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 …

After all, who doesn’t want a hot-hitting catcher who calls a crisp game behind the plate? Most every team would and that includes the Mets, who, along with Buck exceeded early expectations.

It’s not as if Buck has gone from trade bait to indispensable, but he isn’t going anywhere any time soon. And, that has more to do than with d’Arnaud’s broken foot that will keep him out for two months. Buck is simply the Mets’ best offensive weapon and has been solid behind the plate, drawing raves fromMatt Harvey and Jon Niese.However, manager Terry Collins said it best: “John Buck seems to be in the middle of everything that’s good right now.’’

Buck homered in the Mets’ 2-0 victory over Washington Sunday, a comprehensive display of the fastest start of his career. There was the homer, giving him seven and a league-high 22 RBI, but also his defense and the game he called for Dillon Gee.

The Mets’ pride is their young pitchers, and Buck could be the same steading influence Jerry Grote once was to Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman and Jon Matlack.

Harvey has been the darling at 4-0 and a sub-1.00 ERA, swears by Buck. There’s no way the Mets break up that duo.

Harvey said he’s shaken off Buck maybe five or six times this year ins describing the same instinctual chemistry a quarterback would have with his best receiver.

“He already knows what’s coming,’’ Harvey said. “It’s really fun every time I take the mound and see him back there. It’s just positive energy. It’s more fuel.’’

It’s not luck or coincidence that has Buck putting down the correct fingers. It’s the culmination of hard work spent in the first nine years of his career. He keeps copious notes on his pitchers and opposing hitters, and they complement the game plan drawn up by pitching coach Dan Warthen.

On the day of the game Buck meets early with Warthen and the pitcher to go over the scouting reports and film. Later, he’ll meet with the pitcher privately. However, he talks to all the pitchers throughout the week, not just on the days they start. The communication is constantly flowing.

Harvey said Buck’s preparation is inspirational to the point where he’ll incorporate what he’s learned throughout his career.

“He knows what the hitters are going to do,’’ said Harvey. “The studying that he does and the video that he watches and the plan that he comes up with for each individual pitcher, it’s something that I’m learning still. And it’s awesome.’’

Buck and d’Arnaud’s lockers were side-by-side in spring training, and it wasn’t by accident, either.

“I like to pick his brain,’’ d’Arnaud said this spring. “He’s very easy to talk with and I’ve learned a lot from being around him.’’

Buck said in spring training he understood he was brought here to help d’Arnaud and that attitude hasn’t changed despite the latter’s injury. It’s not as if when he heard the news he moved out of his apartment and bought a house.

“My stance is still the same,’’ Buck said. “I truly feel if I do good, then he does good. I’ve been around too much to take positive thoughts out of something bad happening to someone else. … Until someone tells me otherwise, I’ll just keep going about my business.’’

Nobody will be telling Buck otherwise any time soon.

As for trading him, in an exclusive interview with Metsmerized Online, Sandy Alderson said very emphatically, “No. No, we won’t. We will not trade John Buck.”

Please follow me on Twitter @jdelcos

Johan Santana

Pitching coach Dan Warthen told Delcos that Santana is making progress after throwing a long-toss session on Monday and that notable gains have been made on velocity and arm strength.

Terry Collins said that both he and Johan Santana are on the same page now, though the left-hander was silent yesterday after learning of the death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

Regarding the slow start by some of the players expected to head North with the team, Collins has expressed concern about the offense. “We’re not swinging the bats very good,’’ he said. “But, we still have around 40 at-bats (per starter) to go.’’ He’s hoping to see some improvement across the board with three weeks to go, but particularly with hitters making more contact. Collin Cowgill and Jordany Valdespin are the hottest hitters in camp and yesterday against Venezuela, Spin was in center field after playing mostly second base with the absence of Daniel Murphy in Grapefruit League play.

Murphy, sidelined with a strained right side muscle, played catch, took grounders and hit in the cage on Wednesday. He followed that up by saying he didn’t have a timetable for when he’d take live batting practice and appear in a game.

Things just keep getting worse and not better on the Johan Santana front.

Andy Martino spoke to more than one team source and the consensus seems to be that Johan Santana will not be ready by Opening Day which totally wipes out Santana’s assertion that “he knows what he’s doing” and everything is okay. “I know the deal, spring training is for training okay!”.

The Mets’ private expectations for Johan Santana’s April 1 availability are even grimmer than their public line of “we’ll see.”  Really, there is almost no chance that Santana avoids the disabled list at the beginning of the season, leaving the Mets in need of at least one additional starting pitcher — especially with Shaun Marcum still waiting to make his second Grapefruit League start.

Despite that, team insiders say it is almost certain that Jeremy Hefner, and not one of the options available outside the organization, will begin the year in the rotation. Other internal choices include Collin McHugh and Jenrry Mejia, but Hefner seems to have the edge.

Will Johan Santana be ready to take the ball on Opening Day?

