Chris Carter is going to play in left field. It’s always tough to get him in there with Dickey on the mound because of the fly balls.

R.A. Dickey came into Sunday’s start with a 54.1% ground ball rate.

BONUS MANUEL

Luis Hernandez pinch hit for Ruben Tejada in the ninth inning of Saturday’s game. Hernandez is 26 with an MiLB triple-slash of .255/.302/.311.  Middle infield prospect Tejada owns a .273/.343/.353 line, despite being criminally young for every level he’s played.

The Mets fined K-rod $125,000 for his actions in the family room at Citi Field after Wednesday’s bullpen blow-up loss after yet another fine performance by Jon Niese. Whatever may have happened behind closed doors, K-rod’s behavior is inexcusable. You can’t behave like that in front of your team mates and their families. I really  hope Bud Selig suspends him for his reckless behavior and the Citi Field faithful boo him more than they already do in future games.

After posting one of his best-ever line drive rates in 2009, Luis Castillo has crashed back down to Earth, hitting a career-high percentage of ground balls while hitting a career-low percentage of line drives.  The end result has been a .257 BABIP, which is about what you’d expect out of a player hitting line drives about 14.7% of the time. Castillo’s BABIP doesn’t usually stray too far from his batting average, as he pretty much always puts the ball in play; he rarely strikes out and never homers.  All told, Castillo has “produced” a .242/.336/.284/.620 line on the season.  This makes him the best hitting Mets second baseman by a fair margin this season.  For this production, Castillo will make $6 million this year.

Alex Cora is posting career-low totals in just about everything.  He’s struggling to hit above .200, he has provided no power to speak of (9 extra base hits in 187 PA), and he rarely walks.  This has produced a downright ugly .207/.265/.278/.543 line on the season.  His batted ball numbers are pretty consistent with his career lines, and yet he’s posted a career-low .226 BABIP, which does not vibe well with his line drive percentage, so it’s possible he’s due for an upturn in luck over the last two months. He’s still not going to get a whole lot better, and it’s borderline crazy that the team valued his contributions to be worth $2 million this season, with a vesting option for next season to add insanity on top of crazy.

I don’t want to rip Ruben Tejada, as he had no business being in the major leagues as a 20 year old.  He was overpromoted after injuries to Castillo and Jose Reyes forced the Mets to carry an extra middle infielder while Cora was forced into a starting role, which says more about the Mets’ depth issues in Buffalo than it does about Tejada’s own talents.  Still, it’s worth pointing out that Tejada has outhit Cora on the season with a .211/.297/.250/.547 line, though when there are several pitchers in the National League who have outhit Cora, I’m not sure if that’s anything worth bragging about.  

It is interesting to point out that despite a much better defensive reputation, it’s Tejada who has produced a negative UZR rating at second base this year, with a -1.5 in only 166 innings.  By comparison, Cora and Castillo have been about average defensively, with Cora producing a 1.3 UZR in 344 innings, and Castillo producing a 1.1 UZR in 438 innings.  Judging by my own eyes, though, I would like to see a larger sample size for both before conceding that either Cora or Castillo is a good defender.

Now that we’ve established that Castillo, Cora, and Tejada have been bad this year, let’s try to put thsi in perspective.  They are 26th in the majors in on-base percentage, thanks entirely to Luis Castillo’s batting eye, the one useful hitting skill held by a Mets’ second baseman. They are eleventh in walks, with Castillo leading the way (28 of their 42 walks came from him in roughly half their plate appearances). They are dead last in the majors in slugging percentage, ahead of only the sixth-best organization in baseball Seattle Mariners.  The Mets are the only team in baseball without so much as a single home run by a second baseman this season, and only two teams have fewer doubles this season than the Mets, which goes a long way towards explaining that league-low slugging percentage.

All told, Mets second basemen have produced a .232/.306/.289/.594 line on the season.  That .594 OPS is the worst in the major leagues at second base by over 30 points.  If you prefer more advanced statistics, their .273 wOBA, 8 points behind the 29th ranked Cubs.  That is a truly woeful wOBA.  Your eyes do not deceive you; Mets second basemen have been the worst hitting in the majors this season.  For the privilege, the Mets have paid $8 million, and are scheduled to spend another $8 million on the same cast of characters again next season.

