Madden: Omar Minaya’s Mets have issues with injuries and inside the clubhouse

Down to his last tube and final 78 from his Ipana Troubadors lonely room tribute...Madden brusha ups his column.

Nevertheless, there’s still no getting around the fact the Mets are presently a depleted mess, plagued not only by this unfathomable rash of injuries to their most important players, but by the same inner turmoil that eventually led to Willie Randolph’s demise. I’m told that assistant GM Tony Bernazard, whom Randolph found to be an intrusive influence in the clubhouse, especially with the Latin players, has been no less undermining with Jerry Manuel. For whatever reason, Bernazard seems to have the Wilpons’ ears, even more so than Minaya, and in organization meetings he’s never reticent to suggest areas where the manager might be doing a better job. I’m also told the Met high command ordered Manuel to tone down the not-so-subtle pleas for help in his pre and postgame mediafests and his periodic candor about his team’s deficiencies.

Is there help coming? If not here already, with the Mets having been practically unwatchable as they wallow in mediocrity, it’s highly doubtful Minaya will pull off any significant deals. He apparently had little interest in Pittsburgh’s speedy outfielder Nyjer Morgan and didn’t have the major league ready power arm the Indians wanted for Mark DeRosa. More than anything, Minaya’s biggest problem is he’s a victim of his own fallow farm system.

NYT: Kilgannon: Why Short Al From Brooklyn, Talkative Fan, Calls No More

Bruce from Bayside likes the Cleveland Indians, while Bruce from Flushing is a Yankees man. There is Marc in the Bronx (Denver Broncos) and Miriam from Forest Hills (Islanders and Mets). Regular listeners know that Jerry from Queens is Jerry Seinfeld, a proud FANdroid and occasional host of the show.

Short Al from Brooklyn was a Mets devotee who, having been a regular at Ebbets Field since boyhood, provided an old-timer’s perspective. He called in the predawn hours nearly every day since WFAN went on the air in 1987, becoming a favorite of Steve Somers, a host known as “The Schmoozer” who shared Al’s love for the Mets but prodded him to get to the point by saying, “Time is short, and so are you.”

Short Al suddenly disappeared from WFAN’s airwaves last year, leading some listeners to worry that he had joined the great lineup of FANdroids who have died, including John from Sandy Hook and Doris from Rego Park. “I can’t tell you how many times people called in and asked, ‘Why hasn’t he been calling? What happened?’ ” said Marc Malusis, another of WFAN’s overnight hosts.

The mystery is here answered!

Short Al is 5-foot-4, and he tells the story of his life as a baseball fan as though writing a script worthy of Kevin Costner.

Growing up in Coney Island, he said, he worked as a child in a penny arcade on the Boardwalk for money to go to Brooklyn Dodgers games. In 1934, at age 7, he went alone to his first game at Ebbets Field, by bus, trolley and subway. On June 15, 1938, he said, he was there when the Cincinnati Reds pitcher Johnny Vander Meer pitched a no-hitter against the Dodgers — four days after pitching a no-hitter against the Boston Braves, the only major leaguer ever to achieve such a consecutive feat. Short Al himself did not play serious baseball, but he ran track at Lincoln High School.

“I got my speed by selling ice cream illegally on the beach,” he said. “You had to be fast, to run away from the cops.

“I started boxing at age 7 because I was a little guy and got beat up in school,” he added. “I had 130 amateur fights and I was never knocked out because I have no neck, which is good for boxers and baseball catchers. Look at Yogi Berra and Johnny Bench.”

SNY: Salfino: Injury-plagued Mets need Santana to right the ship

All aboard the eternal caravan of reincarnation…

There are lots of stories around the Web and even in the mainstream press about Santana’s decreasing velocity. But let’s break some ground, courtesy of my friends at Baseball Info Solutions, and present Santana’s average fastball velocity month-by-month since he’s began his Mets career. Of course, March of 2008 was just one start:

He’s about 1.6 MPH off his Mets peak. My benchmark for significant concern over loss of velocity is two MPH, given that’s what scouts use to grade fastballs—88 is below average, 90 is average, 92 is plus, 94 is plus-plus. And I’m not talking peak velocity here, but average fastball velocity for starters. So Santana, by this measure, is very close to stepping down one tier in velocity, which would be significant.