It certainly doesn’t look that way from my perspective, and Joe D. may be right after all about Hefner who he has said on a few occasions to me, “I bet Heff’s the team’s number five.”

It’s looking like that right now.

More from PSL around 1 PM….

Originally Posted on  3/4 at 11:00 PM

What we have here is a failure to communicate. Or worse, a desire not to communicate.

Apparently, unbeknownst to manager Terry Collins, his veteran left-hander Johan Santana threw off the mound Sunday when the Mets earlier indicated it could be at least ten days before he would do so.ESPN reported this dialogue:

Collins: “What did you get on the mound for?”

Santana: “Because I felt good.”

Collins: “The last thing I need is to have you wake up tomorrow stiff and then we take a huge step backward because you wanted to show everybody you’re OK. I understand what you’re doing, but once in a while you’ve just got to let stuff slide away. You’ve just got to let it roll off your back and move on and get yourself ready.”

From that exchange, Collins was in the dark when Santana took the mound. And, Santana apparently didn’t care enough to follow the rest plan or to tell his manager.

This was amazingly ridiculous on the part of both.

First, as manager, how in the hell did Collins not know? It is a manager’s job to know everything that is going on with his team on all fronts. Everything. Do you think Joe Torre wouldn’t know? Do you think Tony La Russa wouldn’t know?

Secondly, Santana was incredibly selfish and stupid for risking his health just to prove criticism wrong. Pride is one thing, but pride for the sake of proving a meaningless point is simply reckless. If it would do any good, he should be fined. But, there’s nothing the Mets could do on that front that would affect Santana.

Thirdly, where was pitching coach Dan Warthen during all of this? A pitching coach should know at all times the work schedules for his pitchers. Rick Peterson and former pitching coach Guy Conti had it down to how many pitches they threw in the bullpen.

What about bullpen coach Ricky Bones? Ooops, I almost forgot, he was packing for the World Baseball Classic.

The Mets have not yet ruled out Opening Day, which is absurd because Santana would be rushed through no more than four starts when he would normally get six. This is begging for trouble. I can almost hear it now.

Collins is a lame duck manager who didn’t win any points by being unaware of something so important to the Mets. As for Santana, I don’t want to hear anymore about what a pro he is or about being a competitor. A real pro wouldn’t risk his health.

Of course, the perception eventually comes down to is Santana will make $31 million this year, including a buyout, so why should he care?

There’s a reason why the Mets are called amazing, and often it is because of stuff like this.

It’s O.K. guys, the fans went into hibernation about a month ago.

David Wright was absent from Wednesday’s lineup so that he could get two days off this week (off-day on Thursday). Terry Collins recently said that Ruben Tejada appeared drained. Dan Warthen recently stated that he has noticed Dickey’s arm angle changing, which may be a product of fatigue, and he will work on it between starts.

Apparently, losing is exhausting. Luckily for the Mets, they’re only playing for third place. Had they been trying to make a wild card run, all these exhausted players could have been a major bump in the road. Instead, it should give the Mets the opportunity to get some of their recently called up players some action. But there’s just something wrong about hearing that professional athletes are having trouble making it through the season. After all, it’s their job.

It is the player’s job to prepare themselves for the season during spring training and the off-season, so that their bodies don’t prematurely break down before the season ends. It is what is expected from a professional athlete. It is the coaching staff’s job to gauge their players and give days off when needed. They have to manage the days off so that they don’t hurt the team’s current performance, but ensure that they will have a fresh set of legs in September, October, and maybe November. Ultimately, when players start wearing down before the season ends, it falls on the coaching staff. Had this been a playoff scenario for the Mets, the worn out players would have had much more of an impact than it’s having now.

Let me tell you a joke about being tired – Before I came to New York, I heard it was the city that never sleeps. I gotta be honest with you — I mean no disrespect — I’m not so sure about that. I was cruising down 2nd Avenue at about 3:30 in the morning on Tuesday — there were people sleeping all over the place.
(Joke courtesy of Gene Pompa)

This notion of the Mets players starting to run out of gas will go ignored by most, because the Mets aren’t in contention for anything right now, aside from a possible Cy Young award for RA Dickey. However, it is just another example of mismanagement by the Mets coaching staff. Fatigue leads to poor mechanics, and poor mechanics leads to poor performance, or even worse, injuries.

Maybe the coaching staff feels like they can’t afford to give some of the Mets players days off, because if they do, they will slip further in the standings. But they are at the point of the season where a devastating injury could hold ramifications for the 2013 season. The Mets have to take that into consideration, and start preparing for the 2013 season now, even if it means shutting down some of their top players and finish in last place this season. At this point, does it really matter if the Mets finish in third or last place in the NL East? Third place sounds better than last place, but not if it means losing a player until the middle of the 2013 season due to an injury which resulted from fatigue.