To be fair, this isn’t the worst collective hitting performance by a team at a specific position this season.  The Mariners*, Nationals, Tigers, and Astros have had worse performances out of their catchers, the Mariners*, Astros, and Orioles have had worse performances out of their shortstops, the Mariners* and Angels have had worst performances from their third basemen, the Indians have seen their center fielders perform worse this season, and the Mariners* have gotten worse from their designated hitter spot.

* And you wonder why the #6org tag exists; that’s four separate positions where the Seattle Mariners have had worse offensive performances than 2010 Mets second basemen!

The front office simply cannot afford this type of production at second base again next season.  Most enlightened baseball fans felt that giving Luis Castillo $24 million over four seasons after the 2007 season was an unwise decision, as he was a no-power second baseman whose only skills at the time were legging out ground balls for base hits and batting eye, and he was gradually starting to lose his legs.  Today, his legs are gone and all that remains is the batting eye.  Whether it be Omar Minaya or (hopefully) somebody else, the team cannot afford to punt an entire position this badly next season.

Castillo’s profile was well-established at the time: outstanding contact hitter who uses speed to pile up infield hits; very disciplined at the plate; minimal power, but swings a stronger stick right-handed; an excellent bunter; a sure-handed second baseman with declining range. The Mets knew this and decided to lock him up anyway — until the age of 36! — when his knees threatened to deteriorate his already limited skills.

Still, I can’t help but feel sorry for Castillo sometimes — particularly, when he comes to the plate with a runner on second base. He takes his usual pitch or two or three, and generally finds himself ahead in the count. Almost on cue, one of Gary, Keith and Ron will complain about Castillo’s patience.

He takes the next pitch — either a ball or called strike on the corner.

“Luis has got to swing at that!”

Why? The man’s swung at 35.5 percent of pitches throughout his career. With that approach he’s hitting .291 with a .368 on-base percentage. That’s pretty good.

“With Castillo in the eight-hole, he’s got to look to drive in runs.”

Again, why? Luis often hits the ball so softly that he has a tough time driving in a runner in this instance. In 625 plate appearances in this situation, Castillo’s racked up 122 hits, yet has driven in just 52 runs. Meanwhile, he’s drawn 100 walks.

His mission in that situation, like in most, is to get on base. That’s what he’s always done. Castillo knows which pitches he can handle a lot better than Gary, Keith or Ron. Far be it for them, or anyone of us, to decide which pitches he should or shouldn’t swing at when he’s had a long, modestly successful career.

Look, Luis shouldn’t be on the team beyond this season. The Mets can’t suffer another year of his declining offensive production, speed and defense. But leave the man alone when he’s in the box. He knows what he’s doing.

This morning, I texted my friend Joe asking the question “So, who gets fired today?  Just HoJo or do they have the balls to fire Jerry?”  This evolved into a discussion of David Wright (as my conversations with Joe tend to do) and his streakiness.  My thoughts regarding Wright’s streakiness are that baseball players are streaky; this is not a phenomenon exclusive to David Wright.  Even Albert Pujols will have a two week stretch where he doesn’t look like the best player in baseball.  It happens.

What most sabermetrically-inclined baseball fans love about the long baseball season, its ability to sift through small sample sizes, can also work against it to some degree, as fans tend to ignore the larger sample sizes in favor of whatever the most recent sample is.  Two weeks ago, David Wright was an MVP candidate.  Today, he’s a disappointment, too streaky to be a star.  Yet, if you look at his line for the season, you see that David Wright is hitting roughly in line with what he’s done for his career.  His career slash numbers are .308/.387/.517/.904, and his slash numbers for this season are .298/.372/.504/.876.  That’s three hits, four total bases, and six times on base off of his career lines, essentially two singles, a double, and two walks, for the entire season.

That’s why it’s important to keep perspective throughout the season.  The team is never as good as they play during their best stretch (the 12-1 stretch from June 4 through June 18, when they were mainly beating up on the Orioles and Indians) and are never as bad as they play during their worst stretch (it’s hard to think that there will be a worse stretch than this 2-9 road trip).

Things will get better.  Carlos Beltran may not be the Carlos Beltran we all know and love anymore, but he’s probably not going to remain this bad.  Jason Bay is probably not this mediocre either.  Jose Reyes seems to generally be on the right path again after struggling earlier in the season.  And yes, David Wright is fine.  The Mets will not hit this poorly the entire season.  Sometimes, players slump.  It happens.  It stinks that literally every hitter is slumping right now and that Howard Johnson will probably lose his job over it, but these guys will probably turn things around soon enough.

