Fury

Oh, for Christ's sake.

NEW YORK -- Despite all the expectations, the what-ifs and the could-have-beens, Mets CEO Jeff Wilpon managed to muster a few positives Sunday on the final day of his team's 2008 season.

"I think we overachieved based on what we had," Wilpon said ...

"I think we underachieved last year, and I think we overachieved this year," Wilpon said. "Look who our second baseman was. Look who our left fielder was. Look who was in our bullpen. No Billy Wagner, no John Maine. You can go right down the list of what happened."

And so the Mets, Wilpon insisted, had succeeded simply by being in playoff contention on the season's final Sunday. Though he stopped short of lauding manager Jerry Manuel, saying he needed first to discuss the issue with general manager Omar Minaya, Wilpon indicated that he was quite pleased with the bulk of his uniformed personnel ...

The Mets might not see any momentous personnel changes between now and April, but that's not grounds for pessimism.

So when asked if the Mets are planning on making any significant changes in the coming months, Wilpon simply grinned.

"We are," he said. "We're moving to a new ballpark."

How could Fred Wilpon have made so many millions of dollars in real estate while simultaneously producing a human being so tone-deaf and out of touch? How can you say something like this just hours after the second straight mortifying collapse to end your franchise's season? When is someone finally going to lock Jeffy in the converted luxury suite/ apartment that Daddy made for him so he can stop embarrassing himself and his family?

If this the type of thinking we can expect from the man allegedly in charge of baseball operations, then as fans we may as well just burn this entire franchise to the ground. Hey Sonny Boy, who gave guaranteed contracts to the second baseman (Luis Castillo) and the left fielder (Moises Alou) that you're referring to? Better yet, who counted on Orlando Hernandez to be the #5 starter or signed Marlon Anderson a two-year deal in the offseason? Who put together this $138 million band of "overachievers" that suddenly stopped overachieving in mid-September for the second straight year?

The guy you're about to give a four-year contract extension to, that's who.

Oh, and Billy Wagner was actually on the active roster for four months, Jeffy, and he led the league in blown saves while he was trying to close out games. John Maine only missed the final month of the season, and the Mets went with a four-man rotation nearly half of the time. Why are you making excuses for these losers?

It looks like the manager is coming back, too, although Jerry Manuel's return is far more justifiable than Omar Minaya's. No changes from above, and now the owner's kid is saying not to expect many changes from below either. Exactly what, then, is going to prevent this particular trend from continuing?

2007 Mets: 5-12
2007 Phillies: 13-4

2008 Mets: 7-10
2008 Phillies: 13-3

Disgrace

The 2008 season ended in fitting fashion - at the hands of a bullpen that has more blood on its hands than Lady MacBeth.

If Jerry Manuel made one mistake today, it was in believing that Scott Schoeneweis could get a right-handed batter out when Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez inevitably pinch-hit for Jacobs leading off the eighth inning. He obviously wasn't going to get the lefty-lefty matchup that he wanted; should Manuel have simply let Brian Stokes face Jacobs and take his chances? Well, the result tells us that Stokes couldn't have done any worse.

Then it was Luis Ayala, whose batting practice 3-2 fastball ended up in the bleachers courtesy of Dan Uggla. At that point it was time to offer silent prayers to the God who has ignored us so many times before and hope that somehow, the Cubs would find a way to outlast the Brewers. Minutes later Ryan Braun hit a two-run homer to give the Milwaukee the lead; don't expect to see me in church anytime soon.

So it's over now, with the death blow delivered by the Florida Marlins for the second straight season. Blood should flow throughout the concourses of Citi Field this off-season, from the general manager's office all the way down to the home team's clubhouse. Massive change is badly needed, but with the Wilpons inexplicably leaking word of a four-year extension fpr Omar Minaya earlier this week, there's little reason to believe that such massive change will take place.

