I have to say as much as I was looking forward to the start of spring training, I’ve got a bad case of “workout fatigue” from all the reporting going on from St. Lonesome.  There is only so much I can read about players having catch and throwing batting practice or bullpen sessions. I can only look at so many pictures of players stretching where it starts to become as annoying as when you’re cornered by a co-worker and forced you to look at pictures of the latest birthday party they had for their 3 year old.

It’s gotten to the point I sit at the keyboard and try to figure out what the hell can I come up with that’s new and fresh. I’m still staring. I can’t wait until Saturday when I can at least see players in game action. It’s nice to read about pitchers throwing outstanding bullpens and hitters ripping the cover off a batting practice fastball but when it’s put in real live action then we’ll find out just what we have with this Mets team.

And no I’m not jealous of everyone down in Florida in their shorts and t-shirts enjoying the warm sun, I’d much rather be here in NYC with four layers of clothes and being stuffed into a subway car like a sardine.

When I look over how the makeup of the Mets roster could be constructed I cannot fathom how either Oliver Perez or Luis Castillo makes this team (ok I admit I’m a bit obsessed with these two faces of failure and I see what Sandy Alderson is doing by keeping them as long as can until he either trades them or releases them)

For Castillo it’s either start or bust, he is no use to the team off the bench. From many indications, both Daniel Murphy and Brad Emaus will make the team, most likely as a platoon at second base unless one guy break out big at the start of the season.  Between Murph and Emaus you have a shot at 60+ xbh  from second base. It would take Castillo three season to do that.

Ollie Perez has become the Mets square peg on the round hole. What a misfit. Looking at pitching staff it looks like a 12 man staff of five starters and seven relievers. From the early results, Chris Capuano and Chris Young should fill out the bottom two fifths of the rotation. From listening to Terry Collins, the men in the pen who will have locker space in Queens are Frankie Rodriguez, Bobby Parnell, D.J. Carrasco. Pedro Beato has made a big impression on Collins and with his Rule 5 label attached to him he’d have to get hit from stem to stern to not make the team.  Now it gets a bit complicated. Jason Issringhausen has surprised everyone by showing up in Mets camp and looking impressive in his workouts. Izzy does just bring back some nostalgic memories, he also brings an impressive closers resume as well.  That leaves two spots and one has to be filled by a LOOGY, so Tim Byrdak and Taylor Tankersley will fight for that spot or would they both make the team? What about Pat Misch? Another lefty who could be LOOGY-ish or Darren Oliver-ish as a long man.  I haven’t even mentioned Mike O’Connor or two righties, Manny Acosta and Manny Alvarez who could make the final bullpen decision difficult for Alderson and Collins.

Am I missing anyone? I don’t think so, hummmm let me see…………ahhh yeah, Mr. Square Peg. Sorry Ollie you don’t fit here anymore.

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I had the great pleasure of having Kerel Cooper of On The Black on THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN podcast which is up and ready on the show page or right here on Kranepool (lower right side bar) or on iTunes. Among the topics Kerel and I discussed:

Ollie Perez and Luis Castillo will not make 25 man roster they are in camp as showcase (boobie) prize.

The Skill Sets showing up at spring camp

outlook for season

tone of Camp Collins so far

TMI coming out of St. Lonesome.

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On the heels of Freddy Skill Sets “I’ve been duped “speech last week comes another leak of information from Irving Piccard via his media mouth piece the NY Times in which we’re told that Sterling Equities was the clearing house for all transactions and recruitment of new investors for Madoff Madness. In this article the only guy who it seems had half a brain when it came to this shady operation was Larry King’s accountant David Blouin. Blouin wanted to know a few things about the investment that King made with Madoff, like the small incidental of what exactly are you investing in?

