The Mets played their first suspended game since Aug. 6, 1986 tonight and after Atlanta scored two runs in the top of the tenth inning,  the Mets lost the game 7-5 to drop them 11 games under .500 for the season. Brandon Lyon allowed both Atlanta runs and took the loss.

Right-hander Jeremy Hefner initially started the game for the Mets 18 hours earlier and delivered a gutty performance, allowing just two runs on three hits in six solid innings of work. Hefner walked just two batters and struck out seven in his 94 pitch performance. I had a terrible feeling in my gut when Terry Collins decided to end Hefner’s night with the 3-2 lead and leave the last nine outs for the bullpen. And right on cue, the very first batter, Dan Uggla, launched a solo home run of LaTroy Hawkins to tie the game, leaving Hefner still searching for his first win of the season.

Hefner, the Moore, Oklahoma native, has had a hard time dealing with the tragedy in his hometown. The killer tornado flattened his former elementary school where several children were found dead. He really has pitched better than his 0-5 record would indicate, and it would have been nice to see his teammates gut out this win for him.

Hawkins and Scott Rice are starting to fade after extensive overuse by Terry Collins. Hawkins allowed a run, and Rice allowed a pair of Braves to cross the plate. The bullpen is about ready to completely implode. Why did Collins feel the need to give Hefner the hook while he was in a groove?

The Braves took a 5-3 lead in the eighth on a two-run single by pinch-hitter Evan Gattis. The Mets evened it in the bottom half against Varvaro, who struggled to get a good grip but threw a wild pitch that let the tying run score.

Ike Davis struck out four more times and is now 1-for-41 and batting a season low .143.

Daniel Murphy has three hits including his 15th double of the season to go with two runs scored and an RBI. Nobody in hotter right now.

David Wright has two hits and swiped his eleventh base of the season.

John Buck hit his 11th homer of the season and drove in two to give him a team leading 32 RBIs.

 Fielding a team that can win enough to hold back the onset of apathy in the fan base is a standard goal for a front office engaged in rebuild mode. Failing that, constructing a roster that features young, exciting players that provide the promise of greatness to come can compensate to a degree, an approach that has been used before during the “Bring Your Kids to See Our Kids” campaign of 1979 and again in 1983 when the slogan “Catch Our Rising Stars” was employed to communicate the same enticement.  It is possible that the law of averages alone will dictate a better level of performance by certain key players (guess who) and the team overall as the season progresses, but it will likely coincide with the arrival of Messrs. Wheeler and D’Arnaud. At that point, we may be looking at a roster that has undergone some significant changes.

In the last piece in which I speculated about Met trade possibilities, I concentrated on potential targets for the team to pursue by leveraging their apparent surplus of pitching prospects. Today I intend to look more closely at trade chips on the major league roster, probable suitors for their services, and some possible acquisition candidates. Some of this may represent examples of wishful thinking, but I have striven to keep things realistic.

BULLPEN: Seriously? Other than Bobby Parnell is anyone really going to want these guys? Well, contending teams are typically looking to shore up their relief corps with veteran arms, and capable left-handers are always a desirable commodity, so yes, I expect some interest to be shown in the Met Fire Brigade by at least a few teams. With “veteran” being a key word here, one should assume that the more senior members of the bullpen staff will be shopped and will generate a goodly amount of interest as long as they remain reasonably effective. LaTroy Hawkins, Brandon Lyon, Greg Burke, Scott Rice and the rehabbing Tim Byrdak all fit the bill of future marketable trade fodder, Rice’s “older rookie” status notwithstanding. Just about any contending team qualifies as a possible destination for these players, but those with the most obvious need at this point include Tampa Bay, whose bullpen is ranked one notch from the bottom in all of MLB despite their being only 4 games out of first at the time of this writing, and St. Louis, currently in first place in the NL Central but with a bullpen ranked fourth from last and only one tick higher than that of the Mets.

Relievers  are among the more transient assets in baseball (as Met fans can attest), so the payoff in trade is generally a prospect or two of less than stellar quality, with quantity often compensating for the relative lack of star potential. These players often come from AA and below, so I don’t foresee much in the way of quick fix material arriving in any hypothetical deal that could materialize. However, with the philosophy and track record of the Alderson team being what it is, we can expect that any return package obtained by New York will include at least one prospect that merits a flyer.

STARTING ROTATION: Not that the Mets have any to spare, but as starters  are at a premium at all times, you can’t rule out the possibility of someone making a good enough offer to pique the Sandman’s interest. The only candidates I can truly envision going in a deal of this nature would be Shaun Marcum, who would probably have at least a couple wins by now on a team with a decent offense, and  Jon Niese, whose youth, left-handedness, experience, highly affordable contract, and relatively successful track record make him a highly marketable chip. Clearly the team will not be looking to deal Harvey, and Gee’s inconsistency and injury history are not likely to interest many looking to arm up for a stretch drive.

Teams with the greatest need in this area include Baltimore, Oakland, San Francisco, and Colorado, all of which are either leading their divisions or in contention despite having starting staffs that rank lower than that of the Mets (thanks largely to Mr. Harvey), and other than the Rockies (who barely escape this distinction) are firmly in the lower 33% of MLB rotations. Trades of this type usually involve pitching going in both directions, where one team swaps inexperienced, often erratic arms full of promise for the hoped-for consistency and veteran mound presence that can help carry them to glory. Of course, teams also deal from strength, so, recognizing the Mets’ shortage of viable outfield options, it is probable that trade partners with a surplus in this area will come calling.

Baltimore’s highest rated prospect is pitcher Dylan Bundy, but both his injury status and outrageous potential pretty much exclude him from the picture. Their best AA pitcher, Kevin Gausman has already been promoted to the big club due to their desperation for starters. He’s a big hard-throwing righthander with a terrific K/BB ratio and any deal involving Niese would have to include him in my opinion. After the whole Wheeler/Beltran thing, Brian Sabean might not be as anxious to do a deal with the Mets so soon after, but outfielder Gary Brown is pretty well blocked by in their system by Angel Pagan so there appears to be a fit. Oakland’s top outfield prospect is Michael Choice, a corner outfielder with the kind of power bat the Mets crave. Colorado has Kyle Parker at AA, an outfielder who profiles similarly to Choice, but is probably at least two years away.

POSITION PLAYERS: Before you start, even if there were any takers on Ike now, which is questionable, I’m not inclined to sell low on anyone. Anyway, I’m still looking for him to snap out of it. No, the real potential trade chips here are the veteran outfield bats of Marlon Byrd and the surprising Rick Ankiel (provided he keeps it up), along with the soon-to-be superfluous John Buck and the versatile Daniel Murphy. Of this group, Murph is probably the most valuable, being able to adequately man three infield positions and going through the occasional unconscious period at the plate where line drives materialize out of his bat seemingly at will. Speculation has already arisen that the Nationals could look to acquire him to replace the ineffective Danny Espinosa.  Knowing the Alderson approach, he would likely ask for Washington’s top outfield prospect Brian Goodwin, a five-tool CF currently at AA Harrisburg, but trades between division rivals are tricky and I’m not sure even Sandy could pry him away. A more realistic target would be AAA CF Eury Perez, a speedy leadoff type whose slot in the big club is held down by recent acquisition Denard Span.

Buck is attractive to teams for his veteran presence, defensive prowess, and occasional power, but I wouldn’t expect him to command a big return. Byrd and Ankiel profile as the type of players teams acquire to strengthen their benches for the stretch run, but again, the return on trades of this type are not likely to include anything of top-tier value. We will have to put our faith in the scouting ability of Alderson, DePodesta, et al to help insure that something useful comes back on this end of any deal.