There is some relief in sight for the tired Mets players. The New York Jets offense will be taking the field this coming Sunday, and is sure to put anyone to sleep who dares to watch. J…E…T…zzzzzzzzzzz

The New York Mets have been without their ace Johan Santana the entire season and the rotation has held their own, to say the least. With speculation surrounding a Santana return possibly in mid-August, which still remains a long shot at this point, many have wondered just who may be the odd man out in the rotation?

Well all the speculation and rumors may have just been ended before they had a serious chance to begin. According to Dan Martin of the New York Post, while the 32-year-old Santana has begun his spring training in Port St. Luice, the Mets and GM Sandy Alderson aren’t expecting the former two-time Cy Young award winner to make any contributions, at least not in 2011.

With the Mets still 7 1/2 games back in the wild card race and the rotation remaining the strong point of this team, as the lineup still waits for the returns of Jose Reyes, David Wright, and Ike Davis, I think this a case of the Mets being cautious and protecting their investment for the long term.

I think the Mets have gotten more than they could have ever expected from starters Chris Capuano as well as Dillon Gee who was seen as an afterthought in spring training as a serious threat to crack the rotation.

Combine those two hurlers with R.A. Dickey, Jonathon Niese, and Mike Pelfrey who has pitched much better of late, the Mets rotation is shaping up quite nicely, so unless this team can make a serious run in the next few weeks, I believe Santana will be held out as long possible.

I’m sure the Mets would like to get a few starts from Johan at some point this season, whether it’s in the heat of a wild card race or not, manager Terry Collins and pitching coach Dan Warthen perhaps more than anyone would like to see what Johan Santana can be going forward in his career as a New York Met.

As of this writing there have been 18 games played. In those games Mets pitching has currently walked 79 batters, 4 of which were intentional walks in just 160 innings pitched. The staff ERA is 5.25 and their WHIP is 1.62 this season. Already the staff has given up 20 home-runs as well.

The Mets walk too many batters and those walks almost always come back to haunt the team. It’s interesting that this season as of this writing, R.A Dickey has walked 12 batters in just 4 games.  None of those walks are intentional walks. Last year Dickey in 27 games walked just 42 batters. Now it’s also interesting to note that Dickey spent a good part of last year at Triple A, not working with Dan Warthen. Could it be coincidence? Absolutely, but the entire staff is having trouble throwing strikes. Another case would be Dillon Gee. Gee this past weekend had a great outing, he threw strikes. Overall he looked more composed than some of our starters out there. Once again he hasn’t worked with Warthen much at all.

Equally if not more so troubling than the walks is the injuries our pitchers have had under Warthen over the years. The starting staff over the last few seasons have battled injuries with Warthen as the pitching coach. There were reports in 2009 that Santana was skipping side sessions dealing with his elbow injury and Warthen did not know about that. I find that unacceptable. Santana is the ACE of the staff and he’s paid a lot of money to pitch but the pitching coach, whose job it is to know the health of his pitchers was not aware of the situation.

The pitchers under Warthen have also regressed. Look at Pelfrey and his struggles. Also Maine and Perez were coming along fine until the firing of Rick Peterson and the promotion of Dan Warthen.

Warthen also has a problem of talking to the media and saying things he shouldn’t. Let’s not forget last year and the fiasco with him calling John Maine a “habitual liar.” In Spring Training Warthen told the media and the rest of baseball that he believes Mejia would be a reliever instead of a top of the rotation starter. Not only did he go against what the team plans but he could have killed any potential value Mejia may have one day if the Mets wanted to trade him.

I was surprised that Warthen kept his job, though I guess I shouldn’t be with this GM and manager. Hopefully soon the Mets will realize that Warthen is doing more harm than good for the staff and part ways with him.

1) The Ballpark: Citi Field is just too big! I know we’ve been saying that for the last 2 seasons but the Wilpons refuse to bring in the fences.  All you look at what happened to David Wright in his the first season at Citi Field.  His power numbers were down and the last 2 seasons his strikeouts have been on the rise.  Wright’s power at Shea was to the right center.  Citi Field’s right center is about 45-50 feet deeper than Shea’s and it has affected Wright negatively.  Some called it a fluke but then look at Jason Bay’s horrific first season.  The park took away his power. Citi Field without a doubt robbed Bay realistically of 5 homeruns and probably more.  The great fence of Flushing needs to go down too while we’re at it.  It’s time to admit the size of this park was a mistake and change it.

2) Coaching Staff: The entire coaching staff needs to go.  Howard Johnson has been a horrible hitting coach.  The situational hitting since Hojo took over has been non-existent.  It seems like Hojo would rather be their friends than a coach.  I get it he’s an 86 Met and the Wilpons are reluctant to fire him.  The Mets should just give Hojo a job with a nice title and a good payday and let him go away.  Dan Warthen also needs to go.  I know the pitching was better than expected this season but I don’t like all the injuries to our pitchers under his reign as pitching coach.  I didn’t like that in 2009 he didn’t know about Johan’s latest injury and he didn’t know that Santana was skipping side sessions.  I also didn’t like him calling Maine a habitual liar to the press. That’s just something you don’t say.  Razor Shines just needs to go.  Chip Hale seems to be a decent to good coach but at the same time Ron Darling mentioned many times throughout the season that Hale had been working with Wright and changing his defense.  Wright’s defense this year was pretty bad. He committed 20 errors and at times was slow in turning a double play.

