Mets Merized Online

The top stories for the Mets so far this spring is the (again) absence of Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes’, and the emergence of Ike Davis and Jenrry Mejia. Add a sidebar by the unsinkable Nelson (Molly Brown) Figueroa, and it has been business as usual at camp.

Established players hone their skills and young ones aspire to impress. Certainly Mejia has. So much that his current manger, Jerry Manuel is talking him up as the next Mariano Rivera or Dwight Gooden (who would you hope he becomes?). Can you blame the loquacious skipper?

After all, it’s imperative his club gets off to a robust start or he could be sitting on his porch in Sacramento by June. To a baseball lifer being exiled during the season is tantamount to facing a firing squad, sans blindfold. So, Jerry needs all the boots on the ground he can get.

There is a good chance, however, that Mejia will start the season playing for Tim Teufel up in chilly Binghamton. As the weather warms he could be moved further north and ply his trade for Buffalo. Could he, or more importantly, should he make his Mets debut, it might be with other September call ups.

For the time being Manuel lobbies for arms. He can thank his general manager for hanging him out to dry by shopping at K-Mart this winter. The pitching corps (or corpse) is wafer thin, one gem in a pile of rocks. Forget the fact that Ollie Perez (surprise), and Mike Pelfrey have been yielding runs by the bushel, and Jon Niese and Fernando Nieve looked like Triple A fodder yesterday, Johan Santana can only pitch every five days.

The real problem could be the bullpen. Frankie Rodriquez is the only sure bet, pink eye and all. Sure Pedro Feliciano can sing a nice tune but after him what is left? A couple of Japanese imports (they better be more Honda and less Toyota engineered), Sean Green, and a bevy of questions marks.

No wonder Mejia stands out. He has a live arm, is throwing mostly strikes, and is contrasted by a conglomeration of dreck. As for Davis, he could hit .500 this spring and still have no shot. What the heck do the Mets do with Daniel Murphy if Davis is retained?

He has shown a live bat, but he was touted as having “light-tower power” when drafted out of college. In fact, his fielding has revealed more holes than his bat. Imagine him booting one when Santana is on the hill? You talk about stares that could melt the polar ice caps.

Finally, no one loves to play the game of baseball more than Reyes.’ The current thyroid malady has to be eating him alive. But with the proper meds his condition should be held in check. Mets fans hope the same can’t be said about his bat and million dollar wheels when he returns.

Beltran is a different story. He has soured on the organization and if the Mets fall out of contention I think he has a good chance of being moved at the trade deadline. If he proves he is healthy that is. He could bring back a package of young talent and dumping his salary is an added benefit.

This spring has proven several things so far: The Mets do have some up and coming players, the pitching is shaky at best, and two of their best players are still on the shelf. Some things never change.

At least David Wright seems to be back. Did you see the home run he hit against the Astros? He jacked it to left field, a good sign, as the days to the Citi Field opener thankfully recedes faster than the snow covered hills (at least Upstate, that is!).

Spring officially is still about three weeks away. However, baseball fans have their own calendar. And today images of the glorious green and brown baseball diamond were beamed into our homes and the Mets delivered a win, the unofficial start of spring has begun.

Finally, the embers of the hot stove have been extinguished. Talk supplanted by action. What happens on the field matters again. Trade rumors take a seat in the bleachers. Real live players step up to the plate. The sounds of the game soothe like a favorite symphony or birds chirping.

There are dates on the spring training calendar that are in bold: The day pitchers and catchers report, the first televised action from the Grapefruit League, and naturally the day the team breaks camps and heads North for Opening Day.

The rest is filler. Mostly spring training on television becomes as boring as an award show (except the Oscars) after the first few games appear. It’s fun to watch an inning or two, or to get a glimpse of a prospect like Ike Davis or Jenrry Mejia. Seeing the pitchers getting in their wind sprints in the outfield during the game is always novel.

