The Mets Are Not Like a Box of Chocolates

Sandy Alderson joked Wednesday that he should have sent Jose Reyes a box of chocolates. Forrest Gump's mother compared life to a box of chocolates because you never knew what you were going to get. But with the Mets, we now know what we're going to get. And it's not good.

Earlier today, the David Wright trade speculation was interrupted by a rumor that the Mets were shopping Ike Davis. Are Met faces of the franchise turning into Spinal Tap drummers?

Now Jon Heyman is tweeting that Jon Niese is on the block. If Niese goes, he could set a record for shortest tenure as one of the players pictured at the start of SNY telecasts. (Then again, considering that Jason Bay has also joined the opening montage, maybe SNY should just open their Mets programming with pictures of Shake Shack.)

Last week, ESPN's Keith Law ranked the top 50 players age 25 or under. No Mets made the list. But one Met was mentioned among those who just missed being in the list - Niese.

Supposedly, the Mets are getting younger and building for the future with a focus on pitching. One would think that they would want to hold on to a well-regarded homegrown young lefthander who has already shown that he can pitch in New York.

This is not to say that Niese should be untouchable. But if it turns out that the Mets are trading him for even younger players just to avoid having to go to arbitration with him in a year means the Mets are turning into the Oakland A's, who are desperately trying to trade young pitchers like Gio Gonzalez because they can't afford to keep anybody. Not what we thought we were getting with Moneyball East.

Meanwhile, Matthew Cerrone talked to an agent who speculated that the Marlins would trade Reyes to the Yankees once Derek Jeter's contract is up. And the Post's Kevin Kernan speculated that David Wright could eventually replace Alex Rodriguez at third for the Yankees.

I remember when Met and Yankee fans debated over which team had the best left side of the infield. It would be intolerable to see both Reyes and Wright reunited in the Bronx.

Sure, it's a worst-case scenario, but who would have thought that Darryl and Doc would win more rings with the Yankees than with the Mets?

Despite it all, I'll continue to root for the Mets. But I'm beginning to wonder if that's because, to use another quote from Forrest Gump's mother, stupid is as stupid does.

The Jose Reyes Debacle: Don’t Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It’s Raining

The Mets have allowed a homegrown superstar to leave in the prime of his career. It's one of the darkest days in the history of the franchise, and yet the rationalizing has begun:

The Marlins overpaid for Reyes. So what? Big-market teams keep their superstars. Big-market teams laugh at the notion of the Marlins outbidding them. But the Mets are no longer functioning as a big-market team.

Besides, it’s debatable just how much Reyes is being overpaid. For all the talk about “Carl Crawford money,” Reyes came nowhere near the Red Sox outfielder’s $142 million deal. Yes, six years is a long contract to give Reyes, but if you’re willing to give him five, and an extra year gets it done, a big-market team gets it done. Sure, you have to stagger your potentially bad contracts in a way the Mets have not done up to now, but if the front office is as smart as everyone says they are, that’s certainly doable.

Reyes can’t stay healthy. Some people treat Reyes as if he’s Fernando Martinez – someone who has never been able to stay on the field. Yet from 2005-8, Reyes was practically an ironman. He led the majors in at-bats in 2005 and 2008 and finished second in 2007. In the other year, 2006, Reyes played in 153 games and had 647 AB.

After losing most of 2009 to injury, Reyes played in 133 games in 2010 and 126 in 2011, making the All-Star team both years.

Yes, Reyes comes with injury risk, but that risk was factored into his new contract. A completely healthy Reyes might well have gotten Carl Crawford money. If you project Reyes to miss a month every year and offer him 1/6 dollars less as a result, you end up with around what the Marlins gave him.

Mets management has a good long-term plan. Last year, all we heard was how the Mets needed to get out from under the $60 million in payroll that was coming off the books after 2011 from the expiring contracts of Reyes, Carlos Beltran, Francisco Rodriguez, Oliver Perez, and Luis Castillo. I praised Sandy Alderson for cutting his losses with Perez and Castillo, getting out of K-Rod’s 2012 vesting option and landing Zack Wheeler for Beltran. I also praised him for not trading Reyes at the deadline, which I took as a sign that the Mets planned to make a good-faith effort to keep him.