3) The 3 Poisons (Carlos Beltran, Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo): Once the Mets finally do hire a general manager that GM (Alderson) must find a way to get these three off this team! Castillo is done, he can’t hit and he has absolutely no range at 2nd base.  Castillo brings nothing to the New York Mets, time to cut ties with him. Oliver Perez should not be on this team, he has done nothing for the Mets since signing that contract.  Perez cares more about himself than the team as he repeatedly refused to go to the minor leagues.  He didn’t win 1 game in 2010!  If you look at the way the Mets played before the all-star break and after the break there’s a huge difference.  Carlos Beltran decided to finally grace the team with his presence and was supposed to be the spark for this team but unfortunately did nothing other than make outs at the plate and miss balls hit to center on defense. Beltran refused to move over to right field to allow the better player Angle Pagan to play center and help the team.  Let’s not forget that these guys also refused to go visit wounded soldiers with the rest of their team.  These guys are not team players, they’re hurting this team and it’s time to get rid of them.

The new GM when he/she is finally hired has a lot of work to do and a lot changes to make.  Without these changes we can expect another losing season.

Maine is a guy who always wants to pitch no matter what.  Maine expects a lot of himself and wants to contribute.  We’ve seen in the past that he is more than willing to go out and pitch when he’s hurt.  Maine is the opposite of Oliver Perez in that he wants to help the team.  Maine’s also the opposite of Carlos Beltran as he wants to play through the pain.  Unfortunately the desire to play through any pain is not enough to play in this league and shouldn’t be.  In that case you and I would be making more than most players.

Maine endeared himself to many Mets fans including myself in the 2006 playoffs. 2007 was a great year for him, especially the last start of the season for him in which he took a no hitter deep into the game against the Marlins.  2008 Maine needed to be shut down and ultimately had surgery.  Maine didn’t come back from the surgery as everyone hoped as he had to be shut down again for a good part of 2009.  Of course this year has been dreadful; just look at his numbers: 6.13 ERA, 25 Walks and his fastball doesn’t reach 90.

It wouldn’t surprise me in the next week or so we hear that John Maine has been designated for assignment.  To me what has sealed Maine’s fate is Jerry Manuel. Maine like Ryan Church and Ramon Castro before him is in Jerry’s Doghouse. Last month Jerry said to the writers that perhaps Maine would be better if he decided to pitch left handed.  It was a cheap shot from the manager.  Jerry this past weekend took another cheap-shot at Maine by saying that he would only pitch Maine on off days.  Of course the writers and everyone else just laughed.  The Teflon manager slides by as usual.  I bet if another manger had said that there would be a different reaction but since as Jon Heyman said to me in a tweet regarding Jerry Manuel:

“SI_JonHeyman @gregpomes not good for a quote. GREAT for a quote.”

Maine has been awful, I don’t want him in the rotation and the Mets wouldn’t be wrong if they get rid of him.  I didn’t like kicking Maine while he’s already down. We’ve seen Warthen attack Maine on air and I just can’t help but feel a little sorry for him.  A Jerry had to say was that “we are not going to take Takahashi out of the rotation and right now we don’t have a spot for John Maine.”   There was no reason to make jokes at Maine’s expense.  Really shows what kind of a guy Jerry Manuel is.  Perhaps being released by the Mets will be a good thing for Maine. He’ll go to a team with a good pitching coach and a better manager that perhaps can fix him. Whatever happens, I wish John Maine well and I honestly hope he can turn his career around.

The Mets are in my opinion, just about beyond tinkering because the problems are systemic and involve the dreaded “intangibles”. Unfortunately a win here and there only clouds the minds of the fan who just wants to see their Metropolitans win. Even winning 2 out of 3 over the Yankee’s this past weekend, while emotionally gratifying, hasn’t changed the situation. It’s just given fans a welcome reprieve.

Having delusions of grandeur, thinking a trade for another team’s aging, expensive ace isn’t the answer if it’s going to cost key prospects. It’s merely fodder to deflect attention off deeper problems.

Believe me I’m not trying to rain on our parade here, the Mets had a good weekend, but this isn’t fantasy baseball or Playstation where ridiculous unbalanced trades are routine and reality plays little to no part. At this point why would any player, especially one with the veto power of a no-trade clause, really want to come to Flushing other than to dare I say, flush their careers away.

It’s harsh of me to say, I know. I get no joy out of feeling like this but we have to stay rooted in reality. As unfortunate as it may be.