On the other hand, Santana’s average fastball velocity as a Met for all the months prior to June of this year was 91.15. He’s been very effective in those months, obviously. So now our velocity loss is just 0.8 miles per hour, or one half the difference as measured by peak to trough. Looking at it this way, which I think is most reasonable, gives us due cause to be skeptical that velocity is the root cause of his recent struggles.

That leaves two other options—decreased effectiveness of his other offerings, most likely his heralded changeup, and just a random slump that will soon melt away as mysteriously as it formed.

Philadelphia Inquirer/Gonzalez: A Mets fan escapes the nightmare

Steve Bonsignore couldn’t take it anymore. The never-ending stress. The soul-crushing mistakes. The inevitable disappointment. The public humiliation. It wore on him and dragged him down. So he gave it all up for a while.

It’s hard to blame him. You’d need a break, too, if you had it that rough.

Bonsignore, bless his aching heart, is a lifelong Mets fan.

That hasn’t been easy for Bonsignore. Not lately. You think the Phils have given you a headache? The Mets - who come to town to start a series with the Fightin’s tonight - turned June into one long tragic comedy. They finished the month 9-18, their worst stretch since they went 7-19 back in September 2003.

In mid-June, Bonsignore reached what he called his “breaking point” when the Mets lost to the Yankees after a lazy fly ball hit Luis Castillo’s glove and popped out. The highlight was replayed on ESPN for days. Mets fans called it “embarrassing.” Everyone else called it “hilarious.”

“I sat on the couch staring for two minutes,” Bonsignore said. “Then I turned the TV off and said, ‘That’s it. I’m done. That’s enough. I need a break.’ ”

Wright Hears an Apology From Franco for Criticism (RR)

Yes...but is Franco ever going to apologize for ruining many parties by wearing that stenchy orange-pealed Sanitation Department T-shirt?

David Wright landed in Philadelphia on Thursday night and saw that while he was in the air on the Mets’ charter flight, he had received a message. Upon checking his voice mail, he heard an apology from John Franco.

Franco, the former Mets closer and onetime teammate of Wright’s, had called to apologize for his critical comments about Wright’s leadership, or supposed lack thereof. While still not happy with the comments, Wright said before Friday night’s game against the Phillies that he appreciated the message from Franco and planned to call Franco back.

“Johnny and I have a great relationship,” Wright said. “I’m glad he called and apologized. I’ve always respected his opinion. But he’s not in here on a day-to-day basis, so he can’t really know what’s going on. If it was one of the guys in here that said something like that, it would be one thing. But when it’s someone from the outside, I really don’t feel the need to defend myself. It doesn’t bother me at all.”

Seamheads: El juego casi perfecto de Tom Seaver (Tom Seavers’ Almost Perfect Game)

(just in case you really, really don’t want to remember...)

Seaver también rememora que mientras calentaba el brazo sintió una rigidez en el hombro que se mantuvo los dos primeros innings. Con los dos lanzamientos iniciales de Ken Holtzman, los Mets se fueron arriba 1-0 mediante triple de Tommie Agee y doble de Bobby Pfiel. En el segundo marcaron otras 2, Seaver remolcó una con un doble. En el séptimo Cleon Jones la sacó del parque para poner el juego 4-0. Sus impresiones sobre el aislamiento que trata de realizar el pitcher para neutralizar la tensión del juego, explican como a medida que avanza un juego sin hits, la situación se dificulta cada vez. En las tribunas estaban su esposa Nancy y su padre, quién había viajado desde la costa occidental. Había 60000 personas en Shea Stadium, la primera vez que Seaver lanzaba ante tanto público.

Luego que Seaver dominara a Hundley con rolling al montículo. Me senté en la cama y estiré el oído hacia el radio, toda la tensión se desdibujó cuando el narrador dijo”… es una línea de hit de Jimmy Qualls hacia el centerfield, se acabó el perfecto, se acabó el juego sin hits. Tom Seaver mira hacia el cielo, se va detrás del montículo….” Aún sentado en la cama escuché como terminó el juego dominando a Willie Smith y Don Kessinger con elevados inofensivos.