Then March Madness begins, a perfect segue to the baseball season. As the frenetic college basketball tournament losses more and more teams, baseball appears in the cross-hairs.

All building to the perfect crescendo of Opening Day.

Some sights and sounds of spring training never get tiresome. Like seeing the palm trees sway and people camping out on the berm at Tradition Field. That helps melt away the winter blues (and also makes us a tad jealous).

Baseball awakens the senses, the vegetation, the lawn-mower, and outdoor grill. The first few weeks optimism peaks. It’s time to end the debate on what players were acquired and which ones lost.

What you see is what you get.

The team you support is right there in living color. That first peak of the newly acquired, such as Jason Bay-how does he look in a Mets uniform (and Ryan Thompson’s old number?) is always highly anticipated. What about the imports from Japan? Will they have to be recalled like many Toyotas, or are they reliable and help drive the team to victory?

Is Ollie really throwing great like pitching coach Dan Warthen says or is that bluster? Look there’s Carlos Beltran in uniform, a welcomed sight. How does Murph look at first? Did his sessions with Keith Hernandez rub off? Questions abound and spring training helps answer them.

Mostly, it reminds one to go out to the garage and search for the gloves to have that first catch. That is, when the rest of the snow finally melts and the lawn thankfully starts to reappear.

In one fell swoop the Mets plunked down $66 million dollars in free agency this winter. For their purchase they acquired a serviceable player in Jason Bay. Purported to be a stellar clubhouse presence and right-handed power that will give David Wright some cover (he rarely saw a pitch in his wheelhouse in the second half and the strikeouts accumulated), but questions about his health. 

Years three and four of his pact could get ugly. (See Pedro Martinez, after year Uno of his four year $50 million dollar plus deal).

Thankfully, pitchers and catchers report next week and all the backseat general managers like me can extinguish the hot stove embers. Omar Minaya was directed to get a right-handed bat and he shopped at Bloomingdales when he had a budget better suited for J.C. Penney’s.

He bought one cashmere sweater when he could have purchased a closet full of warm weather gear. You know what happens when you wash fine garments too often? They fall apart and spring holes (like the Mets pitching staff?).

Wouldn’t it have been wiser to spread that dough around and add depth to a wafer thin pitching staff? Then add a frontline pitcher-friendly backstop, and a stopgap right handed slugging left-fielder? (Omar is proficient at collecting pitchers destined for the scrap heap – I’ll give him that. In fact he’s the Fred Sanford of MLB GM’s, a junk collector for the uninitiated).

Just examine the numbers if you think not:

There are exactly 1,458 innings a major league club has to account for over 162 games, not including extra innings. Or, ironically, almost exactly the career totals of Joel Pineiro has recorded in ten major league seasons (1,456.1) and Jason Marquis (1,485) in the same span. But, slightly less than Jon Garland’s 1,829.1 innings (also 10 seasons).

The trio inked deals totaling 36.3 million dollars. At least one player, Marquis, openly lobbied to return to his hometown (raised on Staten Island) and pitch for his beloved Mets. However, Minaya didn’t want to exceed his quota of one native New Yorker on the staff (Brooklyn’s Nelson Figueroa).

Would Mets fans have been a tad less queasy heading into spring training with Johan Santana leading a rotation that included Pineiro, Marquis, Garland, and Mike Pelfrey, or the present configuration of Big Pelf, John Maine, Ollie Perez, and a cornucopia of dreck competing for the number five slot?

I believe the answer is a resounding affirmative. The $64,000 dollar question is which pitcher, not named Santana, is going to devour innings for the Amazins? Last year’s leader, Pelfrey did not crack the 200 inning mark (184.1). Santana was second with 166 but an injured knee left him well shy of the 200 mark.

Take a guess who pitched the third most innings for the 2009 NY Mets? If you answered Livan Hernandez (135, but fired in August) go collect a dollar and a quarter from columnist Norman Chad. Fourth? Tim Redding, who missed the first part of the season with a bum shoulder but still managed 120.