You can fire Minaya, every coach and Manuel and the team will still be…the team. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t happen. Clearly Manuel and his coaching staff have made their share of mistakes.

It certainly wouldn’t hurt the Mets to have an infusion of new blood. How much worse can it get? There is no place worse than last place that is more demoralizing.

One of the same questions that dogged the team this past off season is still relevant and is coming home to roost. Why didn’t the organization go after AT LEAST one other starting pitcher in an aggressive way?

Yes we’ve all wrangled over how the finances aren’t Monopoly money and how these decisions aren’t made lightly. However we were also told that finances weren’t affected by the Madoff scandal. I dare anyone to keep defending that postulate with a straight face.

The bottom line, the players simply have to play to their standards. Why isn’t that happening? It’s difficult to answer that without speculating and delving into a seriously dark place that every fiber of my being wants to refuse to go.

Maybe it’s the skeptic in me. Perhaps I’m just jaded. It’s the 800 lb gorilla in the room that none of us ever want to talk about. I hate that it even enters my mind but it does, as I’m sure it has yours at some point. Perhaps some standards have been skewed. I really hope not. The game has taken enough hits.

So many excuses for so long can only be accepted so much. The result, the team giving away free tickets to former season ticket holders to this year’s Subway Series.

Seriously? It’s embarrassing on so many levels and before any of you argue in favor of a poor economy or lack of interest in inter-league play causing this, which I won’t argue doesn’t play a part, the majority of the empty seats were scattered everywhere throughout the stadium. Not just the very pricey seats.

Adding insult to injury, the first Subway Series game of 2010 at Citifield had Yankee fans outnumbering the Mets fans 2 to 1, conservatively speaking. It was a shameful backdrop for the 2000 Mets World Series team that was on hand and being honored before the game.

Where do we go from here? It’s never easy with New York sports since New York teams are always expected to win and compete for a championship. Even the Yankee’s could attest to that.

Remember, last year was the first time in almost a decade that the mighty Bronx Bombers tasted from the Championship Holy Grail. It’s time for some serious soul searching and like I said a while back, and I will say it again, Fred Wilpon, it’s time to save your team. Your team sir, not your son’s. YOUR team. Albert Einstein once said,

To do the same thing over and over again, and expect different results, is insanity.

George Steinbrenner in his day would sometimes get tired of firing managers and criticizing the team and the manager so on certain days he would attack the hitting coach.  Some would laugh or roll their eyes but if you look at the Mets lineup from top to bottom this team offensively is just not producing.  They have been horrible in the clutch since the middle of 2007 which is when HoJo took over as the hitting coach.  Look at Jason Bay as the latest victim of Howard Johnson.  Bay was not on this team in 2007, 2008 and 2009.  Bay is and always will be a streaky hitter but he has produced for his team over the years.  Bay joins the Mets and as of this writing he has not hit more than 1 home run.  Now sure Citi Field has robbed him of a few but what about on the road in smaller parks like Citizens Bank Park?  The frustrating thing about the Mets offense is that they are getting on base, in fact a couple of season’s ago they had as many hits as the Phillies but they cannot drive in runs.  This team in 2006 was very clutch, at least up to the NLCS.  In the beginning of 2007 they weren’t getting on base much but were scoring and driving in runs but for some reason the team freaked out, fired Rick Down and promoted HoJo as the hitting coach.

HoJo also for some reason last year decided to screw around with Wright’s swing.  Wright was a .300+ hitter who before last year hit 30 or more home runs and drove in well over 100 RBI’s.  2009 saw a very big decline for Wright.  Part of that decline was aided by the lack of good hitters hitting in front of and behind him.  Can anyone really defend making Wright change his swing?  I guess HoJo never heard of the old saying “if ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  I also cannot understand why HoJo doesn’t work more with Wright on going back to his old swing.  Do your job, get out the game footage and sit David down and watch the old footage.  I never really understood why the Mets went with HoJo as the hitting coach.  I’m not saying that HoJo was not a horrible hitter but he was not the greatest.  His career average is just .249.

Don’t forget that HoJo before coming up to the big leagues as a coach was a manager in the farm system.  He was for the most part a very unsuccessful manager.  It is worth noting that HoJo was David’s manager when Wright was in Triple A.  One of the reasons why I think HoJo has kept his job is that he’s latched onto David Wright.  It’s no secret that Wright and HoJo are friends off the field.