Seaver regresa al dugout y nota que Nancy tiene lágrimas en los ojos. “¿Por qué estás llorando? Ganamos 4-0”.

NYT: Jack Clark Takes Jabs at Mets of Mid-’80s (RR)

More like a Carlos Monzon crushing jab to the face…

As it turns out, the old feuds continue to simmer. Jack Clark, the cleanup hitter on those St. Louis teams, called those Mets a bunch of cheats and showboats Tuesday in an interview on KTRS-AM radio, which broadcasts Cardinals games.

Clark told McGraw Milhaven, the morning host at the station, that the mutual hatred ran so deep that he purposely snubbed the Mets when they played together in All-Star Games.

“I wanted to let them know I wasn’t glad to be there with them and their teammate, didn’t want to be on any team or be a teammate with them, and we were going to battle,” said Clark, who provides commentary on some Cardinals games and manages the Springfield Sliders, a summer collegiate league team in Illinois.

Clark took particular aim at Gary Carter, the Mets’ catcher in those years, saying that he “talked his way more into the Hall of Fame than deserving it.” Carter, he said, craved the spotlight, which was “pretty sickening and disgusting to everybody else.”

Thanks to Can’t Stop the Bleeding.

SNY: Berg: “Some prospects fail, so it’s time to trade every prospect”

Berg with his latest “Items of note"…

Sock Alexis: There have been a lot of recent rumblings about the Mets’ pursuit of Alex Alexis Rios. It’s an interesting move in that Rios would theoretically only cost money, at least according to the rumor. But lest we forget, money is worth something, and Rios is due to earn an absolute ton of it over the next five years. He’s not a terrible player and it’s not my money, so I understand the temptation to say sure, bring him in. But since Rios’ stats are trending downward and the Mets still have finite resources, I’m just not sure he’d be the best pickup—even if it’s only for cash.

It could work out. After all, Rios is still only 28 and could theoretically return to the All-Star form he showed in 2006 and 2007 that earned him his huge deal. On the other hand, there’s an equally good chance that three years from now, Mets fans could be scratching their heads and wondering why they were so eager to bail out J.P. Ricciardi by taking on a player with an albatross of a contract and red flags on the back of his baseball card.

John Franco blasts the Mets for a lack of leadership, too much individuality

Mike Silva riffing on Bart Hubbach’s Sirius Twitter jitter…

Harsh words for the Mets today from John Franco: “There’s no leadership there. They’re not having fun and everybody’s on their own page.”

Added Franco to Sirius XM: “Something’s not right there. Hopefully they’ll get it right soon [or] it’s going to be a long summer.

Interesting that this comes out just a few days after Jerry Manuel was clamoring for offensive help through the press. We all know that Franco works for the organization and is friendly with ownership. Could he be communicating the perspective of Jeff Wilpon and company? Quite frankly, this type of situation is more a reflection on the manager than management. It makes you wonder how safe Jerry Manuel’s job is. The problem is that Mets ownership remains more concerned with playing corporate politics (badly) than building a well run organization. Any manager that replaces Manuel (Bobby V?) will have the same issues.

Flushing University: Reality Sets In

Consider this when talking about the Mets prospects for July, assuming they make no major moves over the course of the next few weeks. Reyes says it is unlikely he will be back before the All-Star break, and you have rehab games to consider, while Delgado almost certainly won’t return until after the trading deadline. So the Mets could very well miss both of them for all of next month.

In the base case scenario, Beltran will come back right after the All-Star Break. This means he will miss a little less than half (42%). During June, he missed 36% of the action. That month, the Mets were outscored 140-105; over a 162 game season, this amounts to 64 wins. Worst case, Beltran misses the entire month plus. In the nine games he has been absent thus far, the Mets have been outscored 43-32, amounting to 56 wins. Ultimately, were talking in the vicinity of 9-10 wins in July.

Unless Omar and co. does something big, the Mets are a bad, well below .500 team, and as the sample size increases, the results will bear that essential truth out.

WFAN: Eddie Coleman: Enough Is Enough

Weeeee! This contains more seepage than Eddie C’s favorite stool at McGurgitate’s Inn!