You get my point here? The bullpen could be in tatters by Memorial Day. Penciled in as the number three and four starters, Maine and Perez, respectively, recorded 81.1 and 66 innings. Bobby Parnell tossed 88 innings but failed miserably as a starter and is slated for the bullpen or even Triple A. Figgy pitched a yeoman 70 innings but he is strictly a tweener (better than Triple A but not major league caliber) at best.

The rest of the candidates should be labeled suspects, not prospects.

While the Mets invested a big buck and four years in one player, they could’ve revamped the team with mostly one and two year deals, thus saving a bankroll for the coveted 2011 class.

If that meant going an extra few million for catcher Bengie Molina so be it. They could have inked Jermaine Dye for one year and a couple of million and had some mad money in reserve when teams like the Pirates and Royals conduct their annual fire sales.

If you are on a beer budget you don’t buy MOET and then go hungry at dinner.

Spending a big buck for one player who does not merit superstar status (management’s way of saying “we doled out the third highest free agent contract this off-season so go bug off”) is misappropriation of funds- irresponsible when the ship is springing holes from bow to stern, or is that David Stern to bow?

Do I think the Mets would’ve built a championship team with the aforementioned players? No, not when Philadelphia adds the best pitcher in the game to a stable of thumpers. Nevertheless, they would’ve been a more balanced competitive club, and more important, top heavy in starting pitchers

Hasn’t that been Minaya’s credo from day one: “You can’t have enough starters,” then why wasn’t the money spent on it? As camp looms on the horizon there is no wiggle room with this staff. Stock up on the Tylenol (the fans and the pitchers) or hope the new Japanese import performs better than the Toyota’s his country sells.

For the oft-injured Maine (and the goofy Perez) that is asking a lot. The Mets were banking on all the walking wounded returning and playing a full season. That delusional dream has already produced a sweaty nightmare with the Carlos Beltran saga.

If the Wilpons had not been penny wise and pound foolish their man Omar could’ve assembled a semi-respectable pitching staff. Instead the leftovers from the Buffalo Bison’s pitching staff will trample the shuttle to downstate La Guardia Airport, and sadly toe the rubber in the land of the $10 beer and $20 parking fees.

Just once in the past six months would I like to sit down and write something positive, uplifting, and glorious about the Mets. However, this organization will not let that happen. Between their informal “mini-camp,” to the newsreels of Jose’ Reyes running full tilt at some fitness center on Long Island, they should be handing out barf bags to all their fans.

What do they take the faithful out to be gullible mindless saps? Any fan worth his salt should view all these staged workouts as merely propaganda. Certainly Joseph Goebbels would be proud (if he’s not already working in the Mets PR department.

What organization besides the floundering Mets release this kind of garbage and in the process insult the intelligence of their fan base? Do they think the people who buy tickets are going to rush the box office because we have witnessed Reyes running full tilt in a controlled environment?

Please, pass the Pepto and Xanax.

Wake me and the ground hog up when the team reports shortly to the real spring training in Florida. And then nudge me again (because I will fall asleep during the long camp) on opening day in April. The proof will be in the results on a baseball diamond when the record is 0-0.

I don’t need Dan Warthen smiling for the cameras telling me Oliver Perez is in great shape and throwing just fine, thank you very little. Off a mound in a bullpen miles from a major league batter, or a game that counts.

What the organization should do is explain to the fans why it splurged on a nice cocktail dress but didn’t have enough money left over for shoes. Maybe they thought spending $66 million dollars on Jason Bay while the pitching staff (and catching) is in shambles was prudent. Maybe they thought the affair was on the beach and shoes were not required.

Wouldn’t it made more sense to spread that large expenditure around to several capable pitchers who could devour some innings? As it stands now, I predict the Mets bullpen will tear apart at the seams before Memorial Day from abuse.