———–

Speaking of Howard Johnson, it seems like a foregone conclusion that he will be fired today.  He may even be fired by the time I post this.  While I’m not sure a guy who tried to mess with David Wright’s swing to fit Citi Field deserves to keep his job, it does ring hollow to blame Howard Johnson for the team’s latest slump.  Sure, he’s the hitting coach, and the team isn’t hitting, but how much of that should be pinned on HoJo?  I’m sure he’s doing his job, which is to try to work out swing issues that players develop during slumps, but it’s not like hitting coaches are generally responsible for team offensive philosophies or anything.  The job of a hitting coach is a job of offering positive reinforcement and trying to offer advice when things go south.  Generally speaking, by the time hitters establish themselves in the majors, they are who they are.

More to the point, hitting coaches are hired to be fired when things go wrong.  Rick Down was fired three years ago as a warning shot to Willie Randolph after the Mets slumped big-time in June of 2007 (and for those who remember the collapse season, the team’s terrible June had as much to do with the team’s ultimate finish as its wretched September).  Firing HoJo would seem to be the same for Manuel, a sign that he will be next if things don’t shape up. 

The problem is, I don’t see how HoJo can lose his job and Dan Warthen can keep his.  Can somebody point to a single positive development of Warthen’s in the two years he’s been the Mets pitching coach?  In the time he’s been here, countless pitchers have been hurt, John Maine and Oliver Perez stopped being even league average pitchers, and other than Jon Niese, not a single pitcher has developed into anything worthwhile, while many have seemingly regressed.  And I’m not sure Warthen deserves credit for Niese; Niese learned the cutter that has helped him master right handed hitting in the minors, not under Warthen’s watch.

———–

Warthen also earns the award for “dumbest comment of the week” last week.  When asked what the rule was regarding Frankie Rodriguez’ usage on the road in extra innings and only being saved for save situations, Warthen replied, “Pretty hard and fast.  There’s minute exceptions. I think it’s standard across baseball.”

Of course, managing for the save wasn’t always standard across baseball.  The save statistic was introduced in 1969, the year of the Mets’ first World Series championship.  Now, this was ten years before I was born, so I can’t say this for certain, but I’m pretty sure that managers did not manage for the save before it was introduced, meaning that for the first 100 years that baseball was played on the planet Earth, managers would use their best relief pitcher available at their disposal at key parts of a baseball game, rather than using their worst.  In fact, until Tony LaRussa changed the way in which Dennis Eckersley was used in the late 80’s, I’m pretty sure this was still a standard part of baseball.

That’s a huge problem with Jerry Manuel, his usage of the bullpen.  He needs players in set roles, because he’s not smart enough to think outside of these set roles.  He needs an 8th inning guy to pitch the 9th inning of a tie game on the road because he saves his closer for the save situation, because “that’s baseball.”  It wasn’t baseball 40 years ago, it only became baseball when the save was introduced.  It’s appalling that Ken Rosenthal tweets that Manuel says “Wow” after Ollie Perez gets out of a 2nd and 3rd, 1 out jam in the 13th inning of a tie game on the road, because Manuel did not have to rely on his worst pitcher in the bullpen in that situation.  He chose to because of his own reluctance to break from baseball’s norms and manage for a win rather than a save.

Watching the tag team of Manuel and Warthen work their magic the past two seasons has made me reevaluate how I look at the Mets’ 2008 collapse.  At the time, I remember not wanting to blame Manuel for that collapse, because the Mets’ bullpen that season was terrible and there was little he could do.  And it’s true, there’s only so much a man can do with the likes of Duaner Sanchez, Scott Schoeneweis, and Luis Ayala, plus an inexplicably horrible Aaron Heilman.  But knowing now that Manuel is a man who thrives on roles and doesn’t thrive on thinking, was it also a self-fulfilling prophecy?  Was it that Manuel simply did not know how to properly use what he had?  Was Ayala used in so many high leverage situations in such a short amount of time because Manuel cannot manage without hard and fast roles?

Taking this a step further, we can blame Manuel’s reliance on roles for the Frankie Rodriguez signing and the J.J. Putz trade made the following offseason.  The two acquisitions gave Manuel his closer and his 8th inning guy, two guys he would be able to mindlessly slot into roles without having to think too much.  A smart manager would not need to rely on two pitchers with “proven closer” labels available for “proven closer” prices.  The money and players needed to acquire Frankie and Putz merely to placate a manager who, frankly, is not very smart, is another expense of the Jerry Manuel Era.