The Mets are clearly in transition mode and changes are to be expected. Hopefully we can all glean some excitement from those shifts even if we have to wait longer for the eventual payoff. I just hope the wait isn’t too much longer.

“Niese’s masterpiece aside, the Mets have been careening toward disaster for most of May and are now on pace for 100 losses. No one should be surprised; this roster has been badly flawed from the outset. Still, it’s disturbing how quickly the season has unraveled, leaving in its wake the sense that it’s hopeless from here to September.”

Klapisch says manager Terry Collins made himself an easy target in light of recent comments disparaging Mets fans. He says, “It’s hard to repair the damage once a wedge has been placed between the players and the ticket buyers. It’s how managers get themselves fired.”

He does go onto saying that Collins isn’t really the problem and replacing him with Wally Backman wouldn’t change the real problem which is the makeup up of the entire roster.

“GM Sandy Alderson chose to populate his bullpen with aging relievers…Alderson’s bullpen will keep breaking their hearts. At least until the Mets can score more runs.”

The most discouraging thing was what one national League Official told him:

“That tells me the Mets really have no plan, they’re just going from crisis to crisis,” said one league official. “What can Ankiel give them? I’m sorry, you just don’t belong in the big leagues when you’re striking out [35 times in 62 at-bats before being released by the Astros last week]. You have to try to be that bad.”

One scout also doesn’t understand the fascination with Ike Davis saying, “What’s he even doing on that roster?”

There’s some good points made coupled with a few bad ones, but definitely worth taking a look.

His recent comments where he dismissed the fans view on his handling of the Jordany-gate, although brusque, were not off base. Most fans, bloggers and some members of the media struggle to understand what it takes to manage people, much less lead 25 athletes from diverse backgrounds in the biggest city in the world. From a big picture standpoint calling out the fans gets you nowhere. Why fight a battle that doesn’t help you in the long-run?  The bigger concern isn’t the comments, but the fact that he never sticks to a conviction. I am not in the clubhouse, but my view from the outside is one of a placeholder manager that seems to struggle with his leadership role. You get the feeling the Anaheim mutiny is still in the back of his head. That mindset is not going to move this team forward and create the kind of culture necessary for a sustained winning environment.

For as little talent as ownership (notice I said ownership, not the front office) has provided Collins the last two plus years, you can’t forget how his teams have collapsed under his stewardship. The 2011 team was probably the best of the bunch and they were going south when Alderson pulled the trigger on the Beltran-Wheeler deal. Last June, you couldn’t ask for better karma after the Johan Santana no-hitter and R.A. Dickey’s string of zeros. How did they leverage that? With .280 baseball in July. That was the end of the 2012 Mets who, up to that point, were a feel-good story.

Again, lack of depth on the big league roster and in the minors is largely to blame. None of that is Collins’ fault.What he is accountable for is a failure to live up to anything he says for a sustained period of time. A perfect example is last September after the Phillies drubbed the Mets 16-1 at Citi Field.  Asked after the game if he was embarrassed, Collins said, “I am.” Asked if he thought his team quit, he responded, “You have to ask them.”

One of the biggest issues with the organization has been lack of accountability and a culture of failure. One of the main reasons Collins was hired was to purge that stench from the locker room. If there was ever a defining moment in his tenure it was that night. What did he do with that opportunity? He backtracked the next day after the players took exception to the comments. This leads me to believe that he doesn’t have conviction, control or autonomy. The media can be a useful tool to send messages to a ballclub. Collins did exactly what any skipper should do when their club doesn’t compete; especially when it was their ninth straight loss.

Truthfully, all I need for a manager to succeed in this town is to manage a bullpen, run a clean clubhouse and keep the media appeased so there aren’t any peripheral distractions.  Collins is not a long-term solution at a time where the organization needs to sell the future. Also, if Collins was truly in the plans for 2014 and beyond, why wait to extend his contract at the end of the year? The players know he is dead man walking.

So do you sit back and make this get ugly? That’s where it’s headed after a sixth straight loss last night. If bringing up Zack Wheeler and others is necessary to make the future better, why not do the same with the manager? I believe it’s time to do what should have been done in 2010: Hire Wally Backman.

I believe Backman is the kind of manager that could achieve the aforementioned three criteria that I believe makes for a successful manager. He could be the Mets version of Ron Gardenhire or Mike Scioscia: a manager who defines their current club as much as the uniform. We haven’t seen that type of scenario since Davey Johnson came onboard in 1984. In a lot of ways Backman could have a similar impact.

Backman is known to be a great motivator and teacher. He won’t wave a magic wand and make this 4-A squad a contender, but I guarantee the players will maximize their potential- whatever that may be. He can manage a bullpen, and certainly will run a clean clubhouse. He will demand respect and a winning attitude.  The Mets may not win under Backman, at least not right away, but they will compete. This is not what I can say has been the case 100% of Terry Collins’ tenure.

So why wait? Yesterday Collins again flip-flopped during his weekly WFAN segment with Mike Francesa. After calling out the fans for their criticism of how he handled Valdespin, he retracted and couched his comments in a softer manner. People show their true colors when under pressure. The comments that Collins made a day earlier was how he really feels. I would have respected him more if he stood by it instead of playing politics after the fact – just like he did last September.

Does the team really have a choice? When Francesa asked why he thinks things will get better Collins’ responded by saying the “clubhouse is in great shape.” I am glad to hear that everyone is happy and comfortable with the prospects of a fifth straight losing season.

If hope and dreams is the Terry Collins solution then why don’t we just sign up for magic beans and pixie dust? That isn’t going to help Tejada, Davis, Duda or Niese out of their malaise.  It’s time for something real and sustainable. It’s time for the Wally Backman era to start now.

The first game in that slide, April 18 at Colorado, and the one preceding it, April 12, at Minnesota, were played in temperatures in the high 20s.

I spoke personally to manager Terry Collins about that and he said the cold might have had a residual effect on Niese.

“I think there might be. He’s had some stiffness in his back,’’ Collins said when asked if there is a connection between working in the cold and his following ineffectiveness. “He’s had trouble getting loose and (prior to his May 5 start at Atlanta) he didn’t have a good bullpen session.’’

The only thing surprising about this issue with Niese is the injury wasn’t worse and there haven’t been more weather-related injuries. This has always been one of my pet peeves about playing in lousy weather. The owners have such steep investments in their players, and yet they have no qualms about playing games in precarious conditions. This is also an issue the Major League Baseball Players Association has glossed over. Playing conditions have never been high on the MLBPA’s pecking order in negotiating with the owners.

It’s usually about money and drug testing, but working conditions somehow get ignored.

Niese, who gave up eight runs in 4.1 innings in his start Saturday against the Pirates, said to compensate for the soreness and stiffness he developed the bad habit of dropping his arm angle during his release. Consequently, hitters have been able to pick up the ball out of his hand earlier.

“I think it’s to the point now where I created a bad habit with dropping down my arm angle, and I’m kind of opening everything up,’’ Niese said, adding he wasn’t bothered by pain today. “It’s something I’m going to work on in the bullpen to get it back.’’

Niese said there’s no deception in his delivery and hitters aren’t chasing the pitchers they normally might. They are able to pick up his release point earlier, and that split second makes a tremendous difference to the hitters.

Niese is hopeful of working his release point issue out in the bullpen this week before making Thursday’s start in St. Louis against Adam Wainwright.

His 5.93 ERA clearly shows that Niese is currently not the same pitcher who the Mets signed to a five-year deal before the start of last season. If things are going to get any better for the Mets, they’ll need the Jon Niese they thought they were getting.

Frank Francisco

Terry Collins said he would first like to see how Francisco responds after back to back appearances on Sunday and Monday before the team makes plans to activate him from the disabled list.

Either way, there’s no question that Bobby Parnell will continue on as the team’s closer after Francisco returns.