Wouldn’t it have made sense to sign a frontline catcher (Benji Molina for two years) two starting pitchers (Jon Garland and Joel Pineiro, et al) for one and two years, respectively, (because they are better than the oft-injured Jon Maine and wacky Perez) and a stop gap left-fielder (Jermaine Dye or even Johnny Damon would have injected some life into this listless team); eat the contract of fan (un)favorite Luis Castillo and import Orlando Hudson as an igniter and top of the order insurance policy?

All the aforementioned moves (and many not included) were feasible on a $66 mill budget-and then some. Did the Mets organization really feel that they were one big ticket item from the promised land? Because from this vantage point it looks like by overpaying Bay, a good player, they have neglected the leaking engine, rusting hull, and myriad structural problems of this vessel.

Dry-dock here we come!

Instead we hear that Dr. David Altchek, the team (Witch-I mean Which?) doctor, has cleared Kelvim Escobar to pitch. Great news, after the Marionette Omar Minaya has already signed him. But, those pictures of Johan Santana throwing and proclaiming he feels great in January have buoyed the fans’ spirits (folks, if Santana does not win 20 plus games the ship be sinking into the NL East abyss).

Stay tuned for upcoming video of Carlos Beltran (no doubt with shill Kevin Burkhardt wielding the mike)working out in the rehab pool. Can’t wait.

Somewhere in heaven, former Mets beloved broadcaster Bob Murphy has bellowed, “Fasten Your Seatbelts,” one more time.  With no games to call, he may have been referring to the news that the Mets are interested in former Braves pitcher John Smoltz as a starter. 
 
If Murph was back in the booth next season, only he would be older than Smoltz, as employees of the floundering Mets organization.  Perhaps Omar Minaya has already made inroads into his second career as an Archaeologist. 
 
Congratulations Omar, you are about to unearth your greatest fossil discovery since you re-signed Tom Glavine, also in the twilight of his career (Smoltz would be hard pressed to find a taker from the Independent Leagues, albeit he has had a great career). As Minaya is fond of saying, “At the end of the day,” how will the signing of two washed up ex-Atlanta pitchers work out? 
 
It says here, akin to Glavine’s final start in a Mets uniform.
 
Seriously folks, the Mets wait and see approach is about to yield rancid fruit.  You pick the apples off the tree, Omar, not wait till they hit the ground and get mushy.  Yesterday’s news of the Padres signing innings eater Jon Garland (what amounts to a $5 million commitment for 2010-that includes a mutual option for 2011 of $6.75 million, but a buyout of 600 grand) was the final blow to shoring up a pitching staff in shambles.
 
Chicken feed in today’s baseball economy with a dearth of competent starters.  Just look at what the Phillies paid for the services of Joe Blanton ($24 mill for three years), a mirror image of Garland.  By the way, the lanky right-hander has averaged 32 starts and 191.2 innings since 2002, and 209.5 innings in the past six campaigns.  He is not a number two starter’s caliber, but rockets past the current assemblage of mediocrity.
 
You can keep the propaganda emanating from the Mets mini-camp yesterday that both Johan Santana and Ollie Perez are healthy.  Santana is an ace and the rest of the cards in the hand could easily be discarded- a bevy of number four, five and AAA starters, with Mike Pelfrey the only one accumulating innings (184).  After that there is John Maine, who hurled 81, Perez, 66, and a lump of coal led by Bobby Parnell, Jon Niese, Nelson Figueroa, and Fernando Nieve (combined 209 innings, give or take a fraction).
 
Just to show you I am not a total ingrate, passing on the oft-injured Ben Sheets, (how does Oakland come up with the 10 mill scratch for him?) is applauded here.  Just because he threw a few pitches at 91 mph before a herd of scouts?  This guy would have fit in perfectly with the 2009 Mets.
 
He won’t make it past the all-star game (NBA).
 