But during the season, the payroll estimates for 2012 kept going down. Now Alderson is talking about a $100 million payroll. Yes, teams can succeed with that size payroll, but not with Johan Santana and Jason Bay taking up 40% of it.

So now we’ll probably be told we have to wait until Santana and Bay are off the books. And, just like this year, rather than offer a chance to reinvest in the franchise, it will produce an even lower payroll. $80 million? $60 million?

Alderson says he wants to build a strong business model. He says the Mets must cut payroll because they lost $70 million last year. He also says the Mets’ woes have nothing to do with Bernie Madoff.

But how exactly did the Mets lose $70 million last year? How is it that other teams such as the Marlins are able to increase payroll as a result of moving into a new stadium, while the Mets end up hemorrhaging profits and attendance?

What sort of business model has you devaluing your product and discarding your top gate attraction?

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Meanwhile, the Mets have just put holiday five-game ticket packs on sale. These discounted tickets mostly feature games during the week with teams that are not big draws. You won’t find Opening Day or the Subway Series here.

But the marketing department's thankless task just got a little easier. One pack includes the first visit of the new-look Miami Marlins. The other two games in the late April series turn up in other packs.

Wonder how long it will take the Mets to realize that they are offering discounts on games that are likely to produce three of the few big crowds they can expect to draw next year.

The Carlos Beltran Trade: Mets Rebuild Without Entering Rebuilding Mode

In March, the New York Post's Joel Sherman correctly predicted that the Mets would trade a core star at the deadline for a top pitching prospect. Only Sherman thought it would be Jose Reyes for the Reds' Homer Bailey. Instead, on the day the Carlos Beltran deal became official, the new-look Mets scored nine runs off of Bailey.

Who would have predicted last spring that the Mets would be able to use Beltran, still trying to come back from knee surgery, to land a top pitching prospect? That the debt-ridden Mets would be able to throw in four million dollars in the deal? And that the Mets would hold on to Reyes with increased hope of re-signing him?

Almost every sportswriter last spring thought Reyes was a goner. ESPN's Buster Olney thought that the "Mets will seek ‘power arms,’ in a deal for Reyes, and says the Giants will be interested."

Reyes may yet leave the Mets. There is no guarantee that Wheeler will pan out. A few years ago, many considered Bailey one of the top two pitching prospects in baseball. The other one was Phil Hughes. While it's too early to write off Bailey or Hughes, both have been disappointments so far relative to expectations.

Beltran, underrated and underappreciated as a Met, is irreplaceable with the current roster.

But Beltran, 34 with bad knees, is not part of the Mets' future, especially as a Scott Boras client. Even if the Mets had no money issues, should they have given Beltran the kind of money and years Boras will demand?

Madoff or no Madoff, it would have still made sense to do what the Red Sox did with stars like Pedro Martinez and Johnny Damon - let them go while they still had something left, but bring back top prospects with which they could retool. With the supplemental pick the Red Sox received for Pedro, they drafted Clay Buchholz. One of the picks they got for Damon turned out to be Daniel Bard.

If the Mets had kept Beltran, they would not have gotten any draft picks. But getting a top prospect was even better. As risky as prospects are, draft picks are even riskier. Better to get a top-ten pick from a couple of years ago, who has had a chance to show in professional ball that his reputation is deserved. Someone like Wheeler, the sixth pick in 2009.

But if Reyes had been traded at the deadline, it would not have mattered how many Zack Wheelers the Mets got back. The Mets would have been in full rebuilding mode.

Last year, the Padres almost won the NL West. Then they traded Adrian Gonzalez in the prime of his career. The Padres supposedly got a great haul of prospects from the Red Sox. Maybe those prospects will pan out one day. But today, the Padres are in last place, 14 games under .500, while Gonzalez is a top contender for AL MVP.

