Today, pitching coach Dan Warthen tried to sell the idea Johan Santana used perceived criticism of his physical condition as the spark to get him on the mound for the first time since Feb. 19. Santana threw the day after GM Sandy Alderson said he didn’t think the soon-to-be 34-year old lefty would pitch for another ten days to put his Opening Day start in jeopardy.

The Mets are trying to mix the contrasting positions Santana as the ultimate competitor who knows better than anybody what it takes to get ready and the other that he uses criticism as motivation.

Well, which is it?

Reportedly, Santana was irritated at reporters’ questioning, to which my first thought is for him to get over it as he’ll get $31 million this year regardless of how much he pitches, so answer the damn questions.

There’s no doubting Santana’s heart, but he can be sensitive.

What I especially found questionable is if the Mets thought he was ten days away from throwing, then why would they let him throw today? Who’s running the show anyway?

When a team puts it in the hands of the athlete to make medical decision, there is a likely chance of failure. Just think of Ryan Church, Mike Pelfrey, Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Jose Reyes and others.

Despite Santana’s sensitivity to criticism, the fact remains he’s not in pitching shape and is behind schedule. It is also fact it was Santana who chose how to handle the offseason after rehabbing the previous two winters. Santana felt he needed the rest so he rested. Alderson stated what happened and didn’t rip Santana; there was no criticism, just an analysis.

It is a long season – Santana’s last as a Met – and it doesn’t matter if he is ready April 1 or April 15 or whenever. Santana won’t be traded for a variety of reasons and his value to the Mets this year will be to get the most out of him. It makes no sense to rush him, so don’t be surprised if letting him throw today could come back to bite the Mets.

GEE SPARKLES: Dillon Gee, who underwent surgery in the offseason to repair an artery in his shoulder, threw three scoreless innings in today’s 6-4 loss to Miami. It marked the first time Gee faced major leaguers since last July.

Gee gave up three hits and a walk with one strikeout over 50 pitches. Gee expressed no concern about his shoulder, saying he can’t afford to pitch with apprehension.

“Obviously I’m just excited to get out and compete again,’’ Gee told reporters. “The location was just very hit or miss. I wasn’t locating the fastball very well.’’

BUSTER BUSTING THEM: Buster Olney‏ OF ESPN tweeted the following on Sunday. Mets: Amazing. Their two highest paid pitchers might not be available Opening Day, and their two highest-paid outfielders are Bobby Bonilla and Jason Bay.

COWGILL IMPRESSING: The more I see of right-handed hitting Collin Cowgill, the more I like him. If he can do the things he’s doing here in PSL and can carry that into the regular season, the Mets will be just fine at the leadoff spot when they’re opposing a lefthanded starter. I’ll try to catch up with him on Tuesday and find out what it is that makes this kid tick. He plays each inning like it’s game seven of the World Series.

The story of why Bonilla is receiving checks from the Mets is fairly well known. With the 1999 season finished, Bonilla had just one year left on his deal. The Mets owed him $5.9 million.

GM Steve Phillips and owner Fred Wilpon determined that Bonilla was not worth $5.9 million. He definitely wasn’t as in 1999 he posted a horrendous -1.2 WAR.

To put that in perspective, his season was worse than Oliver Perez’s 2010 campaign when he went 0-5 with a 6.80 ERA. Perez posted a slightly better -1.1 WAR that year.

So instead of just buying out Bonilla for $5.9 million that year, the Mets got creative. The team worked out a deal with Bonilla where he would be paid the $5.9 million would be deferred and the Mets would begin to pay him in 2011. The Mets would pay him back over the course of five years.

The two sides agreed to a generous 8% interest rate at the time. As a result, the $5.9 million that the Mets owed to Bonilla will turn into $29,831,205. A 73-year-old Bonilla will receive his last check from the Mets organization in 2035.

Mets fans will unfortunately be reminded about this deal for years to come.

While there is much to be said about the Mets ownership lack of baseball acumen, and even in recent years being linked to a scandalous international Ponzi scheme, this deal is not nearly as bad as it looks on paper. Invested long-term, I would say that it was even a good deal, benefiting the Wilpons just as much as the Bonillas. Back when I was completing my MBA, I actually used this as a case study – I no longer have my backing documents or spreadsheet, but with reinvestments and compounded interest, the Mets have made money off of that initial $5 million while Bonilla has not. So while they are paying him out something like $29 million over the next 25 years, chances are they’ve made their money and are reinvesting it again. Hopefully, not with another Ponzi scheme.

