The More Things Change...

So, the Mets haven't exactly sprung to life after firing Willie. Jerry Manuel claims to be gangsta. Did he do the Crip Walk when he pulled Reyes from that game against the Angels? Do they call it the Crip Walk in the OC?

The way it went down is typical of how mickey mouse that organization is. I worked for them for a hot minute way back when (RIP Jim Plummer, he was a something more than good man), so I can say shit like Tiger my cousin. Ever since Wilpon started having a say, they've fucked up left and right.

• Go back to the first move with Wilpon's stamp, trading Kevin Mitchell (because of perceived bad influences on the coked-out Gooden and Strawberry) and Dykstra (due to his fast-living), only to pick up a couple of douches like Bonilla and Vince Coleman a few years later
• subsequently letting the team go to shit, to the point where greasing the usher with a 20 would get me and 3 of my homeboys seats in the wives section...the team was so bad, the wives didn't show
• alienating Rickey (Rickey is Bokolis' favorite player, so you can't say shit about him to me) over a million (or so) dollars and trading Melvin Mora for Mike Bordick (I know Rey Whore-donez was hurt, but Bordick didn't want to be here) ruined that 2000 team (even though they made it to the Series, they never had a chance),
• R. Alomar (I can't forget Alomar and Cedeno fighting in the dugout over who was better looking),
• Burnitz (even though he gave full effort, they didn't learn from his first go-around that Shea was almost as harsh to him as it was to Bobby Murcer),
• Mo (Cheeseburger) Vaughn, resulting in the paralyzing neurosis that prevented them from signing Vlad (Vlad spent six years auditioning for the Mets, he would have sucked someone's dick to play here if he had to), then signing Beltran for double the price.
• Trading Kazmir for Victor Zambrano.
• Jeff "I got this" Wilpon pulling rank to sign Kaz (torn asshole) Matsui.
• Signing Reyes to a shit deal (Castillo makes about the same) and thinking they got over.

Since Wilpon has had a say (and up until Reyes and Wright), the best homegrown player had been Edgardo Alfonzo...that's over a ~20-year span...that's as damning as it gets. The Mets will never win while this douche is around. Now that he's built his ballpark, we figure to be stuck with him for at least the next 15 years.

The ante-mortem post-mortem

It seems as if Willie Randolph is being marched out to the guillotine. I feel compelled to offer my take on events. If nothing else, it's out there before the (f)act.

The Mets are under .500 for their last 162 games. It's pretty well established that things started falling apart for Randolph and the Mets when he lost Jose Reyes. Contrary to the prevailing theories that this happened in July of 2007, when Randolph pulled Reyes from a game against the Astros, the Randolph regime jumped the shark during a June 13, 2007 game against the Dodgers. They were smoked, 9-1, as Penny was throwing steam that night and the Mets had their collective heads up their collective asses. No one was more conspicuous than Reyes, who, by my estimation, took off at least three plays in which he was directly involved.

I immediately picked up on this, as I had offered up my ass to trade for Reyes for my fantasy squad, but pulled it back after watching this game.

Back then, Billy Wagner was a little more veiled in calling out his Latino teammates for mamando gallo.

"We've caused a lot of our own problems. I mean, they played outstanding baseball, but we made them look better with our sloppy play and our lackadaisical efforts," Wagner added. "I don't think it's got anything to do with confidence. It's just about focus and desire. I mean, you've got to want it more than everybody else wants it."

In dealing with the suddenly lollygagging Reyes, Randolph's tough-love tactics backfired. Of course they would. Reyes was sore because he signed a shit contract (4 years, $23.25MM), made all the worse by David Wright's 6-year $55MM deal. The whole world knew it was a shit deal when it was announced, and the penny wise, dollar stupid Wilpons, still reeling and neurotic, years later, from Mo Vaughn's freeloading, thought they were getting over.

Of course, there is nobody in place, certainly not the agent that brokered the shit deal, to tell Reyes to man up and honor his contract. Instead, he has been sulking for the better part of two years.

The other load on the team is Carlos Beltrán. He's in cruise control. No one likes to talk about it, but he lost his balls when he bumped his head. He didn't even get the worst of it, but he has not been the same. While I don't necessarily fault him for that, if he's going to tell the world that the Mets are the team to beat, that tells me that he's over it and has no excuse not to dial it up.

While there are plenty of others on the team that I don't particularly like, I think you're getting what you're going to get from them.

Neither Beltran's nor Reyes' downturns are Randolph's doing or fault. It is the GM's job to identify these useless players and move them. Because GM Omar Minaya can't/won't move Reyes and/or Beltrán and because no amount of motivation from Randolph will fix this, the team has to change its manager. Someone has to come in, like Carlito Brigante, and explain that "I don't know you, so I don't owe you...new rules, everybody pays."

Players and the GM have a one-manager buffer. When nothing changes, what's the excuse going to be?