If the Padres get lucky, Anthony Rizzo, the first base prospect obtained from the Red Sox in the Gonzalez trade, will turn out to be another Gonzalez. But then, as he approaches free agency, the Padres will have to trade him.

This spring, the Mets looked like they were turning into the Padres - a low-budget team with little hope of contending on a regular basis. The future is still uncertain, but with both Reyes and Wheeler in the organization, it looks a lot brighter than it did just a few months ago.

Mets' First Half: From Clawback to Claw

At the start of the season, the Mets appeared to be going down the drain - both on and off the field. At the All-Star break, things look better - both on and off the field. But is optimism justified, or merely a product of lowered expectations?

The dominant Met story last winter was Irving Picard's clawback lawsuit hanging over the franchise. As a result, Jose Reyes looked to be a goner.

As for the players, Johan Santana was out indefinitely, Carlos Beltran was a part-time player who could no longer play centerfield and Jose Reyes had to prove he could stay healthy.

Now Reyes has come back stronger than ever, and the trade of Francisco Rodriguez increases the odds of Reyes remaining a Met. The future remains uncertain, but at least the outlook is brighter than in the spring. And who would have predicted that Beltran would play in almost every game and make the All-Star team?

Along with the trade of K-Rod, another off-the-field bright spot was the announcement that David Einhorn will invest $200 million in the franchise and become a minority shareholder.

However, Fred Wilpon's ill-advised comments denigrating Reyes, Wright and Beltran and warning of huge losses and payroll cuts temper hope that the franchise is headed back in the right direction. The clawback lawsuit is still out there. And Einhorn's deal has not been finalized yet.

While it would be nice to eventually begin a Mets' half-season in review without mentioning finances, it would be even nicer to not have to mention misdiagnosed injuries to star players. Unfortunately, David Wright played for a few weeks with a back fracture and Ike Davis was told to wear a protective boot that ended up making his ankle worse.

But, as mentioned above, Beltran has been healthy and Reyes was healthy before getting hurt earlier this month. Reyes is due back soon and the injury is said to be minor, though with the Mets' history, we won't know for sure until he is back on the field.

While the Mets have had bad injury luck with Wright and Davis, the same can't be said for Chris Young, who was the Mets' best starter at the beginning of the season before he went down for the year. The only reason the Mets were able to sign Young in the first place was that he was such an injury risk. Nobody could reasonably expect both Young and Chris Capuano to make it through the season healthy and productive. And the severity of Santana's injury makes any expectations for him a longshot.

Capuano, though, has been a pleasant surprise, and Sandy Alderson also came through with Rule 5 pickup Pedro Beato. Scott Hairston has had some dramatic homers off the bench and as a backup.

Alderson did not do as well with the other Rule 5, Brad Emaus, who quickly showed he didn't deserve the second base job. Blaine Boyer also didn't make it out of April. D.J. Carrasco was sent down, but did return.

Justin Turner has been a good addition, but Alderson can't take credit for him - Omar Minaya acquired Turner last year.

While the Mets hitting has been better than expected, this remains a punchless team without Wright and Davis. And Jason Bay has cooled off again after his recent hot streak, renewing fears that he will never get his act together at the plate as a Met.

The pitching has also been better than expected, with the starters rebounding from a slow start with a strong last few weeks. The bullpen has also been solid.

Of course, the main component of the bullpen was just traded, and the number 3 hitter (Beltran) is likely to be next.

With ownership in turmoil and a dispirited fan base, it would be easy for the team to give up hope, as they appeared to do the last couple of years. But under new manager Terry Collins, the Mets display a spirit not seen in some time around here. The hitters have even started doing their version of the "claw" when they reach base. Collins' infusion of a more positive attitude has some talking about him as a candidate for Manager of the Year.

But Collins has also benefited from the greatly lowered expectations. Last year, Jerry Manuel's Mets were eight games over .500 at the break. They finished 79-83 and Manuel lost his job.

