The New York Mets newest manager (God help him....) is 54 year old former bench coach Jerry Manuel.

Manuel will take over tonight as Mets manager against the Angels at 10:05pm. He had a fourteen year career, (mostly undistinguished) as a player.He was the manager of the Chicago White Sox for five seasons with a record of 500-471. The highlight of his coaching career came in 2000 when he led the Sox to a record of 95-67 and won AL manager of the year honors.

He is a very solid baseball man, and ironically, is very similiar  to Willie Randolph in terms of personality. In fact, Willie may the more fiery of the two. Manuel is a student of Ghandi which tells you a bit about his calm demeanor, nothing wrong with that, but I do question whether a Willie clone makes sense. Much like Willie, he is a good guy, very intelligent, has a lot of baseball experience, but, again, I really have to wonder if this team is not in need of a more stern manager. But, I will reserve judgement, and wish him well....with this Mets team and front office, Jerry will need all the luck he can get!

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The New York Mets will open up a three game set tonight at 10:05pm vs the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim...or wherever else they may be from. The stating pitchers will be Mike Pelfrey (2-6), but coming off his best career outing and Jered Weaver (6-6).

The Mets took two out of three from the Rangers this weekend, apparently saving Willie Randolph at least for.....who knows? However, it seems pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto will be getting the ax. (We all know the Mets biggest problem is of course first base coaching). The Mets are turning into the Knicks right before our eyes. This situation is being so poorly handled you would think Charles Dolan was advising the Wilpon's.

If you decide that Willie and company are not the right coaches for the team, fine, fire them and move on! This non sense of "well...lets see how the Mets play this week" is garbage! If the Mets brain trust (and I use that term loosely) don't yet have enough history to decide if they are in good hands or not from a coaching perspective,  will another few games really tell  them anything??

Sorry, had to get that off my chest...I feel much better now.

New York Mets quick hits:

• Mets catchers lead the league in stolen bases against
• Mets manager(for today) Willie Randolph has been named to the staff of the all-star game
• the Mets enter play tonight at 33-35
• 6/17 starting pitchers: Johan Santana (7-4) vs John Lackey(3-1)
• 6/18 starting pitchers: Oliver Perez (5-4) vs Jon Garland (6-4)

The New York Mets beat the Texas Rangers 4-2 in the back end of their doubleheader tonight at Shea. Pedro Martinez got the win and pitched a very solid game.

Closer Billy Wagner, coming off a nightmare week where he blew three multiple run leads, came on in the ninth inning to notch the win for the Mets. That may have been the best sign of all for the amazins as without  a dependable closer, no team can go very far. I must admit,  I was a bit  nervous  as Billy came out  because if he did it again, it would have gotten ugly. Closers  must have short memories in order to be  successful  and Wagner evidently does. He  was impressive  and it was  good to see.

As the game ended, I couldn't figure out who looked more relieved, Wagner or Willie Randolph.
The win gives the Mets a two of three victory in the series, and with the Phillies losing two this weekend, they pick up a much needed game in the standings.

The main thought I had was this; what did Willie Randolph do differently today then in games the Mets have lost this year? The answer, so far as I could tell, is...nothing at all!

The difference today was the  Mets got some run support, a solid  outing by their starter, and a lights out performance by the bull pen.  None of this means that  Willie is a better  manager all of  a sudden. What it does mean, to me, is what I have been saying all season; the manager is only as good as his team. On this day, Willies guys came through for him. Problem is, they are still the same guys  who  lost four straight last weekend in  San Diego. 

While I am happy with winning this series, and with the Mets coming through like they did, I still feel the problems that plague this team, which have them playing .500 ball for the last 160 or so games, still exist. To me, that is more on the GM then the manager. I hope, as I have all season, that this will propel them on to some kind of winning streak to get back in the mix in the NL East. Problem is, based on recent experience, I can see the next game they play ending like so many other over the past couple of season's.

Maybe this time will be different.

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First, the game news; the New York Mets beat the Texas Rangers 7-1 last night at Shea Stadium. Oliver Perez was "good Ollie", pitching seven strong innings and picking up his fifth victory of the season.

The Mets, luckily, picked up enough offense that  they didn't need to worry much about the bull pen.