That’s one of the questions that the MSM forgot to ask Freddy and Jeffey last week, did anyone ever think that Madoff was investing in any illegal activity? Madoff investments were always showing profits nearly double what other legitimate investment banks were doing and when asked how or what he was investing in Madoff gave everyone the brush off. No one thought that maybe some faction of organized crime was involved here?  Was Freddy and Uncle Saul so caught up in the greed is good of Madoff that they didn’t care where this money was going as long as the profits kept rolling in? I guess we won’t find out until this case is settled but you’d think by now the Skill Sets would smarten up and work out an out of court settlement before more of their dirty laundry is revealed in the Paper of Record.

So I guess as someone who is a Luis Castillo basher I should apologize as we learn that Looie didn’t come to camp early due to his brother having surgery.  Well I would if only Castillo was adult enough to let the club know what was going on. I have no personal dislike for Castillo as I’ve never met him ,my dislike is for his deteriorating baseball skills and the fact he has one more year on his contract. Again, Castillo and Oliver Perez are the faces of failure that are still around from the last front office regime. The Alderson Group has rid itself of minor league execs, coaches, instructors and the strength and conditioning staff has been overhauled as well so it puzzles me, why not drop these two players and show the fan base you really are for change. The Mets might sell a few extra tickets if they showed this commitment to cleansing the losers.

I don’t feel this cut off point of clubhouse card games comes solely from the manager. It’s no secret that the Mets clubhouse the last few years has become the equivalent of a NYC Public School classroom when a substitute teacher is in charge, utter chaos. The lack of accountability from its inhabitant’s causes what some would say, is a silly and insulting rule. By laying it out now, Collins did the right thing letting the players know that there will be a cutoff point on the leisure part of their day. It also helps as we get to hear who squawks the most over this.

The one thing that worries me is, if Collins has a bunch of rules. Remember when Willie Randolph took over and brought his Highlander mentality to the Mets? No long hair, no facial hair, no loud music in the clubhouse all of these were rescinded as the year went on because if you want to be stick up your ass dolt then stay in the Bronx. I also remember the Dark Days of Jeff Torborg who tried to ban beer on the team plane. Torbog had an aversion to alcohol due to alcoholism in his family to which David Cone told the skipper,“well, just make sure your family takes another flight” as he and Eddie Murray loaded several cases of Heineken onto the team charter.

Is there a Mets fan who doesn’t  like Mookie Wilson? I seriously doubt it.

The Johnies are back in the Top 25 the bandwagon will fill up rather quickly in the next month or so better reserve your seat now!!!!!!

Very disappointed in the Broadway Blueshirts yesterday in their loss to the Flyers at MSG. The Rangers in the first half of the season were a hard working bunch that even in defeat could say they gave all they had. The second half of the season so far the opposite is true but in the rare exceptions of a few (Callahan, Dubinsky, Staahl, Girardi, and the dynamic duo of Ryan McDonagh  and Michael Sauer) the fight is just not there with this team. Add in the lack of a snipper and the woeful PP what was once thought of hockey in April as inevitable at MSG is now on the brink of collapse.  The turnaround will have to come from within as Slats Sather should not go crazy at the trade deadline as there is not one player who the Rangers could acquire that will propel them to Stanley Cup contenders. This team is young and very talented but it needs time to blossom.

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I agree 100 % with Terry Collins that Luis Castillo should have gotten to camp early since his job is on the line. You would think a guy who the majority of Mets fans look at with distain and a big part of the failures of past management knowing that there are three guys lining up every morning in St Lonesome, auditioning for the manager to be the next Mets 2^nd base Idol. No matter which side of the Castillo fence you fall on, every Mets fan has to agree that at this stage of his baseball career, Castillo cannot just waltz into camp with a cavalier attitude that was tolerated in years past in this organization.  Whereas Castillo would have been met with and hug and a laugh by management in the past he will now be greeted with a “Where the fuck have you been”? It’s about time.