This isn't Jerry Manuel's fault, of course, but he probably has to go too. Any reminders of the horrors we've seen over the last two years must be completely scrubbed out, and that includes the job of a man who really deserves better. Manuel will land on his feet; he deserves a shot at one of the vacant managerial jobs in the off-season.

As for me, I'd still love to see Bobby Valentine or Wally Backman given the manager's chair, but the Wilpons will probably hand the job over to a retread with a recognizable name and a timid personality. This is a loser franchise, after all, and they will surely go for another loser instead of taking a chance on someone who might upset the apple cart while winning ballgames.

There can be little to complain about with Oliver Perez's performance, even though he probably shouldn't be asked to return next season. He was simply brilliant for five innings, and economical enough that he could've easily lasted eight innings if he remained effective. Cameron Maybin's double to lead off the sixth came on a 1-2 pitch at the conclusion of a tough at-bat, and the Marlins dunked in two straight singles that were really more about fortuitous placement than getting good wood on the ball.

Manuel was right to go to Joe Smith when he did, with one out and the bases loaded in the sixth inning. The 1-1 pitch to Josh Willingham was a strike, but that doesn't excuse the next two pitches that were clearly out of the strike zone. Smith made the best of a bad situation after that, getting a pop up and a ground out to get out of the inning. The game was going to be in the hands of The Arson Squad at that point, and we all knew what that was going to mean.

My only other quibble was starting Ryan Church in right field, who has looked terrible this weekend and for large portions of the second half of the season. He looked completely lost at the plate again today, striking out in his first three at-bats, and Church brought nothing to the table that couldn't have been replaced or improved by Endy Chavez or even fan favorite Daniel Murphy.

Then again, Nick Evans made a rookie mistake by throwing to third on Mike Jacobs's deep fly ball to left, and that may have indirectly led to second run of the sixth inning. There are people don't understand why the Mets would shop for a natural left fielder after the season. They think that a platoon of Murphy and Evans should suffice.

What those people do not undertsand is that an infielder's instincts are not easy to overcome and do not automatically translate to the outfield. If you have any doubt about that, look at the play Chavez made to reel in the third out of the seventh inning. Is there any doubt that ball would've sailed over the head or Evans or Murphy and driven in the go-ahead run for the Marlins?

That's not a knock on either rookie, each of whom may have a place on the 2009 Mets anyway. Murphy has spent most of his professional career at third base, while Evans has mostly played first. It's not enough to go out and read Outfield Fundamentals for Dummies; a true outfielder understands that the ball absolutely must go to second base there, to keep the baserunner on first and allow the pitcher an opportunity to get a double play.

If Evans throws to the right base after corralling that first out, Perez might have been left in the game to face Dan Uggla, who has struggled mightily this season against left-handers. Uggla has only grounded into 10 double plays this season, but he has also struck out over 170 times and would've been a great match-up for Perez. It's all academic now, but the simple act of having to play two rookie infielders out of position for so much of the season had a profound effect on this game.

As for me, I don't know when I'll be able to come back to this blog again. It is a catalogue of failure, six months of abject failure, and there is no other way to look at this lost season. I have had my heart ripped out of my throat by this baseball team for three straight years now, and I don't know how or why I'm supposed to come back for more. Perhaps the closing of Shea Stadium closes a chapter of my life even more completely than I could've ever imagined.

I just don't see how much longer this relationship can continue.

Once Again, Nice and Slow ...

Playoff teams win games like these. I've been taking shots here for the last 48 hours by making one simple declaration - the New York Mets do not deserve to make the playoffs this season. After another embarrassing loss tonight and after having lost 7 of their last 11 games, who could possibly argue otherwise?

Baseball Prospectus has a sortable Run Expectancy Matrix on their site, which highlights just how profoundly the Mets failed tonight once Oliver Perez left the game in the fifth inning. The Mets got the leadoff runner on base on five straight occasions, between the fifth and the ninth innings. The REM shows that the average team in 2008 can expect to score 6.83 runs in those situations. The Mets scored one run. Tell me again why this team deserves to be in the postseason?

