Quick Look at Oliver Perez and Close-Up of Bret Mitchell

☛ Oliver Perez started yesterday's St. Lucie Mets game. In 5.2 innings, he gave up two runs and two hits while walking three and striking out seven. That's an improvement over his previous start on June 30 when he gave up four runs in six innings. His St. Lucie record is now 1-1. I hope Perez does well enough to interest another team in trading for him, a move that I doubt Minaya will make after investing $30-something millions in Perez over three years. That move and the contract Minaya gave to Castillo magnifies Minaya's sometimes illogical player moves.

☛ The Mets have signed their 12th-round draft choice, Bret Mitchell, a right-handed pitcher out of Minnesota State University - Mankato. He appeared in 16 games, starting 14, pitching in 94 innings.

Among the Mavericks four starters, he

• had the highest ERA (4.31),
• tied for the most wins (10), 
• gave up the most hits (96) and earned runs (45), 
• walked the most batters (33). 

Further, of the starters,

• opposing hitters had the highest batting average against him: .258;
• he surrendered the fewest homeruns (3);
• he struck out the most batters (108).

Last season, on four different occasions, he struck out 11 batters in a game.

Minaya outmaneuvers Manuel

There appears to be a communication problem between Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel. According to a story in today's New York Post, Minaya didn't bother to consult with Manuel about releasing Duaner Sanchez. Minaya just did it.

The move will save the Mets about $1.4 million; however, it didn't have to be done until just before the March 18 deadline. That's about a week from now. Given that Sanchez was slated to pitch yesterday, Minaya had nothing to lose by letting Sanchez pitch; Sanchez might even have had a good outing. Manuel wanted to see more of Sanchez; Minaya didn't.

Minaya's move makes me wonder what else he'll be doing this season to intrude on Manuel's authority. A manager should be allowed to select his opening day players without having to look over his shoulder to see if the GM approves. Minaya's maneuver yesterday set a bad precedent. Let's hope it doesn't continue.

New York Post story

Another ho hum signing

Freddie Garcia is the latest pitcher to be given a shot at cracking the starting rotation. Ho hum. With each new signing my belief that the Mets will be able to challenge the Phillies is diminishing.

Instead of pinching pennies, Minaya should pinch himself. Wake up! The Mets need punch added to their lineup. They need a secondbaseman who's not past his prime, a corner outfielder who can hit in the clutch, and a catcher who can add some oomph to the batting order. What good is it to have two primetime closers if the games won't be close enough to deserve their services?

What's Minaya thinking?

It seems that the Mets have decided to give Duaner Sanchez a new one-year agreement, also doubling his salary (from $950,000 to $1,687,500). In 2008 Sanchez appeared in relief 66 times; his ERA was 4.32, nothing special. But from August 15 on, Sanchez was a disaster. In just 8 1/3 innings he surrendered eight runs and an unlucky 13 hits, but that's not surprising given that the batters he faced hit .342 against him.

If Minaya considers those statistics worthy of a hefty raise, I'd love to work for the Mets.

Not enough yet

I'm probably in the minority, but I haven't been that impressed by what Minaya's done so far. Sure, the Mets now have two new closers, either of whom should be better than Billy Wagner was last season. But to get them Minaya weakened the middle relief when he traded Aaron Heilman and Joe Smith.

Now he's in the market for Derek Lowe. If he joins the Mets, their starters will include Santana, Maine, Pelfrey, and Lowe. One excellent pitcher (Santana), one good pitcher (Lowe), and two okay pitchers in Maine and Pelfrey.

That still leaves the team with weak corner outfielders, a second baseman whom I hope the Mets don't start the season with (Castillo), a first baseman (Delgado) who's unlikely to repeat what he did last season, and two catchers who'll never win any awards for their hitting.

A few months remain before Spring Training begins. I'm curious to see what other rabbits Minaya may pull out of his hat. He'll need to do more if he's going to field a team that can defeat the Phillies.

Minaya's move just one big yawn

Omar Minaya's reputation as a shrewd wheeler-dealer is diminishing faster than has George Bush's popularity.

The Nationals stole another youngster from the Mets, prying away Lastings Milledge for two players who'll never have the word "star" associated with their play.

He let the Diamondbacks obtain Dan Haren, a pitcher who would have significantly upgraded the Mets pitching staff.

He didn't bother to give Johnny Estrada a chance to show whether he could help the Mets.

And he signed three "no-name" players, catchers Raul Casanova and Gustavo Molina and right-hander Nate Field, to minor league contracts.

His best move: Getting rid of Guillermo Mota.

Ho hum. How much more boring can the Mets get?