“Parnell has done a good job,” Collins told reporters.

This isn’t really surprising as we’ve been saying it’s Parnell’s job no matter what since spring training. If Francisco didn’t know that already, he does now. This is Parnell’s bullpen.

“He’s just asserting himself as the leader of the bullpen and the guy you want in the ninth inning,” team captain David Wright said. “No question, there’s a different mindset for him.”

Parnell was angry during one game during the recent road trip when he was bypassed in a save situation, and he let Collins know it.

“When it comes the ninth inning and it’s a save situation or a close ballgame, in my head, that’s my inning,” he said. “Every one of us down there can pitch in that inning. Every one of us is capable of doing that. But since Day 1 of Spring Training, in my head, I’ve thought, ‘That’s my inning.’ I want to be out there.”

Parnell has come a long way and for a while I didn’t think he’d be able to handle the role. But his tenacity on the mound has made me a believer.

Harvey was originally scheduled to pitch tomorrow’s game on Sunday, but Jon Niese who was today’s scheduled starter, will pitch tomorrow’s contest instead.

With the Mets off on Monday, Harvey will get the nod on Tuesday when the Mets begin their homestand with a two game series against the Chicago White Sox.

This may not be a bad thing as Harvey is coming off a career-high 121-pitch effort in his last start on Monday. The bullpen could also use the rest after what has been a taxing week for them.

Today’s postponement was announced early this afternoon due to torrential rainfall and flood warnings in the Atlanta metropolitan area.

No makeup date has been announced.

However, fairness is irrelevant in sports. A manager’s job security always becomes an issue when he has lame duck contractual status and his team has lost six straight games.Losing streaks get everybody edgy, with questions directed to management, in this case, GM Sandy Alderson, who was asked the inevitable by The New York Post.

“That’s not something that has entered my mind or any mind within the organization,’’ Alderson said. “Has it entered the minds of others in the media or what have you? Yes.’’

Well, of course it has. It’s been on the back burner since pitchers-and-catchers in February. And, I don’t think for a second it hasn’t crossed Alderson’s mind, either.

Walter Alston used to work on one-year contracts, but he was Walter Alston and his Dodgers teams were perennial winners. They were an organization that believed in consistency. They were the exception to the rule.

By contrast, Collins manages the Mets, a franchise that last went to the World Series in 2000. Thirteen years later, and they are on their fifth manager. That’s not even three years each, and that’s no stability. While this trend doesn’t suggest good things for Collins, it might work in his favor for at least this summer. If the Mets aren’t going anywhere, there’s no reason to make a change and have owner Fred Wilpon pay two managers.

Bobby Valentine managed that World Series team, but frequently clashed with then GM Steve Phillips – one of four since 2000 – and with his personality wore out his welcome. Art Howe was the polar opposite of Valentine, and that didn’t work, either. I thought Willie Randolph had a chance, but he was hamstrung from the beginning when he wasn’t given full reign to hire his coaches and had to deal with clubhouse spyTony Bernazard, who usurped his authority. Jerry Manuel was overmatched, but that’s what you get when you sack a manager after midnight.

Now there’s Collins, who was brought in by Alderson to clean up the mess. However, Alderson doesn’t have free economic authority to spend, and consequently Collins doesn’t have the pieces. He’s basically a custodian; here to keep things clean.

The pieces he’s been given don’t fit, but here’s the rub, Collins is judged on what he does with those pieces, much like on those cooking shows where the contestants have to make something out of a basket of random ingredients.

“He came into the season without a contract for next year and may not have one for next year through this season,’’ said Alderson, meaning don’t expect an in-season extension. “But as I’ve told him and said before: This isn’t just about wins and losses. It’s about how we approach the game and fully taking into account what he has to work with.

“We talk from time to time and the [job status] subject comes up. I’m not trying to avoid the topic. It’s status quo. You go through a tough week and people like to immediately jump to conclusions and start discussing a doomsday scenario. A good first week isn’t necessarily any more of an indication than a bad fourth week.’’

So, there you have it: Collins is the care taker for 2013.

Alderson wants to know more if his roster can work and play nice with each other rather than if it has any talent. He’s telling us – again – that it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, but how you play the game.

Unfortunately, they keep score and results do matter. Major League Baseball isn’t new wave, liberal physical education where everybody gets a prize for showing up.

Winning does matter on this level. Teams pay big money to get players capable of winning and fans pay big money to watch those players.

If the losing continues, attendance will eventually drop as it has every year since Citi Field opened. But, the players will get their money. And, Collins could be out of a job. Not fair, but that’s how they play the game. It is also something Alderson needs to think about concerning his own job status.

Thoughts from Joe D.

While I don’t think any manager can get more out of this team than Terry Collins is — and that is mostly because he’s been dealt a rotten hand by GM Sandy Alderson — I see too many flaws in Collins for me to defend him.

As an in-game strategist I disagree with more than half of the decisions he makes. No manager is perfect, but Collins makes too many bad decisions, many of which have negatively impacted the results of a game.

I thought it was a bad idea to let Collins play this season out as a lame-duck manager. Any of my regular readers know that. I wasn’t worried as much about his status becoming a distraction as much as I was concerned over the impact it would have on Collins as the manager and his decision-making process.

He’s making far too many bad decisions now than at any other time since taking over for Jerry Manuel. I think it’s a result of managing with a monkey on your back or your boss constantly hovering over your shoulder.

I don’t believe Sandy Alderson wants Terry back and that’s fine by me. But it should have been delineated that way before the season began. They could have handled it differently and just announce that this would be Terry’s last season as manager before assuming a new role in the front office. That would have made more sense, avoided all the constant questions, and let Tery and the players breathe a little easier throughout the season.

I got the sense from something David Wright said last week, that he and the team need to perform well because they like Terry and don’t want to let him down. ERRRRRRGGGHHHH. Wrong answer.

Collins has had to manage a team that is unworthy of being called a big market team and attendance has never been worse than this recent three-year run. As bad as the results have been, I doubt Gil Hodges or Davey Johnson could have done better with the same bad outfield, bullpen and backend of the rotation. This isn’t Terry’s mess, it’s Sandy’s mess – and he should be the one responsible for any of the bad results as well as cleaning it up.

Mets Starting Lineup

1. SS: Ruben Tejada
2. 2B: Daniel Murphy
3. 3B: David Wright
4. C: John Buck
5. 1B: Justin Turner
6. LF: Lucas Duda
7. CF: Marlon Byrd
8. RF: Andrew Brown
9. SP: Shaun Marcum

Game Notes

Collin Cowgill was demoted to Triple-A Las Vegas to clear the roster spot for the promotion of fellow outfielder Andrew Brown. Cowgill, 26, hit .157 (8-for-51) with two homers and eight RBIs with the Mets and was hitless in his final 13 at-bats.

Andrew Brown, 28, is now with the team after a solid month in Las vegas where he hit .367 (36-for-98) with two homers and 27 RBIs in 25 games with the 51s. Brown had an 11-game hitting streak and was leading the Pacific Coast League with 13 doubles.

Pedro Feliciano is nearing a return to the Mets bullpen. Last night in Ft. Myers, he allowed a walk and a hit in a scoreless inning of relief in St. Lucie’s 3-2 loss to the Miracle. Feliciano has allowed three hits and two walks, with four strikeouts, in four innings of work over four games with Advanced-A St. Lucie.

Game Preview

It’s May and the Mets will finally meet the Braves for the first time in 2013. The Mets are fresh off of a win in Miami where they snapped a 6 game losing streak thanks to some offense and a bullpen that didn’t completely implode. The Mets will also be joined up with Andrew Brown who is hitting well in Vegas and could fill in at the OF and occasionally at first base. Anyway, tonight’s game features Shaun Marcum pitted against Mike Minor.