Jerry Manuel had seen enough. He had just watched his rag-tag crew of survivors lose their fifth straight game while falling down, kicking the ball around and ultimately not executing at the plate, in the field or on the mound. So he closed the clubhouse doors for a good 30 minutes after the Mets’ 39th loss which put them two games under .500 - and spoke. From the heart. And hopefully reached the hearts of his players, who need to play with a little more heart right now.

Manuel would not reveal much, but he did state the key - “It was to tell them that we have enough. We have enough in here to do what we need to get done. Let’s get it done.” Manuel believes if his team plays the game consistently, competing in the right way, executing the little things - it gives them a chance to win. Manuel went on to say - “I just don’t want us to feel sorry for ourselves. That’s the bottom line. It’s hard not to because of the losses. That’s what we’re based on - wins and losses. You have to check that negativity at the door. Sometimes that seeps in and you have to address it. Because when that seeps in, individualism seeps in, and we can ill afford that as a group the way we are designed right now.” Manuel wanted his team to understand this - “We just need to make sure that we’re all on board with what we’re trying to accomplish, and don’t get separated from that. Period.”

...All players will take the team bus on Wednesday morning and travel to Miller Park en masse to show togetherness and hopefully turn over a new leaf moving forward. All for one - and all aboard.

Amazin’ Avenue: UZR Hates The Mets Outfield

Ooh, baby, ooh-ee
It’s that million dollar bosch

The Mets have the 2nd worst Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) in baseball, at -20.1 runs.  Only the embarrassing Nationals measure out worse.  This number jumps off the page because the Omar Minaya Mets have been strong defensively.  They were worth +27.1, +6.8, and +9.8 defensive runs in 2008, 2007, and 2006, respectively. Team ERA outperformed team FIP in each of these seasons, consistent with a team that plays above average defense.  We’ve seen that UZR correlates decently with FIP-ERA.  Based on how poorly UZR rates Mets defense this year, one would expect team ERA to underperform team FIP.  This is not the case, as ERA is once again better than FIP by 0.11.  Compare to the Nationals, whose ERA is worse than their FIP by 0.52.  It’s always prudent to seek another opinion on defense statistics, so I looked at plus/minus (+/-) and Revised Zone Rating (RZR) to maybe figure out what the heck is going on here.

...The disparity between UZR and RZR regarding outfielders once again stands out.  R.J. Anderson noted at Fangraphs that UZR is still using Shea Stadium park factors for its calculations.  He proposed that this might be having an effect on Carlos Beltran’s poor UZR this season, but ultimately decided that such a small sample isn’t enough to make any conclusions.  Still, the 4 players who have played the most outfield innings for the Mets this season all rate worse per UZR than +/-.  It would be useful if a home/away UZR breakdown was available at Fangraphs, but it isn’t (yet).  Also useful would be an analysis of these stats for all team’s outfields to provide some context, but teamwide +/- data is not readily available.

Defense stats are inexact but always improving.  I agree with R.J. that less than half a season’s data is not much to go on either.  However, it might be wise to take Mets OF UZR with an even larger grain of salt than usual, atleast until Citi Field park factors are used in its calculation.

OC Register: Chone Smith Can See The Future

Forget Miss Clio… Call CHONE now!

SAM MILLER/OCR: Before I go to some players outperforming or underperforming projections, though, this is quoting you… you were asked which Angel could collapse, which would break out: “If I have to pick one maybe Howie Kendrick. I’m worried about the injuries and inability to lay off the slider outside stalling his development. With his lack of patience, he has to hit .300 to be an asset, .270 would be a disaster. … Weaver will take the step forward to become an ace, like Lackey, Santana, and Saunders have before him. My projections see him as the equal to Lackey and Santana.” You’re a witch!!!

Chone Smith: That looks pretty good. But I take no pleasure in Kendrick’s struggles.

SAM MILLER/OCR: Do you think our projections will get any better, or have we reached the limit of what we can feed into them?
Chone Smith: I thought they had reached some kind of limit, and actually hoped that I’d have a stable system so I could focus on other projects, but there is a lot more I can do. David Wright has taught me that in the past week. (Editor’s note: Wright has an unheard of batting average on balls in play this year, so he’s hitting for high average despite setting new personal highs in strikeouts and lows in home runs.)