My doubts about Terry Collins are starting to lessen. When I met him at the Mets Christmas Party the first questioned I had for him was about getting this team to be more aggressive and passionate and to stop being patsies for the division. I told Collins in my opinion, every team in the NL East thinks of the Mets as a bunch of chumps, how do you change that mind set? Collins assured me that was one of the first things he wanted to change. He tried not to disparage his predecessor but he said he agreed with me about the team allowing the opposition to intimate them and it will be a big part of his job to change that immediately.  From reading John Harper’s story today, it looks like Collins has started his one for all all for one campaign:

Indeed, the new manager of the Mets thinks it’s important to instill some toughness, some brothers-in-arms spirit, in his ballclub. Remember the famous Chase Utley take-out slide of Ruben Tejada last September? The one the Mets took without retaliation?

Collins wouldn’t have stood for such a passive response.

“In Philly there would have been a fight,” he said Friday, “no doubt about it.”

Collins made it clear he wasn’t looking to criticize Jerry Manuel when I asked him Friday how he would have handled such a situation. In fact, he said a manager always walks a fine line on such matters, as not all players respond well to being put in a position where retaliation is expected.

“But there’s still an unwritten code about how to protect your teammates,” Collins said. “So I do believe in situations like that, there’s a right way to handle it.

“And that’s something that starts right here in spring training. That’s going to be part of my message on Monday when I speak to the team. We’re going to bring a team together and we’re going to watch each other’s backs.”

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Most jobs are not that much different from sports teams when it comes to problem players/workers. There are always coaches/supervisors who feel they can take someone else’s problem or malcontent and turn them into a productive member of the organization.  But then there are exceptions and if this case with the Mets that exception is Oliver Perez.

In today’s NY Post, Kevin Kernan writes about OP not joining the early campers club in St Lonesome. So here we are on the eve of the official opening of camp and Oliver Perez is the lead in a Mets story and of course it’s of a negative nature. Everything  is of a negative nature when it comes to Perez.

It all started on July 30,2006. The Mets had just finished a sweep of the Atlanta Braves on the road to bring their record to 63-41 and a hard to believe 13 ½ game lead in the NL East. Mets management and fans had visions of the post season and of parades and tons of World Series memorabilia for us to waste our discretionary income on.  Man, we Mets fans were living the high baseball life until Duaner Sanchez decided he just HAD to have some rice and beans when he hit Miami, so he hopped in a cab with some friends and a drunk driver crashed into the cab and Dirty Duaner wrecked his shoulder and the Mets season. With the trade deadline that day, Omar Minaya in a state of panic dealt of productive Xavier Nady to the Pirates for Roberto Hernandez who would fill nicely in the bullpen. In order to get Hernandez though, the Mets had to take Perez as well.

Perez had his good moments like game 4 of the 2006 NLCS and was very good in 2007 but injuries and ineffectiveness took it’s toll on Perez’ velocity on his fastball and the bad Ollie from Pittsburgh came back to haunt the Mets.  The big debate after the 2008 season was should the Mets re-sign Perez or go for Derek Lowe.  Another deal gone wrong.

Perez, as well as Luis Castillo, are the remains of the failure of Omar Minaya. The more Mets fans see both these players the more they are reminded of the failures of the last administration.  If the Alderson regime is serious about a change in philosophy and in restoring responsibility and accountability back to the franchise, they need to give both Perez and Castillo their release. Both players are untradeable and there is no way in the world either player is making this team.

The organization is having a tough time business wise. Even without the Wilponzi scandal, the Mets would have a tough time selling tickets and finding people to believe the organization is moving forward.  The Mets can come up with exotic ticket plans but the bottom line is if you want the fans believe that winning is paramount and that is not business as usual when it comes to player development and competing for jobs, send them a sign, tell Ollie and Luis to stay home and let them know check is in the mail.

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In a story today in the New York Post, Davey Johnson is quoted as saying that Terry Collins would be the right choice by the Mets to be the next manager.  As much as Johnson loves Wally Backman, it’s his opinion that Collins’ experience as the Mets Minor League Coordinator would help with the organization making a determination as to which farm hands are of immediate help to the big league club.