Dan Warthen as the pitching coach was not a move I liked.  I thought Peterson was a good pitching coach.  Granted he was out there sometimes.  I’m still trying to understand his interview that he did the day he was fired.  In all seriousness Peterson was able to work with these pitchers not just on mechanics and physical stuff but on an emotional level.  In 2007 Ollie won 15 games as did Maine.  Somehow he was able to get through to Oliver Perez, something that neither Warthen nor Ollie’s other coaches have been successful at.  Under Warthen these guys have regressed.  Also under Warthen the entire staff has lost their velocity and that is really what concerns me.  How can an entire pitching staff’s velocity go down in 1 season?  It has to be something that is unprecedented in baseball, just has to be.  The lack of velocity has hurt these pitchers, especially Oliver Perez.  Perez was always a sloppy pitcher, in fact the phrase “better to be lucky than good” sometimes could have been applied to Ollie in the past.  The one thing Ollie had going for him was his velocity.  The many mistakes he would make would not always hurt him as batters couldn’t catch up to his fastball and when he mixed in his changeup he was effective.  Ollie used to average 94-95, now he’s lucky to get to 90.  Maine comes to mind as well as a pitcher whose velocity has gone away and that came back to hurt him in the earlier games this season.

Warthen has also done his fair share of tinkering with his players.  John Maine’s delivery was changed and it hurt him his first few starts.  Since going back to his original delivery he has improved in every appearance up until this past Saturday.  I don’t know what Warthen was attempting with making Maine be a different pitcher as it obviously did not work.  Maine decided on his own that his new delivery was not working and that he would go back to his original one.  Why didn’t the pitching coach think about that?

After the 2009 season Dan Warthen was quick to blame the catchers for all the trouble the pitchers had last year.  I thought it was unprofessional then and I still do.  He was also wrong!  Yes Santos was a young catcher who was still learning his craft but now the Mets have 2 excellent catchers in Rod Barajas and Henry Blanco.  Both catchers call a great game and have been effective so far for the Mets.  Unfortunately the Mets pitching staff still leads the majors in walks!  For the last 2 seasons Mets pitching has allowed 24 walks to the opposing pitcher!  This falls squarely on the shoulders of the pitching coach.  This guy was a walk machine as a player and now he’s teaching our pitchers on how to walk the park.

Now firing these guys is not the complete answer to turning this franchise around but it’s a start.  I don’t relish seeing these guys go, it’s tough to lose your job, they have families to support but this is the business they have chosen.  Probably harder to fire Howard Johnson considering his history with the franchise but if the Mets want to win they’re going to have to make the tough choices and say goodbye to Warthen and HoJo.

When Omar Minaya signed onto to be the Mets General Manager the main condition was that he would have 100% autonomy on baseball decisions which has included hiring the coaches.  He hired Willie Randolph’s coaches while he was manager and he had final word on Jerry’s coaches this season.  However, since the ill-fated press conference in which he insulted the Daily News beat writer Adam Rubin it seems the Wilpons have lost faith in Omar Minaya and his ability to be a successful GM for this team.  Since that press conference Omar has hardly been seen in public, hardly talking to the press, when he does have press conferences if questions start getting off topic Mets public relations guy Jay Horowitz abruptly steps in and ends the press conference.  Last week the Mets released Ramon Pena and Luis Aguayo, two of Omar’s friends plus the firing of Tony B earlier this year shows that Omar does not have the autonomy he once had.

Jerry needs to step up in this meeting and tell the Wilpons that if he is going to have any success next season and beyond he needs to pick his own staff that he trusts who have no ties to the Wilpons or Omar only to Jerry.  I personally believe that the entire staff including Jerry should be let go but that would only occur in a perfect world and as we know as Met fans we don’t live in a perfect world.  Jerry will be back, we know that much.  Howard Johnson has done a horrible job as the Mets hitting coach this season and since he took over as hitting coach in 2007.  This isn’t me jumping on the bandwagon of firing Hojo, I wrote this piece earlier in the season that you can read here.  I wrote that piece when it was “only April.”  Howard Johnson advised David Wright earlier in the year to change his approach to the plate, I believe he is one of the reasons why David’s season at the plate has been so erratic and his power is done.  Obviously by the end of May when he had 43 strikeout’s there was something wrong with David at the plate.  He never once told Wright to go back to his old approach, he’s said it himself on interviews with SNY.  He feels for David this new approach is the best.  I never see HoJo after someone has a bad at bat talking to that guy in the dugout, going over the plate appearance, instead he sits in the dugout, chewing his gum or seeds or whatever nodding his head.

The pitchers have done a horrible job this season with Warthen as their coach.  The walks are up, ERA’s are up as well.  Pelfrey has regressed from the pitcher we saw towards the end of last year.  Ollie was worse than ever.  Clearly whatever Warthen is coaching is not working with this staff.

Razor Shines is a bad judge on sending guys home or keeping them on 3rd but he is reportedly Jerry’s friend, Jerry trusts him and I think he could make a good bench coach for Jerry next year.  Bench coach is overlooked but I think he could actually help Jerry, especially at times when Jerry doesn’t play aggressively enough.  Luis Alicea doesn’t seem to have any knocks on him, so we could keep him at first.

Jerry needs to realize the Wilpons are keeping Omar on because they refuse to pay him to stay home, he is the GM in name only right now in their eyes.  Under Omar so far none of the 2 managers have had any chance to fully pick their staff, the guys who answer to them.  This is Jerry’s chance to be the 1st manager under Omar to pick his staff.  He needs to step up and say that this is his team, he has to work with these guys all season long, he needs to be able to trust that they will not have ulterior motives and that they are there to help him lead the Mets to a championship.

