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!

Three Years Ago, Same Record Got Mets Manager Fired

On June 16, 2008, the Mets were 34-35. In the early hours of June 17, Willie Randolph was fired. On June 16, 2011, the Mets were again 34-35, and Terry Collins is being showered with praise. Expectations have certainly changed.

Collins deserves the praise, and I agree with his comments after last night's game that we should look at it less as a brutal loss and more as the conclusion of a winning road trip (6-4) and the end of a series in which the Mets took two of three from the Braves.

But I miss the days when the Mets were expected to win. When simply getting to .500 wasn't viewed as an achievement.

When there was no question that the Mets would keep their stars. When the only question was which new stars would they seek to acquire.

At least I'm still able to yell at the TV when the Mets lose on a balk. I still have hope for this team.

Things haven't yet gotten to the point they were in late August of 2009 when the Mets lost to the Phillies when Jeff Francoeur hit into an unassisted triple play. By then, it was just the latest in a season-long string of indignities.

This year, at least the management still believes in the team. We'll soon find out if ownership shares that belief.

Classy move by Carlos Beltran

With all the denial surrounding the Mets right now (money issues won't affect the team, the Mets are a contender), it's refreshing to see someone associated with the team acknowledge a situation and take positive steps to rectify it. Carlos Beltran has decided to move from center to right field.

Apparently, Beltran was the one who approached Terry Collins about making the switch. So Beltran comes off well for initiating the move, while the new manager deserves credit for a smooth transition.

Compare this situation to last summer, when Beltran returned to the lineup. Jerry Manuel not only put Beltran back in center field, but batted him cleanup. Manuel's moves coincided with the Mets, eight games over .500 at the All-Star break, collapsing right after that. Beltran hit .204 in July and .227 in August with two homers - not exactly cleanup material. And he was clearly not his old self in center field.

At this point, it doesn't matter if Manuel or Beltran or both deserve blame for the poor decisions of last summer. In 2011, both Beltran and Collins deserve credit for helping this Met team make a fresh start and create some positive feelings around the team for a change.

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Happy Birthday, Squawker Lisa!

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.