Alert the printing press. Someone's gonna need some new business cards. (The Associated Press.)
There have been a couple positives for Mets fans the last few weeks. Dillon Gee continues to pitch better than anyone could have expected. Ike Davis is finishing the season like the player everyone thinks he's been all season. Lucas Duda has started to hit and may be the best Mets name to chant since J.J. Putz. (Though let's be honest, people yelled a lot of things when Putz was on the mound for the Mets. His name was not among them.)
All good things.
But I'd argue the best thing to come out of the last several weeks seems to be the growing consensus that Omar Minaya will have a new job title by the time Thanksgiving rolls around.
We've basically known Jerry Manuel would be gone at season's end, but Minaya's always been a bit of a mystery, considering he's got a couple years of contract left. But more and more, the word from those around the Mets seems to indicate front-office shakeup.
Again, all good things.
Minaya will remain employed and he should. He does have valuable opinions. But he hasn't put a winning team on the field the last two seasons and given the money he spent, he should have. He hasn't created a disaster -- I continue to point out to a lot of skeptics that the Mets have a legitimate chance to be a .500 team at season's end. 80 wins is probably more likely, but still -- but with the Wilpons seemingly unlikely to invest the additional capital to fix this team's holes and cover for its bad investments, the Mets are probably a year away.
Someone else deserves the opportunity to take them there.
But who?
Kevin Towers is out after taking the Arizona gig. The guy he beat out is a candidate in former pitcher Jerry DiPoto, who not only is local (Jersey Shore) but had a decent run as interim D'backs GM, landing the impressive Daniel Hudson for Edwin Jackson. Rangers GM Jon Daniels has done a good job in Arlington and apparently can get free, so he'd make an ideal though somewhat longshot candidate. Other veteran names are available as well.
Surely, the list will be narrowed in the next couple weeks and we get a better read on the candidates. But if I were lean one way or the other, I'd put a younger baseball mind in charge of the Mets' larger-than-most checkbook. Remember, this guy will most likely have to look to 2012 and beyond. Imagine the Mets investing in their development system the way teams like Tampa Bay have been forced to due to market disparity and pairing it with the ability to also land the big name. It could be a dangerous combination.
I'm not saying a more established name wouldn't be able to follow that strategy. I'm merely saying I'd look to the prototype that already is.
*****
Well, it's Sunday and that can only mean one thing... yup, I got guilt-tripped by my father about not offering Random Thoughts last week. As I've alluded to recently, my work responsibilities have changed drastically (read: increased drastically) over the last few months and it has kept me away from the blog. Thankfully, it overlapped with the Mets falling into oblivion, so the timing was at least passable. But as the Mets likely head into a very newsworthy early-October, it's time to ramp it up.
No time like the present.
Don't Wait: That actually leads me to my first point. If the Mets are going to shake up the front office, do not wait. We should wake up next Monday morning to the announcement of an afternoon press conference at Citi Field. "Jerry won't be retained. Omar has been reassigned."
There is no need for high-ranking meetings. There is no need for deliberation. Really, the only reason they should wait is if they want to have Omar meet them on the West Coast Monday night and axe him at 3 a.m. EST.
Other than that spiteful option (which wouldn't really work since the Wilpons have blood on their hands for the Willie Randolph botched firing too), don't leave Jerry hanging. Don't leave Omar hanging.
Most importantly, don't leave the fans hanging.
Torre Time? I don't think it will happen. But I think it would be fine. I understand the desire for a fiery sort -- the type of manager fans always beg for when the team disappoints. A fiery manager is only below the backup quarterback on the list of top fan wishes.
But there's something to be said for respect too. And no matter how laid back he is these days, Torre would command respect.
Then again, the manager wasn't the problem this season and manager don't make that big of a difference anyway. The GM decision could be more important in this case.
Though the manager might help sell a few tickets...
Bobby V's Return? Which leads me to the resurgent Bobby Valentine rumors. Bringing back the ever-popular Bobby V would be the kind of move the Mets could really market. (Not that Torre isn't marketable too.)
I don't see the Wilpons going back down this road. But this is one rerun I wouldn't mind watching.
What In The Blue Plaid Hell Is That? Baseball purists, shield your eyes. The aforementioned Tampa Bay Rays have unveiled a new batting practice cap that incorporates the plaid scheme they wore on blazers for a recent road trip. Something along the lines of this:
I'm happy plaid has made a comeback, but...
Let's be honest. They're still better looking than the white Stars and Stripes caps from this summer.
Did You Go? This is a really, really random thought, but it struck me while watching a commercial during one of Saturday's sporting events. Does anyone actually go to GoDaddy.com to see what happens next?
Sobering Starters: Do you realize that with Johan Santana unlikely to be ready to start 2011 that if Stephen Strasburg hadn't also required surgery, the Mets would have possibly had the weaking Opening Day rotation in the NL East?
Without Strasbug, I'll roll with Mike Pelfrey, Jon Niese and some combination of R.A. Dickey, Dillon Gee, Jenrry Mejia, Hisanori Takahashi and Inexpensive Free Agent over what the Nationals can produce. But with the Phils, Braves and Marlins, it's unfortunately not that easy.
Manuel Milestone: Congrats to Jerry Manuel on his 200th victory as a Met and 700th overall. How strange is it that Manuel had exactly 500 career wins prior to managing the Mets? With a full week to play, I suspect he won't complete his Mets career with such a round number.
At least I hope not.
Recent Pop Culture Grades: Seen a lot of new shows and a new movie recently. Here's some rapid-fire grades:
Boardwalk Empire: A. Exactly what you'd hope for from this team.
The Town: B+. It takes a lot to screw up a heist film. And Ben Affleck doesn't even come close to doing so.
The Event: C. Not nearly as interesting a pilot as it seemed to believe it was. Will need to do a lot more soon in order to avoid the dreaded "Cancel Recording" on the DVR.
The Apprentice: D. Celebs made it "guilty-pleasure" interesting. Without celebs, it merely reminds me how much I dislike wannabe reality stars.
The Ultimate Fighter: B-. My dislike, however, does not necessarily carry over to wannabe UFC fighters. Will be hard to top the Kimbo season, but that one's out of reach anyway. A few good fights and some hijinks go a long way with this show.
Also very excited to be mere hours away from the return of Kenny Powers.
Whining About Wine: You'll have to forgive me if the new fall television slate has clearly dulled the outrage I should be feeling over the Mets honoring Bobby Cox before his final game in Flushing last weekend. Seriously? This is something to be upset about?
If this were WWE, Henry Blanco would have ended the ceremony by smashing the bottle of wine over the Braves skipper's head. (Photo by The Associated Press.)
First and foremost, I refuse to even entertain the idea of killing the Mets for this when we continually kill them for being unsavvy in their media dealings. We can't then kill them when they do the right thing. One team -- ONE TEAM! -- hasn't presented Cox with a gift in his last series in their city. It was the Marlins. And they were criticized for it. And while the Mets heard some complaints from some fans whose wounds from the 90s are clearly longer than the time it takes Cox to stroll back to the clubhouse after one of his frequent ejections, they weren't lumped into the same class with the ever-cheap Marlins. And that's a good thing.
But more to the point, the gift isn't for beating the Mets a whole lot. It's for enjoying a long and distinguised career. An inability to honor that would say more about the team's own shame about its past and less about their longtime nemesis.
But if in order to sleep well tonight, you need a rock-solid defense for the Mets' decision to honor the hated Atlanta Braves skipper, have no fear. I've got you covered.
This wasn't about honoring Cox. The Mets were just using him to get free press for Tom Seaver's wine.
There. Does that help?