Now, the more significant news; the Mets have apparently all but decided to fire manager Willie Randolph. It has been reported that ownership has concluded that it is time for a change. The lone hold out is General Manager Omar Minaya, the man to blame for the current sad state of the organization, in my opinion.

It makes sense  to me  that  Omar  would opt not to fire Willie, since by doing so, he would be the next one with a target on his back. I believe his support of Willie Randolph is merely driven by self preservation. Minaya has put together an old, overpaid ($140M is a lot to pay for a sub.500team) squad that is not constructed in such a way that leads you to believe they can compete for a Championship any time soon. To make matters worse, Minaya has mortgaged the Mets future in order to bring us this mediocre team. The Mets farm system is one of the weakest in baseball right now.

Great job, Omar! The Mets are badly handling this situation. If you want to fire Willie, just do it. Enough of this "day to day" nonsense. It is bush league and makes the Mets appear second class. If you fire him though, and Omar knows this, it won't make much difference. While Willie certainly has made his share of mistakes, but is it his fault that Pedro Martinez is old? Or that Carlos Delgado, a once great player, is now a liability? Is it Willie's  fault that the bull pen is sub par? I could go on and on, but you get the point. The  Mets  are  not a well  constructed  team.  That  is the fault of the man who built the team, not the man who manages them.

Hopefully Mets management will decide to make meaningful change, which means get rid of Minaya and as many of these aging, overpaid players as possible and lets try to load up on young talent and actually have a future for this franchise. Just my opinion.

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Mets closer Billy Wagner has blown three straight saves, two of which have been costly losses. The Mets entered the ninth inning leading the Diamondbacks, 4-2. Wagner couldn't close the door,and the Mets went on to lose 5-4 in ten innings.

Below is a picture of Wagner preparing for the save:
   

(Sorry, Billy, couldn't resist).  For  the most part, Wagner has been outstanding for the Mets, but of late, he has been a liability. As we all  know,  the Mets are not a team that can afford to give away a single game (I realize no team can, but especially the Mets),with the way they are struggling. The Mets bailed Wagner out last night after he blew a three run lead in the ninth, and they almost did it again today. However, David Wright and Damion Easley were robbed in the ninth.

This is typical of the 2008 Mets season; if they get strong starting pitching, the bull pen fails, if the pitching is strong all around, they don't hit, if they hit and pitch, they don't field. It  has been  frustrating to say the least.

It was a wasted brilliant performance by Mets ace Johan Santana. Just like they (Wagner), wasted a tremendous outing by  Mike Pelfrey last night. Even though the Mets won last night, the kid deserved a W.

The beat  goes on....the Mets continue to prove they are just a mediocre team. It pains me to say it, but look at the facts.

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The game is in the top of the ninth as I write this and Mets closer Billy Wagner has just proceeded to blow his third save in as many tries...yuk! The Mets entered the inning up 4-2, it's now 4-4 and counting...just had to get that off my chest.

Well, first the good news..at least the Mets didn't lose 2-1 again. That score was getting old. No, today the Mets decided instead of showing they could lose a game with a strong pitching performance by not hitting, they would hit and just display lousy pitching! That was the story today. The Mets lost to the San Diego Padres 8-6.

Mets starter Pedro Martinez didn't have his best stuff. Yet the Mets still had a  6-4  lead  in the  bottom of the eight. Duaner Sanchez was pulled with two out and two on in the inning. On came Mets closer Billy Wagner. Wagner quickly turned a 6-4 lead into an 8-6 deficit. Wagner has been solid this year for the most part, but for all his bashing of teammates (sometimes rightly so), it looks bad to have this kind of performance. I know there will be some second guessing of Willie Randolph for this move, ("why didn't Sanchez finish the inning?...etc"). I didn't love it (at least before Wagner imploded), but it wasn't a terrible move. As has happened often this season, the Mets players just didn't perform. 

The Mets now limp out of town having been swept by a last place team. Any positive feelings  the Mets garnered  during their recent run was quickly wiped away after the lost weekend in San Diego. The team is now 7.5 back of the Phillies and reeling. The best news for Willie Randolph and the Mets players is that they are on the West Coast, far away from the angry fans at Shea Stadium.

As I have stated many times, hoping to be proven wrong, I just think the Mets are a mediocre team right now. Sadly, they  keep proving me correct.

This is for you, Mets fans....(it couldn't hurt):