The developer of the CHONE projection system, Sean Smith, on his way to fame and fortune. Or at least fame.

BREAKING: Surgery for Carlos Beltran?

Colorado? Steadman? Is Beltran gonna be holed up at Ow Farm?

In a ominous-sounding move, Mets New York Mets center fielder Carlos Beltran flew to Vail, Colo., today for a second opinion on his ailing right knee from the inventor of microfracture surgery.

The Mets confirmed that Beltran was in Colorado to have the knee checked out by Dr. Richard Steadman, the surgeon who devised microfracture surgery in the 1990s to mimic missing cartilage.

Beltran has been on the disabled list since last Monday with what the Mets described as a bone bruise in his knee. If Beltran ends up having microfracture surgery, he would miss the rest of the season, at the least.

The surgery, which involves drilling holes in the knee so that blood and bone marrow clot to form new cartilage, has been done on numerous NFL and NBA players.

SNY: Megdal: Like Dutch, Mets tilt at windmills

More like East Phlegmish…

During Sunday night’s game, it was impossible to believe the closeness of the score—just what I felt watching the WBC tilt in March. I felt myself pulling back from the action occasionally, checking out the mismatch in various ways.

There was the indisputable ineptitude of the offense, which included four players with an OPS above .700, two of whom were Brian Schnieder and Luis Castillo. Neither of those two can credibly be called offensive threats.

There was an outfield cobbled together out of a converted infielder (Fernando Tatis), a 20-year-old rookie (Fernando Martinez) and a natural designated hitter (Gary Sheffield). The infield consisted of David Wright, a shortstop without range in Alex Cora, a decent second baseman in Castillo and a first baseman without the skills or decision-making required for the position yet in Daniel Murphy.

Still, the Mets gamely hung in, helped by the pitching of Chien-Ming Wang, who throws more high pitches than any sinker/slider pitcher I’ve seen, and Robinson Cano, whose career line of .302/.334/.470 falls to .236/.250/.337 with the bases loaded. And they say A-Rod can’t hit in the clutch.

But unlike the Dutch, the Mets have not just found magical ways to win, but excruciating ways to lose as well. With such a short-handed team, Francisco Rodriguez’ bases-loaded walk to Mariano Rivera provided not just an insurance run, but a death blow to their chances.

Calcaterra—Yankees and Mets fans are unimaginative

Freakonomics author Stephen Dubner was at the Mets-Yankees game last night, and he wonders why Yankees and Mets fans are so darn economically inefficient when it comes to their cheers and taunts:

A pattern quickly emerged. The many Yankees fans regularly broke into their thunderous cheer: “Let’s go Yankees!” (clap-clap-clap-clap … clap-clap). If you are a Yankees fan (we are; but we do not hate the Mets), this was a sign of what might be called prideful hubris, or maybe hubristic pride: we can come into your stadium and rock it very, very hard.

How’d the Mets fans respond? Succinctly. In the space where the Yankees fans did their rhythmic clapping, Mets fans shouted “Yankees suck!” . . .This pattern was repeated all night. What surprised me is that neither side found a way to improve their effort. I kept waiting for the Yankees fans to fill in their clapping with some chanting that couldn’t be hijacked by the Mets fans, and I kept waiting for the Mets fans to either be proactive in their chanting or to move beyond “Yankees suck!” But neither side budged . . . I fear not that we are teaching our children to be coarse but that we are teaching them to be uncreative and unskilled in the use of game theory.

I can think of no greater indictment of the new expensive ballparks in New York than the fact that they have priced out one of the greatest forces of nature in the universe: verbally abusive, yet incredibly clever New York baseball fans.

Marchman: I got a case of Pabst and Steve Phillips is on the tube

Marchman...Out For Blood!

As I’ve written before, Steve Phillips’ announcing schtick doesn’t outrage me, but it’s induced more than the odd eye roll from this direction, and I’ll be taking a drink every time he claims David Wright isn’t having a good year, every time he blames Omar Minaya for guys like Jose Reyes getting hurt, every time he tells some inane story about Fred Wilpon, every time he intimates he’d be doing a better job running the Mets than the people who are actually doing so, every time he puts the team’s failure to be doing better than two games out down to clubhouse problems/atmospherics rather than the shortstop, first baseman, center fielder, no. 2 and no. 3 starters and top setup man being hurt, and chugging if he mentions Mo Vaughn or Jeromy Burnitz. My liver will check in later.