If, as seems likely, the Mets trade Beltran, 79 wins might be optimistic. Not to mention that the Mets currently have no proven closer, which would seem to be a necessity for a team that plays lots of close, low-scoring games.

Still, under Alderson and Collins, there is a lot more reason for hope than there was under the old regime, both for the rest of this year and for the future. It doesn't look like there will be meaningful games in September, but there will be meaningful developments. What will the Mets get for Beltran if he's traded? Will they make other trades for prospects? Will Einhorn finalize his deal? Can Johan make it back? (I have a bad feeling about Ike, so I'm not including him in this list.)

So here's to a second half with more talk of claw than clawback. Let's Go Mets!

Mets Bullpen Falters with Arizona Discards

The Diamondbacks had one of the worst bullpens in recent MLB history last year. Two of the pitchers they let go in an attempt to overhaul that bullpen were Blaine Boyer and D.J. Carrasco, who combined to give up six runs for the Mets Sunday.

The Mets' front office "dream team" is supposed to be able to sniff out cost-effective talent. But new D-Backs GM Kevin Towers has a great reputation as a bullpen builder, getting most of the credit for putting together the top-rated Padres' pen on a low budget. When Towers joined the D-Backs this past offseason, he willing to re-sign Aaron Heilman for one year at $2 million. Boyer and Carrasco, though, did not figure in Towers' plans.

Carrasco had actually pitched pretty well for the D-Backs after coming over to them in the middle of last year, endind up with a 3.18 ERA and .217 batting average against in 22 innings. Towers might well have been trying to save money by non-tendering him, since Carrasco ended up getting a two-year, $2.4 million deal from the Mets.

But the Mets are trying to save money as well. And while Boyer was originally signed to a minor-league deal and was easy to drop, it's hard to imagine the Mets letting go of Carrasco anytime soon with that two-year deal. Carrasco's contract, by the way, cost almost as much as the one-year deals for Chris Young and Chris Capuano combined.

At least Carrasco was pitching pretty well before Sunday, though he now has given up runs in two of his five appearances and has a 4.76 ERA.

The Mets have now lost four of five and their pitching staff has allowed 38 runs in those five games. The Mets have the next-to-worst ERA in the National League so far this year.

When Towers took over the D-Backs, one of the first things he did was to replace the Arizona pitching coach. Alderson decided to keep Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen. If the Mets' pitching failures continue, that's another thing on which to judge the front office.

Perhaps Warthen's loudest supporter in the offseason was Mike Pelfrey. Now Pelfrey's a mess and most of Warthen's other pitchers are struggling.

The season is still only nine games old - too early for any conclusions. But that won't stop fans from making them anyway. I just got an email from the Mets saying that all weekday April games are now 50% off.

Could Jose Reyes end up on the Phillies?

If Derek Jeter wouldn't switch positions for Alex Rodriguez, he isn't likely to do so for Jose Reyes. But plenty of other teams could be in the market at the end of this year for an under-30, All-Star caliber shortstop. And one of those teams could be the Phillies.

Here's a quote from an NL East GM at the end of last season:

I think we'll probably let things, at this time, play out. There's some concern about his production the last couple of years. He's a much better player than he's played. We just have to make sure he's healthy.

Sounds like Mets GM Sandy Alderson talking about Reyes today. But it was Phillies GM Ruben Amaro talking about Jimmy Rollins, who is now entering the final year of his contract. Rollins just turned 32. Last season, he played in just 88 games, and had an OPS of only .694. In 2009, Rollins' OPS was just .719.

It's hard to imagine the Phillies replacing Rollins with a hated Met, especially Reyes. But a few years ago, it would have been even harder to imagine that the next regular Yankee centerfielder after Bernie Williams would be Red Sox "idiot" Johnny Damon.

Rollins will make $8.5 million this year. Raul Ibanez, whose contract also expires at the end of the season, makes $10.5 million. If the Phillies decide to part ways with Rollins, they will have money to spend at shortstop.