The pitching list has dwindled to a precious few: Jarrod Washburn, Erik Bedard, or Chien-Ming Wang. Talk about dreck!  Signing any free-agent pitcher is a gamble and one coming off an injury personified.  The plan this off-season to revamp the pitching has underscored no plan at all.
 
It’s been a revolving door of speculation about whom would drop in the Mets’ laps. And several weeks from spring training it’s evident the operative word is droppings. Someone has to step up and replace the 255 innings recorded by the dearly departed Livan Hernandez and Tim Redding.
 
One thing is certain.  Minaya (and the Wilpons) are part of the problem, not solution.  You can find Omar engrossed in a dig somewhere in never-never land hoping to dust off the old bones of another stellar finding that belongs in a museum upstate, not toeing the rubber at Citi Field in a few months.

Even when the Titanic was doomed and sinking to the bottom of the North Atlantic the Captain, John Smith remained in the wheelhouse. Yesterday, as the Mets organization again was taking on water, their leader, Omar Minaya was in warm dry Arizona carrying Jeff Wilpon’s luggage.

At this point, that is all Minaya is-an overpaid lackey given menial tasks to earn his keep. While on the other side of the country, John Ricco, his successor, was spewing gibberish (and least the words weren’t mangled) on a conference call to aghast beat writers.

I’m sure all of the scribes were thinking, “here we go again.” The calendar might have flipped, but the team remains mired in 2009. The tapes of that season should be burned for the sanity of the fans.

A new year yes, but a chapter of the same old story. Confusion, chaos, and bewilderment.

In this space last season I hammered home the point that the Mets were a rudderless organization. Yesterday’s conference call only fortifies that believe. There simply is no one in charge, unless you believe an idiot son who has been handed the keys to the Ferrari is capable of running a baseball organization because he can manage an office full of real estate brokers.

It’s doubtful the offspring could steer a Pinto in an empty mall parking lot.

All you have to do is look at what has transpired on 34th street to know that just because you were born into privilege does not qualify you to run a professional sports team. Jimmy Dolan, New Paltz State (my alma mater) class of 1979, spent more time in the bars on Main Street than learning about business.

How many classed did Jeff Wilpon take at the Wharton Business School, or his he a graduate of Clown College?

That leads us back to the Mets mess. This organization has a black hole for a communications system. There seems to be no direct line between upper management, the front office, the medical staff, and the players.

Good thing there are competent lower management types or else no tickets would ever make it to the printer or hot dogs land on the grill. It’s a god dam joke.

What the Mets should have done with Carlos Beltran after the season is continue to put him through his baseball paces and see how his knee would respond. While he said on SNY in the middle of November that his knee was fine, who knows how hard he was pushing it. Working on an elliptical training regimen is a different stress level than running the bases and cutting full tilt.

You can hardly blame Beltran for doing what he believes is the best course of action for his own body and career. If he felt the Mets medical staff failed him previously he is allowed by contract to seek another opinion. He did and went to one of the best orthopedic surgeons in the country and decided to get cut.

The fact the Mets wanted a third opinion speaks volumes about the mass confusion hovering over this organization. What purpose would that serve? Not only it undermines Dr. David Altchek’s diagnosis, and the noted Dr. Steadman of Colorado, but it amounts to a rainmaker.

Beltran has had knee problems for the last few years and surgery was the last option. It should’ve been done last August but that is spilled milk. At least he didn’t wait until spring training to make a determination. That would have been truly disastrous.

(FYI: Arthroscopic surgery is an out-patient procedure where the surgeon cuts away torn cartilage that inhibits the movement of the joint smoothly and results in discomfort. From first hand experience, I had it done in my late 40’s and one week later jogged three miles on a HS track. A few weeks later I was playing tennis and cutting. 12 weeks to recover is hard to fathom for someone in their early 30’s. However, all bodies are not created equal and you can be sure Beltran will not set foot on a baseball diamond until he’s 100% confident he’s healed).

As the Mets steam into Port St. Lucie Florida in less than a month their vessel must be on automatic pilot because from behind these binoculars no one is steering as it heads for ground. And it’s only January folks.