Bucs Dugout: We Don’t Need Lastings Milledge

When he came up in 2006, a Mets fan – or a paid hack i LM’s entourage – produced the website http://milledgefacts.blogspot.com which included, among others facts about LM ....

1. Lastings Milledge isn’t a 5 tool player. Lastings Milledge has more than 100 tools, many of which are unknown to most baseball scouts.

4. Lastings Milledge doesn’t hit 8th. Those seven other guys are just warming up the pitcher for the first real at bat of the game.

27. Lastings Milledge beat Jose Reyes in a race running backwards.

96. Lastings Milledge is his own species. His biological name is “Homerun Rakings.”

Milledge proceeded to hit .241 (with a .689 OPS) with only 4 home runs. He apparently so annoyed his teammates that a “Know your place, rook” message was left on his locker. He was late for a game in Philly.  He improved slightly in 2007, but was still traded, even though the Mets need some youth and speed in their outfield to go along with the youth, speed, and power they have with David Wright and Jose Reyes.

Matthews: ‘Fans’ split Citi with Mets crashing

or...Aftermathews: “Goin’ Home”

The injury-depleted Mets may not have given up on their season yet, but their fans certainly have given up on them.

By the time the ninth inning started, the only fans left in the park wore the colors of the visiting team.

Certainly, the hour was getting late and it was a work night. But the price of tickets at this, the second-most expensive ballpark in the world only because it shares a world with Yankee Stadium, seemed to ensure that just about everyone who paid his or her way in would stick around for the ultimate resolution.

Not so. By the time the Mets had squandered what would be their third and final threat of the game, just about everyone who had come specifically to see them had either left the park or was in the process of leaving.

Leaving the game at that point was like walking out on Hank Aaron while he was chasing Babe Ruth, or splitting on the Rolling Stones before the encore.

But split they did, and left their team, and its new home, in the hands of their bitterest rivals.

Catalano: Mets: Desperate Times Call for Desperate Trade

And Cud Cuddyer is the answer?

The Mets should try to trade for Michael Cuddyer by offering the Twins SS prospect Wilmer Flores.

Michael Cuddyer, when healthy, is a solid RF, with a good arm and, more importantly from the Mets prospective, power. While he can play a number of positions, RF is where he is best suited—he has had season of 18 and 19 assists from RF, and can handle the new CitiField well. As of this writing, Cuddyer is slugging .514, or what would be 2nd on the Mets squad behind the injured Beltran. Also, he has an OPS of .878, which would place him 4rd behind Wright and Beltran and the soon to be injured Sheffield.

The Twins have a glut of outfielders—and trading Cuddyer could clear space for other able players. Right now, the Twins are breaking in young outfielders Delmon Young and Carlos Gomez (of the Mets farm system), both young and talented and who need time to grow. The Twins also have Jason Kubel and Denard Span—productive players both as Kubel is slugging .558 and Span is batting .287 with 12 stolen bases.

Cockcroft: Citi Field is costing the New York Mets—and their opponents—home runs in 2009

It’s a musgraveyard for flyballs!

According to Rybarczyk, the most significant change in ballpark effect by the Mets’ switching from Shea Stadium to Citi Field this season has been in terms of home-run production. In the first 37 games of Citi Field’s existence, the Mets and their opponents have been “robbed” of a combined 36 home runs that might have cleared the fences at Shea. Compare that to only two home runs—both hit by fellow fantasy first-rounder Chase Utley of the Phillies—hit at the Mets’ new home that would not have been round-trippers at Shea, and you’re talking a staggering difference in ballpark factors.

So what’s causing such a dramatic effect? Rybarczyk illustrates the vast difference in outfield dimensions between Shea and Citi Field in the diagram to the right. But it’s more than that. As he adds: “Keep in mind that the fences at Citi Field are considerably taller than those at Shea Stadium, and that for a typical home run ball, each additional foot of fence height is equivalent to moving the same height fence back by 0.84 feet. So, the 16-foot fence in left field at Citi Field is not only much deeper than the left-field fence at Shea Stadium, it is 8 feet taller, which equates to about another 6 feet of distance.”