That’s why I got a kick out of Jerry Manuel’s passive aggressive comments a few weeks ago about the lack of eighth inning guy.  The one time Omar Minaya did bend over backwards to get an eighth inning guy (or perhaps more appropriately, was bent over backwards by Jack Z. to get an eighth inning guy), it failed spectacularly.  I hope shortly after that manager’s press conference, Omar Minaya sent Jerry a two word, seven letter text message that started with “F” and ended in “U.”

———–

Of course, I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m no fan of Jerry Manuel.  I hate his love of the sacrifice bunt.  I hate his love of the intentional walk*.  I hate his press conferences, where he offers dimwitted responses to reporters’ questions and is never called out on any of this.  He stinks, I get it.  Even if he managed a team like the Yankees or Red Sox, with little waste on the major league roster, he would still fail to efficiently use his available resources.

* Jerry called for two highly questionable intentional walks in Saturday’s debacle.  Both were sort of defensible on the surface, but not really.  One was of Garrett Anderson in the bottom of the fourth with a runner on third and one out.  Garrett Anderson has been one of the very worst players in major league baseball this season, with a .205 OBP, a .483 OPS, a .211 wOBA (a woeful WOBA if I’ve ever seen one), and a -1.1 WAR.  Shouldn’t we be pitching to him, or am I crazy? 

The other crazy intentional walk was Ollie Perez pitching around Rafael Furcal with first base open.  I’m sorry, Oliver Perez should never be put in a situation where if he allows a walk, the winning run scores.  Never mind the fact that he shouldn’t have even been in the game at that point, only a damned fool would add that level of difficulty to that situation with the game on the line.  No wonder Jerry was surprised when it worked out.  He should have been fired for that call alone.

All of that said, even if we had a good manager on this team, the roster makeup has often been untenable.  Jeff Francoeur was the worst right fielder in the major leagues before he was mercifully benched this week.  Luis Castillo’s only major league skill at this point is plate discipline; he literally brings nothing else to the table.  Alex Cora gives Garrett Anderson a run for his money for the title of “worst player in the major leagues.”  It somehow took Fernando Nieve four months to play his way off of the major league roster.  Mike Jacobs, Frank Catalanotto, Gary Matthews Jr, all of these guys somehow broke camp with jobs in the major leagues.

The point is, as JamesK has said on Twitter, Omar Minaya does not deserve the right to fire his second major league manager.  He tried that trick once.  It didn’t work.  At some point, the failures at the major league level have to fall upon him.  There’s too much waste on this team to where Omar should continue to skate for this team’s failures.  It’s time to bring in a real GM who knows how to properly evaluate major league performances and doesn’t continue to overpay for garbage that can’t contribute.  Jerry’s performance deserves a firing, no doubt, and maybe Howard Johnson’s does as well, but in the end, it’s Omar Minaya who deserves the blame for all of the empty Citi Field seats in August and September, and he’s the one who needs to go.

With Jerry Manuel almost out the door, it’s time to start looking for the next man to lead the Mets.  Bob Melvin seems to be getting the most pub out of the mainstream writers like Jon Heyman and Ken Rosenthal, but Melvin is a guy who has already failed in two other stops; what makes the Mets think he’s going to be any better the third time around?  Isn’t it time the Mets stopped hiring retreads?  Isn’t it time the Mets looked to their past?  Isn’t it time the Mets hired an ‘86 Met to manage the team?  In fact, right now managing in their minor league system, the Mets have a former 1986 Met, their second baseman from that team, so they wouldn’t even have to look very far to hire their next manager.

That’s right, the Mets should name Tim Teufel their interim manager through the end of the season.

Granted, the Binghamton Mets aren’t exactly setting the world on fire this season.  They are 51-48, good for third place in the Eastern League North.  Still, Teufel has done a good job helping along the minor league careers of Nick Evans, Reese Havens, and Kirk Nieuwenhuis and he has a good reputation in the game for helping to develop young players.  That could be a key skill as the Mets’ minor league system continues to graduate players, with Ike Davis already on the team and young stars like Ruben Tejada and Fernando Martinez in the pipeline.