I did a little more research on our Danny Boy.  He has racked up some major frequent flyer miles since beginning his professional baseball career, not just during his playing days, but during his coaching career as well.  His first job as a major league pitching coach was in 1992 for the Seattle Mariners after serving as their bullpen coach the previous year and as a minor league pitching coach for the M’s before that.  Seattle was just the first stop on the Dan Warthen Tour Across America.

He moved on to San Diego in 1996 where he served as the Padres’ pitching coach for two seasons.  From 1999-2002, he was hired to do the same job in Detroit.  After a few stops in the minors, including St. Lucie and Norfolk, Warthen made it back to the majors in 2008 for the Mets.

So why has Warthen become Peripatetic Pete over the past decade and a half?  I went old school for this research and searched through my old stash of baseball cards.  (Thank you to my mother for never throwing them out!)  After washing my hands from the super-adhesive qualities of the thirty-year-old gum that was still in the box, I located an old Dan Warthen card from his days with the now-defunct Montreal Expos.

I found some more recent cards that were not in such good condition, but those had more complete stats of Warthen’s playing career.  His numbers as a pitcher were shocking, to say the least.  Consider these nuggets from a few of his seasons:

• 1976:  With Montreal, he went 2-10 with a 5.30 ERA.  He walked 66 batters in 90 innings.
• 1977:  Splitting the season between Montreal and Philadelphia, he was 2-4 with a 7.85 ERA.  He walked an eye-opening 43 batters in 39 innings.
• 1978:  Now with Houston, he went 0-1 with a 4.09 ERA.  After 11 innings, the Astros had enough and sent him packing.

He never pitched again in the majors, finishing his career with a 12-21 won-loss record, along with 198 walks in 308 innings.  That averages out to 5.8 walks per nine innings.  Compare that to Oliver Perez’s career 5.0 BB/9 IP ratio.  That means Dan Warthen was more likely to walk you than Oliver Perez!

So tell me, how does a man who clearly had no idea how to negotiate his way around home plate as a player get so many jobs as a pitching coach in the major leagues?  A little more research yielded more damning information.

In 1992, when he was the pitching coach for the Mariners, Randy Johnson walked 144 batters in 210.1 innings.  With Warthen out of the picture in 1993, Johnson pitched 255.1 innings and only walked 99 batters.  He went 19-8 and finished second in the American League Cy Young Award balloting.

In 1997 with the Padres, San Diego finished 12th out of 14 teams in the National League in walks per nine innings.  The next year without Warthen, the Padres finished fourth in the now-expanded 16-team National League in the same category.  They also advanced to the World Series that year.

He fared slightly better with the Detroit Tigers from 1999-2002, but went largely unnoticed because the team averaged 94 losses per season during his four-year stint in Motown.  In his last two seasons there, the Tigers finished tenth and fifth in walks per nine innings, respectively.

Now he’s finishing up his first full season as the pitching coach for the Mets.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  After Wednesday’s game with the Rockies, Mets pitchers have walked 521 batters.  That’s one more base on balls than the team with the second-most walks, the Washington Nationals, despite the fact that the Nats have played two more games than the Mets.  No team in the American League has issued more than 483 walks.

So I ask you all, is Dan Warthen worth it?  Apparently, his pitchers seem to think that “walks are part of the game”.  (Right, Ollie?)  Warthen’s contract expires after the season ends.  If the Mets want to continue giving away free passes like the producers of “Gigli” tried to do, then be my guest and re-sign Dan Warthen.  But if they want to put together a strong pitching staff that goes after hitters and instill those values into their up-and-coming pitchers, then Warthen is probably not the man for the job.

The Mets have many decisions to make about their future when the 2009 season comes to its conclusion.  The employment status of Dan Warthen better be on that list.

Ed Eagle of Mets.com writes,

The Mets’ franchise legacy has been built upon strong pitching, and they’ll need to continue to focus on that aspect of their team-building to be successful in their new home in the future.

Citing a team source, the New York Daily News reported Thursday that the Mets plan to keep Citi Field at its current pitcher-friendly dimensions for the 2010 season upon the recommendations of general manager Omar Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel.

I’m actually a little surprised by the news and I thought for sure the Mets would shorten the height of portions of the wall. Either way, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, and personally I like the dimensions and the uniqueness of Citi Field.

One of the things that caught my attention was the following quote by Jerry Manuel which was included in the article.

“We’re going to try to build a team with speed and defense and pitching,” Manuel told the newspaper. “I think that fits that style.”

I have a few issues with that quote…

First, he says that we are going to try and build a team. So does that mean we are officially in rebuild mode?

If that’s the case, than what direction are the Mets going in heading into this off season?

Manuel says, and I agree with him, that the Mets will focus on speed, defense and pitching.

