Well, Jerry is lined up to be the first manager in Citifield history. Let’s hope it ends better than this year did. Anyway, there’s a telephone conference at 1:00 PM (right now).
Read about it here.

Johan has some guts, that’s for sure! He pitches a 3 hit shutout on a messed up knee. The next day, these guys toss that performance away…
Read about it here.

Yikes…Read about it here in the NY Daily News.

Listening to talk radio for the second day in a row (it’s cathartic…), I continue to hear, from people like Mike Francesa, trade David Wright or Jose Reyes. What are these people thinking? While I agree, neither came up in the clutch this last week. I’ve said it before, Wright gets a sac-fly in the 9th on that Wednesday game against the Cubs (Sept. 24th), this wouldn’t even be an issue. He didn’t put the bat on the ball. It’s telling that Lou pitched to him. It shows that he thought he was the one bat in the beef of the lineup that he could get around. He walked Delgado & Beltran to load the bases for Church (fielder’s choice at home) & Castro (struck out). That says something. Does that mean that David will never be that clutch player? I don’t think so. He’s still young and has proven he can play here. I think he’ll get it. I’m willing to wait a little longer.

Reyes is the spark plug. He’s a great defensively and offensively. I just can’t see getting rid of him. It would take the air out of the team if they didn’t have him at the top. These kinds of players are at a premium in baseball. You can’t just go pick up another Reyes off of the shelf — they’re not there!

I’m also tired of hearing about the comparisons with the Phillies players and the Mets players and their ‘clutchness’ (yeah, I made up a word:)).
Look, I don’t want to hear it. The Mets, with David Wright & Jose Reyes, got to a game 7 in the NLCS — how far did the Phillies get last year? uh, 0-3 against the Rockies — out in the first round. I mean, if they do something like that again this year — don’t even bring up the comparison again.

Now, what are you looking for in this off season? Let’s go position by position:
Catcher: Brian Schneider
I think he should be gone. You miss a LoDuca type in this spot. Who replaces him? Great question. He’ll probably be back…

First Base: Carlos Delgado
Carlos has really helped out the Mets with his crazy comeback. That makes him more valuable than he was last year and early this year. The Mets will pick up his option and probably trade him. Maybe package him with a pitcher and get a piece they need. Could you put Daniel Murphy there? He’s a rookie but he’s shown he can hit. What else is there? Teixeira is not going to be here, I don’t think. That’s asking a bit much if they decide to go after K-Rod.

Second Base: Luis Castillo
I was against the signing from the get-go. I hear a lot about Orlando Hudson. Eddie Coleman says he’s a good clubhouse presence. Maybe they teach Murphy to play 2nd instead of 1st.

Left Field: Moises Alou / Nick Evans / Fernando Tatis / Daniel Murphy
Thankfully, they won’t have to see Moises again. He’s a great hitter and was definitely missed but his injury prone body is done. He played 87 games in 2007 and 15 in 2008. Nick Evans is a good young player. I’m not sure how or even if he fits on this team next year. Tatis will not be here, either. You got your lightning in a bottle. He won’t produce that sort of performance again.

Right Field: Ryan Church
I like Church as a player. I was listening to Jon Heyman, earlier today on WFAN, and he said Ryan Church didn’t like the team or the city. That’s surprising… I don’t know if he’ll be back but I think, if he wants to, he should be given another shot as he played really well until he was hurt — and then again when he came back. Granted, he went down a few days later with the concussion issue, again, but…

Starters: Pedro Martinez & Ollie Perez
Pedro will not be a Met next year. I think he’ll sign on with someone (and probably be good against the Mets at some point).
Ollie Perez will probably be given an offer by the Mets but, with Boras as his agent, he’s gone to free agency. I like him but I can’t watch his up and down efforts any longer. I think you need to, reluctantly, cut ties.
Who do you get to replace these guys? I have to shrug my shoulders on that one…I know who I’d like to see right under Santana…It’s crazy but…CC Sabathia. You’ll need someone to round out the rotation… how about Derek Lowe? That’ll make the rotation Santana, Sabathia, Maine, Pelfrey and Lowe. Awesome…It’s a hell of a 1-2 punch. Imagine that in a short series…Your opponents will come in thinking they’re down 2 right off the bat. Pipe dream? Probably…

That brings us to the poison pill of this team:
The Bullpen
Aaron Heilman - He needs to be included in a package to go start somewhere. He’ll be happier and I’ll get more sleep on summer nights…
Duaner Sanchez - I am not 100% sure on him. He could get better but you just don’t know. He is coming off of an injury for which there is no track record of recovery period in MLB pitchers. He could get better and become what he was in ‘06 before that night where he was ‘hungry’ at 2 AM…
Scott Schoenewies - Seeeeeeeya! I’ve seen enough.
Pedro Feliciano - Take him or leave him.
Billy Wagner - Played his last game as a Met. He’ll be back in a year, pitching for someone.

