Yankees have wild card while Mets have wild Oliver Perez

Maybe Jerry Manuel just didn't want his final game to end. Why else would he pull his two best hitters, David Wright and Jose Reyes, in the ninth inning, just so they could leave the field to standing ovations? It's the sort of thing you do when the game has already been decided, not when it's a 1-1 tie and neither team is generating any offense. When the game went into extra innings, the announcers soon began making comparisons to April's 20-inning game.

Sure, it didn't really matter who won or lost the game (though a Met win would have given them a tie for third with Florida instead of a second straight fourth-place finish). But the few remaining fans at Citi Field would doubtless have preferred to save their cheers for the end of the game with a walkoff win, which now had that much less of a chance of happening.

The game staggered into the 14th inning (with Reyes and Wright's lineup spots batting twice each) before Manuel decided it was time to put this miserable season out of its misery.

He brought in Oliver Perez.

For me, the highlight of the game came when Ollie actually struck out the first batter he faced and the remaining fans began a loud chant of "M-V-P!" Ollie, perhaps panicked by what he took to be increased expectations, quickly reverted to form and hit the next batter before walking the next three to force in a run.

Now the game, and season, were all but over. But Manuel had one last dubious managerial decision left. Pat Misch pitched eight innings on Friday night, but that didn't stop Manuel from bringing him back to pitch in relief on one day's rest. The way Manuel deals with injuries and injury risk, his next job really should be in football. Fortunately, it only took Misch three pitches to get out of the inning with a double play.

Now the Mets are done and I get to hear Squawker Lisa get insulted over the Yankees selling wild card t-shirts. Met fans don't even get "Tied for Third Place" t-shirts. At least we have our own postseason fireworks to look forward to, perhaps as early as Monday. Regime change can't come soon enough.

Rays give away 20,000 tickets while Mets offer empty 'Thank you'

When I first saw the ad on SNY in which the Mets collectively say, "Thank you, fans," I thought it was a promo for Fan Appreciation Day. When I saw the logo from the TV ad on mets.com, I clicked on it, wondering what gifts were in store for the few hardy souls still heading out to Citi Field as another disappointing season comes to a close. But the link only led to an opportunity to buy full-price tickets for the remaining games. Not much of a thank-you considering that tickets are available on StubHub for as little as two dollars and field level seats in a section behind the dugout can be had for $40.

Just as Rays management felt the need to do something above and beyond, Mets management should have explored ways to actually get some fannies in the seats for the final game. How about a pregame ceremony featuring some parting gifts for those we hope will soon be departing:

• For Jerry Manuel: A personalized MRI machine in honor of his eagerness to keep players in the lineup regardless of their physical condition. Jon Niese should have been shut down before the exhausted rookie could collapse down the stretch. Carlos Beltran has played just about every game since his return and now he needs to be shut down with inflammation in the knee, just to name the two most recent victims.
• For Omar Minaya: Season tickets for the Newark Bears and the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, so Omar can scout for the next Gary Matthews Jr., Mike Jacobs and Frank Catalanotto.
• For Luis Castillo: A deluxe DVD edition of "Inception," since Castillo must be living in a dream world if he thinks he is going to get a starting job anywhere else in MLB.

As for Oliver Perez, he should get to start the final game. But as he takes the mound, the public address announcer will inform the crowd that as soon as Ollie gives up a run, he will be released on the spot.

Finally, a meaningful game in October, as Perez pitches for his Met career. If he pitches a shutout, he can stick around. Maybe his problems really are all in his head, and he can still pitch like the guy who got that huge contract. Imagine the suspense if Ollie shuts down the Nationals into the late innings. Can he pull it off? Will the MLB network air the ninth inning live?

Oh, who are we kidding - Ollie won't make it through the first inning without giving up a run. Maybe the first batter. And then he'll be gone for good.

Now that's the way to say, "Thank you, fans."

What's worse for the Mets in K-Rod debacle - bad leadership or no leadership?

The Mets' approach to crisis management appears to be "better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." As newly-fervent SNY watcher Squawker Lisa writes, Jeff Wilpon and Omar Minaya have had very little to say about the Francisco Rodriguez mess.

But Squawker Lisa is not a Met fan. Are there any Met fans who seriously want to hear MORE from Minaya or Wilpon?