For Bonilla, it’s sort of like choosing the lottery lump sum payout versus annual payments. There are tax implications for the lump payout for the winner; the annuity is guaranteed money but is taxed per year therefore not as big of a hit. While Bobby, from my understanding, is being paid from another fund, not impacting the current payroll from what I understand and adding on to the time value of money, I remember that the dollars and cents of it really wasn’t that far off if he got paid in 1999 or over the course of 25 years.

I won’t bore you with those details here. But let me give you some lay examples to bring the transaction to light.

In Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Dr. Evil comes back from being frozen for 30 years and re-emerges in the 1990s. He requires a ransom of (cue the pinky) “one MEEELLLION dollars” or in non-evil terms, one million American dollars. When his number two man Number Two says that amount would get laughed at in the 1990s, he asks then for “One hundred BEEEEEELLLION dollars!”

Think about that for a second. To us ordinary working-class folk, one million dollars seems plenty, right? To a corporation or small republic, $100 billion is certainly a lot but billions of dollars are spent weekly in the stream of corporate transactions. The most telling part in Dr. Evil’s demands though is that in the course of 30 years, an acceptable ransom has gone up by five additional zeroes. (Meanwhile, when Dr. Evil goes back to the ‘60s and tries to hold the world hostage again, he is laughed at by the $100 billion request, being told it was an imaginary number).

The Bobby Bonilla deal is not THAT bad of a deal and will not be as much of an albatross or worrisome as some make it out to be. I mean, he signed a $29 million/five-year contract in 1992, 19 years ago. Today that player would be considered “cheap,” a STEAL even or at the very least a player who probably is on the downside of his career.

Back in 1999, $5 million was and still is plenty of money no doubt, especially owed to a player who didn’t contribute much and had more ill-will than good over that time. Factor in the time value of money, we know that was once $5 million in ’99 money is not worth anywhere near what $5 million is today. Yes, I know, boo hoo, but he’s got a family to feed right? (That was sarcasm)

Yes, I get it. Bobby Bonilla represents everything that’s bad from the Mets’ past. He is the poster-child of the Worst Team Money Could Buy, and possibly our last image of him was playing cards with Rickey Henderson during the critical Mets/Braves NLCS in 1999.

Our last-ing impression of him will be the fact that he will be “employed” by the Mets for the next 25 years. However, I am here to defend the ownership of the Mets and say it was actually a decent deal on their end, from a business standpoint. Yes, I know, where’s the rock salt? Has Hell frozen over? I’m actually defending the Wilpons. Yes, I know, it happens from time to time, but I do give credit where it is due.

That’s not taking away from Bonilla. Deferred payments are pretty par for the course in contracts; however, you don’t hear a lot about them in baseball due to the fact they are mostly incentive driven (like, a pitcher will have hit X-amount of innings for a deferred payment to kick in or some crap). Please note, I have no record of Bonilla’s terms with the Mets, but it may or may not have included that deferred payment provision (bonus points if someone can find that for me). It was a brilliant negotiating tactic, if that was in fact what happened in the board room when they “bought him out.”

If Lenny Dykstra is any cautionary tale, fact is most retired sports figures do not handle their money well or have a long-term game plan. This was a win-win situation for both sides. Sure, you would like the Mets to put the screws to him but the Players Union says there’s this thing called a contract that guarantees money, so they’d have had to pay him anyway. Why not work it out to the best of their ability?

There is a faction that says the Mets should have just paid him his money and cut ties immediately. Well, sure I certainly agree with that. However, we are not privy to what happened the day he was released by the team. There could have been a standoff or it could have simply been written in his contract, fully expecting to, you know, not play cards during a playoff game.

I think what’s happened is that we people who don’t earn player salaries, tend to look at this as an excess of the Player’s Union, lack of a salary cap and that players are overpaid. Hey, no kidding! This was not meant to be a piece defending the Mets management nor Bobby Bonilla himself. It’s a way of saying, hey, there actually are smart business transactions happening in the Mets management.

And in an evil parallel universe, while the Mets are again paying Bobby Bonilla, a parallel universe could unfold and the Mets might do the opposite of what they did during his Worst Team Money Could Buy era and actually have a decent record.

Hey. You never know.

Until then, the only piece of financial advice I will ever give is to take the annuity payment if you ever win the Mega Millions. It’s the best case scenario for everyone.

I watched the press conference and it all sounded nice but we’ve heard this all before. This organization talks a great game but when it’s time to deliver they’ve failed over and over again.  I know a lot of fans are happy that Omar and Jerry are done and they liked this press conference and are encouraged by it but I just don’t share their optimism. I wish I could but this team and the way it has been run in the past doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.