Replacements? I can only think of one, right off the bat — Francisco Rodriguez. K-Rod. We need a serious big time closer. Imagine if you had a closer like that — HELL, imagine if you had Billy closing games for you. How many would you have gotten? The division would have been in hand. No Wild Card — the Division would have been locked up. I want him.

Let’s go BREWERS! Get it started — 3:00 PM tomorrow.

The season end is a little too fresh in my memory for me to make many definitive statements about the team as a whole. I can tell you this — I don’t want to trade Wright or Reyes. I know that has become the hot topic on sports talk all day. There is something missing, for sure. I have to think back to ‘06, when you had players like LoDuca & Valentin. I think those two guys added to the dynamic that produced a winning regular season and deep playoff baseball. You had LoDuca who, for all his issues, was a fiery spark plug. He wasn’t the best player on the field and was far from the best catcher the Mets have had, but he gave them a certain amount of swagger that’s required to win. Valentin was a veteran presence that knew how to play the game right. He helped keep Reyes’ head in the game, which was an issue — I don’t think it’s as much as an issue now, but he still could use a veteran presence right next to him at all times.

I do think Omar needs to rid this team of the following:
Scott Schoeneweis, Luis Castillo, Aaron Heilman and of course, we won’t be seeing Moises Alou, Fernando Tatis, Marlon Anderson, etc.

It would be nice to see Church have a full regular season — I think he earned it with his play before he was hurt. I think you have to give Angel Pagan a shot to make the team, in some capacity, in spring. Daniel Murphy has shown he can hit (and is a very inexperienced outfielder). He should be given a chance to learn 1st and, if the Mets pick up Delgado’s option and trade him (I think they will), possibly play there.

The pen needs an overhaul, for sure. Who should stay and who should go? I’m not sure, yet…I go back and forth on some of these guys. We can start with the obvious: Aaron Heilman. Good guy, decent pitcher, but he’s just lost something. I think a change of scenery will do him (and me) some good. I can’t watch him in the pen for another season. Let him go start somewhere — it’s what he wants to do anyway.

I need to mull it over a little more…

The question is, where do you go for replacements? Who do you plug in?

Jon Heyman of SI.com is reporting that Jerry Manuel will be back next year. We kind of thought that. He did a good job with what he ws given mid season.

Well, this will certainly put the damper on the celebration at Shea. Brewers win, Mets lose. Back to back years with the Marlins doing the damage. It’s a bad loss, for sure. Where do we go from here? That will be Minaya’s decision…

It’s disappointing that the Phillies have won back to back divisions. Two years in a row where the Mets should not have been in that position. They gave away too many games — more than last year. I guess, if they had their closer still, they would’ve probably gotten what they needed from him and won the division. That didn’t happen, obviously.

It’s a little weird that the downturn begun, again, at the mark with 17 games left.

I don’t know what else to say. Were the Mets squeezing the bats too tightly today? Maybe.

Tear the place down, let’s start a new era across the street at Citifield.

Well, if you’re looking for some bright spots in this Met start, I have a few…

Hanley Ramirez is out of the starting lineup. He apparently has a sore shoulder after making some tremendous plays the past few days.

Ollie Perez is 3-0 against the Marlins with a 2.03 ERA.

Scott Olsen is 0-3 against the Mets with a 6.95 ERA… I hope that continues and these Mets aren’t too tight, today.

Game time is only 20 or so minutes away…
Let’s Go Mets!

The Cubs will have to get it done without Zambrano. Instead they’ll send out Angel Guzman, who is coming back from elbow surgery. He’ll go up against CC Sabathia — a clear advantage for the Brew Crew. CC is coming back on 3 days rest but it’ll be the 3rd straight time he’s done it, so maybe he’ll be tired.

The good thing is, the Brewers bullpen saw some use yesterday as Sheets could only get in 53 pitches in his 2 1/3 innings. We’ll see what kind of lineup Lou sends out there. The Brewers are fighting for their lives — the Cubs are just trying to get lined up for the playoffs.

Let’s Go Mets!

Wright’s buddy, Zimmerman, couldn’t force the first blown save of the year for Brad Lidge. It was close but Rollins made a good play on a ball up the middle. Focus is squarely on the Wild Card as it has been, for me, since Wednesday’s loss. That is when they blew the division and hopefully, not the Wild Card.

Mets just have to take care of their business on the field tomorrow. The Brewers lost to the Cubs, today, so the Mets and the Crew are tied in the Wild Card race. It’ll go down to the last day — just like last year. Fortunately, the Mets have Ollie Perez going. The real question is, who will show up? Will it be big game Ollie or Ollie Improv? Man, I hope Ollie rubs Santana’s head for luck in the locker room tomorrow…

Let’s go Mets.