Jerry Manuel has had a lot to say, and he has removed all doubt about being a fool. As I wrote yesterday, Manuel would have been happy to use K-Rod in yesterday's noon game, despite his spending the night in a prison cell.

The usually quiet Carlos Beltran offered more criticism than Manuel, saying "No one should act like that."

But Jeff Francoeur, who appeared for awhile to be the team leader the Mets desperately need, removed all doubt about him being a fool when he said of the K-Rod altercation, "Maybe it's a distraction we need."

Here's a distraction the Mets don't need - Francoeur wanting a trade because he isn't playing every day. Francoeur doesn't deserve to play every day, and good luck to him finding a place that will make him a fulltime starter. I think the Mets are better off with Francoeur in the mix, but I'd rather see him gone than starting fulltime - or complaining about it.

Getting back to management, the Mets' tendency to do things half way keeps coming back to haunt them. Minaya has had his autonomy taken away from him, but he remains the GM. Manuel, one would think (and hope) is a dead man walking, but he remains the main voice of the team. Oliver Perez has effectively been deactivated, but he remains on the active roster.

The Mets need a new version of Frank Cashen - a strong, decisive, leader from the outside who knows what he is doing, someone who will restore the Mets to glory - and get Squawker Lisa to stop watching SNY for the latest Mets debacle.

Bridge to K-Rod becomes bridge to nowhere for nowhere Mets

It was almost exactly one year ago (August 15, 2009) that a Met season already in disarray took a drastic downward turn when the face of the franchise, David Wright, ended up face-down and motionless after getting beaned. Now Francisco Rodriguez is under arrest for an alleged assault on a family member in the family room at family-friendly Citi Field.

So far, K-Rod has been suspended for two days without pay. With the power of the union, a longer suspension at this point would probably run into problems. But at least the Mets could have said that they were suspending K-Rod indefinitely, then bring him back in a couple of days depending on how things developed.

And this story is still developing. Last night, it was reported that K-Rod was upset with reporters because he was not used in the eighth inning, but now it turns out that was because the altercation had already occurred.

Many have been quick to point out a pattern of confrontations with K-Rod. But confrontations with Tony Bernazard, whose temper apparently got him fired, and Brian Bruney, who apparently was the one to provoke K-Rod, and quickly backed down in the following days, do not necessarily make you the new Milton Bradley.

Still, K-Rod also had a confrontation with an older bullpen coach, Randy Niemann. And for all we know, these confrontations are underreported and there is more to them, at least the ones with Bernazard and Niemann, than we know.

Even if K-Rod had a spotless past, the alleged events of last night are bad enough.

Meanwhile, Jerry Manuel says before the game (before the suspension was announced) that he would not hesitate to use K-Rod today. Even if one did not think K-Rod should have been disciplined, it would make no sense to use a player who had apparently spent the night in a holding cell at Citi Field and has yet to be arraigned. But Manuel must not think that would affect K-Rod's performance, considering that he also said before the game that this was not a baseball matter and would not be a distraction to his team.

Even after this incident, the Mets' main issues remain the same. Manuel needs to go as soon as possible. His inability to adapt to changing situations is such that he will probably continue to obsess over who will be the eighth-inning setup man when he currently doesn't have a closer.

And his rushes to judgment will probably cause Manuel to anoint a new closer immediately, even if K-Rod is due back in a couple of days. Manuel pulled Hisanori Takahashi from the rotation after a grand total of one successful setup appearance Tuesday, only to see him falter last night. Now he's stuck with no starter for Saturday, and has actually mentioned the dreaded Ollie.

But this is one instance where I hope that Manuel goes through with one of his crazy plans. If the Mets insist on keeping Ollie on the roster, Manuel should show upper management the consequences of that decision.

I'm just glad I don't have tickets for Saturday night's game.

Keeping Perez on the team sends a message that if your contract is big enough, it does not matter what you do. Yesterday's altercation ends up being all the more reason to dump Ollie.

As for replacing Manuel, the Mets have drawn praise for giving Wally Backman a second chance and setting him up as a potential replacement that could inspire the team, excite the fans, and come cheaply. But Backman needed that second chance because of his own legal issues, including one involving a domestic incident.

Will the Mets, who tend to be publicity-conscious at the wrong times, now shy away from Backman? I hope not. If Backman deserved a second chance before, he still deserves one. But if he is going to become the new manager, appointing him now could set off a whole new round of controversy. Maybe the Mets should bring in an interim skipper instead and then hire Backman or someone else after the season.