One of the things I hated was when the Wilpons said that they wanted to improve the team and win baseball games. Of course we all want them to win baseball games but we also want them to win a championship. To me that quote is very similar to meaningful baseball game sin September.

I didn’t like that Omar Minaya is still working with this organization and that the Wilpons said it’s up to the new General Manager whether Omar has a job or not.  I get it Omar has a contract and the Mets have to honor that contract.  Having said that Omar didn’t do his job.  I actually I should say he didn’t do a good job.  He has embarrassed this organization in the past, he should no longer in any fashion have a job with the New York Mets.  Much like Bobby Bonilla starting next year let Omar sit home and collect his paycheck.

I felt that the Wilpons insulted our intelligence once again by saying that they never once told Omar “NO.”  Maybe before 2008 that is true but for the last 2 seasons you cannot tell me that Omar was allowed to make moves and spend money.  I know they downplayed the Madoff scandal again but it had something to do with spending.

I did like that the Wilpons said that the General Manager will hire the manager. That is a step in the right direction.  I don’t know what that exactly does for Wally Backman, I guess we’ll have to wait until a new GM is hired.  I do hope that the new GM allows the next manager to pick his own staff. I also appreciated the way Fred Wilpon spoke about his love of this franchise.  I honestly believe he was being sincere in his statement.  I was a little confused though by him saying that he was still in charge.  The media and Fred himself have made it clear over the last couple of years that Jeff is in charge of the team.  Perhaps he worded his statement wrong but it comes off as unorganized in my opinion.

I hope the Wilpons prove me wrong, I really do. I hope that this press conference wasn’t all talk and that their actions will speak louder. We’ll see in 2011.

The Mets have 76 home runs through 132 games, putting them on pace for 93, their lowest total since 1992 when Bobby Bonilla led the team with 19.  Gary Sheffield currently leads this Mets team with 10 (Jeff Francoeur has 11, but only 6 with the Mets), so it looks like our leader is on pace for 12 or 13, a number that harkens back to the ‘70’s.

And if it weren’t for the 2008 San Francisco Giants, who had 94 homers (the lowest total and only mark under 100 of the new millennium), this Mets’ power or lack thereof would really be a black eye in the record books.  It still might be, as it’s quite likely the tally can be between 85 and 90, depending on if Beltran comes back.

So for all of the bad things that have happened to our Mets this season, the lack of home runs is possibly the most insulting, most disturbing and utterly forgettable trend we’ve seen.  It’s even magnified by the fact that this team has the second-highest payroll in the game.  By comparison, those guys across town have hit 207 homers, and even the lowly and small-market Pirates and Royals are over 100 at this point.

I know I’ve written about this subject before, and I’m not worried about this being a problem in 2010 (yet), but you have to admit these numbers are just baffling, and we might not see a power outage like this for another 30 years.

Consider that the current leaders, Carlos Beltran and Gary Sheffield, have 8 home runs each so far.  Beltran has three at home, five on the road.  Sheff is split four and four.  Meanwhile, David Wright, who has just 4 homers, has three at home and only one away from Citi Field.  So how do you explain it?  And what does it project out to?  Well, Sheffield has played 58 games but can’t play every day because of creaky knees, and Beltran is on the DL.  Either way, their current pace projects to 18 homers for the season.  Wright’s pace is a paltry 9.  NINE.  We kind of cut the guy slack because he’s been leading the league in batting, but still — I expect nine homers from David Eckstein, not David Wright. 

Fascinating, isn’t it?  Well here is more to ponder.  The last time a Mets player hit less than 20 home runs was Bobby Bonilla in 1992, with 19.  Before that it was Lee Mazzilli’s 16 homers in 1980.  The team’s lowest-ever output was a three-way tie of 12 homers in 1977—between Steve Henderson, John Milner, and John Stearns.  It’s fathomable that if Sheffield and Beltran miss extensive time the rest of the way, the ’77 record could be broken, but it’s highly doubtful.  Even Carlos Delgado, who has 4 homers, could return from the DL in August and reach 20 by the end of September. 

So okay, it’s not necessarily Citi Field, though we’ve seen many potential home runs stay in the park there.  This is a more interesting issue, and maybe one that no one is discussing—the possibility that some of our Mets were using performance enhancers the last few seasons and didn’t get caught.  I’m not accusing, I’m just saying, the numbers just border on staggering, especially when Albert Pujols has 26 homers, 18 more than Sheffield or Beltran.

I’m curious to see what you all think of this.  I don’t believe any Met will reach 20 this season, do you?