On the same day of this story comes word that Scouting Director Rudy Terrasas will be reassigned in the organization. So if Collins does get the job then the message sent will be that main job by this front office is to rebuild the farm system and the way they draft talent. Even if Bob Melvin gets the job I think the rebuilding of the farm system will still be the Alderson mission statement with Collins staying with the organization and working with DePo in such a capacity.

That’s why as Mets fans you need to forget about any big splash signings of free agents and unless Alderson is bowled over with a great return on a trade, the best moves you can hope for this off season would be the release of Ollie Perez (and the more he’s sucks in winter ball the better the chance that Alderson tells the Skill Sets “EAT THE CONTRACT “) and Luis Castillo. I’m fine with that.

There is a segment of Mets fans who feel the Mets should have gone after Dan Uggla. That would be fine if the Mets were a player or two away from being a contender but they’re not, so Uggla is not the answer.

This doesn’t mean the winter will be boring around here, just the opposite. This will be the most interesting hot stove since 1980 when Frank Cashen came aboard and was handed a mess to clean up and clean it up he did. Let’s hope history repeats itself.

Hojo’s Mojo at Mets Merized Online posts that the Sports Pope broke from his Pop Warner persona this morning to report that the Texas Rangers have inquired about Carlos Beltran and are willing to take on $10-$12 mil of his contract. If this is true, the Mets have to make this deal. Even if you get back a couple of prospects just the fact you’re freeing up $6-$8 mil dollars to spend on much needed pitching would push me to make this deal.

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A few nuggets as I pray my roof doesn’t leak tonight, it may be a long, long night on Staten Island:

ITEM: OMAR MINAYA WILL BE FIRED ON MONDAY

Says who? Says Matt Pignataro of 7 Train To Shea that’s who. Matt’s source tell him that Minaya will be relived of his GM duties and WIL NOT be reassigned in the organization. It’s the only move to make. Just pay him and wish him well we’ve got rebuilding to do around here. By the way, Matt will be my guest this Tuesday night Oct 5^th at 10PM ET on THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN on BLOG TALK RADIO.

ITEM: WHO STAYS WHO GOES ?

Adam Rubin on ESPNNewYork has a Take ‘Em or Trash ‘Em poll on the website. Some of the more interesting results are 58 % of the voters say to Trash Carlos Beltran. I’m sure the organization would love to move him but how much of his contract would the Mets eat to get Beltran out of town? It will be tough enough to move Beltran due to his salary but now with this lastest flare up with his knee, it could be near impossible. I love how the Mets and Beltran are talking up the fact that the MRI on his knee show that it’s just inflammation and that his knee has healed nicely since the surgery. It seems to me the only thing Mets management and Beltran agree on is they both hate each others guts.

97% say Trash Luis Castillo, my question is who are the 3 % who voted to keep him? Same with the 2% out of 100 % who say keep Oliver Perez.

93 % say David Wright needs t stay and 77 % think Jason Bay will rebound in 2011. The voters also overwhelmingly want The Skill Sets, Omar, and Manuel out of here with a huge negative vote. Oh boy is this going to be one helluva winter!

ITEM: TIKI BARBER NEEDS TO BE PUNCHED IN THE FACE

Yeah I know it’s not Mets related but this bugs the living shit out of me. I despise Tiki Barber, always have while he played for the G-Men as he always came off as a selfish “Me-First” prick and I do not feel he belongs in the NY Giants Ring of Honor. Seems Barber could not take the high road when promoting the unveiling on Sunday night of the Ring of Honor as Big Mouth Tiki trashed Coach Tom Coughlin saying he was losing the team and that Coughlin has to treat people with more respect. A guy who cheated on his pregnant wife giving advise on treating people with respect, WOW what an A-1 scumbag.

