we picked up a game on the Phils and Carlos Beltran seems to have remembered how to hit again. All in all, not a bad series and yeah, I'm feeling this Daniel Murphy kid so much so that I'd be really comfortable with him in left-field if Ryan Church never comes back.

Houston Astros Sweep Mets

The Mets desperately needed help in their bullpen and the outfield, but Omar Minaya does nothing. Fine. If Omar thinks keeping Fernando Martinez around is more important than getting this team to the World Series this year, that's his choice. But if the We're-Fine-The-Way-We-Are Mets don't make the playoffs this year, Omar Miniya needs to lose his job. By the way, it is just me or does the oft-injured Martinez remind you of another supposed "5-tool prospect" who turned out to be a bust by the name of Alex Escobar?

Mets Back In First Place

Damn, Charlie Manuel doesn't play, sitting down reigning MVP Jimmy Rollins down in an important game like this? Gotta' respect that. Either way, we're in first place by ourselves for the first time since I don't know when, playing well and I'm starting the Carlos Delgado for MVP campaign. That said, this next series against the Cardinals is just as important to our run because of the wild-card implications (which hopefully we won't need at the end) so no need to get too high off of beating the Phillies two-outta-three, we still got major work to do.

Mets Gain Split With Reds

Damn, talk about lucky. The Reds certainly gave us all we could handle the entire series, they hold onto all that young pitching for awhile and they're gonna be contenders very soon for seasons to come. As for us, whatever Carlos Delgado is taking (.416 in the month of July!?!) I want some if it. I mean if Delgado goes say .260, 35, 100 this year we might have to seriously consider bringing him back next year (and wasn't it "Before Willie" that everyone and their momma thought Delgado was done?) Besides that Endy Chavez was just horrible in this series and needs to be delegated back to his normal 4th or 5th outfielder spot, in other words, we still need a corner outfielder....bad! And I expect Johan to make up for his terrible last outing with a great one against the co-leader Phillies in the next series

Mets Win 10th In A Row

Great comeback last night and I have to admit that I'm really feeling the way Jerry Manuel is leading this team. My biggest concern? That Billy Wagner is going to blow a couple of huge games for us come September. Of course, frankly speaking, considering that he has 6 blown saves already this season, he has no rhyme or reason to blow any more.

Mets Sweep Giants

Listen, a win is a win and a sweep is a sweep, but the Giants are one God-awful baseball team. And so is Colorado (whose coming in next), but at least they're the defending NL champs. San Francisco doesn't even belong in the majors, they're that bad.

Mets Take Season Series From Yankees

To avoid a sweep and because it's the Yankees, this game was obviously a must win. The big question here is which way will Oliver Perez go after this terrific start? That strikeout of A-Rod in the 4th or 5th was classic by the way.

Mets Salvage Series Against Mariners

First, let me say that I have much more respect for Bob Watson after he suspended Brian Runge today for bumping into Jerry Manual and baiting Carlos Beltran the way he did Tuesday. Secondly, tho' he's done nothing to warrant staying, I wouldn't take Oliver Perez out of the rotation just yet, it's still too early and what with the Phillies still playing losing ball, there's no need to panic. Lastly, what exactly does picking up Andy Phillips mean? The beginning of Phillips/Delgado platoon? And yeah, that was one disappointing series, now we need to take our frustrations out on the Yankees.

Mets Take Two Out Of Three From Rockies

I'm past the Willie stuff, it's played out already and it's time to move on. The goal is to continue winning series' and that's what the Mets are doing what with 3 series wins in a row highly benefited by the Phillies coming back down to earth. And yes the Mariners are bad, but I'm not even asking for a sweep, just another series win and the rest will take care of itself.

Mets Finally Fire Willie Randolph

I've never really been a fan of the Wilpon's. As owners of my team they've got little to show for their running the show and it was always my understanding that Nelson Doubleday (when he co-owned the Mets) deserved much more credit then Fred did for the '86 world championship squad.

Either way one can certainly argue that Willie Randolph should've gotten fired for last season's historic collapse alone. So Willie knew that he had to get off to a good start this year in order to keep his job, but for the most part I liked Willie and thought that he at least deserved the full year to get the team back in the playoffs. Carlos Delgado being a flop, Moises Alou forever on the DL and the bullpen being inconsistent certainly aren't Willie's fault.

To me, Willie lost his job for a few reasons besides the team not getting off to a good start: not getting thrown out at Yankee Stadium on that Delgado home-run that wasn't (another reminder of Willie's lack of fire and passion), the controversial comments about race he made a month ago (you don't do that to the first team to give you a chance to manage) and the fact that players just didn't go out of their way for him. I like Willie and I hope he gets another chance to manage someday. As for the Mets? They still need to make a big trade no matter whose managing the team, the lackluster play has just been going on for too long now.

Mets Take Series From Texas Rangers

It's kind of weird playing the Texas Rangers, but then I've never been a fan of interleague play to begin with. Either way, most impressive today was Pedro Martinez finally making a real quality start and Willie's gutsy move to pinch-hit for him with a guy who hadn't gotten a hit in 9 years.

Wrong Time For Billy Wagner To Implore

Seriously, his third straight blown save at a time when his team is in desperate need of a win? It just doesn't make any sense.

Mets In Danger Of Getting Swept By Padres

If the Mets don't make the playoffs this year then Willie Randolph deserves to be fired. It's just beyond perplexing that every time you think that the Mets are going to go on a run, they spit in your face and go back to playing lackluster baseball:

The Mets scored only one run for the third straight game Saturday night, and not coincidentally, they lost their third in a row, all by the same demoralizing score of 2-1.

This time, though, their offensive futility stretched into extra innings, into the 10th, when Scott Hairston blasted a leadoff homer off Pedro Feliciano.

I've been saying it all year: the Mets need a trade. Badly. Package Delgado, Heilman and a minor leaguer to an AL team and see if anybody is willing to take the bait. Scoring one run per game against the lowly Padres is pathetic, but the Mets have been playing like this for over a year now. And the guy who you know could've made a difference in this series, Moises Alou, is constantly on the DL. The manager should be angry, but when does he ever get angry at his team?