Pinstripe Alley: Concerning the Mets

Interview with Eric Simon from Amazin’ Avenue...including a grission drop!

Give me your honest opinion of Jerry Manuel.

He seems like a nice guy. Very affable, particularly with the New York media. He wears emo glasses, which are something of a trend these days.

On the field, he’s a so-so manager at best. He bunts far too often with his position players, he regularly makes baffling bullpen decisions, has an interesting approach to lineup construction, and occasionally gets himself into trouble by needlessly micromanaging in-game situations. Most frustrating, though, is that he’s stubborn and closed-minded to a fault, completely eschewing “statistical numbers” as he calls them, preferring to manage “from the gut”. I’m not one to advocate managing entirely by the numbers, but to be so embarrassingly obstinate as to ignore valuable reams of relevant information because they don’t factor in edge, heart or grission is horrifyingly pernicious to the ultimate goal of winning baseball games.

SNY: Salfino: Evans, Nieve provide unexpected boost

So does a six-pack of Kamangi le Jaerock...but not everybody is rushing out to buy it.

The annoying thing about the Mets when it comes to player development is that they seem to have no respect for prospect pedigree as determined by their own scouts. Murphy had a very short leash this year, especially considering the baggage of manning a new position and the very obvious role bad luck played in his performance. Are the Mets similarly going to fall so easily out of love with Fernando Martinez because he failed to produce as a 20-year-old getting his first taste of The Show?

Nieve shocked me by throwing 94 mph in that first start against the Yankees but he quickly lost his velocity in that game. Still, averaging 92.4 is nothing to sneeze at—only 20 qualifying starters do better. 92.4 is exactly what Joba Chamberlain is averaging (please don’t tell that to Mike Francesa or he’ll go on an hours-long, Diet Coke-fueled rant).

But if you start at 94 and then finish at 90, is that much worse than maintaining 92-ish? I think so. But Nieve has defied that line of thinking.

Whenever someone has been successful, you can bet that you can find some good luck in his performance. Sure, Nieve has stranded 91.8 percent of baserunners (average is about 70 percent). He’s allowed a .181 average on balls in play (average is .300). But his fielding independent ERA (FIP) is 3.88, which I will take any day from a guy pulled off the scrap heap.

NY Daily News/Madden: The Mets they are thriving just by surviving obstacles

Just get to the break safe.

This is Jerry Manuel’s new message to his bedraggled but somehow buoyant Met troops. It’s kind of a variation of the old Charlie Dressen line when he managed the Dodgers in Brooklyn - “just keep it close, fellas, and I’ll think of something.”

“That might be the view he has,” said David Wright. “But I’m looking to win. I don’t put this uniform on just to survive or look to be average. That might be the big picture in the grand scheme of things, and the realistic view, but as a player, every time I put on the uniform I expect to win.”

Nevertheless, just surviving and being average has been good enough for the Mets and, as Manuel says, if they can just keep surviving as they have - however average that might be - well, who knows what great things they can accomplish when they’re finally whole?

That really is the headline, btw…

Carig: Keith Hernandez, Mark Teixeira and a question of range

Meh...I also heard Keith ragging on the fundamental theorem of calculus the other day.

Former Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez apparently isn’t overly impressed with the work of current Yankees first baseman and two-time Gold Glover Mark Teixeira. From Bob Raissman of the Daily News:

When asked Sunday (third inning, Rays-Mets) if any current first baseman reminded him of him, the SNY analyst said, “No ... I don’t think there’s really anyone outstanding out there.” It took awhile, but Gary Cohen finally brought up Mark Teixeira. Mex said he liked Tex but added: “Not a whole lot of range. Not smooth, but gets the job done.”

On the surface, Hernandez’s comments seem nothing more than an ode to bluster and ego, the type not uncommon to plenty of ex-players. But could there be something to Hernandez’s “not a whole lot of range” assertion?

Statistically, it appears so.