As for Ollie, he was just awful. I haven't even addressed the looming specter of Omar Minaya's undeserved four-year extension yet, but if it's true and the Mets are stuck with Minaya until 2012, my first request is that he lets Perez walk in the off-season. No one was asking for a repeat of Johan Santana's wonderful performance last night, but I don't think a quality start is too much to ask from a guy who thinks he deserves a multi-year deal averaging at least $10 million a season.

Four games to go and the Mets are still trailing the Phillies by 1.5 games. The Brewers have pulled even in the race for the Loser's Prize. What fresh horrors await Met fans this weekend? I don't even want to think about it.

Why Whine Over Wagner?

Has a season-ending elbow injury to a playoff contender's All-Star closer ever seemed less anti-climactic?

Billy Wagner's Met career is over, unless he's willing to take a one-year, incentive-laden deal for 2010. (Wagner has talked before about retiring from baseball at the end of his Mets deal, but I don't think he'll allow his career to end like this.)

Well, Jimmy crack corn, and I don't care. The Mets bullpen hadn't given up a run in its last 22 innings before Philadelphia tacked one on at the end of last night's win. The Mets are 22-11 since Wagner last pitched on August 2. Despite the odds being against them, the Mets are not only surviving, but they are also thriving.

Now look, it's obviously not a good thing that Wagner is out for this season and all of 2009. He's still the best reliever in the Mets' bullpen by a country mile (pun intended). The Mets' bullpen is still a carnival sideshow these days, hot streak notwithstanding. The Mets may well hold off the Phillies to win the division, but I find it very hard to believe they can win a playoff series without a legitimate reliever in the bullpen.

(Notice I didn't say a "legitimate closer," because that underestimates the state of the Mets' bullpen now. A closer is important in today's game, but it's much more important to have several multi-inning relievers who can get lefties and righties out at a reasonable rate.)

Wagner wasn't bad as a Met; he saved 101 games and kept an ERA under 3.00 in all three seasons. But his WHIP in 2006 and 2007 was in the 1.100 range - far behind his performance in six of the seven previous seasons and a strong indicator that Wagner's most dominant days were behind him. That's the problem with signing closers in their mid-30s - you're paying for past performance, and it's extremely likely that the future performance won't match up.

He also blew seven saves this season and has developed a reputation among Mets fans for being unreliable in big games. I generally don't put much stock in playoff stats - sample size is a very big issue - but Wagner has a career 9.58 postseason ERA and has given up runs in six of 11 appearances. Mets fans won't soon forget how poorly he pitched in 2006 against St. Louis, blowing Game 2 and very nearly blowing Game 6.

The Mets will survive without Wagner, one way or the other. Now the question is this - who is the closer, both short-term and long-term? Luis Ayala's high-wire act will continue for the rest of the season, with Brian Stokes perhaps next in line if Ayala regresses to the mean. It is a scary thought - the Mets with a one-run lead and three outs to go to clinch a playoff series, and here comes Ayala or Stokes out of the bullpen to try to nail things down. At this point, what else can you do? Pray hard, my friends - and not for an oil pipeline in Alaska.

Long-term, Luis Ayala is not your closer. The Mets will unfortunately go out and invest too many years and too much money in a closer in the off-season, because that's what they do. The Mets never groom young guys to take over for the many overpriced veterans who leave the team with a fork sticking in their back. Why not have an open competition in spring training and see which reliever is ready to claim the job? Because that doesn't sell copies of the Daily News.

I am honestly starting to belief that Little Jeffy goes out and buys a few packs of baseball cards, and then directs the general manager to go out and sign the first free agent that isn't stuck to a piece of bubble gum. I guess that means I have to hope that the Francisco Rodriguez cards are under-produced by Topps this off-season. Not much chance of that!