Yorvit talks at an impasse

Without explaining why, it appears that the Mets have broken off efforts trying to sign Yorvit Torrealba.

Fate might have intervened and prevented Omar Minaya from making a mistake he might have regretted.

Mets announcement

What's Minaya thinking?

I'm not a Lo Duca fan, but even at age 35 he's a better catcher than Yorvit Torrealba. Torrealba can't hit nor can he throw runners out, yet Minaya appears to have shelved out $14.4 million to acquire Torrealba's services for three seasons.

Last season, Torrealba hit only eight home runs while throwing out only 13 of the 74 runners who tried to steal on him. That's a lower percentage than even Lo Duca's 19.1 percent. And when on the road, Torrealba hit pathetically: .212 batting average, two home runs, and 13 RBIs.

In his first major move this post-season, Minaya appears to have downgraded the Mets.

Lo Duca? No! Posada? Yes!

The New York Times reported today that Mets GM Omar

"Minaya said he had “good interest” in re-signing Paul Lo Duca."

Why?

Lo Duca will never win any awards for his defense, and he's far from a power-hitting catcher, which is what the Mets need. Last season, Lo Duca hit .272 with nine home runs and 54 RBIs. His on-base percentage was a measly .311 and his slugging average only .378.

Lo Duca's OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging average) was only .689. The last time it was that low was during his first three seasons in the major leagues. And in each of his last three seasons, he played in fewer games than the season before. Lo Duca's career appears to be on the decline.

Statistical evidence of Lo Duca's subpar performance can be found on fangraphs.com. Using a statistic called WPA, Lo Duca ranked 93 of 102 catchers.

Omar, lose interest. Focus instead on signing Jorge Posada. He's younger, a better defensive catcher, and a far better offensive catcher. (On fangraphs.com, Posada ranked first. )

O-my, what will he do?

These days Mets fans are in limbo wondering — and sometimes worrying — about what moves the Mets' front office will make to try to improve the team.

Personally, I've lost confidence in Minaya's GM abilities to upgrade the team that plays at Shea without weakening the Mets teams that play in New Orleans, Binghamton, and the Mets other farm towns. And even if Minaya succeeds in upgrading the team, my doubts remain about the Randolph/Peterson combo's prowess at getting the most out of those on the active roster.

The 2008 season hasn't even begun, and I view it as being a looong season.

Minaya misses "secret's" message

Before today, I hadn't read much of what Alan Schwarz has written. But from now on, I'll be looking for his byline more often.

In today's New York Times he's penned an article that, without intending to, pinpoints the flaw in the thinking of the New York Mets front office. The article's titled Rockies Finally Focus on the Farm, Not the Field, and it reveals how the Colorado Rockies were transformed into a dynamo that's won 20 of their last 21 games.

The architect of the current Colorado team is General Manager Dan O’Dowd.

Schwarz wrote that

"A great deal of analysis led O’Dowd’s management team to decide that Coors Field’s deep fences actually created so much outfield acreage that for every cheap home run, there were several bloops and other hits that fell in for even more damaging singles. So the team hired some athletic outfielders with good gloves to better defend against this unintended consequence."

O'Dowd's approach was actually simple: He fit the team to its home park's idiosyncrasies. Distant fences and lots of roaming room in the outfield.

In addition to changing the makeup of his outfield, O'Dowd realized he need a different kind of pitcher: "fastball-sinker pitchers with control."

Finally, because of budget constraints, O'Dowd placed more emphasis on producing homegrown talent, something even high-budget teams would benefit from doing.

O'Dowd's actions have paid off for the Rockies. Even Mets GM Omar Minaya commented on the Rockies success, saying

“Sometimes it’s just getting back to basics,” Mets General Manager Omar Minaya said. “Danny has tried different formulas, always ready to try something different. I’m happy for him. And I’m happy for their ownership, because they were patient enough to be rewarded like this with a magical season. That’s very rare in this business.”

Minaya seems to have understated the secret to the Rockies success. It was more than "getting back to basics." Until he "reads" it correctly and begins applying the lessons to be learned from the Rockies' success to the Mets, the Mets more than likely will fail to achieve the success that their fans deserve after 2007's heart-wrenching season.

Can Minaya unravel Mets?

One of the first decisions Mets GM Omar Minaya needs to make is which of the 13 Mets eligible to become free agents to try to re-sign. The list includes Jose Valentin, Luis Castillo, Moises Alou, Marlon Anderson, and Paul Lo Duca. Tom Glavine is also a free agent, declining his option year contract.

Whom the Mets re-sign will reveal what Minaya thinks their needs are. Though Mets fans and the media seem to believe that the Mets bullpen needs a major overhaul, the Mets management may not share that view. For example, Willie Randolph attributed Guillermo Mota's poor 2007 performance to "Buzzard Luck" rather than his pitching ability, implying that Randolph would welcome Mota back to his bullpen for 2007.