Marcum had a rocky start in his 2013 debut allowing 3 ER in 4.0 innings of work (right before the bullpen just fell apart). Then, the baseball gods decided to turn on Shaun as 1.2 innings against the Marlins and would give up the winning run in the 15th inning. And just like that, 5.2 innings into the season, he is 0-2. He pitched one game against Atlanta last year and he allowed only 3 hits and 2 runs over 7 innings of work. He will be facing a much different Atlanta lineup that now boasts BJ Upton (although currently struggling) and Justin Upton (who is hitting the ball way out of the park). The Braves have the following numbers on Marcum:

BJ Upton 6-21, 2 2B
Johnson 1-12
Schafer 3-9, 2B
Uggla 1-8
Justin Upton 2-8
Freeman 1-5

The Mets bats hope to replicate their last game and not their previous 6 before that tonight against Mike Minor who is 2-2 on the season over 31.2 innings and 5 starts with a 3.13 ERA. He has went from spectacular, allowing 2 runs over his first 19 innings to not so good allowing 9 ER over 12.2 innings (with his last start being the real dagger at 6.2 IP, 6 ER). In two starts against the Mets last year he allowed 9 hits and 6 ER over 11.0 innings. The Mets have the following numbers against him:

Wright 2-11, 2 2B
Tejada 4-13, 2B
Buck 0-8, 3 BB
Turner 3-7
Byrd 4-8, 2B
Duda 3-8, 2B
Davis 0-4, 3 K
Murphy 2-5, 2 2B
Gee 2-2 (I know he’s a starter and he’s not starting tonight but whatever sorry not sorry)

Let’s Go Mets!

They could have also used Sadecki in 2007 or 2008, which is when I chose his name on the LoHud blog when John Delcos was running the site before Howard Megdal. Those two seasons will always be remembered for how we collapsed and needed to rely upon the likes of Brian Lawrence getting starts and Aaron Heilman and his cohorts blowing game after game in the bullpen.

Tonight Jeremy Hefner delivered a brilliant performance and needed the bullpen to preserve his shutout heading into the ninth. Unfortunately, things unravelled and his solid start went into the loss column.

This wasn’t the first time that Hefner was let down by his bullpen. Usually, the kid is done after five or six innings and he’s had to get 3-4 innings out of his pen. It was the perfect assignment for a true longman, but alas the Mets don’t have a true longman. In fact the Mets have not had one since Darren Oliver in 2006.

Now back to Ray. He was signed as a 19 year old bonus baby by the Cardinals in 1959 and won 20 games for them during their 1964 championship season.

In 1965, Sadecki’s record plummeted to 6–15 and his earned run average skyrocketed to 5.21. On May 8, 1966 he was traded to the San Francisco Giants for Orlando Cepeda. In 1967 he went 12–6 with a career-best 2.78 ERA and he followed that up with another solid campaign 1968 when he posted a 2.91 ERA but with a 12–18 record, the 18 losses tying him with Claude Osteen for the the most losses in the majors.

After a 5–8 record as a spot starter in 1969, Ray Sadecki was again traded, this time to the New York Mets.

In 1973 Sadecki pitched for the Mets’ National League champions who, like the 1964 Cardinals before them, unexpectedly won the pennant, trailing by as many as nine games behind the Chicago Cubs and winning the National League East title on the final weekend. (Coincidentally, four years earlier the Mets, prior to unexpectedly winning the World Series, had also won the division title by jumping past the Cubs.)

Sadecki pitched as a “swingman” for the Amazins’, appearing both as a relief pitcher and spot starter in a rotation that boasted Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and Jon Matlack and was instrumental in helping the Mets win the division.

He pitched four of the seven games of the World Series, which the Mets ultimately lost to the Oakland Athletics, and earned the save in Game Four.

In his 18-year career, Sadecki won 135 games against 131 losses, with a 3.78 ERA and 1,614 strikeouts in 2,500 innings pitched.

I always appreciated Sadecki’s dual role with the Mets and realized the value of having someone like that in the bullpen. It’s not a sexy or glamorous role, but in today’s game the best teams all have a solid longman.

All the good Mets teams of the past have all had had a guy Sadecki in the bullpen. Remember Pat Mahomes in 1999-2000? And let’s not forget Roger McDowell In the mid-eighties who seemingly did it all as long man, set up man and even closer.

The versatility of a reliever like Oliver, Mahomes, McDowell and Sadecki may seem unimportant to some in the grand scheme of things. But in this age of relief specialists and one at-bat relievers, a workhorse reliever who can do whatever the team needs, is an integral part of any good bullpen.

A robot would probably have put in Juan Lagares instead of Collin Cowgill in the late innings last night … That’s because robots are nothing if not logical. Robots don’t go on intuition or hunches, they don’t make bullpen decisions based on their gut … Their guts are wires and blinking lights and oil cans and stuff. Robots don’t have “favorites,” ever.

A robot would not have told Jeurys Familia to walk Solano on a 1 – 2 count. To a robot that would not compute, you’d probably start seeing smoke coming out of the robot’s ears and it’s head would start spinning around if it made a move like that.

A robot manager could also squirt Gatorade directly into players’ mouths and blast them  with super-cold frozen carbon dioxide vapor when it’s real hot out.

Another good thing about Robots is that they wouldn’t get snippy during the postgame press conference for being second guessed neither. A robot also wouldn’t snap at the guy from the New York Post for asking about the weird double switch. See sometimes you get the sense that Terry Collins pulls the double switch because he likes how it looks on a scorecard and makes people think he’s doing his job.

“Yeah, had to pull three double switches tonight, honey… Boy am I bushed.”

A robot would use the double switch only when there was a logical reason for one … like taking out Lucas Duda. A robot would never forget to take Lucas Duda out in the late innings, Lucas Duda’s defensive metrics would be hard wired into the robot’s circuitry, “no hard feelings Lucas … bmeep bmeep bmoop bmoop.” Also, a Robot wouldn’t refuse to play Valdespin because Valdespin is irritating and obnoxious. Robots don’t have feelings, a robot wouldn’t care if Valdespin beats his chest after a triple.

A robot manager could also wax the floor of the dugout during a game.

You could also train a gorilla to be manager. They’ve taught some gorillas to use hand signals you know, how hard could it be? You’d have to get him into a uniform of course … I’m sure a few of Dave Kingman’s old jerseys are still around somewhere. The gorilla could just signal for a bunt with David Wright up and no one on base … He wouldn’t even have to follow the game, you could teach the gorilla six or seven signs and have him randomly use them during the game. So he might call for a triple steal or pull his starter after only one inning. A gorilla also wouldn’t care if Valdespin beats his chest after a triple, he’d probably beat his chest in response. Not only would it be a big improvement over Terry Collins, it would be hugely entertaining, win-win! You might want to equip Hudgens with a deluxe pooper-scooper to take care of any “accidents,” if you go the gorilla route.

Or you could pay a fifth-grader to be the manager. They will often work for candy and gum, and they can be pretty smart, especially the ones who read books and stuff. If the kid yells at Tim McClelland because he fell asleep or maybe had a small stroke between pitches McClelland can’t eject him because the kid would be too young to go unsupervised. I know McClelland is slow to call balls and strikes but I swear there were times last night where he was waiting to see how the batter would react so he could call the opposite, just to screw with the hitters for being so unbelievably awful. I don’t blame him really.

A fifth-grader might even be able to get away with kicking the umpire in the shin. If a fifth grader were running things every baserunner would steal on every pitch. Hitters would swing at everything, the hit and run sign would always be on. Runners would steal home as soon as they got to third base, it would be pure chaos! (The awesome kind not the boring Ike Davis kind.) You could put Dan Warthen in charge of getting the kid cotton candy and hot dogs and bubble gum … the kid might need his own bullpen cart but it’s a small price really …

Terry Collins believes that part of the problem with the team’s bullpen is because the starting rotation is failing to go deep into games. He says it has been putting an incredible strain on all of his relievers. Ya think?

