These are desperate times for the New York Mets my friends. It’s times like this that will test the true mettle of a team. Yesterday, I discussed the lack of toughness among the Mets players, and today I have to question the patience and the scruples of upper management, namely Omar Minaya.

There are whispers in the organization that the time has come to bring up prospects like pitchers Brad Holt and Jenrry Mejia, as well as infielder Ruben Tejada.

I hope the Mets are not really considering such drastic actions, because bringing up these young players now would be costly in terms of harming their development. I would understand the move if the organization really believed these players were ready to make the jump, but they know fully well that that is not the case. Neither of these three players are ready to pitch or play at this level, and the Mets know it.

The only thing motivating them right now is their greed. They are willing to risk the development of these prospects as long as there is money to be gained by it.

The biggest concern for the Mets right now is trying to keep the fans coming out to Citi Field. As the team’s season dwindles away into nothing, they need to find new ways to keep selling tickets. They could have achieved that with a Cliff Lee, Victor Martinez, Matt Holliday or even Roy Halladay, but instead hey sat on their hands. Of course they said they wanted to protect the farm, but the truth is they wanted to protect their fat pockets.

So now they are ready to hit the panic button and blow up the farm they are charged with protecting, all for the love of money.

The closest thing the Mets had to prospects that were major league ready for this season, were Nick Evans and Fernando Martinez. We all saw how that turned out.

Now they want to reach down to their teenage sensations and put the world upon their shoulders. Sink or swim… A literal baptism by fire.

On Saturday, rookie reliever Bobby Parnell will be thrust into the starting rotation after only being stretched for three innings just once in his last appearance. Could you imagine the Red Sox or Yankees doing something like that to one of their prized arms?

It’s a desperate act that wreaks of the stench of an ill-conceived plan and a poor and ineffectual team philosophy. Even if you were to ignore the potential injury risk this poses for Parnell, what exactly has Parnell done to merit such a promotion? Hitters are batting .286 against him and he has a 1.60 WHIP which ranks in the bottom 10% of all MLB pitchers.

Brad Holt was moving along nicely since being drafted in 2008, but the Mets decided to rush him to AA in June and  now he’s struggling and has a 5.35 ERA to show for it. Jenrry Mejia was pushed to AA also in June and after a sizzling 1.94 ERA at St. Lucie, he is now having a tough time keeping his ERA under 4.00 and has yet to win a game. Ruben Tejada might be the best prepared for such a jump, but what will a .282 average in Binghamton  translate to in the major leagues?

Minaya told us that we didn’t a need a trade because all our guys were coming back. So where are they? Was it just another cover story for a failed season?

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of delving into this subject with Kerel Cooper of the excellent Mets site, “On The Black“. You can hear us discussing the wisdom of bringing up the kids and other Mets issues.

The Mets are ultimately going to do whatever the Mets want to do. I urged them to trade Luis Castillo and Gary Sheffield when they had the chance, but they wanted to maintain the pretense that they were buyers when in fact they had no intention of buying anything. Even after the trade deadline, Omar continued to insist he had some things in the works and that there would be some solid players that would become available via waivers. Where are they?

It’s one big fallacy after another. You don’t even know what to believe anymore. Unfortunately, you CAN believe that the Mets will indeed bring up their prized prospects, especially if it can resuscitate dwindling ticket sales. However, in my opinion, this would be more egregious than taking off their shirts and challenging the prospects to a fight.