Today, Alderson claimed that the financial situation now facing Mets ownership won't affect whether or not the Mets re-sign Reyes:

I fully expect that decision will be made as it would have been, in the best interest of the team on the field, and the best interest of the overall sort of financial health as well as baseball future of the Mets -- as it would be with any other team.

But Alderson also said today that the Mets may not be plowing all the money that will come off the books after 2011 back into the team:

You may know recent Mets history better than I. I don't know if we've gotten this high in the past. One never wants to rest at one extreme or the other. My sense is that our payroll is a little higher this year than I would have liked to have been, but we are where we are. Whether that means we drop back in future years to some extent, I don't know. But we will continue to expend money at very high levels and I think be among the highest payrolls in baseball."

It's hard to believe that Alderson and his "dream team" are unaware of the Mets' payroll history. And if they don't know recent Mets history as well as they should, they should look back to 2005-8, when Reyes earned MVP votes four straight years and was the offensive catalyst when the team was a playoff contender.

If Reyes can't stay healthy yet again this season, the Mets have a difficult decision to make. But a healthy Reyes belongs on the Mets. Not on another team such as the Red Sox, which might also need a shortstop. And certainly not on the Phillies.

Sandy Alderson's best move of the day (and it wasn't introducing Terry Collins)

It will be some time before we know whether Terry Collins was a good hire as manager of the Mets, but another Sandy Alderson move announced Tuesday is already a positive sign of good things to come. The Mets are offering Pedro Feliciano arbitration.

There was some speculation that the Mets would not offer arbitration to Perpetual Pedro. With reportedly as little as $5 million to spend this offseason, some speculated that it might not make sense to tie up as much as $4 million in a lefty specialist who has been greatly overworked the last few seasons.

Which is exactly the sort of thinking that has doomed the Mets in recent years. Feliciano is a valuable enough asset that both the Yankees and Phillies have reported expressed interest in offering him a multi-year deal. By not offering arbitration, the Mets would have let this valuable asset leave for nothing. Instead, there are now three possibilities, all of which will be good for the Mets:

• Feliciano declines arbitration, meaning the Mets get a supplemental first-round pick.
• Feliciano accepts arbitration, meaning the Mets get to keep their most consistent reliever, who has stayed healthy for several years despite Jerry Manuel's overuse and has shown he can pitch in New York.
• Feliciano accepts arbitration, and Alderson decides that the $4 million or so could be better spent and uses Feliciano as a trade chip.

Compare this situation to what happened when Omar Minaya traded Billy Wagner to the Red Sox just before Wagner was to become a free agent.

The Red Sox offered Wagner arbitration, knowing he would decline because he wanted to find a closing job. When Wagner signed with the Braves, the Red Sox got two 2010 first round picks in compensation, the 20th pick and the 36th pick (supplemental part of first round).

Boston lost its own first-rounder to the Angels for signing John Lackey, but along with the two picks for Wagner, they picked up another supplemental first-round pick for losing, ahem, Jason Bay.

Red Sox GM Theo Epstein was very pleased with his draft:

"We're really happy that we were able to get the certainty of college players with the potential impact of high-ceiling guys as well and all in the shape of good athletes," Epstein said...

Time will only tell, but we're as happy in the draft room as we've been in any year that I've been here. We feel it broke our way and we couldn't be more excited with all three guys."

Thanks to trading for Wagner and offering him arbitration, the Red Sox have two top prospects, Kolbrin Vitek and Bryce Brentz.

By trading Wagner, the Mets saved some money in salary and acquired pinch-hitter Chris Carter.

Under Alderson, the Mets are finally recognizing the value of high draft picks and of maximizing the value of your assets.

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As for Collins, he's fiery and places an emphasis on fundamentals, which means that he has the same traits that many Met fans like in Wally Backman.

Some in the media worry that Collins isn't that great on camera. The Record's Bob Klapisch wrote:

He'll have to be more than ready, he'll need to be charismatic some 300 times a year, during every pre- and postgame interview on SNY.