Around the North Pole, Santa and his elves are scurrying around filling last minute orders and loading up the sleigh for his annual magical trek. Old Saint Nick, a baseball fan dating back to when the game was called “Rounders,” hasn’t forgotten to include some keepsakes for the kids who dream about the beloved game.

Moreover, he realizes that baseball is still very relevant because the embers of the Hot Stove burn bright this time of year. That is why he has packed another NL Pennant for the Phillies, and gift-wrapped the game’s best pitcher, Roy Halladay, to be dropped over Citizen’s Bank Ballpark when he zips over Philadelphia.

Also during his deliveries, he will deposit a 30-home run centerfielder, and a box full of shiny Championship Rings over the new palace in the South Bronx. From there, the GPS directs him to Queens and another gleaming ballpark, for his annual gift to the Mets.

In past years there have been some beauties tossed down (aimed a little further afield toward what was Shea Stadium), such as Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana. Great gifts for the ravenous faithful.

Sadly, this year Santa is delivering a bag of coal to Mets fans. He feels the organization has been putrid and the fans deserve better, but rules are rules. You constantly deceive your fan base and the result is the aforementioned coal for those who aren’t nice. 

The team’s fearless leader, Omar Minaya is merely a two-faced stooge, Santa realizes. He knows the owner’s of the team purport to want the fans to be happy and excited about putting this horrendous baseball year to bed and replenish a toy chest full of broken toys with sleek brand new ones.

But why Saint Nick ponders, “can’t they get the check up to the North Pole already (haven’t they heard of Fed Ex or UPS?)

The fact is, they are stonewalling Santa, and worse yet, Mets fans. The bearded one (a Mets fans since ‘62) would love to drop off new toys that can throw strikes, field routine grounders, corral game-ending pop-ups to the hated cross-town rivals, and not run the bases as if someone forgot to wind them up full throttle.

He would love to direct the elves’ to load up Matt Holliday for the Holidays, or a needed stud pitcher, such as John Lackey, but he was re-routed to Boston. Heck, he wanted to put a bow on Jason Marquis, but with the Mets “wait and see” mantra, a pitcher who is money in the bank to accrue 200 innings of interest got tired of waiting and signed with the Nationals.

Can’t blame him even though the Staten Island native was openly clamoring to return home. At $7.5 a year for two, he would have been an upgrade over John Maine, Mike Pelfrey, and of course, Ollie Perez.

Even the Marlins, a team that annually sells off talent to save bucks has made an offer to young left-hander Cuban defector, Aroldis Chapman, before the Mets have. By the way, Santa is not happy with Jason Bay either.

He knows there are plenty of hard-working elves struggling to put food on the table this holiday season and $65 million should be more than enough lettuce to make a bountiful salad. “What is holding up the works,” he muses.

Again, Mets management cannot distinguish between right and wrong. Why tie up that much money in a player who will not bear fruit after two-maybe-three years, and hamstrung the next general manager? How about pulling the offer and then re-submitting it at a significant reduction?

Mets fans don’t root for players who don’t want to play in New York. These long-suffering loyal fans only ask for an honest day’s work when you step between the white lines here. We can see right through the players who are only here for the money (sadly, too many of them).

At this point of free-agency, start limiting the contract talks to two-years max, so if we have a dreaded repeat of 2009 next spring, the next leader (and there will be one before Memorial Day, it says here) can implode the roster and rebuild.

Santa knows baseball and he knows the Mets missed the boat by not shoring up an awful pitching staff. He only tunes in on satellite when Santana pitches, and remembers vividly the excitement the fans felt when he delivered that special package. He understands that acquiring Bengie Molina (who Santa wants as a fill-in because he won’t have to make alterations to his red suit) is not enough to get the fans stoked (and buying tickets).