Aside from Matt Harvey and Jon Niese, who combined are averaging over six innings per start, the rest of the rotation has been averaging 4.2 innings per start. Case in point was yesterday afternoon, when Shaun Marcum lasted just four innings, forcing the Mets bullpen to pitch five innings.

When you take Harvey and Niese out of the equation, the cupboard is bare and that’s why the Mets bullpen has a National League worst 5.28 ERA which also ranks second worst in the majors.

The Mets bullpen has allowed 45 earned runs in 76.2 innings pitched this season.

Don’t just blame the rotation however, this bullpen is bad. Eleven teams have logged more innings than the Mets, and their ERA’s are all lower.

The Pirates’ pen has logged a league high 91.0 innings already. But they also have an incredible 2.47 ERA for the season. The Bucs have allowed just 25 earned runs compared to the Mets’ 45.

“I completely agree with Terry Collins.”

As I expected, the Mets have demoted Josh Edgin to Double-A Binghamton to clear a roster spot for Shaun Marcum.

I even speculated that he should go to Binghamton which is where he ends up.

We’ll see him again, I’m sure…

Updated on 4/26

I got an interesting email from Kevin (K Maxx) this morning who asked, “if Terry Collins is so concerned about Josh Edging being overworked, why does he keep overworking him?”

I did a quick check and was shocked to see that Edgin made 75 appearances last season between the Mets and the minors. That would have placed him tenth in the NL.

The 75 appearances was the largest workload of his pro career and more than a 50% increase from his previous high of 49 appearances.

So far this season, Edgin has appeared in 10 of the first 20 games and is on pace for 81 appearances.

K Maxx may have a point.

Original Post 4/24

What happened to the Josh Edgin who came up and immediately became one of the more reliable and dominant relievers out of our bullpen last year?

As if his his 10.80 ERA and 1.97 WHIP in 10 appearances wasn’t bad enough, I took a quick glance at his splits and it really showed me how bad things really have gotten for Edgin since last season.

• Versus LH Batters – 368

• Versus RH Batters – .333

Those batting averages against are just plain awful to look at and clearly a sign that something is amiss. He no longer exudes the confidence he once did and his entire demeanor on the mound has done a complete 180. This is not the same intimidating and effective force we saw in 2012. It’s as if he was replicated by one of those giant seapods from Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

Good God, what’s happened to Josh Edgin?

Edgin burst onto the scene sporting a fastball with that had great late life and came in at 93-95 mph. The velocity and the movement are just not there anymore. His slider, which was so effective last season, is now “big and sloppy and flat”, according to Bobby Ojeda.

Terry Collins had a lot to say about Edgin after the game, and to say he’s very concerned is an understatement.

“One of the things I’m a little concerned about is that last year Josh Edgin made a lot of appearances. He also warmed up in the bullpen a lot of times and then didn’t come into the game. That also puts a lot of stress on your arm. Edgin pitched a lot last season and I’m afraid his arm isn’t responding well. I’m a little concerned that’s what we’re facing right now with Edgin.”

“I’ve had pitchers in the past where after their first full season the arm doesn’t respond well. I think that’s what’s happening. We’re going to talk to him and work with him tomorrow and try to see how we can get him back to what he was.”

You’ve lost that lovin’ feeling.

Collins was visibly frustrated while talking about Edgin and it sounded to me like his patience may be running out on his young southpaw.

“Command is everything when you’re in the major leagues,” Collins said. “Right now Edgin needs to do what got him here if he wants to stay here.”

When the Mets announced that they were calling up Robert Carson, you may remember I thought Edgin was as good as gone. Instead the Mets decided to part with Greg Burke. That was surprising to me. Now I see no other solution than to send Edgin to Triple-A Vegas or even Double-A Binghamton to recharge his batteries and get some of that confidence he once had back.

Edgin has lost his edge

JAYSON WERTH WHIFFS: Sit your ass down, sucker!

You know that feeling when Scott Rice walked the first two batters in the 8th inning yesterday with the Mets clinging to a 2 run lead? Kind of a helpless sense of doom and despair where you can’t bear to watch? With a little help from Jayson Werth the result didn’t turn out like so many other late-inning debacles have, but as I exhaled and wiped the sweat from my forehead it got me thinking about the psychological effects of these recurring meltdowns.

Lets consider for a moment a couple of researchers who tortured some dogs for the sake of behavioral science. Like Pavlov only more twisted … they conditioned these animals to expect an electric shock after they heard a tone. Initially the dogs would leap and jerk and look for escape in an attempt to avoid the shock, but after a while the dogs became conditioned to the stimulus and quit trying to avoid it. Once the animals were thus acclimated, the researchers observed that even when the animals were presented with a lowered wall in their boxes they made no attempt to jump over it. Even with a clear avenue of escape, they did nothing to avoid the shock. The researchers were Martin Seligman and Steven F. Maier, who went on to develop a theory they called “Learned Helplessness.”

Now lets look at an unpleasant set of random shocks that the Mets have experienced over the past six seasons:

September 27, 2007

After a 3-0 loss to the Saint Louis Cardinals the Mets are tied with the Phillies atop their division. Between the beginning of their September 14th series against the Phillies and the start of last night’s game against Saint Louis, Mets relievers have given up 30 earned runs for a 6.54 ERA. The Mets are 4 and 10 in their last 14 games.

September 21. 2008

With 7 games to go and the Mets clinging to a shot at the post season, Aaron Heilman gives up a two-run double to Martin Prado that gave the Braves a 7-4 lead rendering Carlos Delgado‘s two-run home run in the ninth inning irrelevant. It was the 16^th blown save since the All-Star break.

August 21, 2011

After another masterful performance by R.A. Dickey, Manny Acosta walks Nyjer Morgan to start the inning. With runners on first and third and two runs in, Tim Byrdak is brought in to pitch to Prince Fielder who hits a routine double play ball to second base. Justin Turner makes a wide throw on the double play attempt as the winning run crosses the plate. The Mets fall to 6 games under .500.

July 18, 2012

With the Mets only 5 games out of the wild card, Miguel Batista in relief of Chris Young comes in and gets two quick outs. He then allows two singles to Jesus Flores and Roger Bernadina before allowing a 2-run double to Steve Lombardozzi putting the Nationals ahead 4-1. Riding a 6 game losing streak the Mets bullpen ranks last in the Majors with a 5.03 ERA.

April 18, 2013

The Mets are swept in a weather-shortened three game set in Denver as Met relievers give up 18 runs to the Rockies.

April 20, 2013

After coming back from three runs down in the 4^th inning to take a 5 – 3 lead, the Mets bullpen gives up 4 runs as the Nationals win 7 – 6 on a Saturday game following an inspiring win by Matt Harvey.  The Met bullpen has given up 28 earned runs so far this season. As of this writing the Mets have the worst bullpen ERA in baseball.

No escape … Learned Helplessness.

The “D” adjectives keep coming … disheartening, demoralizing, deflating … Met fans have been stuck in a perpetual electro-shock holding pattern for the greater part of a decade owing primarily to this organization’s persistent inability to construct even a league average bullpen. We know this, we’ve been over this ad nauseam … the above list is just a sampling, there were other grueling losses, too many to list.