It never bothered me that Willie Randolph was not charismatic until the Mets started stumbling on his watch. And I enjoyed Jerry Manuel's charisma until things fell apart under him.

The people most concerned with how someone deals with the media are the media themselves. Everyone else is more concerned with whether Collins can win games. If the Mets win under Collins, I don't care if his Q and A is along the lines of Captain Pike on the original "Star Trek," who answered questions by blinking a light once for yes and twice for no.

And as for Collins ruffling feathers in the clubhouse and having a run-in with none other than Mo Vaughn, the Mets in recent years could use some shaking up.

Ultimately, it comes down to what kind of players the Mets have, which is why the Feliciano move is so important.

Was today a good day for the Mets? Blink a light once.

Terry Collins and Gerald Ford

Metsblog has unearthed video of Mets' managerial candidate Terry Collins that is disturbing on a couple of levels. It took place on a notorious date in Mets' history and it made me think of an ill-fated campaign from the Ford administration.

The video shows Collins being introduced as manager of a Japanese team, the Orix Buffaloes, on October 19, 2006, which coincidentally was the day that things started to go sour for Omar Minaya's Mets - Game 7 against the Cardinals. The video is mostly in Japanese. We don't get much from Collins other than this:

"The goal is very, very simple. In English, W-I-N, it's spelled. That's my goal."

The video repeats the statement later, in case we needed a refresher on the spelling.

Collins doesn't come across all that well in the video, but considering that he is addressing a group of people for whom English is not their first language, it's not fair to use this clip to judge him on this side of the Pacific.

Overall, I'm not all that excited about Collins, or the other apparent frontrunner, Bob Melvin. It was just a few months ago that Melvin was said to be the boring in-house choice to replace Jerry Manuel. It may not be fair to Melvin, but Sandy Alderson needs to go in another direction if he wants to establish from the start that he's his own man.

As for Collins, there's a lot of talk that he has inspired player revolts at places where he's managed. But when a leader of one of those revolts was Mo Vaughn, it's hard to get too worked up over that.

But if Collins does become the Mets' manager, I hope he leaves W-I-N behind. I know I'm dating myself, but it made me think of President Gerald Ford's 1974 campaign to "Whip Inflation Now." Ford unveiled his strategy on October 8, 1974, complete with red and white "WIN" buttons.

As it turned out, inflation was not whipped at that time. The following month, Ford's Republican Party, still reeling from the August resignation of Richard Nixon, failed to WIN at the polls, losing 49 seats in the House of Representatives.

No manager should need to announce that his goal is to W-I-N. What else would his goal be - to H-O-P-E F-O-R T-H-E B-E-S-T?

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Our condolences go out to Alderson on the loss of his father.

Image from Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.

On the "Moneyball" crew taking their talents to Flushing -- and to the movies

I haven't given the Mets enough grief as of late. That changes right now, Squawker Jon.

First off, how many people from the old "Moneyball" regime is Sandy Alderson going to import to the Mets? Is Scott Hatteberg going to get a job on the team, too?

Squawker Jon wrote that I said:

Squawker Lisa compared the front office big three of Sandy Alderson, Paul DePodesta and J.P. Ricciardi to the Miami Heat's dream team, lamenting that there was no ESPN special in which they would announce that they were taking their talents to Flushing.

Well, I was a wee bit more sarcastic there than you give me credit for, Jon, especially given that I'm on record as thinking Ricciardi is way overrated! At any rate, at least your new GM getting the band back together keeps people from talking too much about that Mets clubhouse manager. What's the deal with that Charlie Samuels dude? What did he do to make Jeff Francouer tip him $50,000 -- wash his laundry especially nice? And how about K-Rod living at this guy's house? That's just wacky.

Back to "Moneyball" -- the subject of the book got me thinking about the new "Moneyball" movie. I couldn't find out who was playing Alderson or Ricciardi in the movie, but I did see that DePodesta's character, who will be played by Jonah Hill (!) in the film, has a different name now -- Peter Brand. DePodesta told Yahoo Sports he was uncomfortable not with Hill, but with the way the script depicted him, saying "I didn’t feel comfortable with my name being attached to a fictitious character."