But if the Mets want to rally a fan base that is moving from dispirited to disgusted, get rid of Manuel as now and send Ollie packing.

Judging from Squawker Lisa's excitement last night, the only people who will be caring about the Mets before too long are rubbernecking Yankee fans.

If Mets win, it will be in spite of Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya

I feel bad for Fernando Tatis and wish him well now that he has undergone shoulder surgery and is on the 60-day DL, but the fact remains that almost 1.5 of Omar Minaya's Opening Day roster consisted of players that would not make most major-league teams. It took half a year, but the Mets have finally purged the roster of Tatis, Mike Jacobs, Gary Matthews and Frank Catalanotto.

A case could be made that a pennant contender would also not have players like Luis Castillo, Oliver Perez and John Maine, who were not only on the Opening Day roster, but started the season in prominent roles.

If the Mets still had their Opening Day roster, and Ike Davis, R.A. Dickey, Hisanori Takahashi and Ruben Tejada were not on the team, they would not have gone 48-40 in the first half.

Minaya does deserve credit for finding Dickey and Takahashi. Everyone keeps getting ready to write Dickey off, but last night he kept the Mets in the game against two-time defending Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum. Imagine if Maine or Perez had been pitching instead.

Tejada improves the Mets' defense over Castillo, and when he was hitting at least a little, the Mets were winning, going something like 15-5 in the first 20 games Tejada started after Castillo went on the DL. But with Tejada in a deep slump, the nearing return of Castillo may not be the disaster that it appeared to be a couple of weeks ago.

But Perez is also nearing a return, which brings up a big difference between last year's Met team and this year's. Last year, the team and fans waited, mostly in vain, for injured players to return. But now that Carlos Beltran is back, most fans and probably the team as well are dreading the return of players like Perez.

Despite Jerry Manuel's numerous curious moves, I was ready to give him credit for the Mets' successful first half until the handling of Jose Reyes' oblique injury. The Mets appear to have forgotten the lessons learned last year about rushing players back. The organization as a whole likely shares responsibility, but it was Manuel who put Reyes in his original lineup for Thursday night's game against the Giants, because, as Metsblog reported:

"I assumed that he was ready to play…I put him in the lineup, and then [Ray Ramirez] came to me and said that there is still a bit of discomfort, even though he feels much improved, and I took him out of the lineup."

Reyes had not swung a bat since Sunday, but Manuel assumed he was ready to play. Manuel added that Reyes appeared "much better," which appears to be more wishful thinking on Manuel's part. As Metsblog writer Michael Baron wrote:

…if he’s not ready to play, i don’t think he can be 'much better' as Manuel indicates…i think it would be ok if someone simply said 'the guy is hurt, he needs time off to rest'…that really would be ok, because that would mean nobody is going to try and accelerate his return, like last year, and prolong this issue…

The Mets went through this last year and nobody lost his job. If Reyes is out any length of time, someone needs to be held accountable.

And if Reyes is out, the Mets don't have to worry about trading for some so-so starter who probably won't make an appreciable difference to a team whose big problem now is scoring runs, because the Mets will be out of the race.

The real reason Jerry Manuel visited Johan Santana on the mound in the ninth?

After Johan Santana completed his 3-0 shutout of the Reds last night, Jerry Manuel claimed that he only visited the mound in the ninth to see how Santana was feeling. From Metsblog:

Santana said, 'I want to finish it,' Manuel said, 'OK,' and, 'That was that.'

Santana's been on the Mets for 2 1/2 years and has built a reputation as someone as competitive as anyone else on the team. And Manuel still felt the need to ask him how he felt?

What did he expect Santana to say - "Better take me out, Skip. K-Rod needs his regular work"?

Manuel even admitted after the game that he would have been that much more reluctant to remove Santana since the last batter had reached on an error (by Jason Bay).

So why did Manuel bother to come out to the mound? Was he just messing with the crowd, getting them to boo when he approached the mound, then cheer when he left Johan in?

Or was Manuel starting to do his usual managing by the book, but resisting the urge to make the usual knee-jerk decision and making the right move for this game?

After Bay's error, Johnny Gomes was coming up as the tying run. Following Gomes was Drew Stubbs. Two righty hitters with power. Stubbs had just hit three homers in a game on Sunday. Going by the book would mean taking out Santana and bringing in your righty closer.