I think we can all agree that with a healthy Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Luis Castillo and David Wright, the Mets will continue to be one of fastest teams in the league. The emergence of Angel Pagan will play into it as well.

Defensively, the Mets have some work to do.They are fifth in the league with 82 errors and their star third baseman leads the team with 13. Before Jose Reyes went on the DL, he was on the verge of a woeful defensive season, and in 35 games played, he already had five errors to go with a career worst .966 fielding percentage. Obviously, Dan Murphy has improved some since taking over at first base, but he still ranks in the bottom when compared to all first basemen and he doesn’t make up for it with his bat. Leftfield has been a carousel of bad defenders which started with the inept Dan Murphy. Angel Pagan might be a glimmer of hope, but I want to see more of him before drawing any definitive conclusions.

Now we come to pitching. I would love to know exactly how the Mets will play this hand. Here you have a pitching staff that is fortunate enough to pitch in one of baseball’s largest parks, and yet they lead the league in walks. Somebody please explain that to me because it doesn’t compute if you were to apply the laws of logic. In a post by Ed Leyro on this site, there is a good debate on the virtues of Dan Warthen. If job performance is still judged by results, and last time I checked most teams west of the East River still operate that way, than the question is why is Dan Warthen still here? Not one pitcher has stepped up on his watch and in fact you could safely assert that every Mets pitcher has declined under his tutelage. As one reader writes, that includes K-Rod, Santana, Pelfrey, Perez and Putz.

Will the Mets go out and revamp the rotation as they did the bullpen last off season? In 2008, Minaya failed to address the concerns in the bullpen and said “they simply had a bad year”. He was wrong and was forced to revamp the entire bullpen after the season.

Will he do the same in 2010? Will he simply say that Pelfrey and company simply had a bad year and do nothing? Is next season riding on the questionable returns of Oliver Perez, John Maine, Johan Santana and Jon Niese who are all coming back from surgery?

The Mets have a ton of work to do if they want the ideal pitching staff to compliment the dimensions of Citi Field. However, I am convinced this off season will feature a bunch of hot air from Mets management that the Mets already have that ideal pitching staff, and that they will comeback healthier and better in 2010. If they do revamp the rotation, we might have to wait yet another year as we did in 2008 with the bullpen. The Mets are notorious for not learning from past mistakes.

Finally, why is it that the Mets higher-ups never mention the word “fundamentals”?

If you’re going to build a team that you hope will come out on the winning end of a 2-1 ballgame, shouldn’t fundamentals be the number one priority?

Think about how many fewer errors, and fewer baserunning mistakes, and fewer walks the Mets would have had this season if they simply used their heads out there on the field. I bet you could easily add 8-10 mores victories to the win column if only they had a coaching staff that focused on elevating this team’s baseball IQ.

Unless you have a fundamentally sound team, it doesn’t really matter how good your speed and pitching is. Your mental mistakes will always find you in this game. If the Mets are banking on going toe to toe in mostly one-run and two-run games,  they can start by overhauling their approach to the game, because in the end Yogi Berra was right,

“Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical.”

By the way, it was great to see Yogi take part in the festivities last month when we honored the 1969 Mets.

A lot? A little? None?

If the Mets are going to win this thing, it’s going to take a lot more than Johan Santana and good bullpen. The inability for our starters to pitch deep into games may have already begun the bullpen erosion that we saw last season, only back then it didn’t start until August.

Aside from Santana who has as much contact with Dan Warthen as we do with President Obama, the rest of the rotation which includes Oliver Perez, John Maine, Mike Pelfrey and Livan Hernandez, all find themselves with ERA’s over 5.40.

Perez has regressed so much so, that his $36 million dollar contract has put the Mets in a choke hold.

Pelfrey took a big step forward in his last start, but the real test comes tonight against a Phillies lineup that is stacked with some of the best lefthanded bats in the league.

Dan Warthen is fast approaching the one year mark as the Mets pitching coach, and in that time we have seen Maine, Perez and Pelfrey all regress. The walk rates are higher, the strikeout rates are lower, and counting on either of them is as uncertain as the current stock market.

Warthen also didn’t endear himself to the staff at the start of Spring Training when he blamed Johan Santana for rushing through his preparation and risking injury so that he could be ready for the WBC. Two weeks later he would call Oliver Perez a disaster saying he showed up out of shape and unwilling to conform to his teachings from the season before.

We have already heard some murmurings about HoJo’s job security, and some are calling for Jerry Manuel’s head especially after some controversial calls he’s made lately.

My question is why is Dan Warthen getting a free ride? Isn’t he as much to blame as anybody else for the Mets sluggish start?

I found it ironic how so many people recently called for Howard Johnson’s head when over half of the lineup was hitting well over .300 this season. Performance like that should buy HoJo a very large dose of job security in my opinion.

But in the case of Dan Warthen, the stats paint an entirely different picture.