Maybe it's just as well -- it's not like Jonah Hill looked anything remotely like DePodesta, anyway. DePodesta played football and baseball at Harvard, while the most athetic thing Hill looks like he's ever done is maybe a rousing game of beer pong or something.

According to the IMDB, Jorge Posada is in the movie, portrayed by Sergio Garcia click here to see his photo and bio, and no, I don't think he looks all that much like Posada, either.



Philip Seymour Hoffman is playing Art Howe. Giving that Hoffman seems to play an odious character in virtually every movie he's in, if I were Howe, I'd be calling my lawyer right now!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Different Hot Stove for Mets

For most of the past few years, the Mets' offseason has focused on which big-name player they can acquire via free agency or trade. This year, though, is going to be different. The Mets have already made most of their big-name acquisitions - in the front office.

Squawker Lisa compared the front office big three of Sandy Alderson, Paul DePodesta and J.P. Ricciardi to the Miami Heat's dream team, lamenting that there was no ESPN special in which they would announce that they were taking their talents to Flushing.

But Alderson did appear on SNY's "Mets Hot Stove Report" tonight, and I liked what I heard, except for the part about him planning to meet with Luis Castillo. It's one thing to talk to Carlos Beltran about waiving his no-trade clause and his willingness to play right field. But what is there to talk to Castillo about, other than telling him goodbye?

All the sabermetrics in the world can't make 23 equal 25. And keeping Castillo and Oliver Perez on the roster means the Mets are playing with a 23-man roster. It makes sense to see if Perez can somehow regain some value, though he's already off to a bad start in Mexico. Perez had great potential at one point and he is still a lefty under 30. If the Mets cut him loose, someone will take a chance on him for the minimum salary. But who's going to pick up Castillo?

But while the Castillo and Perez situations are still unchanged from the last regime, it was refreshing to hear Alderson say that the Mets need to find more starting pitchers for the rotation. The same was true last year, and everyone knew it except for Omar Minaya, who went into the regular season with John Maine and Perez holding down two rotation spots.

I especially liked Alderson saying it was important to have lots of good players in the farm system to create depth for the major-league club. Seems obvious, but not to the previous regime, particularly in 2009 when triple-A Buffalo seemed to consists mostly of retreads in their mid-thirties. Things did improve last year, but there is still a long way to go.

I also like that Alderson is interviewing plenty of candidates to be manager. There doesn't seem to be the same urgency of a few weeks ago to find a big name and/or someone with personality. The Mets already have that in Alderson.

So far, this different sort of offseason is off to a good start.

4th of July, Citi Field (Sandy)

The best parts of Sandy Alderson's introduction as new Mets GM came after the televised press conference. Adam Rubin's list of talking points from the media's subsequent conversations with Alderson and the Wilpons has some great news regarding both eating contracts and the slotting system for the draft.

- Releasing players with guaranteed contracts. (Obviously, the reference was to Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo.) Ownership expressed a willingness to eat money.

"We sort of know who you're talking about," Jeff Wilpon said.

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- Slotting system/draft. Major League Baseball recommends signing bonuses based on a prospect's draft position. The Mets try to be good MLB citizens and adhere to that system, but that appears as if it will change under Alderson and they will spend over the recommended amount to exploit the system, as other big-market clubs do.

The Yankees and Red Sox have better farm systems than the Mets because those clubs are willing to go over slot much more frequently. I wondered if Alderson would end up adhering to the slotting system because he has been working for Bud Selig and MLB. But Alderson spoke at length about developing homegrown talent, and if he's serious about that, the first thing he will do is put the Mets on equal footing with other big-market clubs.

Alderson also spoke of wanting to have a competitive team in 2011 rather than waiting until 2012, when tens of millions of dollars of payroll come off the books. If he's as serious about 2011 as he sounds, he won't have Oliver Perez or Luis Castillo on the roster.

