>Torre Back To Not Manage Mets

>There will be two managers at Shea tonight. One will get booed terribly (including by me as I will be there). One will be cheered.

You kids that don’t know who Lee Mazzilli is probably think I photoshopped the photo on the left. Nope kids, Joe Torre once managed the Metsies, and he was awful. Not that he had anything to work with. Craig Swan, Steve Henderson and a bunch of other guys you’ve never heard of.

Anyways, take another look at the picture and ask yourself (or Omar if you happen to see him) – why isn’t this a current picture of the Mets manager. Maybe with a little less hair, maybe wearing 6 not 9 – but why didn’t they call Joe five minutes after his press conference announcing he was leaving the Yankees. The Mets could have had a manager that got his team to the postseason every year (the Mets have every financial advantage the Yankees do, so stop whining about that). Joe even had to manage from an awful start, say being 6.5 back on Memorial Day.

It’s too late now, but I’ll be cheering for the manager tonight, just not the one in the first base dugout.

>No Mets To Start All Star Game?

>MLB.com says:

Hanley Ramirez (268,386) of the Florida Marlins leads a tight race at shortstop, currently edging Miguel Tejada (256,613) of the Houston Astros and Jose Reyes (237,800) of the New York Mets. Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones has collected 420,664 votes, putting him nearly 100,000 votes ahead of the N.L.’s starter at the hot corner the last two years, David Wright (321,091) of the Mets. Jones is batting a Major League-best .418 with 12 home runs and 35 RBI.

So that suggests (correctly) that no Mets will start. I like Wright and all but the other guy is hitting .418. Can’t argue. OverReyes doesn’t deserve to be on the team at all. Hurdle should leave him home and save some room for Santana and Maine.

If you’re sad that you might not see a Met on the field until after bedtime, don’t worry – Willie Randolph will be out their coaching! Ain’t that a hoot.

If Willie is jobless come July then Hurdle should invite Torre. What a circus that would be!

>Bloggers Leaving Mets for Rays!

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USA Today reports:

The New York Mets may have held on to a manager this week, but they’ve lost a blog.

The club that collapsed during last year’s pennant chase, is struggling this year and has a manager (Willie Randolph) on the hot seat, has been fired by one corner of the Internet.

After three years of following New York’s National League team, Eric Simon and his cohorts, who operate the Mets Geek blog, announced they’d had enough.

Simon and crew have switched their allegiance to the Tampa Bay Rays and renamed the blog Rays Geek.

http://www.metsgeek.com/articles/2008/05/27/welcome-to-raysgeek/

>Omar Watch

>They call me cranky, but in the end I’m always right.

People are beginning to understand that Pedro is 7-5 since June 2006!

Omar, you should have gotten out of this mess on Monday – now everyone is mad at you too!

Here’s some good stuff from a Florida paper.

It was Minaya, the Mets general manager, who overpaid Pedro Martinez, foolishly giving him a four-year contract when everyone knew he was on the verge of physically breaking down and wouldn’t get past the first two seasons.

It was Minaya who spent $100 million to bring Carlos Beltran to Queens, where he has done nothing to live up to his paycheck.
It was Minaya who wanted Carlos Delgado and Luis Castillo and Moises Alou, none of whom are playing the way Mets fans hoped when the team left Port St. Lucie two months ago.
Delgado, 35 and aging fast, went into Tuesday night’s game batting a paltry .215. Castillo, who too often plays older than his 32 years, was batting .259. Alou, who will turn 42 in July, has spent all but 14 games on the disabled list.
Then there’s Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, who claims to be 38 and hasn’t thrown a pitch this season because of a foot injury.