In May of 1978, Diener and Dweck published a fascinating analysis of Learned Helplessness in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in which they concluded that helpless children showed marked decrements in performance when put in situations where they failed, whereas children who were oriented to mastery focused more on self-monitoring and self-instruction. The study looked specifically at the attribution of failure in these learners. It was posited that for helpless children (their “helplessness” was based on how they perceived the tasks), failure was internalized and attributed to a lack of ability (even when that wasn’t necessarily the case), while mastery oriented children tended to engage in more positive behaviors following a failed attempt.

Learners who are conditioned to fail, show performance decrements with each failure. They give up, they stop trying, even when subsequently presented with tasks that are well within their ability, they stumble. Like the dogs in the electrified pens, they neglect to look for a solution, they acquiesce to their condition.

Baseball players are only human and they reflect the same patterns of response to failure that any of us might, but bullpen meltdowns are unlike other kinds of failures in some very important ways. They tend to be games that were “in the bag” at some point – which is to say many other aspects of the team’s play (namely starting pitching and offense) were successful for the greater part of the contest. The team played well, the team should have won, but the game unraveled somehow at the very end. These losses are gut punches to morale, exasperating in that they reinforce a sense of helplessness … no matter how well you play, no matter how many runs you drive in or how well your starting pitcher performs, you become conditioned to believing that the bullpen will find a way to give it up.

Players can only suffer through so many games of this sort before they stop investing their heart and soul into a game’s outcome – if only to preserve their sanity. You might call it developing a thick skin, letting failure bounce off of you, turning the page — there are lots of clichés to describe moving past failure — but, in the end, acclimating to failure increases the likelihood that it will recur. As shown in the study above, failure itself can be toxic — individuals conditioned to fail show decrements in performance relative to individuals oriented towards success even when their ability levels are commensurate.

This should not be confused with the notion that a good reliever has to have the temerity to ignore the occasional bad performance … that trait is advanced by the innate confidence that the reliever will return to his successful norm. The above has more to do with players who experience repeated failure, and thus begin to expect it.

Take two kids of equal ability who are learning to play shortstop. With player one you hit 20 hard smashes always just out of his reach. Then you bounce 20 routine grounders to player two. Follow that up by giving both players an identical set of grounders at a variety of difficulty levels and you will find that the player conditioned to failure is likely to make more errors than the player who handled the easy grounders. This is why coaches like to end sessions with a few successful reps.

Over the past few seasons the Mets have been conditioned to the late inning (and the late season) collapse. Beyond the hard work and talent unquestionably necessary to reverse this malaise of the spirit, this team needs individuals who refuse to turn the page, individuals who do not accept the loss. Sometimes all it takes is one guy. In 1967 it was Tom Seaver, perhaps Matt Harvey can act as this sort of catalyst in 2013. We need more Matt Harveys, we need players who refuse to acquiesce to failure.

But you absolutely have to have a bullpen that will hold it’s own and prevent these recurring gut-wrenching morale-killing failure-conditioning losses, because one thing is certain, you can only take so many late inning meltdowns before the dog decides to just stay in the box.

The Mets have announced that they have recalled LHP Robert Carson from Triple-A Las Vegas.

Carson, 24, is 1-0 with a 1.17 ERA in eight appearances with Triple-A Las Vegas and has allowed two hits, two walks, while striking out seven in 7.2 innings pitched.

To make room on the active roster for Carson, the Mets have designated LHP Aaron Laffey for assignment.

In four appearances and two starts for the Mets, Laffey had a 7.20 ERA, allowing eight earned runs on 16 hits with four walks and nine strikeouts in ten innings.

The 40-man roster now stands at 39.

Original Post 4/21 at 1:00 AM

According to Adam Rubin of ESPN New York, left-hand reliever Robert Carson, who was beaten out by fellow lefty Scott Rice for a bullpen spot at the end of spring training, is due to join the Mets, a baseball source told him.

Carson, 24, is 1-0 with a 1.17 ERA in eight appearances with Triple-A Las Vegas and has allowed two hits, two walks, while striking out seven in 7.2 innings pitched.

Rubin did not mention who could be cut from the active roster, but earlier today Joe D. speculated that Carson was primed for a promotion and identified Josh Edgin as a primary candidate for demotion as well as Greg Burke. Both have struggled out of the bullpen this season.

One of the most revealing things about the Mets’ 7-6 loss to the Nationals today, is that they are 7-1 this season when Jon Niese and Matt Harvey start, and 1-7 when they turn to Dillon Gee, Jeremy Hefner and Aaron Laffey. That says a lot, doesn’t it?

Today’s sacrificial lamb was 26-year old Jeremy Hefner who made a quick exit lasting only four innings and allowing four earned runs on four hits, three walks and a pair of homeruns to Ian Desmond and Bryce Harper. It might be time to consider bringing up Collin McHugh who seems to be having no problems pitching in the hitter-friendly PCL and owns a league leading 0.59 ERA. As for Heff, his 7.07 ERA tells the story.

Fifth starter Aaron Laffey came out of the bullpen for this one, but offered little relief and quickly served up a three-run homer to first baseman Adam LaRoche and couldn’t even finish his one inning of work. Laffey has a 7.20 ERA this season and there’s really no reason to keep him around even as a longman.

The backbreaking blow came when Bryce Harper nailed southpaw Josh Edgin with his second homer of the game in the eighth inning. The blast was proved to be the game winner. I like Edgin, but he’s been throwing batting practice this season and his velocity has tanked. This is not the same reliever we saw last season, and it may be time to cut bait with Edgin and his 9.00 ERA.

Offensively, the Mets were able to muster up six runs including five off of Nats starter Gio Gonzalez. The five runs all came in a big fourth inning, with Collin Cowgill and Daniel Murphy each driving in a pair. David Wright nearly got a hold of one, but had to settle for a triple. Ike Davis, who had two home runs yesterday off right-handed pitching, did what he usually does when a southpaw is on the mound and struck out three times. Sooner or later they’ll figure out they need to platoon him. Davis stranded three runners in scoring position in the process.

The Mets didn’t homer for the first time in eight home games at Citi Field this season.

The Mets obviously have two hug immediate concerns; a backend of the rotation which has totally sucked, and a bullpen that already needs some revamping.

Joe D.’s Crystal Ball:  Expect Shaun Marcum to be activated from the DL and Collin McHugh to get promoted from Las Vegas. Say goodbye to Aaron Laffey and Jeremy Hefner. In the bullpen, I expect that both Greg Burke and Josh Edgin are as good as gone. We could see Robert Carson get promoted and one of either Frank Francisco or Pedro Feliciano get activated after the weekend. I’m betting it’s Frank-Frank.

This game was underwhelming and a big letdown after Friday night’s prime time spectacle. If they don’t fix the backend of the rotation, the Mets will be 15 games out by the end of May. And so far, Zack Wheeler is not looking like a solution, let alone an option.

Sandy Alderson and Jay Horwitz chat before start of today’s game. (Photo: Matt Balasis, MMO)

Updated by Joe D. on April 15 at 12:00 PM

The reaction to Matt’s interview with Mets GM Sandy Alderson has been stunning. Over 25,000 different visitors have read the post and as I was telling Shannon of Mets Media Relations, it’s been talked about on WFAN and posted or linked to on over two dozen mainstream sites including MLB Trade Rumors, ESPN, Fox Sports, Yahoo, USA Today, MetsBlog and the Daily News to name a few.

In all fairness, regarding the Giancarlo Stanton rumor which originated with Andy Martino of the Daily News, and was covered on MMO in a post that eclipsed 300 comments, Martino offered a reply to Alderson’s denial that there were any recent conversations and wanted to add his comments here:

Just updating our item from last Thursday on the Mets’ interest in Miami outfielder Giancarlo Stanton. Two pieces of news trickled out over the weekend that both confirmed the Mets’ end of the story and moved forward the Marlins’ end beyond what we wrote.