I can't blame him if he has Ollie play winter ball in a last-ditch effort to establish some minimal value for him, since if Ollie gets cut, someone will pick him up just for his potential. But who is going to want Castillo, except maybe as a temporary fill-in if their second baseman is hurt? Alderson can make a nice splash right away by cutting Castillo now.

When I wrote the title of this piece, I was thinking not just of Springsteen, but of looking forward to a July Fourth when the Mets were once again in contention. Then I remembered that the Mets were in contention on July 4, 2010. They were 46-36, two games behind first-place Atlanta. They were three games ahead of the Phillies, though the Phillies had been besieged by injuries. The Mets were also 4 1/2 games in front of the 41-40 Giants, who are now halfway toward winning the World Series.

The Mets' collapse in the second half showed that they still have a ways to go. The one false note in Alderson's news conference was when he suggested that the Mets would have done better with another 800 at-bats from Jason Bay and others. If the Mets had several hundred more at-bats from the 2010 Bay, they might have done worse.

But the Mets' strong first half shows that there is a foundation to build on. Alderson seems like a guy who can find the spare pieces that winning teams like the Giants manage to obtain but generally eluded Omar Minaya.

After today, I'm not just looking forward to 2012, but 2011 as well, and a festive summer at Citi Field.

Will Sandy Alderson turn around the Mets? Tell us what you think.

Sandy Alderson can do better than Lee Mazzilli for Mets manager

If the Mets want to energize their fan base, Lee Mazzilli as manager is not the way to go. I was surprised when Fox 5's Russ Salzberg made that suggestion last night after the World Series game and now Squawker Lisa has written about how the Daily News' Bill Madden has said the same thing.

I don't even want the real Joe Torre, much less another of his bench coaches after the unsuccessful tenure of Willie Randolph. The only person with a Yankee connection that would interest me at all would be Joe Girardi if he somehow became available. Unlike Randolph or Mazzilli, Girardi has actually been a successful manager, in two different places, and has a ring to show for it.

Girardi's bullpen moves in the postseason were certainly questionable, but after watching Jerry Manuel make questionable bullpen moves all year, I'd be more than happy to endure them in the postseason if it meant the Mets would actually have a postseason.

Plenty of managers were more successful the second time around, such as Terry Francona. Maybe Mazzilli deserves another chance. But it shouldn't be with the Mets.

I never understood why the Mets were considering Allard Baird for GM after his poor showing in Kansas City. And Josh Byrnes ended up getting fired in Arizona after some questionable moves.

In retrospect, the Mets should have looked more closely at Omar Minaya's record in Montreal, which included one of the worst trades in recent memory - a brief rental of Bartolo Colon for top prospects Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips and none other than a 23-year-old Cliff Lee.

The most important thing about a new manager is that Alderson be allowed to make his choice and show that he is his own man.

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As for Game 1 of the World Series, I don't think it's necessarily bad news for Texas, which had an even more devastating loss in Game 1 of the ALCS and came back to crush the Yankees. But San Francisco is looking like a team of destiny, getting great production from a patchwork lineup that has Aubrey Huff, Pat Burrell and Cody Ross in key roles. It sounds like something Omar Minaya would have tried, except that the Giants made it work.

With all the speculation about Cliff Lee, nobody ever stopped to think about what would happen if he did not pitch well. Suddenly, Lee has a career World Series ERA of 4.79. And it's not just from this game - as Lisa already noted, Lee gave up five runs in Game 5 last season against the Yankees. So that makes two straight World Series starts in which Lee has given up at least five runs.

Lee's overall postseason ERA is still great at 1.96, but he's no longer in the same statistical class as Sandy Koufax and Christy Mathewson.

The best thing for the Yankees would be if Lee gets shelled again, costing the Rangers the Series. Texas would be a lot less inclined to break the bank for him, and the Yankees could probably get him at a cheaper price than when he was being compared to Koufax and Mathewson.