Fortunately for Santana and the Mets, Manuel threw away the book in the ninth inning last night.

*

On June 21, I wrote that it was "Way too soon to bury Johan Santana." Santana had one more lousy start after that, then has allowed only one run in 16 innings over his last two starts. I'm glad to see that Santana is looking like he can pull off one of his second-half surges.

But June 21 was also just after I wore my new Mike Pelfrey shirt to his game at Yankee Stadium. Back then, Pelfrey was looking like the ace of the staff and a sure All-Star, with an ERA of 2.39. Now that ERA is exactly one run higher at 3.39.

Squawker Lisa wore an "In Joba We Trust" shirt to that game, and Chamberlain has been struggling as well. Could it be that our Subway Series shirts are cursed? What do you think, Lisa, should we bury our shirts at Yankee Stadium next to the David Ortiz jersey?

Firing Jerry Manuel won't save season, but it's a start

The biggest problem with the Mets is not Jerry Manuel or the struggling offense. It's the starting pitching. When the Mets were winning eight in a row, the starters allowed only nine earned runs, Johan Santana was back, Mike Pelfrey looked like an All-Star, and there was optimism about the rest of the rotation, even Ollie.

Since then, Santana gave up 10 runs against Philly, Pelfrey has a 6.88 ERA in three May starts, John Maine threw the first twelve pitches out of the strike zone Saturday night, Jon Niese is hurt after his third straight poor start, giving him a May ERA of 8.76 and Perez has pitched himself out of the rotation.

The Post's Mike Vaccaro thinks it's time to fire Manuel, and it's hard to argue against that. But even if Bobby Valentine somehow rides to the rescue, this team won't get any better without a big change in the rotation. And it's not coming from Buffalo.

Dan Warthen looked like a good pitching coach during the winning streak, but now his staff is back to allowing too many walks and looking confused and frustrated. If Manuel goes, Warthen must go with him. And the teamwide batting slump means Howard Johnson must go as well. And Razor Shines, who should have been let go last year.

The two areas that Manuel has most mismanaged are the cleanup spot and the bullpen. Last year, Manuel batted over-the-hill Gary Sheffield fourth even before the wave of injuries made it a reasonable choice. This year, Manuel has been so obsessed with breaking up the righties that he has used Mike Jacobs, Frank Catalanotto and now Chris Carter in that role. But not Ike Davis.

Davis is either ready to play a big role on the Mets or he's not. You can't bat him sixth as part of the heart of the order but think he's not ready to hit cleanup.

Although Jose Reyes batting third didn't work out, I actually applaud Manuel for at least trying it out. He knew Reyes wasn't happy about it but thought that it would help the team. It was an arguable strategy, but one that was thought out and could at least be debated.

But trying out everyone who bats from the left side but not the one good lefty you've got makes no sense. If you're not going to use Davis, then stop worrying about breaking up the righties.

Sure, in a perfect world you don't want to have a bunch of righties in a row, especially when they all strike out a lot. But does Manuel really think that the opposing manager is going to change his strategy because he doesn't want to have Jacobs face a righty? Maybe that's because that's how Manuel thinks, which leads us to his biggest flaw, bullpen overuse.

Earlier today, ESPN's Buster Olney listed the most overworked bullpens. Finally, a place where the Mets are number one, with 139 2/3 innings. As Olney points out, the Mets pen has been great, with a 2.84 ERA, but he notes that Fernando Nieve is already starting to be affected by his extreme overuse.

Manuel is using Nieve and Pedro Feliciano as if he does not expect to be around later in the season when they are both burned out or worse.

Perhaps the worst thing Manuel has done as manager was during the 20-inning game, when he had Francisco Rodriguez warm up over and over again in extra innings. Frankie went on to finish April strong with an 0.84 ERA and 16 strikeouts in 10 2/3 innings, but his May ERA is 3.38 and he only has five strikeouts in eight innings. If something turns out to be wrong with Frankie, Manuel's extra-inning screwup will likely have something to do with it.

Probable replacement Bob Melvin doesn't sound like an exciting choice, especially compared to Valentine. But Manuel didn't seen exciting back in 2008, and he did spark the team for a few months.

So maybe the season isn't going down the drain quite yet. But it sure feels that way.