With a free agent payday looming last season, Teixeira posted his first above-average defensive numbers since 2004, while playing for the Braves and Angels. He posted a 10.6 ultimate zone rating, which takes into account how many runs a fielder is saving or costing his team when compared to the average fielder.

But in his first season as a Yankee, Teixeira’s UZR has fallen to a below average -.1.9.

Thanks to Tango.

Deep Left Field: La vida SABR

This is the funniest thing I ever heard Chris Dial say. “I am not a stat geek.”

This was back in the late nineties, sometime during the storied Braves-Mets clashes of that era. Maybe opening weekend. Maybe 1999. Sitting in the covered boxes of the Lexus Level at Turner Field, day game, long delay, waiting out the thunderstorms blowing through. Post-Piazza. Pre-Rocker. Right dab in the middle of Rey Ordonez.

What you have to understand about Dial is this. It’s all about Rey Ordonez. Ordonez is the Rubicon. Ordonez is the great white whale. Ordonez is his raison d’etre, his existential meaning, the very soundtrack of his life. Without Rey Ordonez, Chris Dial would not exist.

Amazin’ Avenue: Stop Talking About David Wright’s BABIP Like It’s An Achievment

Or as Wee Willie Keeler’s brother, Profumo used to say..."Hit em where they ain’t...####! THEY MOVED OVER!”

That’s why writers and broadcasters need to stop saying things like:

The Mets only hope that inflated mark of .460 has more to do with Wright being good than being lucky. -Britton

It’s luck.

The thing that Wright has been able to do this year that has made his BABIP soar, is adjust his swing so that he is producing more clean line drives as opposed to upper-cutting and hitting fly balls. -Bleacher Report

You made that up.

What that means is that Wright, for whatever reason, is hitting ‘em where they ain’t. It can’t hold up forever—or can it? -DiComo

No it can’t.

SNY: Berg: Multiple multimedia tidbits following Beltran DL news

Holy Passemetserie! The Pujols button!

Here comes that man again: Twice a year, Mets fans get to watch Albert Pujols play against their favorite team. That isn’t enough for me, so I pay for the MLB Extra Innings package on DirecTV to watch El Hombre in thrilling HD. I maintain that there should be some sort of alert for when Pujols is batting, and maybe a button you can push when that alert comes up that would take you directly to the Cardinals game. In other words, the DirecTV remote should be modified to look like this.

And if they’re installing that button, they might as well make an all-Pujols on-demand channel that features Pujols’ greatest moments, like that time he absolutely brutalized Brad Lidge. Plus maybe it can show Albert Pujols doing other stuff, too, like just buying groceries and mowing the lawn. I bet he does it all extremely well.

Anyway, it’s too soon to tell, but the best player in baseball might actually be getting better. At 29, Pujols is following the best year of his career with what’s shaping up to be the best year of his career. It’s a half-formed theory at best because Pujols’ most productive offensive season before 2008 came in 2003 and since he had what was, for him, a down year in 2007. But it’s fun to speculate because the idea of Pujols even having another level to take his game to is insane.

Mets shortstop Jose Reyes, trainer Ray Ramirez involved in car accident with firetruck

Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up.

Injured shortstop Jose Reyes and Mets trainer Ray Ramirez were rear-ended by a firetruck on the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge sometime Monday while driving to the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan for a check-up visit, Mets spokesman Jay Horwitz said.

No one was injured in the accident, Horowitz said.

The Mets said nothing about the accident until starting pitcher Tim Redding unknowingly spilled the beans after Monday’s 6-4 win over St. Louis.

“I got here about 10 after 4 and a lot of things were going on,” Redding said. “Apparently a lot of things were going on all over the city. Our shortstop and our trainer, who’s been working his butt off to keep us on the field, got into an accident. Carlos was getting an MRI and being placed on the DL. And people were being moved, brought up and sent all over the place. So it was a whirlwind day.”

Rubin: It’s official: Carlos Beltran to DL

It’s official. Carlos Beltran has landed on the DL with right knee trouble.

An MRI showed a worsened bone bruise.

Fernando Martinez is returning. Pat Misch and Elmer Dessens also replace Ken Takahashi and Wilson Valdez. Beltran’s injury leaves only David Wright from the core of Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes and Beltran.

Thanks to Russlan: Season over?.