Here are some other qualifications that I think make Teufel a quality candidate:

• Never hired, then fired by a major league team for serious legal and financial problems, including driving under the influence.
• Never thrown out of the 9th inning of a game where his team was winning by 13 runs for arguing balls and strikes with the umpire.
• Never a part of an embarrassing reality TV series (read while you still can, Wikipedia will probably take it down soon enough) documenting his return to managing baseball at its absolute lowest levels after being considered all but unhireable by the other 30 major league organizations in the wake of his legal/financial/anger problems.
• Never did…this.

Perhaps you are thinking “Since when is ‘not acting like a total sociopath’ an acceptable qualification for becoming a major league manager?  Millions of people every day manage to avoid acting like total sociopaths and are not qualified to be major league managers.  Heck, even Jerry Manuel manages to avoid acting like a sociopath, and he’s blatantly and unequivocally unqualified to manage in the major leagues.”

I don’t have a good answer for these hypothetical questions.  I merely support Tim Teufel’s candidacy as the next Mets manager because he’s not Jerry Manuel, and he’s not crazy.  I guess I could support Ken Oberkfell based on those grounds as well, but he never played for the Mets, and dammit, we need some history on this team.  Where else could the Mets find a former second baseman from their last championship team who manages in the system and isn’t crazy?  The answer is clear: Teufel.

Here’s a guy “hitting”.216/.274/.288, who possesses the range of SNY’s television signal last night, “earning” two million dollars for clubhouse leadership calling out his teammates in front of the media.

This is leadership?

“To be a leader for me, it’s not enough to talk all the time. You have to go out and do it yourself.”

That quote is from Jose Valentin three years ago — almost to the day — talking about the release of Julio Franco, the (then) 48-year-old pinch-hitter signed to a two-year contract for his purported clubhouse presence. Former Mets manager Willie Randolph added, “If you play, you have to produce. That clubhouse stuff is overrated.”

Major League Baseball players are a rarely-talented, gifted few with an ultra-competitive quality bred by years of trying to prove their worth. No professional ballplayer is looking to the worst player on the team for leadership. Leaders must be able to “back it up” in a way that Alex Cora – a 34-year-old utility player who’s been an irregular since 2004 – can’t.

The same holds true in all walks of life. How do you look up to someone in the same industry who isn’t nearly as good as you are? It defies reason.

 But such is life under Omar Minaya: an unreasonably expensive contract and a roster spot given to a scrub to deliver some vague ideal. Instead of assembling a team with a complete lineup, a good pitching staff and complementary bench players, he cobbles together a loose collection of superstars, journeymen, vanity projects, mistakes, scrubs and archetypes. And like clockwork, folks in Metsland find themselves having a variation of the same tired debates about “leadership”, “cohesion” and “attitude”. The team just isn’t good – end of discussion.

Alex Cora is in the wrong here and he should apologize. Assailing teammates in plain sight of the New York media, when you didn’t even play in the game, is a dick move. That’s a good way to diminish a reputation built largely on attitude and demeanor. Furthermore, the team played hard. They were just befuddled by a pitcher they never faced before. It happens.

If nothing else, Cora’s supposed to be a professional. He should have found a better way to deal with it.

Johan Santana: B

It’s hard to make sense of Johan Santana’s season so far.  He’s clearly no longer the Johan Santana that dominated the American League from 2004-2007.  He’s not the same pitcher he was for the Mets in 2008 either.  His strikeout rate has dropped steadily, to where he’s no longer striking out even six batters per nine innings, while the walkrate has jumped to where he’s issuing almost 3 per game.  His home run rate has dropped, but that could at least be partially attributed to Citi Field.  Yet he has looked dynamic the past few starts.  Was he tipping his pitches?  Has he been slow to recover from elbow surgery?  Are we going to see the old Johan Santana in the second half?  That’s a lot more question marks than you’d like for the team’s highest paid player, especially when he will likely remain the team’s highest paid player until 2014.

R.A. Dickey: B

The strange part about R.A. Dickey’s amazing resurgence this season is that it seems to be completely legitimate; it’s not being propped up by a lucky string of starts without strikeouts or walks.  He’s sporting a solid strikeout rate (6.7/9), a good walk rate (2.6/9) and a nice groundball percentage (55%).  That said, all of those rates would represent career highs for Dickey at the age of 35, which doesn’t happen too often.  He’s been a great story and I hope he can keep it up, but “hoping” and “expecting” are two different things.