So, reluctantly as he soars over Flushing Bay on Thursday night, he drops a bag of coal over Citi Field, and an overstuffed one to boot. The cookies and milk will still be waiting Old Saint Nick, because Mets fans know exactly whom to blame.

Wishing all the people who write and read the thoughts on this site a healthy 2010. We always have each other to commiserate with and hopefully someday celebrate together. So don’t get too worked up about Omar and the Wilpons, and that the Yankees have lapped us again. We are the bedrock of the Mets organization, and without us there would be another major league baseball team in California, I suppose.

Spring will spark new enthusiasm for the coming baseball year-it always does.

During the infancy of the 2009 free agency campaign, Mets General Omar Minaya has fired off salvo’s to the rest of the National League East about as damaging as a mouse passing wind. The hysteria you are hearing is coming from the rival GM’s in Philly, Miami, Atlanta, and be careful, Washington too.

Minaya has his priorities twisted. You fill in the blanks after you land the Great White, not aspire to bag a school of (dropout) minnows. He is a lousy fisherman and I am not alone in losing faith in the Mets fearless (clueless?) leader.

How else can a die hard Mets fan rationalize his first three signings: Alex Cora, Chris Coste, and Henry Blanco? Then again, what do I know? Perhaps the line was as long as the ones that formed in the wee hours of the morning on Black Friday. Perhaps Cora, Coste, and Blanco was much coveted door busters that Minaya sacrificed sleep over.

Speaking of snoozing, wake me up when he gets into the War and starts bidding on World Class talent, such as John Lackey-a must have for a team in need of an innings eater and bulldog. Not a trio of players that surely will still be in the bargain basement bin in February.

Moreover, Minaya’s rancid negotiating skills, the ones that overpaid by $20 million dollars for a nearly washed up second baseman, has reared it’s ugly head again by dolling out twice as much for Cora than the market could possibly bear (inked for the outrageous amount of $2 mill for someone who had both thumbs surgicaly repaired. Makes you wonder if Jeff Wilpon pays an iota of attention when he signs the checks).

What the heck was the rush to overpay for Cora?

Minaya should have been at Lackey’s doorstep at 12:01 when free agency opened, and bulled him over with a SUV fully loaded with greenbacks. He had his chance to set off a howitzer and instead pulled out his pea shooter. My fellow Mets fans, he is not fit to lead us into the new decade.

How about the fact, according to our esteemed Joe D., he doubled Blanco’s stipend after a retched .235 season? And Coste, a career minor leaguer, but fine author, is a catch that should have all Mets fans rushing to the liquor cabinet to rejoice with a celebratory libation.

You build a team with stars and impact players, not with leftovers. It is hard to believe Minaya is still steering our ship-albeit aground.

Anyone seen Steve Phillips lately?

The burning question for Mets fans is who to root for in this year’s World Series, the Yankees or the Phillies? Both are hated, both are outstanding teams replete with thumpers that make Mets fans queasy with envy.

While many ruminate on which team to root for, let me simplify the equation, and flip over the question. Who will you root against?

Let’s start with Pedro Martinez. After all, he cashed over $50 million of Mets paychecks that you helped supplement with rising ticket prices and insanely exorbitant concessions. And how did Petey pay us back? By winning EIGHT games in the last two years of his Mets contract.

And then having the chutzpa to ask for $5 million for the 2009 campaign. On the heels of a 5-6 record. A million a win, is the new math according to Martinez. He should’ve played for next to nothing as an Ode to Mets fans, that supported him for four seasons. Moreover, only the first was stellar (15-8 .282, 217 IP).

Three out of four seasons the numbers mediocre: 17-15. In fact, he pitched more innings down the stretch for the Phillies (44.2) than in all of 2007 (28) for the Mets. When the team collapsed with 17 games to play Pedro was nursing another injury. Like in the post-season in 2006, when one more win puts the team into the World Series.

Pedro failed to answer the bell time and time again in his Mets tenure (and don’t get all fuzzy about his signing “bringing credibility” to the organization-you are judged by wins and losses in professional sports).