What the Mets shouldn't do is to sacrifice the best prospects in their farm system for one established player, as a number of discussion board posters want them to do to get Johan Santana. If Minaya's made up his mind that the Mets must get Santana, I'd offer Jose Reyes for him. Reyes may have a higher upside, but he also has a higher downside.

But then, Minaya might believe that he doesn't need to make a blockbuster trade, that the current team's nucleus is good enough to win.

What the Mets do — and don't do — this off-season will reveal a lot about Minaya's opinion of this team and his skill as a GM.

Joe Torre next Mets' manager?

On Saturday, George Steinbrenner told that world that Joe Torre's job was at risk if he didn't have more post-season success this year than he's had in the recent past. Well, the Yankees lost yesterday. They've also lost 13 of theirs last 17 post-season games and haven't advanced to the World Series since 2000, a Series they won.

So despite the fact that Torre's taken Steinbrenner's team to the playoffs each of the 12 years he's managed it and averaged 98 wins a year starting with the 2001 season, his future's now in jeopardy.

If Steinbrenner fires Torre, the Mets should hire him. Fast!

Unfortunately, that's not likely to happen. Mets ownership is too willing to let Omar Minaya roll the dices on those kinds of decisions, and Minaya's dice are loaded.

Day 1 after the meltdown

One day after the Mets disastrous season ended, Mets owner Jeff Wilpon offered the following to the fans:

"On behalf of Fred [Wilpon], Saul [Katz] and myself, all of us at the Mets are bitterly disappointed in failing to achieve our collective goal of building upon last year's success. We did not meet our organization's expectations -- or those of our fans.

"We will continue our commitment in providing the resources necessary to field a championship team. We will be meeting with Omar [Minaya] shortly for him to present his plan on addressing our shortcomings so that we can achieve our goal of winning championships in 2008 and beyond.

"Our fans deserve better results. We thank them for their record-breaking support this season."

However, the statement includes one of the problems in the solution: Omar Minaya. Can Minaya fix the problems that he created?

He's already taken a step in the wrong direction. According to an article that appeared today on the Mets Web site, "Minaya has privately has told people he has no plans to" dismiss Willie Randolph. That could be his first mistake.

Randolph might have been an excellent coach with the Yankees, but he didn't show that excellence this year as the Mets manager. The Mets upper management needs to do a serious review of Randolph's performance rather than just brushing it off, as Minaya appeared to do yesterday. And they need to do the same for his coaches, especially Rick Peterson.

If they don't do that, the Mets on-field performance next season could be even worse than it was at the end of 2007.

Mets' ship sunk; How fast can it be refloated?

After yesterday's season finale, the only consolation Mets fans had was that the season was over. They didn't have to suffer another heart-wrenching loss from a Mets team that melted down faster than an ice cube on a city sidewalk on a 95 degree day.

In their season finale, Tom Glavine, the man who achieved the rare accomplishment of winning 300 games, couldn't win his 304th in one of the most important games in his baseball career.

He finished the season with an unlucky 13 victories.

Glavine had been on a three-game losing streak going in yesterday's game. His last win was on September 8. All he had to do was win one of his last four starts and the Mets would have been in the playoffs. But he couldn't do that. And yesterday, he couldn't even get out of the first inning. When he was pulled from the game with the bases loaded after facing nine batters, he'd gotten one out, surrendered five runs, and even hit a batter with the bases loaded.

The final two runs charged to Glavine came off Jorge Sosa. After striking out the first batter he faced, Sosa gave up a double to Dan Uggla, the type of player who should be playing second base for the Mets instead of Twins' cast-off Luis Castillo.

After the game, fans filled Mets discussion boards. The boards provided some consolation, a forum where fans could share their suffering and their cures for a sick Mets team.

On www.nyfuturestars.com, in a thread started by Nutsacjac titled "Offshoot from Glavine Must Go: Where are the fixes?" one fan wrote "This Mets team was horribly flawed and those warts became more apparent as the season progressed." The thread was begun yesterday. Today, at 9:10 A.M., it had already been viewed 679 times and received 42 replies.

Hopefully, the Mets front office will heed what the fans are saying on the boards.

Before the team can be fixed, the problems must be correctly identified.

If Wilpon retains Mets GM Omar Minaya, which is likely, Minaya's off-season moves will reveal his view of what the cracks of in the Mets foundation. Hopefully, he'll make the right ones.

Minaya needs to do a better job than he did in the past off-season when he weakened the Mets bullpen while failing to strengthen its starting rotation.