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First let me say Shana Tova to all of you celebrating Rosh Hashanah at sundown this evening.

Well just when I want to abandon this Mets season along comes Dillon Gee to shed a bit of light on the darkness of another post season-less season in Flushing.

Gee’ start even energized the broadcast booth last night as Ron Darling was as excited as we seen him in a long time as he watched Gee show a nice grasp of the art of pitching. Gee was quite effective using a sharp breaking ball that the TV crew said was a curve but Gee himself told Kevin Burkhardt that it was a slider that he relied on most of the evening as he could not get good command of his curve and that helped him set up his low 90’s fastball to keep the Nationals hitters off balance. That is the definition of pitching ,staying  ahead of batters and keeping them off balance and for one night at least, Gee showed a ton of promise as an arm to look at for 2011.

For all the grief I give the Skill Sets, the one thing I’ve always admired about them was their commitment to our armed forces. If you go to games at Citi Field you know that the club acknowledges wounded vets by giving them much deserved VIP treatment at Mets games. They were the driving force in the caps worn and sold during Memorial Day and 4^th of July by players and fans with proceeds going to the Wounded Warrior program and they make sure that the players make a trip to Walter Reed Hospital when the club plays the Nats in D.C., which has a profound effect not only on the heroes who were injured in battle but on the Mets players as well. Guys like David Wright, R.A. Dickey and Angel Pagan are up front about their feeling toward the trip in fact the whole Mets organization steps up big time by going to Walter Reed to lift the solders morale.  Well, almost everyone.

It seems Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo and Carlos Beltran were the only member of the team to not make the trip to Walter Reed.  Why these three decided not to go has not been explained. Hopefully those with access to the players will ask them why they blew off this very important trip.  The fact that it was these three who were absent proves out why the vast majority of Mets fans can’t stand the trio.

Perez and Castillo should have been dumped a longggggggggggggggggg time ago but it should not be a shock that these two selfish shitheads would not go to a hospital to visit injured soldiers. Maybe they were embarrassed that as much as they suck at what they do and lack any balls to step up and make a positive contribution to the team ,shamed them from showing up. As for Beltran, he did himself no favor in the eyes of Mets  fansfor not showing up.

As far as I’m concerned Perez, Castillo and Beltran are three no good scumbags for not appearing.  I defended Beltran when he came back from injury and a lot of folks blamed him for the second half demise of the club. I have never been a fan of Beltran even though he is a great player (most long time readers know I was no fan of Mike Piazza’ either as Piazza and Beltran have the same “me” attitude just my opinion) and I think he is sometimes attacked unfairly but after being a no show yesterday, my Beltran defense rests.

If there is a silver lining to this embarrassment, it’s that maybe NOW Jeffy Skill Sets, getting embarrassed by these three, will finally realize that they all need to go no matter what the monetary cost.  I would have a ton more respect for the Skill Sets if they sent both Perez and Castillo home right now and informed Beltran that the club will do all they can to move him to a new team. I just hope that Beltran didn’t blow off this hospital visit because of his discontent with Mets management because if he did then he’s a gutless coward.

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So it just happens that Jeffey Wilpon en route to St Lonesome to watch some of his prized farm hands with GM in training John Ricco in tow, makes a pit stop in Atlanta maybe to watch his team play but most likely to buy a pair of high class kicks, but anyway while he was in town taking in the ball game, his manager for the next month, Jerry Manuel felt this was as good as time as ever to show Jeffey Skill Sets where is daddy’s hard earn cash is going. First J-Man inserted Luis Castillo and Jeff Francoeur in the lineup, because I don’t know if you’ve heard (come closer to the screen because this info needs to be kept on the downlow) the Mets still think they are in contention for the post season shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh don’t let the rest of the NL know shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Pat Misch made every Mets fan who wondered why he wasn’t given the call up earlier the answer to that query by getting pounded harder than an British Heavyweight . But just as Jeffey Skill Sets and Executive in Training Ricco were ready to leave, Manuel sent a note to them to hang in for another inning or two as he had a really big surprise for them. So Jeffey grabbed another cotton candy and went back to his seat.

