NEW MANAGER

Terry Collins has been names the new manager of the New York Mess. My choice would be Bob Melvin. He has managed most recently in 2009 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and has had two 90 win seasons, once with the Diamondbacks and once with the Seattle Mariners. He took his team to the National League Championship in 2007 but lost to the Colorado Rockies in 7 games and won manager of the year. He was the leading candidate to be manager early this past season if Manuel was fired. I think he is the safe bet especially over Wally Backman, who Melvin replaced on the Diamondbacks before Backman ever managed a game due to revelations of past arrests and serious financial issues! Backman also has no major league managerial experience. We can't have someone learning on the job. This is a team full of talent and under a decent, consistent leader, will make the playoffs this year. Chip Hale is the current Mets 3rd Base Coach and I think the entire Mets coaching staff should be replaced. He has no major league managerial experience either and he was already 2nd fiddle to Melvin as a bench coach and I'd rather have the #1 guy. Terry Collins would have been my second choice seeing the other two who could have been manager. He has not managed an MLB team since 1999 for the Anaheim Angels. Collins had winning seasons five out of six years but never made the playoffs, finishing 2nd all five years. The worst thing against him is that in 1999, his own players asked the GM to have him fired! So the Mets chose a manager with no playoff experience, hasn't managed in the MLB for 11 years, and whose own players had him fired. Looks like they will have some excuses if they don't make the playoffs again! Maybe Melvin will be considered again after the Mets can't take Collins anymore.

DISGUSTED!

The Mets have been absolutely terrible since the All-Star break. With Beltran and Castillo rejoining the team it put them in a huge hitting drought. I guess they were a little rusty but the guys they were replacing were doing worse (Francoeur and Tejada) What also doesn't help a team is a manager who makes statements about the direction of the team and then never actually doing what he says. Beltran wasn't brought up before the All Star break so he could play in the minors during the break and be already in stride when he comes up; He was then told to rest instead. The platoon of 4 outfielders; eliminated even before it could start. The platoon of Pagan and Franky; eliminated 2 games later because Franky went o-fer. Most recently - Castillo is heating up, we are going to move him up in the order. Castillo is hitting .454 the past 5 games and he is now benched for a .212 hitting Tejada!!! Also Franky is apparently to be benched for F-Mart after Franky is hitting .357 over the past 5 games. I am absolutely disgusted by these moves!!! You leave in Rod Barajas in the line up for 2 months as he hits under .200 even though Josh Thole is hitting over .500 on your bench!!! "When you lose the games that we've been losing, you just have to try to do something different," general manager Omar Minaya. You don't change the parts that are working!!! Minaya and Manuel are completely counter productive. Manuel especially. So many time he says we have to play the hot hand and will bench a guy after getting 3 hits in a game. Or he says we have to get the young guys playing time while Thole sat on the bench behind a terrible Barajas. How about 20 different line ups since the All Star break. If they actually mean it when they say these things because they hardly ever do what they say, it means they have given up and apparently want to fall as far as possible. I am just disgusted.

Mets 2nd Half

I am not quite convinced about their first half but they have gone above my expectations. I think the introduction of Ike Davis put a shot in their arms that the management was actually playing for this year instead of just using this year as a waiting period for offseason free agency. I see our best lineup now being Reyes, Pagan, Wright, Beltran, Davis, Bay, Thole, Castillo and vs. Lefties Reyes, Castillo, Wright, Beltran, Bay, Davis, Francoeur, Barajas. Offensively they can’t really change anything. I do think they should keep Thole up and possibly put Blanco or Tejada in the minors. Tejada likely has options that Blanco may not have. Tejada had a chance to play every day and he is batting .217 with 5 RBI. Castillo is a career .291 hitter, who gets on base, and steals bases. Castillo’s On-Base Percentage is 100 points higher than Tejada’s. The pitching needs to be solidified if we have any chance of really making a push this year. We really need a #4 starter. I hope it will be Perez or Maine but most likely they will make a trade. I do not want them to trade Thole but definitely give FMart away. And Manuel really needs to give defined roles to these relievers. Parnell and Feliciano should be the primary set-up men. Nieve and Igirashi the middle men with Takahashi as the lefty specialist, and Dessens or Valdes as the long men, which Takahashi could also do. If it’s chaos in the bullpen at the end of the year again it is totally Manuel’s fault and he learned nothing from being a coach on this team the past few years.

Rod Barablahs

Rod Barajas is our starting catcher this year and as much as I don't like it, I have accepted it. I don't think he's better than Santos but I guess they wanted a veteran presence behind the plate. But this career .238 hitter is batting 7th. Shouldn't your worst hitter be batting 8th??? Angel Pagan is a career .282 hitter and batted over .300 last year. His on base percentage is over 100 points higher!!! This is just like batting Castillo 8th last year and he was our second best hitter. Reyes, Castillo, Wright, Bay, Francoeur, Jacobs, Pagan, and Barajas. If Beltran comes back and Castillo gets moved to 8th, I will freakin flip!!!

Send me an Angel Pagan

Carlos Beltran is going to be out for a little while. Seems like the Mets were eithr lying about the severity of their players injuries or their trainers are incompetent! Apparently Carlos was starting his winter training and while running with his toy poodles, yeah, was getting more and more pain in his, what had him out for half the season?, oh yes, bruise on his knee! His knee problems and the fact he only has 2 years left on his contract makes me wonder why they didn't go after Holliday. Holliday has never had a serious or season long injury and is 2 years younger than Bay and has a career average 30 points higher. The Mets were afraid to sign Bay to more than 4 years because of fear of his age and possible bad knees. Holliday signed a contract around 500,000 more a year, when averaged without the extra years. The thought of having 32 year old Holliday with Wright and Reyes seems much more optomistic future when Beltran's contract is up over 34 year old .260 hitting Bay with possible bad knees. So the Mets go out and get Gary "HGH" Matthews to play center while Beltran is out. Not so fast Gary, Angel Pagan is way too good to lose a job to your weak .250 hitting bat. Don't worry though, Angel will get hurt early and maybe you'll also get some time in left. Just another ex-Met they trade away and try to get later on when their careers are winding down.

3 Sheets to the Wind

Ben Sheets just signed 1 year with the A's for $10 million. This is not the really any bad news for me because the Mets do not need a guy with the injury record he has. The worst news is that Jon Garland, the most consistent starter out there in the free agent market this year, signed a 1 year deal with the Padres for about $5 million. Minaya's was so single minded with signing Bay and Molina, really making them offers and sitting on his handa waiting to hear back from them, he has let pretty much ever healthy pitcher get away. I was actually relieved when Marquis and Pineiro signed with other teams because then the Mets would go after Garland. Garland has consistently pitched 200 innings a year with about a 4.00 ERA. This would be a very good improvement for a staff with such big question marks. I think Pelfrey will be much better in his 3rd year, Maine may have his arm fall off, and letting Olly be Olly will lead Olly back to the minor leagues, and who knows will be the 5th starter. Now we are left with trying to sign unreliable guys such as Smoltz, Pedro, Bedard, or Washburn! Out of the group you really should try to get 2 of them because 1 will definitely not last the season. I say sign Bedard and either Smoltz or Pedro. I sense a long season where we will at most finish 3rd in the division and possibly 4th.