Gary Sheffield

You have to laugh at the Gary Sheffield situation. He's not a Type A or Type B free agent so the Mets don't really gain anything by holding on to him. The Mets benefited by Sheffield's diversion of getting his 500th HR - funny enough one of the few highlight's of this season for the Mets. How do they benefit by holding on to him for the rest of the season? I don't get it.

Sure they aren't paying him much but if he's not in your plans for next season and he's going to be a distraction - why not let some other team pick up the remainder of his salary for the year? It's like Omar Minaya does things like this to either get on the back pages of the tabloids or maybe he's trying to get fired.

World Baseball Classic

Here's a list of players by team who will be participating in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. Just a couple of thoughts:

Many people who follow baseball think that Omar Minaya has a "thing" for players from the Dominican Republic but of the 15 players from the Mets who are participating - only Jose Reyes is playing for the Dominican Republic. I found that interesting.

These teams are either isolationists or their organizations have slim picking to choose from. The Nationals, White Sox and A's have just two player apiece participating in the games. Tampa Bay, Texas and the Giants are just sending three players apiece.

The Mets are sending 15 players to 8 teams while the Red Sox are sending 14 players to 11 teams.

Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

Interesting analysis of Bartolo Colon's start for the Red Sox last night. Bottom line? It looks like he still has his fastball and that's the pitch he needs to be successful... Everyone is making a fuss out of the Tampa Bay Rays and their turnaround but the bigger story may actually be the rebuilding job done by the Oakland A's. The poster boy for the A's resurgence is probably Dana Eveland who was acquired in the Dan Haren trade and who is currently 4-3 with a 2.90 ERA in 10 starts for the A's (compare to Haren who is 5-2 with a 3.14 ERA in 9 starts for the Diamondbacks).... Speaking of the A's - Frank Thomas seems to be doing a decent job since his signing (3HR / .282 BA / .855 OBP). I guess I may have been incorrect with predictions of his demise. Frank Thomas also needs just 2 more HR for 521 to tie Ted Williams and Willie McCovey for 16th place on the all-time HR list... Mike Piazza may have been pretty one-dimensional but he's a first ballot Hall of Famer nonetheless... Happy 35th birthday Julian Tavarez - for your birthday the Red Sox are sending you to Pawtucket... Today also would have been Hall of Famer Al Simmons (real name Aloys Szymanski) 106th birthday. Simmons had a run of over 100 RBI in 11 of his first 12 seasons in the major leagues. His career total of 1827 RBI is good for 16th place all-time (just ahead of Frank Robinson but just behind Dave Winfield)... If Willie Randolph thinks of himself in the same vein as Herm Edwards and Isiah Thomas - then he should be fired. Edwards and Thomas are perhaps the worst coaches in their respective sports. I don't care about skin color. I do care about what expectations a professional sets for himself. If Randolph is thinking "I want to do as well in this city as Herm Edwards did" then he should be fired... Omar Minaya is the real problem with the Mets. However, if a manager change is inevitable - I think Tony Pena would do a great job for the Mets...

Thoughts from a Long Drive

I had a long drive down from Massachusetts to Piscataway, NJ for some meetings the next few days in Basking Ridge. I thought I'd take the time while I wait for my room service food to arrive to share some of my thoughts from a long drive.

Not sure if you noticed the anniversary but it has now been 25 years since someone tampered with some Tylenol products which resulted in the deaths of 7 people in the Chicago area. Its been 25 years almost to the day and I don't think the killer will ever be found.

The number 7 stuck in my head and I know it sounds trite to compare the death of 7 people with blowing a 7 game lead with just 17 games to go but the mind sometimes works in strange ways (besides if you read some of the articles on the Mets you see words like "disaster", "devastating" and people sending out their sympathy to Mets fans). I was expecting to hear lots of Mets talk on 660 the FAN on the drive but football was dominating the discussion. I put on some music and thought about the Mets in the privacy of my rental Chrysler 300 (I got a free upgrade - thought I'd mention that just in case anyone from accounting reads this).

The people at Tylenol are credited with taking quick action to save the company division. They took the immediate hit of taking all their products off the shelfs and coming out with improved tamper proof products. They are now the #1 brand in their market. If the Mets want to return to #1 in the NL East they too will have to take immediate and maybe drastic action to come back better than ever (hopefully with a choke-proof product). If they fail to do so - then it could be a long time before the Mets sniff first place again.

If I were the owner I'd fire Omar Minaya. Its no secret that I think Minaya is a bad GM. What skill does it take to throw money and extra contract years at a Carlos Beltran or a Pedro Martinez? Of course Minaya won't be fired (but he should be). Willie Randolf will be a good manager and I think Jerry Manuel is a good bench coach for him. However, the first moves have to be to get rid of Rick Peterson as pitching coach and get a professional batting coach.

The next two moves I'd make would be to get rid of Carlos Delgado and Paul LoDuca. It will be easy to get rid of LoDuca since he's a free agent and easy to replace his "productivity" since LoDuca was basically at replacement player levels this year. Delgado will make $16 million next year but for the Mets to be successful they would have to sit him against lefties (.704 OPS this year) and also when he plays at Shea (the guy freaking has just a .680 OPS at Shea this season!). Delgado has to go. I wonder if Toronto would want him?

The Mets also have to decide if Lastings Milledge is ready to be an everyday player. If so then next year they have Carlos Beltran, Moises Alou and Milledge in the outfield. If he's not ready - they have to trade him for either a top pitching prospect or an established #3 starter. With Milledge gone - if Carlos Beltran is willig to move to right for a Torii Hunter or Andruw Jones - then Minaya should open the checkbook. If Betran will be uncomfortable then maybe Bobby Abreu is the fallback. However, will Abreu be a big upgrade over Milledge?

Two things to mention about the drive down. For about 10 miles I was behind this Jaguar in the left hand lane when I noticed that the license plate was XXX-LVR. The inside of the car was dark and with the high head rest it was impossible to tell whether it was a guy or a girl driving. If it was a guy - that's a creepy license plate. I hit some traffic in Bridgeport and lost sight of the Jag so I guess I'll never know.

The other thing to mention is that as I crossed over the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey - I sang "Happy Birthday to You" since the bridge opened on this day in 1931. I know that its a strange thing that I actually knew that fact and would sing the song to a bridge. That's just how I am.