So now it’s the bottom of the seventh inning and the Mets down five runs and Jeffey on his eighth Coca-Cola is getting antsy as he’s seen enough of this listless team and all he can think about is watching Nickelodeon on the TV of the St. Lonesome Motel 6 when all of a sudden the visitor’s bullpen gate opens and on the big screen at the Ted this video appears and the crowd let’s out a collective gasp:

“One singular sensation, every little step he takes……………….

IT’S…..IT’S……OLLIE PEREZ…………………

Welllllllll Jeffey drops his Coke, Cotton Candy and his Mets Build A Bear. Ricco drops his Baseball General Managing for Dummies book and both men stare at the Mets manager as he stands on the top step of the dugout laughing his lame duck ass off.

For the first time in a month Ollie Perez takes off his Mets Snuggie to enter a game and throw live pitches. Oh and did Ollie ever throw a live pitch to Brian McCann. McCann just missed the first offering by OP, I guess he was still startled by the Resurrection but he made sure he got a hold of the next pitch and launched it over the right field wall for a home run. Ahhhhh so good to see Ollie hasn’t lost a step in his month layoff; if he’s anything, he is consistent. Of Perez’ 29 pitches 14 were K’s not bad. With only 17 home games left in this scintillating Mets season we can only hope that J-Man uses OP in a few of those games as Perez is such a fan fave we all want to express our feeling for him.           

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If there is anyone in the Mets front office who feels Luis Castillo should remain a Met, their opinion had to have changed after last night. I don’t care if you are a relative of Castillo’, his actions after driving in Ike Davis for a come from behind walk off win proves he hates being here as much as Mets fans hate that he’s here. Talk about irreconcilable differences, there is no reason to put Castillo or Mets fans through this loveless marriage anymore. Let’s do it for the kids. By the way check out Greg Prince’ post on last night’s game at FFIF and tell me you don’t feel like crying. Misery in Winning, that’s Mets Baseball.

Is Wayne Hagin kidding with his gushing praise of Jeff Francoeur ? After Francoeur knocked in David Wright with a Sac Fly in the 2^nd inning, Hagin went Radio Ga-Ga over Frenchy. I’d have given Howie Rose $100 bucks if he slapped Hagin in the head after his ridiculous remarks.

A must read for all Mets fans is Adam Rubin’ 3 part expose of the failings of the Mets under the Skill Sets/Minaya regime.  From reading this series I take it that Jerry Manuel will be fired as soon as the team is mathematically eliminated from contention (even though we all know the season is over NOW)  Minaya will either be caned or reassigned and I’m leaning towards reassignment. John Ricco will be the GM and Wally Backman the manager. The organization will find a way to either deal off Oliver Perez and Luis Casitllo or just release them and that money ($18 mil) will the equivalent of a free agent signing. The organization will make Backman the focal point of the team in order to sell tickets. Will it work? We won’t know until this time next year.

In  Rubin’ report he mentions how little money the Mets have spent on draft picks and in the International market for free agents. I had the pleasure of speaking with Wilbur Miller, a Pittsburgh Pirates fan and a fan poster on Bucs Dugout about the recent leaks of the financial statements of the Pittsburgh Pirates on my THIS CALL TO THE BULLPEN Radio Show last night and one of the items we talked about was the Pirates under the ownership of Bob Nutting and Frank Coonley have spent $23 mil in 2008 and $21.2 mil in 2007 on player development.  The Mets in turn have spent a mere $14 mil the last three seasons on player development. That’s $4mil less than the money they will pay Perez and Castillo combined next season.  After listening to my interview with Miller you tell me who is more optimistic Miller the Bucs fan or me the Mets fan?

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