In the original column, I reported that Sandy Alderson and Marlins GM Larry Beinfest spoke at a minor league game in Jupiter, Fla. This was probably early March. One good Mets source told me that two discussed Stanton, and that “there was heat there.” He was not talking about the temperature in Florida, but his team’s strong interest in the young slugger.

But another Mets person, also reliable, said he wasn’t sure if Stanton came up in the conversation that day. Alderson did not return a phone call seeking clarification, so I wrote what I knew to be accurate: One source said they talked Stanton, one said they talked about something or other. Regardless, we know the Mets are eyeing Stanton in their search for a marquee outfielder.

This weekend in Minnesota, Matt Balasis of Mets Merized Online spoke to Alderson. The GM, in a backhanded way, acknowledged that the teams had talked during spring training (he also said there was nothing happening now. To be clear, I never reported, suggested or implied that the teams were talking now).

To be clear, Alderson said they haven’t talked since “early spring training”. So we are talking about well over a month ago. Also, as Matt tells it, the exchange as it took place told more than just the words alone:

I wish I had video footage of the interview. When I mentioned Stanton for Wheeler and D’Arnaud he scoffed and just said “No,” then there was an awkward pause.

I followed up and said, “So there’s nothing to the rumors?”

And that’s when he said they hadn’t spoken since early spring. He was very, very clear that there was nothing to the recent rumors.

Anyway, both Andy and Matt added more context to the story regarding the Stanton rumor. Though while it was incredibly fun to consider, it was never nothing more than a longshot at best and one that ran out of steam over a month ago.

Original Post by Matt Balasis on April 13 at 8:00 PM

I had a chance to chat with Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson today during batting practice before the game at Target Field. I thought he gave me some very interesting answers on a number of different Mets topics. My thoughts follow the interview. Enjoy…

MMO: On the Stanton rumors, they’ve been all over the news, are there any truth to them?

Sandy: No, no we haven’t had any conversations with them since early spring.

MMO: Will adding players and payroll at the break be based on how well the team is doing or whether revenue is up?

Sandy: You mean adding players? If we feel the team is doing well we will add players.

MMO: Adding payroll, will you base that decision more on revenue or performance or both?

Sandy: Performance, but if we are winning, revenue will be up.

MMO: How do you feel about organizational depth as a whole? This is an organization that’s had poor organizational depth for a long time.

Sandy: It’s getting better. We are starting to see some effects of improved depth and we should be seeing more in the near future.

Sandy Alderson watching his team take batting practice before today’s game. (Photo: Matt Balsis, MMO)

MMO: If Buck keeps hitting the way he has been, how will you handle it when D’Arnaud comes up? Will you keep playing Buck or will he take on more of a mentor’s role?

Sandy: We’ll find a way to play both of them.

MMO: Any chance you will trade Buck?

Sandy: No. We are not trading Buck.

MMO: How do you feel about the bullpen, this team has struggled with bullpen depth for the greater part of the past decade?

Sandy: The Bullpen seems to be doing well, we still have Fransicso rehabbing and Familia down there so we feel we have some good depth there.

MMO: How do you feel about the team’s performance as a whole?

Sandy: Well it’s only been 10 games.

Thoughts from Matt

I got the sense that there is nothing to the Stanton rumors at all. A lot of the press around me seem to agree as well. Totally unfounded …

Overall I get the impression from watching Sandy interact around his players that while he does appear to be a consummate professional and an exemplary administrator, this is not the uncaring hatchet man he’s been accused of being.

The players joked around a lot (especially Justin Turner) with Horwitz and Collins, but with the exception of a short exchange between Wright and Sandy, there was little fraternization between Alderson and the players.

Nevertheless, he was intent and focused on the players and I would venture to say passionate even, which came out more during the interview when it was obvious the guy cares about this team.

As fans it’s probably difficult for us to distinguish between the job’s specifics and the person. A good General Manager can’t get too attached to his players, a good GM will deal a player when it improves the team.

As much as many of us have lamented the loss of some of our favorite players, this young season has been a case in point for why big long contracts and players whose game is dependent on their legs are risky propositions.

We want to thank Sandy for being gracious enough to answer a few questions for us. It was a pleasure to hear him respond to so many of the questions on many Mets fans minds. We appreciated the time he took to answer them.

I’ll be back at Target Field again on Sunday, and hope to have more video, pictures and maybe a surprise interview or two.

The Starting Pitching

Two words: Matt Harvey. Harvey has been stellar … actually more than stellar, he has been intergalactic. What has impressed me about Harvey is his poise and his fledgling ability to control the came by sheer force of will. No one wants to face Harvey right now, he is overpowering … that’s a scary weapon to have on any team. Need a win? He’s your guy. You can’t put a value metric on that. You aren’t getting swept if Harvey is pitching. If he’s pitching the final game and you’ve won the first two you’re probably looking at a sweep.  Never underestimate the power of a true ace. Matt Harvey really does remind me of Tom Seaver, and there really are some uncanny similarities.

Then there is John Niese, who has been outstanding. I continue to maintain that Niese’s curveball is one of the most underrated pitches in the major leagues. When he’s dropping that thing in for strikes he’s as tough as anyone in baseball. Previous years Niese would unravel after a bloop and a walk. Not so since about half way through 2012, Niese is showing some tenacity under duress, which makes him pretty tough to beat. Right now Harvey and Niese comprise a legitimate one-two punch and there’s a school of thought that subscribes to the belief that two ace level pitchers at the top of a rotation is all you really need to contend. Unfortunately I’m not sure that’s true.

The rotation gets pretty dicey after our top two. Dillon Gee and Jeremy Heffner have been wildly inconsistent with command issues. You get the sense that maybe Gee wasn’t quite ready coming out of spring training, and Heffner just seems to leave too many fat pitches over the middle of the plate. We need Shaun Marcum to hurry up and get better because one more reliable starter and I think the balances are tipped in Mets favor in terms of matching up with other rotations. Lets just say Aaron Laffey seems ill-equipped as his replacement.

The Offense

Two words: Homer happy! The Mets have been hitting home runs like it’s 1998 … Duda hit one the other night at CBP in Philly that I swear was still going up when it hit the upper deck. The man may be lost in the field, but his power is freakish. I feel like he hasn’t even really gotten a hold of one yet, what happens when he does? He could knock a satellite out of orbit, he could hit one to North Korea. How about John Buck? Yeah yeah yeah, I keep hearing how he’s going to come back to earth, whatever. Here’s the thing, with the head start he’s got? Barring injury he’s going to have to come down pretty hard and pretty fast and extremely soon because if he keeps up this rate in another week or so it wont matter, he’ll be able to go back to his lifetime averages and still have the best season of his career (and probably make the all-star game). John Buck is playing with house money at this point.

David Wright I’m not worried about, and Jordany Valdespin needs more playing time. Ike Davis is going to break out sooner or later if he can get his head straightened out. Here’s the thing about Ike. When Ike first came up I was amazed that he was able to make as much contact as he did given his long loopy swing. He was able to because he has great timing, problem is when his timing is off he really struggles, again because of that long loopy swing. The thing that frustrates me about Ike is that he’s playing into the opposition’s prescribed approach. They put the stupid shift on (it’s stupid the shift – no other way to describe it) and they toss him a steady diet of breaking pitches.

Now, correct me, but when Ike came up didn’t he hit to all fields? I remember him talking about how his dad used to make him hit to the opposite field when he was a kid. What happened? I’ll tell you what happened, the stupid shift happened, it got into his head. Ike has fallen into the trap of not adjusting his game to the shift, like it’s taboo or something to change your approach because your approach is what got you to the bigs. Well the problem is, hitting to all fields IS what got Ike to the bigs … since when did he become a strictly pull hitter? I remember Keith Hernandez was incredulous at first that they were even trying the shift on Ike because Ike was always a guy who spread the ball around. Ike needs to get together with Hudgens and practice punching the ball down the third base line, get a few easy doubles, get that average up, get himself going, then he can hit as many homeruns as his heart desires. The rest of the lineup has been playing more or less as expected. We need an outfielder, badly, but in the meantime, Baxter and Valdespin should be splitting lead-off duties.