Then to add insult to injury (sorry) seeing Pedro take place in the NL Pennant celebration after he played a bit part (5-1 with plenty of run support) was blood boiling. If he is not the biggest phony on the planet, he is a contender.

So root against Pedro, the Phillies, and the Yankees, maybe you will get lucky with one or more.

My head nearly spun off it’s axis Monday listening to Jeff (Wilpon), Omar (Minaya), and David (Howard), aka, “The Three Stooges,” putting a spin on the worse season in franchise history over 50.000 Watts. One sounded like an idiot son, another should be fired for cronyism, and the third (what the heck was he doing there?) a bean counter.

(If Howard called the fans “customers” one more time, I was going to heave a live child at the TV. A customer is one who walks in interested in a purchase with the possibility of leaving on their own accord, and dignity in tact. A fan is someone that risks sky-high ticket prices, exorbitant concession costs, parking rip offs-which Howard was proud to say belonged to the Mets after many years going to the City, in hopes of seeing a professional baseball team in action.

Mets fans were fleeced all season. Many times the faithful paid top dollar only to see the understudy. Many times they had to buy junior a hot dog during a three-hour plus game, at six dollars a pop (in the press room it costs $1.50-hey get a media credential if you don’t like it). Moreover, $17 to park the car if you live outside the jurisdiction of the 7-train, for entertainment as scintillating as a root canal.

Jeff’s mistake was he was born into this mess, but has profited handsomely from that. Omar hired all his friends and obviously they helped run the organization into the ground. He also bought the groceries that mostly turned rancid. Howard, embarrassed himself with terms such as, “pockets of the ballpark,” aforementioned “customers,” and other business speak (I tuned him out, sorry).

But, they did fire Sandy Alomar. Rejoice!

I was only interested in Citi Field conversation if they were getting realistic about revamping the dimensions and lowering the Walls, as tall as China’s Great Wall. Howard showed his ignorance by proclaiming the new park’s dimensions about the same as the old park’s.

I know Shea has been closed for a long long time, but I recall the gaps were 396 feet from home plate. The Mets bullpen is located in the right-field expanse, 415 feet from the dish. I was not a math major, but that is a 19-feet disparity, and a lot of lost home runs (think David Wright) later.

The home bullpen is so far from home plate, Randy Neimann, the bullpen coach, needs the Hubble Telescope to spot the action, binoculars are useless.

Only the Mets could build a ballpark to tailor a team that strengths were purportedly speed, defense, and pitching. Not only did they negate their best hitter, but their best all-around performer, Carlos Beltran, had knee woes that certainly were attributed to roaming the vast outfield. Moreover, they lost their home-run hitter in the speed department, Jose Reyes in late May (but he is scheduled for surgery soon-be patient my friends, the wheels of medicine turn slowly).

Wright did swipe a bunch of bags, (but committed a bag full of errors) and Angel Pagan (11 triples, but shoddy base-running) and Luis Castillo (hit .300, with one infamous dropped pop-up) could run-how exciting, but how is speed going to translate into runs scored when no one on this team could hit a bull in the fanny with a bag of rice with two outs and RISP?

By the way, one leg injury wiped out that plan, regardless. Don’t get me started about the putrid pitching staff-it was Santana and pray for a Tsunami. The team ERA was so high it routinely bumped into the Goodyear Blimp. The pitchers walked more in one year than seemingly Nolan Ryan did in his long career.

However, the pitching coach survived the ax, but management nailed the first base coach to the cross. Rejoice, again!

Now, I don’t need a home run (or strikeout) to satiate my baseball desires, but too much small ball is overrated and the way the Mets ran the bases-station-to-station, with the third base coach having no clue, they required four hits per inning to plate a run.

Give me a bloop and a blast anytime. All the Mets got was poop and a pop-up this year, and yesterday Mo, Larry, and Curly, sans the laughs.