Jonathon Niese: B

Niese might be the unsung hero of this Mets pitching staff.  Mike Pelfrey has gotten the headlines, Johan Santana has the ace pedigree, R.A. Dickey has the comeback story, but meanwhile, all Jon Niese has done this year is deal.  He leads the starters in K/9 with a robust 7.3, he’s walking a shade under 3 per nine, roughly one out of every two batted balls against him has been on the ground…basically, he’s done everything you’d expect an ace starter to do but without the headlines.  The only thing that kept this grade from being higher was the time he missed due to injury, but don’t be fooled; Jon Niese is the truth.

Mike Pelfrey: B-

No, Mike Pelfrey did not belong on the All Star team, though as a fan of Big Pelf, it would have been pretty cool to see him on the team.  But he’s not an elite pitcher yet; he still walks too many guys.  His last three starts, none going past the fifth inning, seemed to be more of a correction than anything else as his peripherals did not support his ERA.  Of course, he also had Alex Cora back in the infield for those past three starts, which also may explain why his hit rate jumped.  If he’s to become a legitimate staff ace, he will have to dial back on the walks.

Francisco Rodriguez: C+

At least Frankie isn’t as bad as he was last year.  I still don’t feel remotely safe with a lead in his hands, and thanks to the wording of his contract, I now root for the guy to get hurt so we won’t have to pay out that vesting option.  Let’s just move on, I don’t like talking about him.

Hisanori Takahashi: C+

High strikeout total, but it comes with a high walk total, and Taka doesn’t seem to know what a groundball is, which can lead to the ugly outing when those fly balls go over walls.  I have to think at some point, he’s going to wind up in the bullpen again, as that seems to be how team views him, but you can do worse as a #5 starter than Taka.

Pedro Feliciano: C

Having another typical Pedro Feliciano season, right down to the manager foolishly believing he can retire right handed hitters (.319/.430/.389/.819 vs RHP, .254/.309/.365/.674 vs. LHP).  The walk rate improvement from last year looks like an aberration as he’s back to walking ~4 per nine again this year, and the increase in line drive rate is worrisome (26.7% of batted balls have been line drives, when he’s been in the 15-20% range for the previous four seasons), but other than that, same ol’ Perpetual Pedro.

Raul Valdes: C-

Was strangely effective for a while there until he had a couple of bad outings and Jerry Manuel lost faith in him, shuffling him off to Buffalo.  He’s back on the roster now but only made one appearance in six games during last week’s homestand, indicating that Manuel still has no faith in him.  It’s too bad, he’s probably not a bad pitcher and is likely capable of an increased role, but in Jerry Manuel’s bullpen, you are either overworked or not worked at all with no in between, so maybe for the benefit of Valdes’ left arm in the long run, this is a good thing.

Elmer Dessens: C-

Elmer Dessens absolutely amazes me.  Not just because he’s still in the major leagues against all odds, but that somehow the absolute slop he has thrown hasn’t caught up to him yet.  I mean, how can a pitcher average under 4 strikeouts per nine innings and somehow survive in the majors?  Of course, it helps when you’re a flyball pitcher who has yet to give up even one home run after 18 innings.  Once the wind patterns start working against Elmer, expect him to be sent back to the glue factory in short order (I know, I know, that was hack stuff).

Jenrry Mejia: F

This F isn’t for Mejia, though.  It’s for the Mets front office who stupidly listened to Jerry Manuel’s begs and please to bring Mejia north with the ballclub this year, rather than allowing him to continue to refine his secondary stuff in the minor leagues.  Once Mejia proved himself incapable of seizing the job as Manuel’s 8th inning man (probably the best thing that could have happened to his arm, in retrospect), he was allowed to rot in the dungeon that is Jerry Manuel’s Bullpen Doghouse, meaning you get used whenever Manuel feels like it with no rhyme or reason.  That is no way to handle a prized prospect’s arm, and I hope Jenrry Mejia never pitchers for Jerry Manuel again.  In fact, I hope that if Jenrry Mejia ever becomes a star (and that’s only a 50/50 chance at best in this organization, despite his talents), he spends the rest of his life trying to ruin Jerry Manuel’s life.  I’m talking, I hope he takes his wife, his kids, his car, his house, his dog, everything.  He’d be completely justified after Manuel tried to ruin his career while trying to save his own.