The Defense

Outside of a few misjudged fly balls by Duda and an inexplicable run of poor play by Tejada I think the defense is actually improved. Murphy has been solid. Ike hasn’t been great at first but I think he’ll settle in. Baxter is a great outfielder and Byrd can hold his own. Center field hasn’t been the disaster we were afraid of, and again, Duda plays the outfield like he’s wearing boots of lead. Wright has been a gold glove third baseman and John Buck has given us a strong veteran presence behind the plate. This team isn’t going to win or lose because of it’s defense, and that is actually a marked improvement.

The Bullpen

Jeckyl and Hyde. The bullpen has had it’s good nights and it’s nightmares. Greg Burke, after one bad outing has been pretty good, that freaky windup of his makes my eyeballs hurt so I can’t imagine it’s easy on hitters. Scott Atchison has been the token “scary old guy” in the pen and he’s been quality through and through, Hawkins has been inconsistent — pretty much the same guy I remember in Minnesota, and Bobby Parnell is throwing a 92 mph change up (need I say more?) I will say more … when he figured out how to dial it back to 91 or 92 to improve his command little did we know he’d still bring the 99 mph heat after he’d get ahead ..  so it amounts to a 92 mph changeup — which is SICK! Anyway, Parnell is fun to watch … and the rest of the bullpen is giving me hope. Josh Edgin has been shaky but reliable and I think he’ll settle in. Overall, with Francisco and Feliciano and Carson and (potentially) Mejia in reserve this bullpen may actually have some depth to bridge the inevitable injuries during the dog days of summer. Fingers crossed on this one.

Overall

I’m hopeful. Right now, as constituted, if they can stay relatively healthy I think this is a .500 team. Maybe a few games better. Things need to break right, the back end of the rotation will need a boost – either by means of Marcum or Wheeler coming to the rescue or Gee and Heffner figuring out their command issues. Ike has to get it going and Wright needs to hit a few out of the park (has he hit any since his injury?). There are concerns, this team’s success is tentative at best. The back end of the rotation let us down in Philly but hopefully Philly won’t always be lucky enough to face Gee and Heffner in the same series in their band box of a home park.

This next series against Minnesota is important. They need to establish resilience, and what better place than a sub freezing tundra on the edge of the great plains against a young and scrappy American League Central team with Ron Gardenhire as their manager. I’ll be there for every game with my lucky hat and my heat-treat pocket warmers.

TARGET FIELD: I think we’re gonna need a bigger shovel.

Essentially, the team will be using the off-day on Thursday to skip the fifth spot in the rotation this week.

“Laffey is going to be the guy until we figure out when Shaun’s going to be back, or if he’s going to be back, or where we stand,” Collins told Rubin. “There’s no number in mind of how many starts. It could be three. It could be seven. I don’t know.”

Until his next start, Laffey will be available out of the bullpen.

Laffey allowed three runs and ten hits and a walk in 4 1/3 innings on Sunday and looked very hittable against a very weakened Marlins offense. In seven MLB seasons, the southpaw has a 4.40 ERA and 1.51 WHIP in 149 appearances.

The Mets don’t owe Laffey anything beyond one last start to prove he belongs. He’ll have a tough go of it in Coors Field.

While history has taught us that the job security of a typical manager is often tenuous, I am genuinely puzzled with respect to this particular case. If the team’s consecutive 4th place finishes under Collins’ guidance are the primary focus of one’s judgment, it would be reasonable to point out that even Joe McCarthy would have had difficulty making trying to make Chicken Marsala out of the chicken feathers that comprised much of the Met roster over that period. When Alderson was brought aboard to reconstruct what had become a dysfunctional franchise, his choice of manager clearly signaled his recognition that a developmentally minded person would best serve his purpose. TC was a natural choice given his position as minor-league field coordinator for the organization as well as his wealth of experience.

Ah, but here lies the point of contention for some: as the organization seems poised to focus more intently on the immediate fortunes of the big league club, some would suggest that Collins’ skills might best be re-deployed. Let him focus on the farm again, and bring in an individual with a greater apparent “win now” approach to give the team the extra nudge it could have used during last year’s mediocre second half. Just how effective any particular managerial ploy would have proven for a team with the myriad weaknesses of last year’s squad is questionable, at best. For all the noise made this off-season regarding the team’s uncertain outfield, one has only to review the numbers of the 2012 corps to realize that outside of Scott Hairston, there was precious little evidence of quality. The same could be said of much of the bullpen and the catching corps, the latter evoking the old comparison to a box of Kleenex – they pop up one at a time, get it?

Yes, there was the shining glory that was R.A. Dickey’s season, David Wright’s tremendous first half and Ike Davis’ big second half, Bobby Parnell’s emergence as a consistent reliever, the remarkable debut of Matt Harvey and the pinch hitting heroics of Mike Baxter and Jordany Valdespin. Alas, these were but isolated positive parts in a generally mediocre whole.  But if one follows the logic of the Alderson plan, such seasons are necessary parts of an organizational transition. Place holders must be used while long term solutions are developed, and the results aren’t always pretty.  Couple this with the observation that the Mets as team played over their heads during the surprising first half and you need to give credit to the manager. No one has ever accused Collins of lacking intensity, but translating it into an effective battle plan on the field requires a broader range of skills. The fact that the team’s level of success fell off significantly after the All Star break should really be viewed as regression to the mean.  With four spots in the lineup taken up by Jason Bay, Andres Torres, one of last year’s catchers and a pitcher, this was never going to be an offense that would score consistently, and with a porous bullpen seemingly springing new leaks by the day, any lead was in constant jeopardy.

The criteria used in judging a manager’s performance goes beyond the team’s won/lost record, of course, but at some point, the focus ultimately comes down to that stat. What has tempered expectations in the past few seasons is the realistic view that a rebuild was necessitated by a confluence of events well beyond the scope of who was writing out the lineup card. Now that the Met organization appears to be emerging from its 4 year malaise, it would stand to reason that fans would begin to get itchy for any move that might hasten the progress toward full-fledged competitiveness.

However, rest assured, when the first stretch of losing play comes in 2013, there will be those who will label the team as “uninspired” or “underperforming” and begin clamoring for the installation of Wally Backman at the helm. While I have no doubt as to the scrappy pedigree of the current Las Vegas manager and sincerely hope he gets his shot at another big league position, I think that Collins is deserving of a chance to help bring the present Mets team he has helped nurture to the next level.

An extension is in order, in my opinion, and the sooner, the better. The fact that the Mets’ brass has chosen to allow TC to enter the season with lame duck status is somewhat understandable due to Sandy Alderson’s admitted concerns regarding last year’s second half fall-off, but as previously mentioned, any review of team statistics during that period could just as well point to culpability on the GM’s part.

I am looking forward to the season, as I do every Met season, but with real expectation of there being a “surprise” team in Flushing that steps up their game in the second half rather than fading.  Realistically, can we assert at this point that the Mets are poised to topple the Nats from their newly won perch atop the division? Probably not, but would an actual flirtation with the Wild Card be completely far-fetched? I don’t think so, at least for a good part of the season.

Given the horses, so to speak, I believe that Terry Collins can guide the ever-developing Mets to success. He has spoken of his own learning curve and development as a leader, and I believe that it is evident in the way he has conducted himself during the past two seasons. So, give him the horses, Sandy, and give him the opportunity to race them. He has earned it.