John Maine: F

I’ll admit it; I thought Maine could come back.  I was wrong, he’s never going to be good again.  I don’t know if he was overused by Willie and then by Manuel, or if he misses Rick Peterson, or if 2007 was simply a mirage, but Maine will never pitch well in a Mets uniform again.  Time to cut the cord.

Ryota Igarashi: F

His success in Japan just hasn’t translated to the United States yet.  I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll see a better second half out of Iggy.

Oliver Perez: F – - -

For all the same reasons that I gave Alex Cora his grade yesterday, Oliver Perez gets his today.  I hope I never see him pitch in a Mets uniform again, but I know I’ll be disappointed on that front, probably sooner rather than later.

Fernando Nieve: G

There aren’t enough -’s for me to give Fernando Nieve, so he gets a G.  I don’t know how many more opportunities he deserves to prove that he sucks, but it’s apparent that he will keep getting chances because this alleged scouting organization sees something in his arm that has yet to provide results in any tangible way.

Bobby Parnell, Tobi Stoner, Sean Green, Manny Acosta – Incomplete

Parnell gets to be the next victim of Jerry Manuel’s 8th Inning Arm Destroyer System; horray for him!  Tobi Stoner was called up in the aftermath of the 20 inning game and made one appearance that you have already forgotten about.  Speaking of forgotten, who remembered that Sean Green was still on the team?  Acosta probably deserves another shot in the majors ahead of guys like Nieve, but isn’t anything to get terribly excited about, either.

So what have we not written about during the first half?  Here’s a look at the hitters today, the pitchers tomorrow, and a look into the crystal ball on Thursday as I try to predict what we might see from this team in the second half.

David Wright: A

David Wright has been awesome this year.  He’s hitting homers again, he’s hitting for average, he’s drawing walks, he’s hitting doubles, he’s flat-out hitting, period, and he’s playing a great 3B after a subpar defensive year last year.  The only nitpicks you could make about his season is the strikeouts (and I think way too much has been made about that) and he’s not stealing bases at quite the success rate we’ve seen in the past.  But those are very minor quibbles; David Wright is an MVP candidate through the season’s first 88 games.

Angel Pagan: A-

Pagan might be the team’s most unsung player.  He’s victimized because he’s not excellent in any one category, but good in many.  He’s a good defender, hits for a high average, draws a fair amount of walks, is pretty good at stealing bases, hits a decent amount of extra base hits, and has good gap power.  It’s a damned travesty that he sat for Gary Matthews Jr on opening day, and by season’s end, it will look even more ridiculous if he puts up a ~6 WAR season while Matthews slums with the Louisville Bats.

Jose Reyes: B-

I’ll admit that’s probably a generous grade, considering that Reyes played terrible for much of the season’s first six weeks.  I blame that at least a little on rust; he hadn’t played baseball in eleven months and didn’t get a spring training thanks to the thyroid condition.  As long as the oblique is healed up, I expect Reyes to push that grade into the A-range in the second half.

Jason Bay: C+

Bay has experienced a severe power drop after going from Fenway Park, a pretty good hitter’s park, to Citi Field, a pitcher’s park, though that isn’t the entire story.  His ISO dropped around 100 points this year, and it’s actually been worse for Bay on the road than at home, slugging .459 at home (still down significantly from last year) and a mere .387 on the road, with seven doubles, two triples, and three homers in 172 road plate appearances.  He’s still hitting a fair number of doubles, tied a career high in triples, and is drawing a fair number of walks, so I’m hopeful the home run power will return in the second half.  We’ll see.

Ike Davis: C+

Something that has been overlooked about Davis; he has steadily been cooling off for much of the past six weeks.  His power is very real, though, and he should wind up with 20-25 homers out of first base and has a good glove there too.  His platoon splits look strange at first glance, but give you a look at his true talent level; a .246/.336/.434/.770 line against RHP with a .281 BABIP (batting average on balls in play), and a .292/.338/.444/.782 line against RHP with a .396 BABIP.  Given Davis’ struggles against LHP in the minor leagues, it’s probably a safe bet to see the performance against left handed pitchers drop like a brick in the second half, and his good batting eye and power should eventually pay off against right handed pitchers.  He’s probably up too early, and should have been given another 2-3 months to master lefties in the minors, but given the options (continuing to start Mike Jacobs at 1B) he was the team’s best option.

Henry Blanco: C

Blanco has been a perfectly acceptable backup catcher.  He’s probably a better option to start than Rod Barajas, or at least push a more equitable time share, but he’s also old and injury prone, and may not be capable of playing more.  Still, he reminds me of Ramon Castro, and considering how much I loved Ramon Castro, that’s a good thing.

Rod Barajas: C-

I am being a bit generous here; Barajas has been absolute ass other than a shockingly impressive May.  You can’t discount the hot month completely, but his April and June months have been more in line with what Barajas has done for his career.  Josh Thole is probably a better hitter than Barajas right now, but it’s questionable if the front office will push Thole into a full-time role, especially since Barajas gets so many compliments on how well he handles the pitching staff.

Luis Castillo: C-

Castillo has been an albatross around this team’s neck for almost three years now.  That Castillo was considered one of the bright spots of 2009 speaks for how hopeless much of last season truly was.  He plays a lousy second base, he runs with a limp, and doesn’t even have doubles power (one double and two triples in 174 PA).  His only real skill is pitch recognition and his ability to draw walks.  The Mets simply cannot afford to bring him back as the starting baseman in 2011, the remaining $6m they owe him be damned.

Chris Carter: D

Carter probably isn’t very good, as his defensive limitations make him a strict left-handed pinch hitter.  He’s got decent power off the bench, and his low walk rate may be a result of his primary position of pinch hitter/DH for much of the season resulting in a more aggressive approach.  Still, doesn’t it feel like the Mets should have gotten more for Billy Wagner than a league average pinch hitter?  The Red Sox got two first round picks for him, and they only had Wagner for six weeks.

Jeff Francoeur: D-

Jeff Francoeur is simply not good at baseball.  He has only 24 extra base hits despite playing a premium power position.  Everybody knows he doesn’t draw walks, and he doesn’t hit for a high enough average to cover for it.  His range in right field isn’t that good, with his good arm being his only defensive asset.  He has a few specific tools (decent OF arm, good vs. LHP) that point towards him being a reserve and nothing more.  He should only be starting when Carlos Beltran, not Angel Pagan, needs time off.

Fernando Tatis: D-

Tatis’ BABIP this season is .227, which is almost unfathomably low for a guy who has generally been a good bench hitter over the years.  I think he’ll be better in the second half, but it’s probably no guarantee.  There’s a good possibility that he’s completely finished.

Gary Matthews, Jr: F

Seriously, screw this guy for getting even 65 plate appearances.  Pagan deserved every last one of those PAs.

Ruben Tejada: F

Tejada’s great defense at 2B isn’t enough to make up for his anemic bat, but it’s not his fault.  The kid is only 20 years old, he’s only been alive for one Mets division title for crying out loud.  He belongs in the minor leagues, but was called up due to a lack of second base options when Castillo went down.  Give him credit for treading water at first, but god bless the guy, he needs way more time in the minor leagues.

Alex Cora: F – - – - – -

F as in “FAIL.”  F as in “FANTASTICALLY TERRIBLE AT THE GAME OF BASEBALL.”  F as in “F*** THAT VESTING OPTION.”  Yeah, I’m not an Alex Cora fan and I continue to be appalled that Omar Minaya would include such an easy to obtain vesting option for a player who has never been much better than replacement level.  It is a puzzling way to use resources.

Mike Jacobs, Frank Catalanotto, Jesus Feliciano, Josh Thole, “Nasty” Nick Evans: Incomplete

Jacobs and Catalanotto were both thankfully cut before I could hand them their F’s.  Feliciano was a good story, making it to the majors for the first time at age 31, but failed to show that it had been a mistake for him to have spent so many seasons in the minors.  Josh Thole should probably be the starting catcher right now, and it will be interesting to see when, or perhaps if, they decide to pull the plug on Barajas.  Nasty Nick has had two plate appearances in the majors this season, but he remains a Blue and Orange favorite as I will take credit (perhaps wrongly so) as having discovered the guy and will continue to champion him.

Whoops – I forgot one incomplete.

Carlos Beltran: Incomplete

Welcome back to the major leagues, Carlos.  You’ve been missed.  If you’re able to perform anywhere near your past levels, you suddenly make this lineup a whole lot more potent and give this team hope.  You could be the difference for the 2010 Mets.

“Open Mic” will be something of a recurring thing, so we look forward to seeing everyone again soon.

We appreciate everyone who came out to River last night.  Here’s a song that expresses our appreciation.